Let’s keep this simple. I found during the first few days (maybe 1 week) that I felt, well not so great! I wasn’t really prepared and ended up rushing around trying to find the supplements that would help me get the salts, minerals, vitamins my body needed. Check out my tracking page that shows the difference in my PSMF intake with and without supplements.
Below is what I should have got right from start (I did start after day 5, better late than really sorry)… be warned you will feel like a pill popper and might need a weekly pill organizer like the one your grandma has.
(Affiliate links are below that will earn me a few cents, but with the disclaimer aside, these are the products I used and that worked for me!)
Potassium
Your diet will if anything like mine be very low in Potassium. It is really important to get your Potassium to not only help with the headaches during the first week but also I found it helped me sleep better at night.
The cheapest source of Potassium is No Salt that can be found in Wallmart or on Amazon. I found the easiest way was to put 1/2tsp in my water in the morning and another just before bed.
Multi-Vitamin
You are going to need multi-vitamins, especially for Vitamin C, but for a lot of other vitamins as well. I used Dr. Tobias mainly because it has almost 3,000 reviews on Amazon of 5.5 stars.
Fish Oil
Lyle McDonald recommends 6 fish oil tablets a day! We are pretty low in Omega 3 in our diets generally, so it is really advisable to take these. As I already felt like I was taking too many pills I opted for these from Nature’s Bounty, as the 1 tablet of 1400mg dosage with 980mg of Total Omega 3 (including EPA and DPA) gives you half of your recommended daily intake. So I just simply take one in the morning and one at night and get 123% of my RDA. As a sidenote, my hair and skin have never looked better!
Protein Powder
I looked for a while to find one which had almost zero carbs and tasted great, this is the one I found (after a lot of taste testing) to be the best. Big reveal, drum roll etc etc, it is Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard 100% Casein. I like Casein over Whey for PSMF as it helps to keep you full for longer. This protein powder packs in 24g of Protein per scoop, with on 2g net carbs and 1g fat. I love the Creamy Vanilla for a morning shake with spinach leaves and 1/4 cup of almond milk and water and ice. That will pretty much keep me going until lunch, and only for 140 calories all in, including the Almond milk and Spinach. I have the Chocolate Supreme version in the night just before going to bed, again with 1/4 cup of Almond Milk and milk and ice. I also add a pinch of Xantham Powder to give it a milkshake texture. Probably my favorite part of the day!
Xantham Powder
This I feel is my secret powder. I add it mainly to the Casein above to make thicker “milkshakes”. You only need a pinch, and add pinch by pinch to get to the thickness you like. Probably the best bet is to get this from your local supermarket, it is in the healthcare/organic section in mine.
A Good Food Scale
Not really a supplement but I thought I should add it here, as it became my daily go-to, especially in the beginning. A handful of chicken is a very subjective measurement, and PSMF is all about being exact. I found I used it mainly in the first 4 weeks, as I had no idea what 5oz of chicken looked liked, or how much brocolli was too much brocolli. Yep I weighed my brocolli, and my protein powder as well somedays. I found this one from Ozeri pretty cheap on Amazon, again I just went for the cheapest with a lot of positive reviews.
That pretty much is it. You can add Calcium but I didn’t find I needed that with the above supplements. I really do recommend some kind of food scale, I liked the one above, but there are a ton of other good ones out there. I was pretty amazed by the weights of things, especially a naughty little bit piece of measly low fat cheese! On the subject of tracking, which I am really way too keen on, check the tracking page, for a personalized weight loss chart and also Cronometer tracking.