NUTRITION!: Basics, Advanced, And everything inbetween.

Breakfast: Whey protein smoothie which include banana, Flax Seed (crushed), Frozen Zuchinni (hardener), Strawberries or other fruit to taste.

Snack around 10 am: Fruit, yogurt, nuts.

Lunch: Green Leafy salad (Vinegar/Olive Oil dressing), main dish (usually from night before.

Snack: ~2:30 - 3pm - Fruit, yogurt, nuts.

Dinner: Salad, and a nice dinner. Chicken or fish. Every once in a while some type of pasta dish.

After dinner snack: (~8ish) Smoothie like breakfast.

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These are usual days. I do also have days where we just go get some pizza and such and eat.

The important thing is to not over indulge yourself. And if you don't quite make it through your diet for a day don't be mad at yourself. Tell yourself you will start again tomorrow and do better.

“	Originally Posted By: john100 As for diet/nutrition tips. Avoid machine coffee like the plague. Avoid the hot chocolate twice as much. Don't put 'milk' in your vending machine coffee. I used to know a guy who lost half a stone by doing nothing more than giving up on vending machine coffee.	”

That is completely true -- when I found out what was in "machine coffee" (those instant cappuccino machines found at the 7-11, for example) I stopped drinking it and went back to brewed coffee. One of the ingredients is partially hydrogenated oil, which is really, really bad for you.

I quit the "instant" stuff about the time I started South Beach, so I can't say whether I lost weight from quitting it or not.

Right now I'm trying to transition completely from coffee to tea. It's ... not going so well...

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"Pain can be a great teacher of compassion and humility."~ Unkotare-san

"Whatever the case, it proves that countless disasters can be prevented by simply assuming everyone you're working with is a moron." ~ Adam Brown, 5 Tiny Mistakes...

“	Originally Posted By: Sammygirl Right now I'm trying to transition completely from coffee to tea. It's ... not going so well...	”

LOL....
I tried that...
more than once

and actually I found it harder than quit smoking...

Chief108

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“	Question Authority. Question Society. Question Reality. Question Yourself. Question your conclusions, your judgments, your answers. Question this. If you question everything thoroughly enough, the truth will eventually hit you upside the head and you will know. But here’s a warning: It won’t be what you imagined. It won’t be even close.	”

all hail Martyr Fakka

Cold turkey is the only way to go.

For about a week you feel like this .

Then you geel like this .

Then you feel like this .

Oh wait I think that was is back to normal for me.

Anyway yeah it is hard, but everything worth doing is hard. Now I avoid coffee like the plague and drink more tea. I feel much better, once the shakes go away. Heh.

LOL thanks!

I actually winnowed my coffee-drinking down over the past few years from 12+ cups per day (seriously) to about 2 a day. Working in a office without a coffeemaker helped that -- having to bundle up in a parka and trudge across the street in the snow to get a coffee, gets old quick.

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"Pain can be a great teacher of compassion and humility."~ Unkotare-san

"Whatever the case, it proves that countless disasters can be prevented by simply assuming everyone you're working with is a moron." ~ Adam Brown, 5 Tiny Mistakes...

I dont know about the rest of you but with my schedual its very hard to eat the way I want to. I either am lacking on time, money, or desire to cook my own food which is healthier by far i believe. I am working nights and right now we have a military excercise going on...Lots of Fun...Not!

“	Originally Posted By: Zipwolf Tkd, it SHOULD be common sense, but i know of no schools who teach this kind of thing, and even common sense needs to be taught. And if you arent taught it, then you have to learn :P Even if its years later.	”

Actually the Kenpo school I was last enrolled in taught a minimul amount of proper eating knowledge. Alot of the enphasis was on what foods have what affects (i.e. bananas are one of the most well ballanced food you can eat, sweat fruits are good for energy, etc). I know I'm days behind the rest of you just reading and posting what I can when I can. New here.
Michael (Green_Horn)

LOL from your other posts you're in the army, that was where I developed my 12+ per day coffee habit! Because that was the fastest refreshment available, just add lots of sugar & creamer. That and Hot Pockets which I can barely stand anymore (sold in the vending machines in Panama), sometimes coffee & Hot Pockets was all I had to eat for 24-48 hours.

Plus the quality of mess hall food can vary, sometimes the salad bars are disgusting, other times you're just tired of repetition. Or it's too difficult to reach (because of the type of job you're doing, because of the kind of base you're on, etc.). And there is a lot of high-fat, high-calorie food offered, which is fine if you're in jump school or Ranger training but not for everyday work when you're not expending 4000+ calories a day.

Looking back on what was available in the chow hall then vs. what I know now about diet -- try to build a viable training diet from what's available and the time you have. For example, breakfast is probably the healthiest offering in the chow hall -- eggs, oatmeal, toast, juice. So you could load up on that, leaving out the bacon & sausage. But lunch & dinner take more finesse. Like limiting your afternoon protein intake to just one of those meals, and the other meal just veggies or salad. If you can't make the mess hall, then buy healthier, long-lasting snacks like nuts, raisins, granola (Kashi bars are great), other dried fruit. Drink water and if you can, carry green tea bags & make tea with the available hot water.

An MRE is about 3600 calories, none of it fresh, so it should be the last resort for nutrition.

