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Army Basic Training Food Diet

So if you’re going to basic training anytime soon and you’re wondering, what’s the food going to be like, or what’s the eating conditions going to be like, or anything to do with food in basic training, stick around because that’s what I’ll be talking about in this video. What’s up, my friends? Welcome to an all new video. In this one, we are specifically talking about food in basic training. It applies to AIT a little bit. It’s just not going to be quite as strict. So if you’re curious as to how does eating work when you’re basic training? What are the chow halls like, what is the food like? What can I eat? What can’t I eat? All that stuff. Well, then this is probably the video for you. Before we dive into it, if you are not already subscribed to this channel, make sure you subscribe to the channel and also enable that little bell so you get notified as soon as new videos go live to include the live streams and join the notification platoon. You’re awesome. Let’s get into this video right now. So of course, you’re going to get fed. You’re not going to have to pay for it.

It’s all included while you’re in basic training. You’re not going to have to go grocery shopping or anything. You’re going to be eating in the chow hall. So be aware of that. There’s going to also maybe sometimes where you eat MREs. Not quite as often sometimes in basic, there may be a few situations where you do so. But for the most part, usually you’re eating inside the Chow Hall. Now, as always, with a lot of these videos, there are things that can vary here and there. I don’t want to hear in the comments about, We never eat in the chow hall. That’s probably not going to be the case anyways. But if your basic training was a little bit different, then that’s fine. I get it. I’m trying to give individuals a little bit of an idea of what to expect, but be aware, changes can happen. Things can be different. Your drill sergeants could be really angry one day and you don’t even get to eat in the Chow hall for a whole week because they’re angry, or the Chow Hall is under repairs. I don’t know. Just keep this in mind. Just an idea of what to maybe expect in basic training.

You’re going to get probably breakfast, maybe lunch, sometimes lunch, depending on what you’re doing. Sometimes an MRE, that will just vary. Then you’ll probably get some dinner. Breakfast and dinner are going to be in the Chow Hall. Like I said, lunch can sometimes be on the field. Sometimes that can be an MRE. Sometimes you’re back at the area for the Chow Hall for lunch. That one varies a little bit here and there depending on what you’re doing at a basic journey or even Oze it really. But you have set times of when you’re going to Chow. You’re probably going to be by a company or by Platoon or whatever. You go down to the Chow Hall, you’re marching to the Chow Hall, you’re standing in line and you are not talking, so be aware of that. You can’t talk while you’re in line. Probably all you’re doing is standing at attention or parade rest and standing in line and looking straightforward and not moving around, not looking around. Nothing, not talking to anybody. Nothing. Sometimes you’ll have maybe a smart book. I think I talked about that in a previous video and I held one up that I got back over here.

But sometimes there are going to be situations where you’re just holding a smart book in front of you. You’re reading. When the line moves, you maybe close it a little bit, march forward and then stop and then open it back up and continue reading where you left off at. That varies. Sometimes you’re reading your smart book. Sometimes you’re just standing there at attention or prayed rest and just looking straightforward, no talking, nothing. Stand in line, wait your turn to go into the Chow Hall. There are also a lot of different places that will do something like pull ups or pushups before you even enter the Chow Hall or have you do some physical activity before you go into the Chow Hall. When I went through basic training, we had a pull up bar, so you had to do… You had to knock out a couple of pullups or as many pullups as you could. I don’t remember the exact number, but you had to knock out some pullups and then you’re allowed to go inside. There’s other individuals that I’ve talked to before. They said they had to knock out X amount of pushups or had to do something else before they were allowed to go inside the Chow Hall.

Once you get inside the Chow Hall, same deal. You’re standing at attention, prayed rest, reading a smart book, something, no talking, just looking forward and moving along and keeping everything pretty much robotic. Even when you get up to the line to get your food and you grab your tray, you’re probably like side shuffling with this tray off as you go down the line. Hey, see you. But again, no talking or anything like that. Now, as far as what food you can expect, well, for breakfast, it’s pretty much just your basic breakfast type of food. Eggs, maybe some hatched brown, maybe pandas or something like that. It’s pretty common, your normal stuff. Orange juice, all that thing. Breakfast is just pretty normal. For lunch, because you’re going to a basic training dining facility that’s still manned by those drill sergeants having to eat there and other individuals that work at that basic training Brigade, it still a regular chow hall. There are still going to be some things you would see at a normal Chow hall back of your unit once you’re out of training and everything like that. Things like a short order line and a main line.

