When I became more active, I found that products to support this lifestyle can be pricey. Here, I am sharing options that have been working for me on a budget.

Protein Powders

As far as protein powders, I prefer plant-based because it is easy to understand what you are ingesting. I have chose Garden of Life’s Raw Protein for many reasons:

• Budget – I found that their protein powders are less expensive than the competitors are.
• Local – Garden of Life is out of West Palm Beach, Fla., which is the area that I live.
• Ingredients – They use natural and organic ingredients.
• Taste – I think it is yummy.

I use the chocolate for my recovery shakes and the vanilla products when adding to recipes. This product is vegetarian and vegan-friendly.

BCAA

Multivitamin

For my multivitamins, I use the Complete Nutritional System™ by Rainbow Light. This brand uses plant-based ingredients that include superfoods. They do have numerous variations for their multivitamins for men, women, prenatal, iron-free etc. However, my doctor recommended the Complete Nutritional System™ to me. This product is gluten-free, sugar-free, lactose-free, dairy-free, wheat-free and yeast-free.

Calcium

When weight training, this puts stress on the bones. It was recommended to me to increase my calcium intake. By doing so, this can potentially increase peak bone mass and reduce the chance of bone breakage. In addition, it can possibly decrease my chance of osteoporosis later in life.

Another benefit of calcium is to improve muscle contractions. Again, I chose Rainbow Light’s calcium supplement because it is plant-based.

The Vega Saviseed protein bars are my favorite when it comes to taste. The price is a little higher than I like, but the the taste makes it worth it. I really like the quality of these protein bars.