I never use to be a big supplement person, but I’ve slowly been incorporating things that make me feel better + optimize my health. This morning when I took the dog for a walk, I could feel the thawing of winter and a tiny little hit of spring. I know it shouldn’t matter but, the warmer weather really helps me elevate when it comes to being more mindful about how I’m fuelling/replenishing my body. I find it much harder to drink enough water and/or get enough fruits/veggies into my diet during the winter than the summer – for whatever reason! I’m trying to be better, but I’m also just excited that slowwwwwly the weather will start getting nicer, the sun will start to rise earlier and stay out later.

My favorite time of the year is the summer, when we can walk down the street to a farm stand and load up on flats of fresh berries. Smoothies become a staple in our house, normally my husband will make us a family smoothie in the morning for breakfast, but Ill double up on a glowing green smoothie in the afternoon if I need something a little extra. Any time I share to stories what I’m taking, I get questions about exactly what those things are, so here ya go:

Lemon collagen water: withinUs TruMarine® Collagen offers a high concentration of specific amino acids, which have been scientifically proven to help with the formation of collagen within the body. As we get older, from our early to mid 20s, we lose approximately 1% of our collagen each year, which causes skin to wrinkle, joints to stiffen and bones to weaken. I like to mix one scoop of collagen into a glass of water + finish with a squeeze of fresh lemon. It something very simple that I can do each morning to help maintain & promote the formation of collagen in the body.

Daily Multivitamin: I am currently taking Ritual’s Essential for Women Multivitamin 18+ and have been since November. What I love about Ritual, is that they use simple, clean ingredients backed by science. They are also USP verified (which doesn’t happen alot in the vitamin industry!) as well as Made Traceable, so you can look up what exactly you are putting into your body, where it comes from, and why. Ritual vitamins use a delayed capsule release design, meaning that they dissolve later in the small intestine for optimal absorption, so you’re getting more of the good stuff. Because of this, you can also take their vitamins at any time of the day, with or without food. Which certainly hasn’t been my experience in the past.

Synbiotic+: Ritual also has their synbiotic+ for gut health. It’s a 3-in-1 prebiotic, probiotic, postbiotic to support a balanced gut microbiome. I take one in the morning, along with my other vitamins.

Coconut Collagen Coffee Creamer: After my lemon collagen water + vitamins/supplements, I like to mix in a packet of collagen creamer by Vital Proteins into my morning coffee – not sure if it helps, but I figure it can’t hurt. The one I have is made with coconut milk powder and no added sugar.

Protein shake: especially if I haven’t had a breakfast, or just need to get something extra in for nutrition, I’ll mix a quick shake together using Ritual’s plant based protein powder. Again, I like it for it’s clean formula & testing standards (it’s tested for heavy metals, microbes & over 250 banned substances in partnership with Informed Sport), it’s sugar-free, and flavored with layers of yummy vanilla + sweetened with a combination of fermented sugarcane and monk fruit.

Sometimes I will make little tweaks to this routine, but for now – this is what I’m doing!