For enough to know what those are, I’ve talked about those previously in a video, but basically short order is like fast food. It’s like pizza and burgers and hot dogs and all that stuff. Main line is your healthier food, spaghetti, pasta, whatever a thing that’s a little bit more healthier. Now, while you’re in basic training, it is most likely that you will not be allowed to use the short order line, which is all that fast food style type of food, and you’re restricted to only eating during the main line. There are times in basic training where maybe the drill starting to be like, Hey, if you passed your final PT test, you can go ahead and eat short order. That just varies here and there. But for the most part, expect to always just eat the main line food. But there’s nothing crazy with the food. Like I said, it’s going to be your normal healthier food. You have like pork chops or spaghetti or meatloaf or whatever. Something healthy ish along those lines. It’s not vegan, I guess, or anything like that. There’s probably some options for vegetarians and everything and maybe veg, I don’t know if veg are really something they cater to, but you have just basically healthy food, nothing like slop or junk or whatever.

It’s decent food, pretty good food. I wouldn’t say it’s the greatest food in the world, but it’s not the worst either. You’re going to go through, you’re going to get your food during lunchtime too. They usually have some soda machines and everything else like that. But again, similar to short order, they usually don’t want you drinking the soda, so you’re probably not going to be allowed to have soda. You probably have to stick to water or some juice or ade or Gatorade. Usually they have maybe they have like powerade or something like that in the dispensers and sometimes you’ll be allowed to have that. But don’t go trying to get any of the soda unless the drill starts for whatever reason, say that yeah, sure, you’re allowed to have soda. Usually you’re not allowed to have any of that stuff. It’s pretty much just like water, tea or some of those items. There is usually also a dessert area and just be aware that’s probably also going to be off limits. Sometimes they’ll allow that if you’ve already taken your final PT test or it’s towards the end of basic training. But for the most part, you got to stay away from the cake and the cookies and all that stuff.

Now, dinner is basically the same. You still have the short order, you still have the main line, you’re going to be stuck in the main line. Same thing with the drinks, the desserts, and all that stuff. But now let’s talk about when you’re actually sitting down and eating the food. You’re going to go, you’re going to sit down. You’re not going to be standing around looking for your buddies to see where they’re at. They’re probably just going to tell you to go to the nearest table that’s open and just sit down because you don’t have long to eat. You have to sit down, just look at your food, don’t look around, don’t look at the people with you, don’t say anything to people with you, and you just concentrate on eating. And that’s all you’re going to do. Because like I said, you don’t have much time. They’re going to want you to hurry up and get through the process, eat the food, get the hell out, get back outside so they can continue training. Now, when you’re done eating, they usually have somewhere to maybe throw your food away. There’s some locations that basically have you leave your tray there.

And then whoever the last person is at that table, maybe it’s like a table of four people, has to gather up all of the food and be able to consolidate and throw it away or whatever. That part sucks when you have that situation. I remember that it was like that when I was in reception for basic training, and you’d be sitting there eating, and you’d be like, you and one other person left, and you’re like, I’m done. Even though you weren’t done, and then that person’d be responsible for picking up all the trays, mainly because you’re really nervous about like, What if I drop this? What happens? Is the drill sergeant is going to yell at me if I drop all this food? I’m trying to carry all this stuff on this one tray, whatever, or you just don’t want to have to carry somebody else’s food and throw it away. I only really saw that in reception. There’s a lot of other basic trainings that may be like that. For the most part, usually it’s carrying your own food to trash it or throw it into a bin or something like that, or put it through a little window that goes in a conveyor belt and it goes into a room where they have some dishwashers in there that are usually civilians that are in there cleaning everything.

