Do you eat 6 to 8 ounces of protein per meal?

Do you eat three to four servings – 2 to 3 cups – of vegetables per day?

Do you have three servings of fruit every day?

Do you take a multivitamin? Fish oil?

Those are just a few of the staple healthy nutrition guidelines you should follow on a daily basis. At best, most of you might follow half of them.

Let’s face it, life is stressfully busy these days, which means sleep is at a minimum and eating the right amounts of fresh, nutritious food each day just feels nearly impossible.

Your workload makes you lucky to stop for lunch. You have children who demand your attention when work ends, which means dinner is an afterthought.

And what about that multivitamin? Have you been told they’re a waste because your body doesn’t absorb them?

So now you don’t sleep or eat enough. When you do eat, it’s for convenience and quick energy, not nutritional value, and you don’t take vitamins.

Perhaps on top of all of this, you’re an avid exerciser. If so, you might be in need of supplementation even more than you thought.

Nowadays, it isn’t enough to have a healthy diet and exercise regularly to fight disease and sickness. The food we eat is exposed to harmful chemicals, the air we breathe is polluted and the electronic world in which we live constantly stresses and breaks down our immune system.

It’s a constant battle to keep your body working properly, never mind fight off the ever-growing list of diseases and cancers.

Here is a great quote from Dr. Mark Hyman, who practices treating causes of sickness through a wellness approach rather than treating symptoms. He practices functional medicine in Lenox, Mass., and is an accomplished physician who has testified before the White House for reform.

“I agree that you do not need to take a multivitamin, only if you eat wild, fresh, whole, organic, local, non-genetically modified food grown in virgin mineral and nutrient soils, and not transported across vast distances and stored for months before eaten … work and live outside, breathe only fresh, unpolluted air, drink only pure, clean water, sleep nine hours a night, move your body every day, and are free from chronic stressors and exposures to environmental toxins.”

So it’s time to realize that what we eat and do just doesn’t provide an appropriate amount of nutrients and minerals needed to give ourselves a fighting chance in this life of chemical damage.

For example, the food we eat doesn’t provide enough omega 3 and vitamin D. A good multivitamin can provide the appropriate absorption, and some vitamins, such as vitamin K, are actually better absorbed through tablets than food. (See www.womentowomen.com/healthynutrition/omega3benefits.aspx.)

What we do physically is yet another reason to be sure we’re refueling our bodies properly. Our workouts are intended to strengthen our bodies, but without proper pre- and post-workout nutrition, we could actually be hurting ourselves.

As we sweat, we lose electrolytes, which help keep our pH balanced and our systems operating properly. In short, we must replace the electrolytes we lose while sweating. Without doing so, we’ll hinder our athletic performance and cause serious illness.

Post-workout is just as important. For many reasons, protein is a vital fuel we must feed our body: to encourage body-fat loss, to avoid catabolism (the breakdown of muscle) and to sustain appropriate energy levels.

The fastest way to boost your system before and after a workout is in liquid form, as the body will simply process these nutrients faster.

So think about your day with a protein shake and a well-manufactured multivitamin, then make a plan to hit 100 percent of the nutrition guidelines listed above.

For more information about proper vitamins and minerals, visit www.nutrametrix.com/cpte. As always, see your doctor before taking any nutritional supplement.

Fit It In runs the fourth Sunday of the month. Danielle Tetreault is a personal trainer and the owner of Fit It In Fitness, 4 Townsend West, Suite 11, Nashua. She can be reached at fititinpt@hotmail.com, or visit her website at www.fititintraining.com. She offers semi-private training, group training and fitness challenges.