I probably made the best gains of my life while in Basic. Running used to feel like it was going to kill me, but I got past that in boot camp.
I do not believe that anyone really talked about heart rate outside of Combat Life Saver, and that was just whether you had one or not.
However, the more that I ran, the more improvement that I saw, which has not seemed to be the case since I came home.
Diet while Active Duty? MREs?
Actually, I might eat more healthy now. I was hungry throughout Basic, but I needed to lose weight, and I put on some good muscle. At Advanced Individual Training, I still could not get enough food, but there was a large supply of desserts, so I quickly gained weight. In Germany, I would get omelets with ham, cheese, green peppers, and mushrooms every single morning. I know that some people say that it is actually more healthy to eat whole eggs, but I always asked for egg whites when they were available. People say they eat bacon and sausage for the protein, but they have so much fat that I do not eat them.
Then I ate French toast, if available, without syrup, but with fruit, if they had it. Then I would have a couple of glasses of milk or juice.
Lunch and dinner were more frustrating, though. There were days where everything was fried and everybody was excited about it but me. Our vegetarian Soldier at Church complained about the cooks putting bacon in our green beans. I did not like it, either, or fried vegetables, it just seemed counterintuitive. I often asked for two servings of vegetables and sometimes they acted like I was attempting treason.
Everything was different while I was deployed. At Kandahar Air Field, before I left, chow was bad for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I hated eating. What should have been a highlight of my day was just something else that was depressing. Then they sent me to F.O.B. Lagman and food was good, when I was there for it. Also, they usually served me whatever I wanted, so if I wanted two meat or three vegetables, they complied, although they still catered to the masses, so sometimes I did not feel that I had healthy options.
No, I do not have much variety in my diet.