3 Energizing Supplements To Kickstart Your Day + Our Now Foods Immersion

How you start your morning sets the tone for the rest of your day. That’s why it’s so important to have healthy morning habits. If you’re like me and you’re not naturally a morning person, you know the struggle is real. I have been a night owl for as long as I can remember. I can recall as a kid wanting to stay up all night to write or hang out with my older sisters who were in high school at the time. We used to dance late night to Madonna and Michael Jackson and being awake was just so much more fun. So, when it came time to go to sleep, it was always a struggle for me. As I got older, I had to adjust accordingly to be a productive adult. One thing that has helped tremendously is taking care of my body as soon as I wake up in the morning. This includes drinking several glasses of water, eating some sort of protein, and taking 3 natural supplements that have been serious game changers for me: turmeric (curcumin), probiotics, and MCT (medium-chain triacylglycerols) oil.

The best thing is that these supplements are natural and provide healthy balance and energy without stimulants. Turmeric is a power-plant that several pre-liminary studies have shown to reduce inflammation in the body, while MCT oil kickstarts metabolism, and probiotics work to balance gut bacteria, which recent studies show has a significant affect on your mood and energy levels. In fact, managing gut bacteria is being referred to as the “missing link” in treating depression;

“The gut microbiota is essential to human health and the immune system and plays a major role in the bidirectional communication between the gut and the brain. Based on evidence, the gut microbiota is associated with metabolic disorders such as obesity, diabetes mellitus and neuropsychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, autistic disorders, anxiety disorders and major depressive disorders. In the past few years, neuroscientific research has shown the importance of the microbiota in the development of brain systems. Recent studies showed that the microbiota could activate the immune and central nervous systems, including commensal and pathogenic microorganisms in the gastrointestinal tract. Gut microorganisms are capable of producing and delivering neuroactive substances such as serotonin and gamma-aminobutyric acid, which act on the gut-brain axis. Preclinical research in rodents suggested that certain probiotics have antidepressant and anxiolytic activities. Effects may be mediated via the immune system or neuroendocrine systems.” –Clinical Psychopharmacology and Neuroscience

Of course, everyone’s body reacts differently to supplements and you should consult your doctor before trying any regimen, but if you find you are groggy in the morning, feeling tired often, I encourage you to try turmeric, probiotics and MCT oil. It may take some tinkering around to figure out what supplements work best for you, but I can tell you these have worked for me tremendously. Especially the probiotics, which I believe to be the reason I am no longer groggy in the morning or tired mid-day. Seriously life-changing!

If you feel something is “off” in your body, please look into  if your gut bacteria is imbalanced. My imbalance started after a bout with antibiotics which killed off the healthy bacteria in my stomach, and I didn’t understand what was going on for months until I looked in the affect gut bacteria has on everything. I even went to the doctor, who then proceeded to just try to prescribe me a sleeping pill. If you feel something is wrong, continue to do your own research. No one will ever care about your own health as much as you; be your own advocate.

So, now that we’ve covered my favorite supplements, let’s talk about my favorite supplement brand, Now Foods. I’ve been using Now Foods for a couple years now and I recently had the opportunity to go visit them at their Bloomingdale, Illinois headquarters, just outside Chicago. What a wonderful trip with a wonderful company! I arrived to Itasca, Illinois and checked into the gorgeous Eaglewood golf resort with two giant bags of Now Foods goodies waiting in my hotel room.

We kicked off the trip with a company dinner and an early morning HIIT fitness class, followed by breakfast, food tastings, and a tour of their headquarters. It was incredible to tour their corporate offices and massive production plant and see how everything is made with precision and quality. Now Foods is a family-owned business and truly one of the nicest, most generous companies I’ve ever worked with. Their whole mantra is to make high quality products at a low price that everyone can afford. They want to make sure everyone has access to healthy products, which is such an amazing and rare quality in a company. I saw firsthand how they value people over profits. I walked through their corporate office and massive plant and have never seen so many happy employees. Now Foods is the type of company every enterprise aspires to be; great products and happy people. It was so refreshing.

It was also amazing to see how much effort and quality they put into their products. They hold their standards so high, they own custom lab equipment that major research facilities don’t even have. With so many inconsistencies in supplements, it’s comforting to know when you buy Now Foods products, you’re getting exactly what it says on the label. Now Foods produces thousands of health supplements and food products. You’ll find everything from multi-vitamins and probiotics to protein powders, essentials oils, and gluten-free pastas. Best of all, their products are affordable and you can trust what it says on the label. Affordability. Quality. Trust. And a great company. What’s not to love about Now Foods? We’re fans for life.

Check out the gallery below for pics from our immersion experience at Now Foods, and to learn more and check out their massive product selection, you can go to their official website: www.nowfoods.com

Thank you for sponsoring this post, Now Foods! All opinions are our own.

 

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Desiree Rabuse

Desiree Rabuse is a social entrepreneur and founder & CEO of StyleFox®. She's a devout bookworm, a fan of "Dad" jokes, and an apparent INTP. She loves snowboarding, philosophy, traveling, martial arts, coffee, and helping people lead healthy, happy, more efficient lives.