Supplements
Knowing very little about the nutrition is a good motivator on a tight dead line and reasonable budget. Being educated about the product always made me feel better about buying it. I need to learn some basics and have a few opinions already established. Documenting what I tried is not a bad thing at all and holds value by itself.
So here my list of nutrition boosters and how I chose them.
Protein [$14.00]
I know that Protein is a must and there is no way I can find enough of it my my diet and don’t want to eat 5 chickens a day LOL…I found it at Wall-Mart when I returned the Magic Bullet. With somewhat small selection and following my taste I narrowed it down to…get ready for lengthy name…”Body Fortress Super Advanced Whey Protein Powder Strawberry, 2 lb“. Great thing about protein is that it is cheap; I think I paid $14 for it. One scoop (34g) will give 27 daily servings….so for a smoothie a day it should last a month. I know there is benefit in buying in bulk when it comes to protein but I just wanted to give it a taste and try. Have not had it mixed with liquid (water nor juice) so I can’t say much about its ‘bare bones’ taste.
Two biggest distinctions are whey and soy protein; if you do not tolerate lactose or are a vegan then go for soy. How much protein is enough – I have not figured this out yet but here is a good article that can help. I intend to do this as I go along and adjust as needed.
Multivitamins [$19.00]
Don’t know much about them other than most people should take ‘1 a day’ and so should I do, especially if I am going to do this. Centrum A-Z Ultra Mens was choice just because I have heard of the brand and was there at the shelf. Seemed little pricey (to me who knows nothing about multivitamins) at just about $19.00 per bottle but then again 200 days of ‘1 a day’ seems like a pretty good stash.
Fish Oil [$6.50]
When I was a kid I had it prescribed for ‘strengthening the bones and good for you’ if I remember correctly. At lest that is what I was told and what can remember. I had only 1 bottle at the time and never seen it again; probably because I was more interested into investigating the reddish gel capsules with a push pin than taking them. Couldn’t help it, I was about 5yrs old and they looked like some sneakingly small marbles. So I picked up Spring Valley Fish/ flaxseed/ Borage Oil Contains Omega 3/6/9 based on ‘good for you and can not hurt’ philosophy. Bottle of 120 capsules or 60 days worth. If this stuff was recommended decades ago and used today then why not at this price.
Recovery Drinks? [$57.00]
OK, so here is where my knowledge or common sense gets depleted. Even BeachBody P90X guys make and sell their own recovery drink so we are onto something here. This research opened a whole can of worms and quickly became very ‘chemistry based’ and I did not understand all of it. I did learn something so here are my findings.
Golden rule for recovery drink is 4:1 ratio of carbohydrates to protein (eg. 40mg carbs with 10mg of protein) take within 1 hour of workout.
BeachBody guys sell theirs on Amazon at for about $57 or direct for $50+ $7 for shipping giving you 24 servings.
Cheaper alternatives to P90X recovery drinks:
I am not a chemist and mixing some of this stuff to best measurement already seems like a task. I also know that icream/dairy is a great ‘food teleporter’ so I want to stay away from milk and restrooms for now. I looked around a found a cheaper alternative that did cost some $ but apparently well known and long used amongst cyclist and runners “Endurox 4” @ $34.99 with 14 servings which I fond at GNC store. I went down to the store and found out about ‘buy 1 get 2nd 50% discount’…cool! Here is what I purchased:
-membership = $15/year
-orange flavor Endurox R4 = $27.99 (member $7 discount = 1/2 of my membership earned back)
-fruit punch flavor Endurox R4 = $13.99 (50% sale discount)
Endurox R4 supply of 28 servings pinched me for $56.98. So just about as much as BeachBody supplement only I did not have to have wait for it in shipping, I got two flavors of it, 4 extra servings and this supplement has been around a block so I feel more comfortable about taking it. I have tried the orange flavor and the taste was actually pretty good, it went down like a drink of Gatorade. Little costly but I have spend more on ‘burger and drinks’ in one sitting at the local sports bar (GO Lakers!). Also, if all fails and I quit p90x then I can use it as recovery after a basketball game or longer hikes (lasting me for quite some time) and know I will not quit this hobby as long as I am healthy. In other words, this supplement will get used no matter what.
L-Glutamine [$free/included]
I have actually had this before as my home made ‘recovery’ drink and can not say it made much difference in how I felt the day after. Probably equivalent to good post-game stretching or taking an Advil. After some reading I discovered that general consensus is that ‘any good protein powder should come with some’ and mine above did have 2900mg already as opposed concentrated L-Glutamin serving of 4500mg. I have some left over so I will throw into a smoothie but mainly just so I use it up. Discussion on this supplement is split if it actually does anything. Here is a quite informative and funny article by John Berardi that I thought was overall good read.
Creatine [pass]
Thanks but not thanks. All I know is that those who took it and then stopped were never able to retain their size. I am opened to learning about it but my gut (kidneys and liver too) tell me I should stay way from this stuff for now. I do understand that some of the recovery drinks and protein powders do have creatine in but I am ok with the tiny amounts (0.00X mg) since it is found in food. Another scary fact is that GNC does not sell it to anyone under the 16yrs of age….why is that I ask?
There you have it, right or wrong this my personal list of supplements for nutrition that I do not get enough through meals and will need for this extreme program and 30days worth for less than $100. I suspect I will grab a power-bar here and there as my snack. If anyone cares to comment please do speak up and share your knowledge and experience. Thanks.
Consider this video as some info you can use in your research. I am done with mine for now.