Connor Andrew Clark-Lindh

This is the second part of my three part series on Vitamins. In the first section I talked about the four Rules of Vitamins.  For this post, I will cover a few ways to try modifying your diet or activities to improve your situation (before spending money on all those Vs).

However, I will repeat this a few times - I am not a medical professional, so please please please talk to a professional before making any judgments about your diet or health choices. Here I am just giving a short guide on the process I have gone through.

Now on to Part 2 - Look at your Diet and Activities!

Step 1) How's your posture? I know this one sounds like something only your parents would tell you but... watch your posture. Your sitting, standing, sleeping and walking postures can greatly affect your body and overall concentration and energy level. If you are suffering from back and muscle pains, try looking into your posture and ways to improve it. Physiotherapists and Chiropractors can help identify and improve posture and positioning problems. Also yoga and pilates can sometimes help to improve over all fitness and likewise posture. The American Physical Therapy Association also has a good introduction to correct posture.     

Step 2) Are your sports messing you up? Many sports are high impact and involve repetative motions. Tennis, squash, running and cycling are just a few examples of how some sports can stress certain parts of the body more heavily than others. If you are even somewhat active and facing reoccuring discomfort in certain areas, talk with a personal trainer for your particular sport. There is a chance you are playing the sport in a damaging way. There is also a chance that your body just doesn't match well with the requirements of the sport. If after working with trainer and adjusting your fitness, you are still facing problems, I would recomend changing to another sport. This might be a really hard choice - especially if you have been playing the sport for many years, but sucking up your pride and learning another sport that doesnt leave you in pain is worth it.

This happened to me with squash and tennis. I really enjoy both sports, but I easily injure my ankles. If I start to regularly play tennis or squash, I will end up hurting myself. I will still play sometimes for fun or a social event, but I no longer play regularly. Instead I changed to indoor rock climbing which seems to be much easier on my ankles.

Step 3) What are you really eating? In recent years, allergies and dietary intollerances are being diagnosed as the cause of many problems from depression to backpain. Talking a good look at what you are eating and watching to see whether you get certain reactions after eating certain foods, is a great place to start. The list is getting longer, but talking with an allergist is a great way to learn whether you are suffering from some common alergies. Healthology gives a good summary of allergies and how to select an allergist.

Step 4) Could you be eating your vitamins instead? Finally, before taking the final step to go full-on into buying, stocking and consuming vitamins, check around a little and see if you can modify your diet to include those vitamins. Many common fruits and veggies are great sources of vitamins and making sure you consume enough of them will help improve your diet right along with achieving your vitamin goals. The USDA has a comprehensive list of foods sorted by vitamin content, and here you can find a simple summary of some of the most common fruits and veggies.

That does it for now... the final entry will be out next week on - So you really want to take Vitamins?