I drink 2 whey protein shakes a day with the following recipe

1c vanilla soy milk
1c ice
1 banana
1/4c frozen organic blueberries
2scoop whey protein (20g)

I also take fish oil/flax seed oil and a generic multivitamin (centrum - just because I already had it). I'm nearly out of multivitamin and am looking for some suggestions on that, too.

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mcoker

OK, you said triGUYS, but I am a fanatical gal about supplements.

Current regimen:

• Source of Life Multi w. Iron. take recommended 3 tabs a day, while you can do it all at once I stagger throught the day.(as a girl I really need the iron as I tend to get exercise anemia)
• Calcium: 1000 milligrams (only add what SOL multi has to =1000 per day)
• Bio E with Selenium, Solaray, two tabs a day.
• Country Life CoQ10 - 1-30 mg softgel
• Natural Factors, RxOmega-3 Factors -- hard to get used to so I do 1 softgel at dinner
• Vitamin C - 500 mgs in addition to the multi.
• Protein Powder - American Whey, try to add a scoop (21 grams) to yogurt.

I almost exclusively use www.iherb.com. They seem to have the best prices.

Is all this doing anything for me? I dunno. Is my feeling better actual or psychological? I dunno. But I do feel better and function better, so I continue.

I recommend a balanced diet with lots of fresh fruits and veggies and no supplements. You can go to the doc and get some of that checked out to see where you stand. Last time I did it I was topped off on everything taking nary a flinstones vitamin. The only supplement I take is Glucosamine (Flexicose) because that isn't as easy to come by naturally.

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Don't hold back

oh yeah, i take glucosamine & chondroiton (or however that's spelled) daily, too.

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mcoker

I don't eat to simply eat, my food intake is all about fueling the machine within...

I agree with this and that is why I do not take any supplements but am very careful with my diet. I eat REAL food with lots of grains, fruits, vegetables and protein from fish and lean cuts of meats. I do not believe that man made pills/supplements can replace the natural goodness in food that grows (ie. nothing processed).

It is a struggle sometimes but I try to watch every single item that goes into my body and I ask myself before I eat it, "Does it grow or is it man made."

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You sir, are my new hero! - Trifan 11/13/2008

Casey, you are a wise man - blueraider_mike 11/13/2008

Casey, This is an astute observation. - Slowbern 11/17/2008

ditto Casey

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I'll be what I am
A solitary man

I have been trying to eat better, and also started on Hammer Nutrition/E-Caps' Premium Insurance Caps and have been feeling better.

Hammer/E-Caps www.e-caps.com has a ton of information on their site. They have broken their supplements into categories, "Daily Essentials", "Diet Optimization", "Specific Advantage", and "Superior Recovery", each targeted at different areas.

Eating right will help you get many vitamins and minerals, maybe even the RDA, but those are bare minimums. Smart supplementation will help you optimize your health (and training).

This is a topic I'm phanatical (sorry, I live in Philly) about.

I take a rather large number of vitamins every day on top of protein supplementation and adhering to an almost pure vegan diet.

Vitamin (all TwinLab brand):
Breakfast:
- Daily One w/Iron
- Iron cap
- Acetyl L-Carnitine
- 2x C-1000
- Pantothenic Acid (B5)
- B12 sublingual tab
- Joint Fuel
- Chromic Fuel (Chromium Picolinate)
- Fish oil

Lunch:
- Daily One w/Iron
- Multi-Mineral Caps
- Acetyl L-Carnitine
- Joint Fuel
- Sea kelp
- Fish oil
- Lutein
- Lycopene
- 2x C-1000

Dinner:
- Multi-Mineral Caps
- 2x Joint Fuel
- Sea kelp
- Fish oil
- 2x C-1000
- Super E-400
- Super E + Selenium
- Chromic Fuel

Bedtime:
- 6x Calcium-Magnesium Caps
- 2mg extended release melatonin (I sleep like a log)

If this sounds like a lot, read Dr. Colgan's Optimum Sports Nutrition and do some background research on his facts. Getting essential vitamins and minerals from plant matter won't happen, industrial farming has made soil quality very poor and has reduced the amount of minerals available in plants. Also, the FDA's recomended daily allowance is horseshit for anyone that doesn't lie in bed all day. We put incredible demands on our bodies in training and racing, we should equipe ourselves with the vitamins and nutrients our bodies need to meet these demands and recover from them quickly and fully.

