Vegetarian in Bootcamp

[ShaynaLace]

Originally Posted by llamayamaa

Unless things have changed in the two years since I've been at boot camp- women are prescribed calcium pills to take daily. Whether or not you take them is up to you. I didn't have room for them in my A/B drawer so I dumped mine pretty quickly. I've also never had a need to supplement my diet with calcium.

I have taken training classes and worked with RDCs (I work at NSTC which is the base right across from boot camp) and they have said there is a new policy that RDCs are NOT allowed to tell recruits what they can and cannot eat AT ALL. It annoys them mostly because recruits are eating desserts and fatty foods when they can barely pass their weigh ins and PRTs. But they really don't/shouldn't care if you're choosing veggies over meat.

Portion sizes are predetermined for the hot food line and for desserts, but you can chose how much (or little) you want of the salad bar (including fruit) and cereal. The night we did Battlestations we were offered double portions at the galley because you're up all night.

Again, unless they've changed it in the past two years, you only have a certain amount of time to eat your meal. Many times I found I had to leave food on my plate simply because the time was up. I learned very quickly that things like hard boiled eggs were just not a viable option because I would spend half my time peeling the egg. You might also find that you spend more time peeling your eight bananas than you do eating them.

To answer the question about the quality of food- that's entirely relative to each person. I found the quality of all the food to be pretty poor- most of it was pre-packaged, pre-made, frozen, loaded with salt and preservatives, etc. and if you're there in the winter time like I was, fresh fruit is basically nonexistent (even the 'fresh' Apple slices were still frozen). But again, it's difficult to feed the thousands of recruits daily with homemade meals using the freshest of ingredients. Also try to keep in mind that bootcamp is only a short period of time and you'll soon have control over your diet again.

Awesome input! Thank you!

Questions- How long is a typical meal?

I'm going to look into the calcium supplements. With the amount of swimming I am doing... I tend to get calf cramps about 1500m in. I'll check it out!!