Deployed Diet Issues

[SuperJew]

I am currently deployed to Afghanistan and obviously quality food is hard to come by. I find myself eating a lot of Turkey and Tuna. Every meal actually... My question is, have any of you ran into this issue or have any ideas of something I should be eating that is easily accesible? i.e a meal replacement of some type? I am already taking a solid multi vitamin as well as the BSN True Mass protein, but I am planning on bulking up my diet soon and want to make sure I am not missing some amazing addition. Thanks!

[emills7]

If the chow halls in A-stan are anywhere close to most of them in Iraq, there are a few options. My worst enemy was always missing solid meals due to mission and not being able to stick to a strict diet/workout/rest schedule. If you are more confined to your cop/fob and your job allows it, you could have the potential to setup a pretty good workout program / diet. I have seen some people make very good use of a year deployed and have great results just from nothing but eating and hitting the weights.

Check out alot of the other bulking threads, Some of this stuff will still apply to you and what is available in the chow hall.

Also remember that most supplement companies will ship APO and you can save even with shipping instead of buying at the PX. APO shipping should not cost you that much more but some companies will try and rip you off.

On the salad bars there was always bowls of the individual 1tsp servings of peanut butter so I always filled my pockets with those. The hooah bars and then those natty style carrot cake and other high carb/ cal bars were always in big bowls as you exited. I could always eat 2 things of pb if needed while in the truck to hold me over some.

As soon as you get up, even before shit/shower/shave, go ahead and take down a 2 scoop whey shake to start your day. Then do what you need get ready, head to chow or whatever. Eat some tuna and cracker while you pmcs before rolling out.

Depending how strict you are with your religious observations / practices, roast pork loin was a regular menu item as far as non fried stuff went. Sometimes corned beef or roast beef but alot of fat needed to be trimmed. The chow halls always had tons of fried stuff as far as short order or main line went. Good thing was that most had a sandwhich / wrap bar and they had turkey, roast beef, chicken salad, and tuna salad.

The salad bars most of the time had good veggies/ fruit and lots of them.


Also depending on your cop/fob, the dfacs allow take out plates so get a meal made and eat before mission if you don't want an MRE. There are some pretty high protien entries in mre's and you may like them. I have been burned out on mre's for awhile now myself.

Midnight chow is also available at some cops/fobs.

There was always oatmeal packs out in the AM and if you have a coffee pot in your chu then you could make some for post work out if needed to go with your shake.

Most px's carried muscletech brand bars, tuna and chicken in the packs, beef jerkey, nuts, etc. Some carried BSN and EAS protiens. For price I always went with EAS. Creatine mono was also sold in the px's, but as you know up that water intake mega.

PX also had fiber one bars and I would cover those in peanut butter to go with my post work out shakes sometimes.

Stay off all the rip its from class 1, and the monster & red bull bs from the bx. Lay off the chai when with the locals.

I ate alot of local food that was pretty lean this last trip. Chicken tikka, kabob, simon and chicken, etc. Some are weary of it but it should only mess with you the first few times and then it helps to build up those cast iron insides.

You may want to look at adding a BCEAA supplement to your water throughout the day.

Hope this helps some. As I mentioned before, I have not yet had the oppurtunity to go to A-stan, only Iraq a couple of times.

[SuperJew]

Good advice on all! Unfortunatly Afghanistan sucks...forgotten war and all that. I guess I will just have a lot of meal replacement bars sent! Thanks for your help man. Where were you at in Iraq? We were in the Babil Province last time.