It can get pricey, especially when you first start up, but I get all of these from allstarhealth.com (not affiliated w/them). Cheap prices and shipping isn't a fortune.

For protein, I supplement with ~125g/day of Nature's Best IsoPure whey. Great stuff, it actually dissolves and isn't too gritty. I mix with either soy milk or Ultra Fuel to get carbs with it.

Apologies for being so long winded, but this is a topic I was skeptical of two years ago, but after 10months on this program and a lot of reading and research, I'm sold.

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Mike R

Software Engineer and Mac geek
Aspiring to be front-middle-of-the-pack in 2010.

It can get pricey, especially when you first start up

I have never seen someone who eats as many vitamins. So, after 10 months and probably hundreds if not thousands of dollars, can you feel any benefit?

I know it's hard to feel a change and even harder to know if the change would have occurred on a good diet alone, but have you noticed anything specific?

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You sir, are my new hero! - Trifan 11/13/2008

Casey, you are a wise man - blueraider_mike 11/13/2008

Casey, This is an astute observation. - Slowbern 11/17/2008

Wow. That's a lot of stuff to take. Can you tell me why you take so much iron? I had thought from past reading that taking too much iron could be a problem. How do you know that you are not getting too much iron?

Let me be the first to say:

YUCKEY!

;-)

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_________________________________
I'll be what I am
A solitary man

What do you eat/drink on the bike?

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mcoker

The iron caps are only 18mg, another 10 each for the Daily One's and 2.5mg each for the Multi-Mininerals gives ~40mg / day. This is on the higher side of average, but the amount we workout as triathletes is also on the high side of average. Every footfall and pedal stroke destroys red blood cells, which require iron to rebuild, so taking a little bit extra isn't inherently a bad thing.

Taking the w/o iron version of the Daily One's would reduce this down into the 20mg range, which is definitely an option if you're concerned with getting too much.

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Mike R

Software Engineer and Mac geek
Aspiring to be front-middle-of-the-pack in 2010.

What do you eat/drink on the bike?

I do not compete in IM's anymore for various reasons so I am not in a position to decide what to eat on 5+ hour bike rides. If I did compete again, I may be forced to have some supplements but would try to eat whole foods (bananas, apples, figs). That would probably not be adequate for an IM. When I did compete, I did eat supplemental nutrition bars but stopped a few years ago when I stopped racing.

I accept that you probably need some nutritional supplements when training for an IM but my post was really in regard to the vitamin supplements used in periods of non-exercise.

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You sir, are my new hero! - Trifan 11/13/2008

Casey, you are a wise man - blueraider_mike 11/13/2008

Casey, This is an astute observation. - Slowbern 11/17/2008

Yeah, what I was getting at was that you eat not just to eat, but to fuel the machine within, and this is why you do not take supplements - with the idea being that pills/supplements can't be better than man made substances.

My question to you, what do you eat/drink while on the bike (which you concede supplements are beneficial) is to ask, at what point does it become OK? And why is it OK on the bike but not during the day. If a supplement can help you during periods of exercise, why can't it help you during periods of non-exercise?

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mcoker

It is a lot to take and a lot to keep organised and purchase, but I do feel it's worth it.

I do feel a benefit: consitency. I'm consistently feel good and I rarely get sick and when I do I'm over it in a day or two. My mind is a lot sharper (fish oil and acetyl l-carnitine) and I sleep a lot better.

