What's the food like on course? (BMQ, DP, ect...) [Merged]

[Bruce Monkhouse]

oh well, I cant imagine anyone ever died from CF box lunches.

No, but some things can remain scarred on your memory.
  In Gagetown doing driving for some course we parked the trucks along side of the road and us drivers walked up and grabbed a box lunch and wandered back to the trucks whilst the course folk did an eat and gab. Sat in my truck and wondered why all the driver's side doors of the 4 trucks parked in front of me opened in almost complete unison just as I was taking a drink of my milk, and quickly threw open my door and start spitting out the curds,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,since then I have always taken a sniff before I'll have a whatever of milk.

 

[Biggoals2bdone]

As an athlete and someone who's trained others (athletically), and has been into the nutrition/health/fitness studie/sector, yes i agree food is fuel. 

BUT

just like fuel for our cars have QUALITY so to does food.  By your argument (the person saying FOOD is FOOD no matter what) a bag of chips is just the same as a chicken breast and potatoes, because both are food.

the caloric make-up of meals is also quite important, from personal experience I see the veggie and meat portions to be to little comparatively to the starches.

i've literally gotten 4 bites of meat, and half a plate of noodles/rice/potatoes, etc, with a tiny scoop of veggies.

 

[Ascendant]

i've literally gotten 4 bites of meat, and half a plate of noodles/rice/potatoes, etc, with a tiny scoop of veggies.

Need them carbs.

 

[Biggoals2bdone]

not debating that, but you need more then JUST carbs, if anything i'd say we as a society are over-dependant on carbs.
Especially when you take into consideration that out of the 3 macros they are the least satiating.

 

[Greymatters]

When I was in Cyprus they had a policy of rotating the different cooks through the platoon house's. When at Maple House the cook scheduled to join us was a reserve cook. They basic thought was we were getting shortchanged. But when I questioned those who thought that way if they knew his background, no one did other than he was a reserve cook. I knew he had just spent the better part of a year cooking in remote BC logging camps. To me that meant he was a good cook at worst as he was still alive. Some camps have chartered helicopters to remove poor cooks before they came to harm.
He turned out to be an excellent cook.
Overall the CF cooks do a very good job.

During my tour there, we didnt get cook assigned to us - one of our platoon members became the cook, or we took turns depending on whose cooking was any good.

 

[Greymatters]

As an athlete and someone who's trained others (athletically), and has been into the nutrition/health/fitness studie/sector, yes i agree food is fuel. 

BUT

just like fuel for our cars have QUALITY so to does food.  By your argument (the person saying FOOD is FOOD no matter what) a bag of chips is just the same as a chicken breast and potatoes, because both are food.

the caloric make-up of meals is also quite important, from personal experience I see the veggie and meat portions to be to little comparatively to the starches.

i've literally gotten 4 bites of meat, and half a plate of noodles/rice/potatoes, etc, with a tiny scoop of veggies.

Many soldiers, especially those in the combat arms who require high levels of fitness, would agree with you that food composition, balance, and nutrition is highly important.  Even the dullest soldier/airman/sailor knows he has to eat his veggies to stay healthy.

However, this cant always be guarenteed - my comments (and others) are just a heads up that there will be times when you have to make do with what you have and you'll have to wait to get back to your home environment before you can choose and maintain your own menu preferences.

 

[Kiltman]

based around this particular topic i have a question, due to some serious High Altitude Sickness suffered years ago I am now 'very' allergic to onions and garlic.. ( puts me down for anywhere from a 2-4 days..). Since I'm going to be doing , (hopefully), ROTP, at a civ. University it's not important now but it will be something that could become serious, as in hospital serious, if I have to ingest foods from the onion family..

 

[armychick2009]

Well Kiltman, half of the food here contains Onions. We have this debate at least a few times a week about the necessity of putting (what seems like) an entire onion on the pizza... or at least half of the food that is prepped.

You won't starve to death though, there'll be a ton of other food you can eat, you'll just be limited.

Since returning after Christmas, I've mostly stuck to the salad bar and I'm still alive and kicking, getting enough (proper) food from there. The good thing is, there's usually a lot of choice so you should be alright...

 

[Hambo]

If you don't mind me asking, how does altitude sickness lead you to develop a severe allergy to certain foods?

