How to Eat for Special Operations Training, Schools, Deployments, & Missions

eating for Special Operations is all about having enough energy to accomplish your mission let's talk about how and what you should eat while you're preparing for Special Operations training during schools and field training exercises in during deployments or while on a mission when it comes to food I've made so many mistakes during my special-operations career I used to live off of protein shakes I was addicted to Mexican food I had sweet tea every day and a starbucks Frappuccino every night because I was always overloaded with sugar and caffeine the first two weeks of any deployment or any field training exercise I would literally suffer I would have a five to ten day headache as I detoxified myself I'm thankful I never got diabetes let me address a few different scenarios and make some educated and experienced recommendations so you don't repeat my mistakes when preparing for Special Operations training it's important that you get as strong and as healthy as possible whether you are preparing for buds or selection or in dock you need to arrive healthy and strong you need to eat a lot of real food and you need to eat a lot of healthy food if you're gonna drink a lot of protein shakes then at least drink a high-quality shake try out bear performance nutrition the company is owned by Nick bear a fellow youtuber and former US Army Ranger there's nothing wrong with protein shakes but the fact is that nothing can replace eating real and healthy food most of the time when you're preparing for soft training you're going to try to get as strong as you can this will involve eating more protein a great example of this is SF selection if you are going to a school where they require you to be fast then you might want to get lean this will involve cutting out junk food sugars alcohol a great example of this is AB sock in doc or army scuba school if you are going to an endurance school then show up fat this would be sere school or Ranger school during these types of schools you are going to lose weight so don't worry about showing up with six-pack abs every extra pound that you have when you arrive will be gone by the time you graduate once you're in training your number one focus becomes graduating that means you need to maintain your strength and your energy levels you're in survival mode you need to eat like your life depends on it now is not the time to diet now is not the time to have a salad without salad dressing now is the time for you to eat every single calorie you can to keep your brain and your body at full energy level let me give you three examples I remember being a total amateur at the beginning of my Special Forces selection course the first time we were allowed to eat at the dining facility I went over and I made myself a turkey salad my new friend David looked over at me and he said hey dude are you an idiot you're burning thousands of calories a day right now and you need all of the energy you can stop eating that stupid salad right now and go get some pasta and meat my friend David was totally right ever since then I took every opportunity when in school to get as many calories as possible a year later I was in Ranger School sometimes at Ranger School they yell at you and they rush you and they only give you three minutes to eat but most of the time at Ranger School they scream at you and they rush you and they only give you 45 seconds to eat it's pretty stupid I remember throwing pieces of red on my tray wiping a single slice of butter on each piece of bread then dumping a couple packets of sugar over both of them I then stuffed the entire sandwich in my mouth to eat in one bite if I was gonna get kicked out of the dynein facility as soon as I got there then at least I was gonna get four or five hundred calories in my first bite nine months later I'm in scuba school this was one of the best schools I ever went to while you're at scuba school you burn a lot of calories you have morning PT your morning pool workout your afternoon open water training your nighttime open water training that's four to eight hours of PT every day thankfully the dining facility was a dream they let you eat as much as you wanted and allowed you to take food back to your barracks room for a midnight snack I must have eaten 6 to 7,000 calories a day and I still left way than when I arrived let's move on to field training exercises depending on the intensity of your field training exercise or FTX you are going to need to plan your food accordingly if you're patrolling then food becomes part of the cost/benefit weight calculations because you are carrying everything you need you might prioritize extra ammunition or batteries over extra food many times I went to the field with only the main meals from my MREs I figured that I could tough it out for two or three days just to make my ruck lighter I did end up toughing it out it was not actually a big deal what really hurt me during these training events was my addiction to sugar and caffeine so let's talk about bad decisions those of you who know me know that I love food as I said earlier Mexican food is my favorite but anything with coffee or chocolate