Homemade Recovery Drink

Question
Ms. Simon, i'm in my mid 30's (5'-9" @ 192 lbs) & wanting
to get back in shape again. My ultimate goal is to get rid
of my gut...been trying to all these years but this time,
no more excuses.
So currently, I'm slowly im re-introducing cardio & free
weights/band workouts back into my lifestyle along w/ a
monitored calories/nutrition intake such as vegetables,
poultry, seafood, soy, white eggs, dairy, fruits, & not so
much carbs. Additionally, February was my 1 yr anniversary
for not eating red meat or even pork.
My question is about concocting my own post-workout
recovery drink by buying combinations of products. A lot of
people are saying, "simply add amino acids into a liquid
glucose, fructose, electrolyte, glutamine, & creatine
mixture."
So I'm thinking about buying a bottle of Gatorade/Poweraide
& just adding l-glutamine powder & creatine monohydrate to
it. But is this safe? Would you recommend this? I've never
used these kinds of supplements before & just scared if
there are any side effects on short/long term usage.
Otherwise, do you have any suggestions?
After my workouts (btw, only my 4th day), I've only been
drinking whey protein shakes. However, i don't really want
to consume the extra calories before i go to bed so i think
this post workout drink is ideal for me.
Another question, currently i only take the GNC Mega Men
Energy VitaPak & considering about taking Tonalin CLA. Not
sure if i should take it now or maybe a month later after
my body is accustomed to the workouts. What is your opinion
on this?
Id appreciate any advice you can give. Thanks in advance!

Regards,
JB


Answer
JB,
Congrats on the new lifestyle! It is great that you have taken a measured, even approach to these changes and are looking for your own way to do it. I know that everyone at the gym has advice and wants to give it- and I am going to contradict a lot of what you have been told-It is up to you to decide.
Glutamine probably won't hurt you, but it doesn't have any magic powers either. Creatine will MAKE YOU GAIN WEIGHT. That is what it is for. It fills the muscles with fluid, causing you to retain water- causing you to be a bloated mess. Really for recovery, any combo of protein and carbs will work- they did a study  (several actually)that said that chocolate milk was the ideal recovery drink- milk has the right ratio of protein and carbs and that is where CLA comes from, so you kill 2 birds with one stone. (plus it takes care of your sweet tooth at the best possible time, after a workout when your body needs sugar anyway)

As far as protein shakes go, have you looked at what your protein intake usually is? DO you KNOW you need more protein? Many people when they are trying to lose weight look up to the body builder guys in the gym- the guys who are as lean as can be- they do it because they want to be like them. The problem is, those guys are already lean, and they workout hard, so they can afford extra calories. If you are trying to lean out, an extra 200- 400 calories each day puts on a pound every 9-17 days- talk about one step forward, one step back!

As far as CLA goes- drink milk, it is safer (this from a person who is lactose intolerant!) In the studies that they did to prove that it help MICE lose weight, it also caused the mice to become insulin resistant which is the forerunner to type 2 diabetes and caused fat to build up around their little livers. In the rats that they studied it did nothing.

So my advice in a nutshell- 1. Go check your protein intake at Nutritiondata.com. You can enter what you eat there for the day and it gives you all sorts of info about what you are eating and what you need to supplement. I would suggest that with your workouts you need to be at 125% to 130% of the DV of protein. 2.Drink chocolate milk as your recovery drink, it is good for you and it will make you feel like a kid again. 3. Ditch the CLA and try green tea, It is proven in humans to boost metabolic rate and if you can get used to it without sugar it actually is a negative calorie food.

Hope this helps,
Lela Simon

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