The supplements was part of a year-long change in how I regarded nutrition. I went vegan, then I started properly pre- and post-fueling my workouts for optimum performance and recovery, then I added the supplements to ensure my body has everything it needs to do the job.

My diet has been very good for a number of years. I've never been a junk food person, rarely ate fast food, and candy was never very appealing. That said, I have improved my diet by eliminating processed foods and incorporating a lot of whole grains, fruits, veggies and beans.

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Mike R

Software Engineer and Mac geek
Aspiring to be front-middle-of-the-pack in 2010.

And why is it OK on the bike but not during the day. If a supplement can help you during periods of exercise, why can't it help you during periods of non-exercise?

I'm not saying it's not okay to eat supplements but that I prefer to get my nutrition from real foods. As for eating while biking, I think a lot of that has to do with digestion issues where it is easier to drink calories that to eat real foods while exercising. You need calories during an IM and the best way to get them in a lot of cases is through liquids, something that is not as much an issue during the day.


I'm also not suggesting supplements/vitamins do not help or of no value at all. I agree that a lot of the nutrients have been taken out of food so we buy our vegetables (when we can) directly from a farmer who does not use pesticides, not something available to many people.

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__________________________________________________

You sir, are my new hero! - Trifan 11/13/2008

Casey, you are a wise man - blueraider_mike 11/13/2008

Casey, This is an astute observation. - Slowbern 11/17/2008

125g/day of protein? Why so much?

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mcoker

I don't eat meat, so I need to get almost all of my protein from other sources. This is also another case of the RDI/RDA being insufficient in that some sports nutritionists suggest 2-2.2g/kg lean body weight, which means ~140-145g protein/day for myself.

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Mike R

Software Engineer and Mac geek
Aspiring to be front-middle-of-the-pack in 2010.

This is what I take - http://www.usana.com/...els/us_healthpak.pdf, along with an Omega 3 supplement and a glucosamine supplement. I wouldn't say that I'm an expert, but I have used these products religiously for over 10 years and I wouldn't go a day without them. I also use their low glycemic line of shakes and bars. Full disclosure - USANA is a network marketing company and I am a distributor (partnership in the top distributorship in the company for the past 10 years). For the next 2 weeks I am paying for people to come in (free product for you) - PM me for details.

Dax

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Dax
http://dirtyrunning.blogspot.com

did you ever hear of nutrient competition for absorption, especially with minerals?

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�The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.� -Michelangelo

MoodBoost Drink : Mood Support + Energy.

[reply]
....
Vitamin (all TwinLab brand):
...

If this sounds like a lot, read Dr. Colgan's Optimum Sports Nutrition and do some background research on his facts. [/reply]

see, i did read that book a while ago.
i tried his stuff out, and it did seem to help a bit, but then stopped.
i was in slightly better shape then, but there's a lot of variables btwn then and now.

i will say this: the whole time i was reading the book, i kept wondering: is this guy paid by twinlab or what?

Wow... where is everyone getting their information? I would be extremely interested in reading this research being mentioned in regards to all this supplemenationy hype.

I can't imagine taking all of the supplements that are being listed on this thread. Americans are notorious for getting more than the requirement of vitamins and minerals. And the reason that obtaining these nutrients via food sources is due to the fact that the bioavailabilty is greater when compared to supplements. Just because you take a 20mg supplement of said vitamin/mineral does not by any means actually mean that your body will absorb that amount. Although you don't absorb all of what is in the food source either, at least its a higher percentage and you limit your risk for toxicty (I think it wouldn't hurt to take a look at those numbers).

As a dietitian, I would like to throw a great article out... its the official position paper on NUTRITION AND ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE from the American Dietetic Association, Dietitians of Canada, & the American College of Sports Medicine.

http://www.eatright.org/...dap1200_ENU_HTML.htm

I recommend reading it... its a great way to pass time at work too.

You need to change your name to Mr. Placebo. I am not kidding.