or ice cream also makes me happy although I was always a Chow hound after Ranger school I swore that I would never be without dessert that was probably when I began to mix my chocolate addiction with my caffeine addiction voila my Grande Starbucks mocha frappuccino with whipped cream five nights a week so every time I went to a school or to the field I would have a raging headache for several days as I detoxified from my lack of sugar and caffeine my recommendation is simple before you go to a school or to training or do a field training exercise take a week or two to wean yourself off of all of your bad habits all silliness aside most schools don't allow you to smoke or dip or drink so if you need a daily or hourly dose of nicotine or alcohol to make your life more enjoyable you better get unadapted before you report in for training some phases of some schools do let you dip but even that changes depending on your cadre or your first sergeant simply put Iraq or Ranger school is not the time to stop your smoking habit cold turkey do yourself a favor by weaning yourself off of any bad habits you have before you even start it's healthier in the long run and it's one less thing to prevent you from giving your best and finally let's talk about how to eat while you're on a deployment or a mission there are good deployments and they're bad deployments easy deployments and hard deployments so plan ahead and plan accordingly for example to Special Forces teams are sent to Colombia one team lives in Bogota they wear suits and ties every day they work out at an expensive gym in town they live in a luxury apartment and they eat like kings bun day huh paisa everyday the other team lives in the hot jungle where they sweat through their uniforms everyday they don't go to the gym because they're already exhausted after training at the range or in the jungle they sleep in open bay barracks under a mosquito net and they eat in the mess hall with all of the Colombian soldiers their training when you are deployed to a warzone you might be stationed at a big base where you can eat all you want if you get stationed at a place like this then chow down and have fun but don't get fat the other side of the spectrum is if you're stationed at a fire base somewhere in the hinterlands where every day is a matter of survival if you're at these kind of locations you don't really have a lot of options for food so make the most of what you got but ensure that you are carbo loading before you head outside the wire on a big mission you never know when you're gonna have to fight it out or be switched on for hours and it's way better to do so when you have a high energy level I remember spending a couple of months at IAF headquarters back in the mid 2000s I was the siege of soda flee A's on to the ice half headquarters I wasn't really happy there but to be honest it was a pretty good gig I had two offices two computers two bedrooms and two armored land cruisers jam-packed with goodies the gym was okay but the food at the NATO compound was a dream one day a fellow officer asked me to add into his convoy to go to the airport to help pick up someone from his chain of command that was visiting him after finishing his check the block convoy safety brief I continued chowing down as we walk to the parking lot my buddy said hey man just eat when you get back I said absolutely not when your vehicle gets ie deed and we're ambushed and I have to fight it out house by house to make it back to safety I want to make sure that I have enough energy to do so he looked at me like I was crazy but I didn't care no disrespect but he was a military intelligence National Guardsman from the Midwest I finished my sandwich as we walked to the parking lot and I downed a 500 calorie canned protein shake as we did Comeau checks and then we drove to the airport think of a mission gone bad as a marathon not as a soccer mom just trying to finish the marathon but as an elite athlete giving it his 100% effort for three hours straight you must be properly energized to run your best okay so there you have it considerations for how and what to eat when preparing for Special Operations training field training exercises and deployments and missions eating for Special Operations is all about making sure that you have the necessary energy to accomplish your mission thanks for watching don't forget to subscribe if you want to learn more and are forward to a friend who needs to see this life is a special operation are you ready for it

Channel: Life is a Special Operation

Views: 664,669

Rating: 4.9437151 out of 5

Keywords: Eat, food, supplements, protein, Safety, Security, Prepare, Bug out, SERE, Survival, resistance, evasion, escape, What’s harder, school, scuba, combat, diver, qualification, HALO, Special, operations, fitness, green, beret, navy, seal, delta, force, forces, boot, camp, physical, training, pt, program, exercise, army, air, national, guard, reserves, marines, raider, recon, coast, elite, performance, skills, military, ranger, enlisted, soc, AFSOC, tactics, TACP, Tactical, JTAC, rescue, enlist, join, officer, planning

Id: 6cBIBJNoetI

Length: 10min 44sec (644 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 02 2019