You’re just eating. It shouldn’t take you more than five minutes, 10 minutes, something along those lines, usually, maybe less. You get up, get the hell out, get back outside, pray back in formation. Then once everybody’s out of the shower hall, it’s back to training. Now, maybe you want to know about other times. You want to snack on some food or you want to have some little after dinner snack or some brunch. I don’t know, whatever the possibility might be, but just be aware that’s me very limited. You’re not going to be able to have snacks. You’re going to have beef jerky in your bag while you’re out on training and snacking on some stuff. You might see these things called gut trucks, and that’s basically just these vans or whatever food catered trucks that usually come up in different training areas and you can purchase food. For the most part, usually as a trainee, you can’t buy anything from there. Maybe sometimes a little bit later in the process, they might allow you to do so. But usually starting off, you definitely can’t usually have any of that stuff. More likely the drill started to utilize in those things or other staff members are utilizing those food trucks and the trainees can’t even touch that stuff.

The only snack you might get is sometimes during the evening time, you might have to come back downstairs to do some other things. Sometimes after dinner chow or maybe it’s at a certain point in time later where they may have you have some fruit. Maybe they got a box of apples and oranges and they just want you to get that vitamin C. They have everybody come up and grab an orange or an apple or something like that. Sometimes their protein bars, they have the army issued protein bars, or maybe they’re just power bars or something along those lines. Sometimes they allow you have those during certain situations, but that really varies on the leadership and the location of certain places. I see it’s pretty common nowadays for a lot of basic trainings to have that thing just to give soldiers that extra energy because you’re burning so much energy doing the workouts, doing the training, everything else like that. You want to make sure everybody’s healthy. But don’t go trying to sneak food out of the Chow hall to hide in your wall locker or under your bed or something along those lines. If you get caught, it sucks.

Most likely you’re not the only one that’s going to pay for that. Probably everybody else is going to have to pay for that as well. Keep that in mind. Don’t think that, Hey, screw it. If I get caught with this food, I’m going to get in trouble. No, you’re probably going to get in trouble, but so is the rest of your platoon, probably. Then everybody hates you and it sucks. Keep that in mind. That is what it’s like for food wise, at least in basic training. Just be aware that it does get a lot better sometimes even in AIT and even when you get beyond and do training. Usually in AIT, maybe the first little bit, it might still be fairly strict, but then as you get a little bit further in, you’re actually allowed to talk to people at your table. You’re allowed to at least take a little bit of time to eat and all those sorts of other little things, restrictions that go away and are a lot more relaxed in AIT. And then when you get to your actual permanent duty station, it’s pretty much free. You can get whatever the hell you want to eat.

It’s your food, whatever you want to do, and you’re allowed to sit wherever you want to sit and talk to whoever you want to talk to. You can also choose not even to go to the chat hall. You can go off base and go to McDonald’s, Burger King, whatever you want to do, really. But during basic training, it’s very strict and you’re set on what you have to eat. And that’s mainly to make sure you’re staying healthy and you can keep up with the training and you’re not eating burgers and fries and everything. Now you can’t keep up with the training because you’ve gotten all fat or you’re just out of shape and you don’t have the energy that you need to be able to get through the training. For my viewers out there that are currently in the army, maybe some veterans out there, let me hear down in the comments section. What favorite foods did you like while maybe in basic training? It could be the Chow Hall or it could be some other experience with eating or some food or something in basic training. For me, I remember it was really awesome when we got near the end of basic training and then they had those food trucks and they allowed us to actually utilize them.

I got a submarine sandwich from that thing and it was just amazing. I was like, Oh, man, this is the greatest food ever. I think I was even able to actually get a Pepsi or a soda from there. And it was just so great to be able to have that caffeine product and to be able to have something other than the meatloaf or spaghetti or whatever you had in the chow hall normally. All right, if you enjoyed that video, make sure you show some love by hitting that thumbs up. Check out these videos over here. They’re really awesome, especially that one right there. Check out links down in the description to social media and much more. I’m Christopher chaos. Thank you so much for watching. I’ll see you next time. See you.

George N.
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