Always sneak out some fresh fruit from the mess hall -- just one or two pieces to get you through the day, a banana or apple. If you snack in the mid-morning and mid-afternoon you don't get as hungry and make better choices at lunch & dinner because your body's not screaming "I SAID PUDDING MOTHERF******!"

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"Pain can be a great teacher of compassion and humility."~ Unkotare-san

"Whatever the case, it proves that countless disasters can be prevented by simply assuming everyone you're working with is a moron." ~ Adam Brown, 5 Tiny Mistakes...

Well the mess hall is not an option for me period. Im on seperate rats, work in a 24/7 facility and the post has ONE MESS! (I cant believe that!) So I try and eat as healthy as possible but I also try not to make it a punishment. My normal day consists of (Dinner when on nights is first meal) Fish/chicken cooked on a foreman grill, Brown Rice/Egg Noobles/Baked Beans (very limited in cooking facilities) and a small can (2 servings of vegies); Lunch is usually a sandwich using whole wheat (4-5grams of fiber) and has Ham/turkey/Tuna, Raisens, and a little healthy apllesause cup; breakfast is a healthy cereal (limited to a few here in Korea); sneaks I try for Celery/raisens/bananas (closest thing to a perfect food IMO)/Carrots, etc. What I want to do is for a mid morning/after noon snack is basically start eating a fruit/vegtable salid (no dressing).

But Im no saint during this excercise im going to eat out at least tonight. I eat boxed fried chicken (My fav food), etc i try never to drink soda. Though I do tell myself on Sat. That I can eat anything I want including soda, I just dont drink it to often...Think Soda is the Absolute worst thing you can drink.

Well you can't be good all the time!

Sometimes separate rats is a blessing, sometimes it's a curse. My job was the same way, I had to forage on my own for food most of the time, and I was traveling around a lot so I had to eat whatever was available. In some countries this is OK, in other countries it's harder to find good local food (but you've never really traveled until you're sitting in front of a big plate of somethin'-and-rice and wondering "is this a chicken or a cat?"). But in the barracks it was limited to what could be made in the group microwave or the coffee pot.

What you listed sounds like pretty healthy, fresh foods mixed with dried/canned foods, which is the best you can do. Fried chicken once a week probably is OK but if you're trying to lose weight, take the delicious crispy skin off (dammit). Does the BK on base offer fresh salads, or is it one of those trailers that only serves burgers & fries?

Also you might look in the commissary for wheat germ or flax seeds which can be sprinkled into cereal/oatmeal. There's some new organic plain instant oatmeals on the shelf here that look good. Most commissaries will special-order foods for you if you ask. The next time I'm at Whole Foods I'll write down the brand and any other long-storage healthy items I see.

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"Pain can be a great teacher of compassion and humility."~ Unkotare-san

"Whatever the case, it proves that countless disasters can be prevented by simply assuming everyone you're working with is a moron." ~ Adam Brown, 5 Tiny Mistakes...

Well im not trying to loss a whole lot of wieght more or less get my body fat percentage down and get my flexibility back up. I remember not to long ago doing army combatives a drill sergeat commenting I was the biggest flexible guy he ever say. Now then I was 186Lbs 5'9" (5'10" on a civilian doctors scale) and had 18% body fat.

Unfortunately I hurt my hip/leg here in Korea (I hate hills) to a point where if I walked the hip popped and if I ran I had a lot of pain shot down may leg and not let up for a while...I am not a fan of running either. If it where up to me id only run once a week at most if not every other week and use an eliptical/Bike (i am actually thinking of getting one at fort gordon) and use those every other time.

But after I got hurt I shot up to 209LBS and according to my caliber a 28% body fat. Not I'm about a 20% at 195LBS. I just need to get my wind back for the next PT test next month.

Oh! forgot Jumping Rope thats a good one too. Used to have to do it in okinawa Kempo and our tests started with Jumping rope. Was always intimidated by the black belt test predomitly because of the idea of jumping rope for 45mins.

Argh, I hate jump rope! Used to be fun when I was a kid. Now I do about 5-10 minutes to warm up and that's it.

When you get to Ft. Gordon, internal arts can help repair the damage that all that running does. The way taiji works the waist/hips and connecting joints is very therapeutic; a lot of my back problems (from running & carrying heavy equipment) went away.

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"Pain can be a great teacher of compassion and humility."~ Unkotare-san

"Whatever the case, it proves that countless disasters can be prevented by simply assuming everyone you're working with is a moron." ~ Adam Brown, 5 Tiny Mistakes...

Well thats one of the Many reasons I want to learn the "soft" internal styles. I think Im in pretty good shape but not for martial arts, least not where I want to be. And the so call soft styles seem to be some of the more all around good styles. Ground grappling may lack but standing doesnt.

“	Originally Posted By: Sammygirl When you get to Ft. Gordon, internal arts can help repair the damage that all that running does. The way taiji works the waist/hips and connecting joints is very therapeutic; a lot of my back problems (from running & carrying heavy equipment) went away.	”

Green Horn,

I was stationed at Ft Gordon about 7 years back. While many of the "dining facilities" are jam packed with people and have trash food, there *are* a couple that are GREAT for sitting down and eating a healthy meal, primarily the ones for operational members versus the ones for students and new recruits (IIRC, like #4). In your off time try to visit as many as you can and Im sure youll find the ones Im thinking of.

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PlumDragon Herbs: Dit Da Jow and Iron Palm Liniments

"When a handshake passes the elbow, it becomes Judo."