This is the second time i\'m using creatine. First time i used it was about four years ago, and I

used it for about two months. I got great results, so I figured I\'d give it another whirl now that I\'m back

in the gym after a three year layoff.

I\'ve been back in the gym for three months, and have been on a creatine

cycle for about 2 of those months. The creatine I\'ve been using has been the GNC Creadrive, which is a

carb/creatine mix with Taurine. I\'ve been taking one serving per day, which equals approximately 5 grams of

creatine per day, although on some days, I have taken two servings. I\'ve also been taking one serving of EAS

Betagen once per day, which contains an additional 2.5 grams of creatine as well as 1 gram of HMB and 2 grams of

glutamine. A daily multi-vitamin (Sam\'s Club) has also been in the rotation.

For the past month I\'ve also

been taking a whey protein (GNC\'s \"100% Whey\", which has 20 grams of protein per serving) supplement twice

per day. I\'ve also just finished a one month cycle of NO2, which I do not plan on continuing as I did not notice

any positive effects with this particular product.

Withing the last two weeks I\'ve added 500 mg of HMB (GNC)

twice per day, and within the last week, I\'ve been taking 2 grams of CLA per day (Twin Labs CLA Fuel).

Food

consumption during the day is excellent, with no alcohol, plenty of lean meats (turkey, tuna, chicken, beef, eggs),

fresh vegetables from my garden, etc.

Gains have been excellent, with very noticeable increases in definition,

size and strength, while lowering bodyfat.

I\'ve got what appears to be about two weeks left of the creatine,

and once it\'s gone, I\'ll go on a one month off cycle so that I don\'t crap out my kidneys one morning. Once

I\'m off the creatine, I plan on adding an additional 5 to 10 grams of glutamine (GNC Mega Glutamine) per day. I

also will add ZMA supplement (Cytodyne Tech Cyclo Z-Mass, which also has a \"testrobolic blend\" which claims to

increase testosterone production within the body) and a hemiliodator (Met-Rx O2FX) even though the NO2 I used

previously had no noticeable effect. (The concept behind hemiliodation seems to have some valid points.)

My

questions are:

1. Is a month too long or too short for an \"off-cycle\" of the creatine? Can I get away

with less as I really enjoy the massive pump I get while working out, as well as the energy and strength

increases?

2. Can I/Should I continue taking the EAS Betagen, which has only 2.5 grams of creatine? Is this

amount low enough to be considered as \"not taking creatine\" during my off cycle?

3. Should I increase the

HMB from the current intake of 2 grams?

4. Is the 5 to 10 grams of glutamine enough?

5. Anything else I need

to look at as far as adding supplement wise? (I\'m not really that interested in supplementing with prohormone

products as I don\'t want to worry about the possible side effects - unless these worries are

unfounded.)

I\'d like to keep most of the strength gains while off the creatine, but I don\'t want to have to

take eight billion supplements in order to do so.

Advice and input, looney or sane, is mucho

appreciate.

Thanks.