So as some of you know, I’m currently serving in Afghanistan. I am able to get the gym on a regular basis, I get ~8 hours of sleep a night (except when I come up for night shift), and I eat as healthy as I can. Truth be told, eating “healthy” here isn’t very healthy by any standards. Especially when I’m up for 24 hours straight, I need something to give me energy, and its usually something involving caffeine. And while the Canadians here are great cooks (I mean really good, the food is outstanding), I am very limited, especially when it comes to healthy carbs.
I feel that I’m in good shape, and getting better. I knock out almost 15 straight HSPU’s, and I was able to do my first muscle-up the other day. My main concern is that while I am amazed that I am able to do these things, I am not happy with the appearance of my body.
So my question is, should I just continue to do the best with what I have available, or should I invest in an HGH supplement? Or something else entirely? I don’t want to get huge, I’m only 5’7”, ~160lbs. But I would like to get leaner, and its just not happening. Any and all advice is welcome and appreciated.
Are you rationed out food or can you pick how much of each thing you eat?
What I am getting at is maybe zone, you can zone almost anything but you need to be able to get your hands on good fats nuts or something like that. This might be a way to not eat the best of everything but still loose some bf and more importantly improve performance.
If your interested look into the zonediet. It helped me alot more than I though it would. I think I have been on it for maybe 2 months. Ive lost another 12 pounds and like 4% bf and have improved performance ( I think).
Well I dont think supplements are the answer. THey usually end up doing more harm than good. I would focus on getting as close to the zone as you can. Besides that just keep busting your a$$ during the wod and everything will fall into place.
I do follow the zone diet as best I can. And the Canadians serve pretty much everything, from Prime Rib to Lobster tail and crab legs.
Can they ship some of the prime rib, lobster tail, and crab legs to me?
As mastroj said, do the best that you can. I have very little experience with what you’re going through, so I can’t really tailor this too well. I’d say, esp. if most of the carbs are high GI carbs, jack up the protein and fat content and lower the carbs (sounds like something Robb Wolf would prescribe). If the carbs are mostly high GI, use them for post-WOD to replace glycogen depletion from the WODs. Of course, I’m still being incredibly general and using something that has worked for me and others. Just doing what I can. Hope this helps a bit.
So your goal addressing your diet is to get leaner correct, or is there more to it? Well all that dairy likely wont allow for that in my opinion. I think dairy definately has its place but if you want to decrease your BF (aka leaner) milk and high quanitities of dairy is counterproductive. If you can get in more veggies and more fruit instead of all the dairy, and make sure you are getting your balance of good fats in then you should be on your way to leaning out. Thats my opinion, but if TP chimes in again refer to his advice before mine.
How much are you allowed to ask for at a meal? Those carbs look fine, but one apple won’t cut it. Essentially with favorable vegetables, you can run out of time and stomach before you run out of blocks. Take as much of those as you can. If it’s mushrooms/broccoli/cauliflower, then pile that up. You can measure, but you may have to go eyeball zone diet for a while.
So your list of favorable carbs is:
Milk, apples, assorted veggies? It’s not too exciting but I did really well on not much more than that kind of plan.
I can go back through the line for the main course to get seconds. But the assorted veggies is on a “buffet line” and empties pretty quickly. And I couldn’t measure if I wanted too, I have no way of doing it, so I’ve been eyeballing since about last September.
They also have assorted fruit yogurts, a couple of other fruits (some of them I have no idea what they are). But thats pretty much it.
Breakfast this morning:
3 hard boiled eggs (just the whites)
3 slices of deli sliced turkey breast
4 pieces of bacon
1 cup of milk
1 apple
I just got back from Kandahar two months ago. I lost 40 lbs just by eating mostly chicken or fish. I ate beef every once in a while. Then I tried to stay away from the rice and bread and load up on the salads and fruits instead. Also, for the salads I stayed away from the blue cheese and ranch they had. I had vinegar and pepper instead. I ate fruit but tried not to go too over board with them.It was very difficult to eat healthy while I was there but hitting the workouts hard seemed to even out the diet. I hope this helps you a little. I’m not expert, but I do know what you are going through. Stay safe over there.
Your diet seems to be lacking some carbs to me. As TP said, one apple?
I have had good luck just doing an eyeball zone friendly diet. Sometimes the only carbs available aren’t the “best” but you still need some carbs.
Also, as previously mentioned, just keep doing the WODs. I have leaned out quite a bit doing this. But, I think there comes a point where your body finds a place where it is happy and as long as performance continues to improve that is what really counts. When I was twenty I had great “looking” abs but I’d say I am in much better shape now than I was way back then.
But isn’t an apple two blocks of carbs? Plus one cup of milk is another one. Thats three blocks of carbs right there. And if I have yogurt thats another block. Outside of eating more fruit, the only other carbs available are from bread.
And as far as piling up on the veggies during lunch/dinner, it will be difficult, since as I said its a buffet deal and it goes pretty quickly.
dtoro, glad to hear you made it back safe. I’m here till September.
Dinner tonight:
8oz grilled catfish
Bowl of mixed vegetables
3 cubes of cheddar cheese
1 glass of milk
2 thin mint cookies
