Army Made Me Fat

I’ve just had my breakfast: a slice of bread with an application of Heinz Sandwich Spread. After I had finished that slice of bread, I put away the loaf of bread, and placed the butter knife into the sink.

Suddenly it dawned on me that compared to the time I was in the army, I am eating considerably less.

Back in the days of camouflaged attire, four pieces of bread were standard fare. For two years I’d eaten that, and as my stomach adjusted to that amount, anything fewer than four would never do.

Never mind the odd comment about the amount (“wow, four pieces?”), I just thought, “yeah, four pieces: a single serving.” Let’s just say I was young, and nutrition wasn’t my strong suit.

Just imagine how the army, with its emphasis on fitness and all that, would have impacted me. I never expected them to overfeed me, and actually believed that whatever was served was “the right amount”.

But in the army they serve you more than you need, and this is especially true during days of little or no physical training.

They serve you enough food for you to walk 20 kilometres with 20 kilograms worth of load on your back — everyday — whether or not you were going to walk 20 kilometres with 20 kilograms worth of load on your back or if you were going for a 20 minute walk with 20 grams worth of stationery that day.

During my days off, and the weekends, I would continue eating like I did when I was still in camp.

No wonder I wasn’t losing any weight despite running my ass off every week!

Exercise TOGETHER with proper nutrition are essential to weight- and fat-loss, just like how essential youtube is to a teenager (my 14-year-old brother can vouch for that).

And that’s how the army made me fat, and kept me that way: though they did occasionally give several useful training tips, education on nutrition was sorely lacking, and the things I thought I did learn (like four slices of bread equals one serving) were, well, wrong.