Thanks for stopping by. You state you are a body builder but you don’t state if you are cutting for your season or you are off season bulking up. If your intent is to lean up, then do not take it post Insanity – or at least not a full packet. If your intent is to add muscle, then do take it. The Results and Recovery drink is designed to shuttle the whey protein in it into your muscles fast using the body’s unique hormonal state post intense exercise. So if you are more interested in leaning out, a half serving diluted it with skim milk would be more effective for you.

Nancy

I’ve actually never used bands with P90X – not even during my first round. We have a pull up bar and I did what I could on it. I’d always start trying to get one out unassisted because I feel it’s important to get your muscles primed for the real movement. But for the 1st month, I could never get up. So after my first attempt, I’d do modified (assisted) pull ups. It took me just over a month before I got the first pull up out. It was on reverse grip pull ups (chin ups) which I find a lot easier than other pull ups. And I took a little jump to get me started. But once you get up, you realize you can do it. And if you can do it once, you can do it more than once so it’s mental as much as physical in my opinion. Just keep trying it will come.

I do have my general diet recommendations at http://www.pressplayfitness.com/06/my-p90x-diet/ and, while this is getting a bit dated, I have a sample of what I eat at http://www.pressplayfitness.com/members/forum/#topic/Sample-eating-plans.htm. I’ll go in and update that shortly. Mondays are a big catch-up day for me so it may not be today.

Finally I see you signed up under me, if you’d send me an email telling me what your goals are and where you are right now, we’ll get started making sure you hit your goals. Send the email to pressplayfitness @ gmail . com (remove the extra spaces – I do that to try to prevent email stealing).

Nancy

During Round 1 of P90x, did you use the bands for 90 days? How long did it take for you to gain enough strength to do pull-ups?

Could you post an example of a typical meal plan for beginner P90xers with supplements too? I like that you suggest taking Extend before a workout because some mornings I lack the energy to make it through the workouts. It helped if I ate carbs the night before but I would like to eat my carbs at lunch instead. I also like that you address the inaccurate calorie consumption calculator for women.

While I like the P90X Recovery Drink, there is a lot of sugar in it. Taken in significant doses, that will shut down any fat burning and if more sugar (converted to glycogen) than your muscles can store, will be stored in fat cells.

Thanks for stopping by, and thank you for your kind words on my transformation! We need to look at your needs before I can help you make the best decision for you. I will tell you that in my home, right now, I have and use all three. But I didn’t use all three ‘day 1′. Here’s how I view each of them:

Shakeology: This is a true meal replacement shake. It has 17 grams of high quality whey protein which your body can easily assimilate and use to repair and recover. But even more importantly, it has over 70 potent nutrients from veggies, fruits, phytonutrients from ingredients like green tea and a lot more. So if you are planning to do modest intensity exercise and are looking for a way to shave some calories out of your diet while still providing better nutrition than your body has seen for a long time, Shakeology is for you. There is a ‘bottom of the bag’ guarantee which I like. Most people love the chocolate flavor best. I like chocolate in my ‘Peanut Butter Dream‘ recipe.

If you are focused on gaining lean mass while burning fat, the Gaspari Brand Myofusion protein is a great deal. One scoop provides you 25 grams of high quality protein in a low fat, low carb shake. The milk chocolate tastes very good as well. I’ll use this mixed with 2/3 cup water and 1/3 cup 1% organic milk for a tasty snack. Without this I would not get to the protein requirements I need each day.

The Extend amino acid blend is what I use right before working out. It give me exactly what my body is going to need if I’m gearing up for intense workouts like a run. It also helps to reduce or eliminate muscle soreness. I tend to recommend this for anyone who is working out really hard. I use it first thing in the morning right after I drink 2 glasses of filtered water. It stops my body from producing cortisol (everyone’s body is in a cortisol state after a night’s sleep because you’ve been fasting). Then I work out. If I go for a 2nd workout (I work out, in total about 8 hours a week), I take a scoop in water right before that workout as well. This is the most optional supplement of the three in my opinion.

Hope this helps you sort it all out. Let me know if you still have questions.

Coach Nancy