A Rock in a Hard Place

Thanks Cougie! and Hello Karin!

Well, my first installment is not going to be very uplifting. I have come down with a small case of food-poisoning, and I'm going to have to postpone my triumphant return to the gym that I had planned for today. If there's a bright spot, however, it's that I don't feel much like eating. I was up all night with a pretty raw tummy, and I still have to go in to work. Luckily, my work is pretty light these days, so I'm going to be whiny and lazy today, and try to catch up on sleep.

I can definitely feel the effects of the poor diet I have been eating the last nine months. Just so you know, I'll break it down a little what is served daily at the chow hall here:

Breakfast:

good stuff:
bacon is like rubber, not sure why
eggs are swimming in some sort of grease that tastes like an unwashed gym sock
sausage just tastes weird, not sure why about this either
fruit is picked way too early and is not ripe, therefore completely flavorless, with the exception of the pineapple, which is not bad

then there's the bad stuff:
biscuits and gravy. the biscuits are decent, the gravy tastes like it has the added ingredient of body sweat
the rest of the bad stuff, french toast, muffins, doughnuts, pastries, etc. are all pretty good, which is the ongoing irony, the only good food here is bad

Lunch and Dinner:

good stuff:
some sort of meat like beef roast, ribs, pork chop, chicken (lots of chicken), and fish. All prepared in such a way that it leaves dust on your plate from having to vigorously saw through it with your knife
maybe one or two real vegetables. Always the same, either broccoli, cauliflower, some frozen mix of crap, green beans and corn (not vegetables), or spinach/greens. All are lifeless and completely flavorless, and way WAY overcooked. I mean they are killed dead

bad stuff:
burgers that taste like cardboard with cheese
pizza that gives you the shits 100% of the time
loads of pasta and sauce that tastes like someone urinated in it
french fries are usually pretty good
the many packaged foods, ice cream, ice cream bars, candy bars, chips, cookies, cake, pies (lots of pie) are what they are. They taste good because they were not prepared here, but then comes the whole catch-22 of these items not being very good for continued good health

So that's what I've been dealing with for the last nine months. I toughed it out for the first seven of them and lost almost 70 lbs. But, about a month ago, I just had had enough. With the sheer boredom of being on a small navy base with a daily existence that is work, workout, eat, shower, sleep, and my workspace is a shipping container, and my living space is also a shipping container, add to that having to deal with a bunch of grown boys who were picked on in highschool and now have some authority, and you can say goodbye to Harold's tolerance, patience and motivation in general.

I am trying to wrestle my eating habits down to where the damage is a minimum. My dreams right now are to get back to the states, where I have full control over my food choices and their preparation (which I'm a pretty damn good cook I might also say), and feel my energy rise and my performance at the gym soar. It's funny, because on my last deployment all I could think about was all the junk food (McDonald's and crap like that) I was going to pig out on when I got home, but this time all I can think about is how healthy I'm going to eat. I have a lot of faith in myself knowing that I care about my body and the quality of my life now. I didn't used to be involved in it much.

Well, I hope maybe some people find this interesting. See y'all soon.

Hi all. I thought it might be really good for our honorary military cougie who seems to be bored out of his head and without many choices to post here. I thought that having an outlet could be creative for him, and in the end, really inspirational! There are a lot of people deployed who could be inspired. But even if nobody but "us" reads his stuff, I thought that he could have some fun being able to express himself here and having us reply.

Welcome Harold!

Hi, Harold!

Howdy folks! My name's Harold, I'm a soldier in the US Army, deployed in Africa. I've been here about nine months and I have a couple more to go. I am 5'11" and at the beginning of this deployment I weighed almost 280 lbs. I got down to under 205 at one point, now I am back up to 220-ish. I have been lifting weights and doing light cardio, and was trying to eat clean, but the food choices here have not been very condusive to neither my lifting performance or completing my body re-compositioning goals. I will expound upon this more after the Cougie General chimes in and makes me legit. I am proud to be considered and honorary "male" cougie, and I hope that sharing my experience will help both myself and anyone who might read my rantings. See ya soon.