Thread: Need help with military chow hall diet!

First of all Hi!

Im TDY in the mideast (desert) and there is not a grocery store or any other place to get food from besides the chow hall. The problem is im a night shifter working from midnight til about 1pm so usually a 13+ hour day 6 days a week. The major problem is that when I go to work chowhall starts serving breakfast so my slim choices of what to eat gets a whole lot shorter. They have a few leftovers from dinner on one side but usually its not healthy or dried out.

My normal eating schedual is:
-11pm Wake up and go eat somthing before I go to work. Usually a small bowl of cornpops with some skim milk unless I can find some edible leftover dinner food.
-4am while at work and eat a chickenbreast, 2 peices of fruit, and a lowfat quaker chewy granola bar.
-8am while at work and eat a chickenbreast, 2 peices of fruit, and a lowfat quaker chewy granola bar.(yes exact same things as at 4am)
-1pm get off work get to gym and lift then do 30 mins of cardio.
-after gym I go to the chowhall and grab 2 more chickenbreasts and some fruit for the next day.
-buy the time I finish at the gym, grab food for next day, and walk to the shower and get rdy to pass out its around 4pm.
-rinse and repeat.

Now once a week or so I do get a ham and cheese omlet on eggwhites. They also do have fish sometimes but alot of the times its either really salty or fried. Sometimes I get shrimp also being seafood is pretty healthy providing its not fried.

What I would like to know is if I am doing something really wrong with my diet or should I throw in a baked potato, bread, or pasta in my diet? Should I cut down to 1/2 a chicken breast every 2 hours instead of 1 every 4 hours?

As for liquids I only drink water unless its my little cup of skim milk in my cereal.

Any other things you need to know to help me out just ask. Thanks for the help.


btw I am trying to lose 40#s or so and trim up. Not trying to bulk at all.

When I have gone OCONUS I take some Whey powder to fill in those times when getting a real meal is difficult. If you are going to be TDY for more than a few weeks, I would order some and have it shipped (takes about 10 days). Mix with water or milk. Carbs are not an issue as the food in the mess hall is loaded with carbs, fat and salt. You may see if you can get some hard boiled eggs at the mess hall. The tubes of PB is very cal dense and I would use sparingly but they are a source of fat and some protein.

I think you are going to get real tired of chicken. Dried nuts used sparingly or if you can get some cottage cheese, beef jerky, etc. What about the tuna MREs? Does the PX have any protein supplements? I do not recall Camp Doha having any, but GTMO had lots of choices. When at the gym ask around there may be some sources you are not aware of in the zone or at a bigger camp. Your family can send care packages of the dried stuff, that is always an option. The PO has those boxes that cost $8.10 to mail with no weight limit.

Maybe Laura from ATW can send you some samples.