 

[Kiltman]

I asked the same question of the Doctors after I spent a year trying to figure out why I was sick all the time.

First off I was trapped in the back country for 5 days with this.. I was sick,  a day from dead sick so i was told.. even though I was able to stumble to the hospital in Colorado my pulse O2 was below 75%, i was firmly set in what doctors call the ' rule of 100's.. where everything that was suppose to be above or below 100 was not, so heart rate was in the 150's and blood pressure was below 100. Add to that the symptoms of migraines like I had a tank dropped on my head, zero energy and this is the key point; constant, non stop vomiting..  What's happened in my stomach acids have scarred my the upper and lower sphincters in my stomach and the bacterium in my intestinal trac was utterly destroyed, good/bad and neutral bugs all most all gone.. somehow in the process of rebuilding my stomach bugs and the scarring of the stomach  anything with sulphenic acids in it now send my stomach, intestinal track and other parts of me, depending on the amount and what i happen to have with it.. into severe spasms, cramping and contractions.. think of food poisoning and the stomach flu mixed in with it..

 

[Blackadder1916]

based around this particular topic i have a question, due to some serious High Altitude Sickness suffered years ago I am now 'very' allergic to onions and garlic.. ( puts me down for anywhere from a 2-4 days..). Since I'm going to be doing , (hopefully), ROTP, at a civ. University it's not important now but it will be something that could become serious, as in hospital serious, if I have to ingest foods from the onion family..

Then the question that should be asked is not "can I avoid foods containing onions and garlic" but should be "am I medically fit to enrol".  A simple search of the term "food allergy" will provide several threads discussing the topic, but the most applicable is probably Allergies in the CF.  I suggest you read the several pages of that thread before asking the question on these means if your "allergy" will be a showstopper.  Even then the most knowledge response you would receive is that only the medical personnel at the recruiting centre can provide that answer and only after they have completed your enrolment medical.

 

[Armymedic]

People with severe food allergies who wish to enroll in the CF tend not to do well on the enrollment medical.

Just sayin'.

 

[Scott]

Nah, they'll make an exception for him. :

 

[acooper]

A severe allergy is NOT an end-all for someone joining the CF. My husband has a severe shellfish allergy AND asthma (albeit with about 80% lung function), and he had no problems with the enrollment physical for PRes or RegF. The ONLY people who can give the answers are those reviewing your application. Not us on the board.

 

[Pusser]

It often depends on what the allergy is.  It's not too difficult to go through life in the CF avoiding shellfish.  Avoiding other things could be more difficult.

 

[acooper]

Agreed, Pusser. I know it's not the same allergy as mentioned previously, but I wanted to mention it as an example of why there aren't any blanket recruiting answers on this board....

 

[Armymedic]

I agree, see my latest post above.

 

[Josh_Robertson]

Been reading through some of this post, does anyone have experience bringing supplements with them? It's not that I cant go on a mission or something without them but if I'm in the gym training and working out I'm always making shakes to help maximize gains... I feel like this may be epically important if I'm not in control of what meals I'm eating.

Cheers.
- Josh

 

[MJP]

Been reading through some of this post, does anyone have experience bringing supplements with them? It's not that I cant go on a mission or something without them but if I'm in the gym training and working out I'm always making shakes to help maximize gains... I feel like this may be epically important if I'm not in control of what meals I'm eating.

Cheers.
- Josh

On BMQ or other entry level courses, no.  There simply isn't room nor time to go to the gym anyway.  After your initial training depending on where you are, yes.  These are broad guidelines so take it with a grain of salt and a wait and see attitude.

 

[Oompah-Loompah@]

Been reading through some of this post, does anyone have experience bringing supplements with them? It's not that I cant go on a mission or something without them but if I'm in the gym training and working out I'm always making shakes to help maximize gains... I feel like this may be epically important if I'm not in control of what meals I'm eating.

Cheers.
- Josh

I'm still on my BMQ, so far, if you are using the powder, you will not have the time to make it. Bottled is another matter.

The food at Connaught Ranges is absolutely delicious. Couple of my course mates said one of the things they look forward to is the mess hall.

I agreed after getting pulled pork and chicken kiev last weekend. ;D

Too bad they only serve clam chowder on Fridays.