In the military looking for tips page

[Garrett.W]

I'm in the Army and I've been Paleo for about 3 months. I'm just looking on tips for ways to keep my energy level up throughout my days. I typically have early mornings and late nights and my job requires me to be able to sustain high levels of energy out put for long duration's. I use to use gel packs and energy bars during these events and I'm looking for alternatives to these. I read that most athletes just increase their intake of sweet potato's but I was wondering if anyone has any other tips.

[bryanccfshr]

As a Former Marine allow me to give somme energy conservation tips for life in the field

Don't run when you can walk
Don't walk when you can stand
Don't stand when you can sit
Don't sit when you can lie down
Don't lie awak when you can sleep.

When in the field with limited food supply extra exercise is of little benefit, you will get enough movement in the infantry no need to PT unless you are forced to.

When you have the oppurtunnity to eat hot chow or mess hall take severe advantage. Eat the meat and high fat items, build up your reserves.

I wasn't Paleo or primal in the Marine corps but applied these principles. I ate everything in site whenever I was given the oppurtunnity. And I would get back in line until I couldn't eat anymore. I was in the infantry, We moved alot on foot, lived and slept in the weather and fatique and hunger were the standard state of being during field time, and as an athlete Marine the MRE rations were not packed with enough nutrition or energy to sustain our movements in the field.

If you have similar duties you will be tired and hungry, so conserve energy and eat when presented. If you are barracks or base with dining facilities and 8 hours of cot time you have the luxury of adding personal PT to your job.

[otzi]

If you are eating in the DFAC:
Breakfast - eggs, sausage, bacon, cheese. Skip the biscuits and gravy, toast, and oatmeal.
Lunch - Unbreaded meat, 2-3 servings. Unbreaded veggies. Salad Bar w/olive oil dressing. Don't use the dressing in the packets. Skip dessert. Eat a pice of fruit if you need something sweet.
Dinner - Same as lunch. If you get stuck going to Burger King, get a large salad with no dressing (or use your own olive oil). Get a couple grilled chicken sandwiches and feed the buns to the crows in the parking lot. Skip the fries and pies.

If you can handle it. Learn to IF. Skip breakfast and eat a huge lunch and supper. Also, don't snack. If you feel the need to snack, you didn't eat enough lunch or dinner. Don't drink energy drinks, diet sodas, Rock Stars, Gator-ade, none of it--just water. Maybe a couple cups of coffee in the morning, but that's all. If you just have to have a snack between meals, eat a couple hardboiled eggs or a bag of beef jerky. Pass on the donuts and potato chips.

If you are eating MREs, just eat the meat, eggs, cheese, peanut butter, and dried fruit. Give away all the pasta, crackers, bread, desserts, and jelly. Eat the whole packet of salt.

So not sure where you are, just stateside PT'ing in the morning and working a regular job all day or deployed somewhere, but you can do this pretty easy and will have all the energy you need to be alert all day. Once you kick the sugar/carb addiction you will be amazed how good you feel and how much energy you have with no hunger.

[MprDoc]

I am a Navy Corpsman with a Marine Infantry unit and I find primal living to pretty awesome when not deployed. I eat LOTS of fruit and some nuts during the day. I work long - usually 10 -12 hours not including PT - days and find that just snacking on fruit, nuts and any form of meat helps maintain a nice level energy level. If I know I am not going to be able to workout at the end of the day than what I will do also is a set an alarm to go off every 45 minutes or an hour and knock out 25 bodyweight squats, 25 push ups and a max set of pull ups if I can - I can't do a ton of pull ups so a max set for me isn't like 25 or anything, usually less than 10. This keeps me awake when I am sitting at my desk all day. What I recomend you DO NOT do is eat a massive lunch no matter what it is. At least for me if I eat a bunch of meat and veggies at lunch I feel pretty lathargic afterwards. I have gotten into the habbit of prepping breakfast before I go to bed and throwing together some form of egg dish whether its an omlette with meat or a four egg veggie scramble like I had this morning with a papaya to get the day going, black coffee to. That breakfast meal is HUGE because everyone knows how office life goes - people LOVE to bring in what I call diet sabatour foods like donuts or bagels. Eating makes it much easier to say "NO" when someone offers you a creme filled eclair. If you can't cook I recomend bringing hard boiled eggs to work. Get cage free organic eggs, the taste difference is huge when your eating them boiled.

Are you livin the "barracks life" or you live out in town? Are you a grunt?? Its much harder to live "primal" or "paleo" if your doin the grunt thing. I tried on my most recent deployment but was living on a FOB and it was next to impossible. No way toget enough veggies and fresh fruit out there.