Monday Night Food and Fitness

Food

Saturday I went to the Basic Adult Leader Outdoor Orientation (BALOO) training for cub scout leaders. Overall, it was a really good experience, and I learned a lot of great information about leading cub scouts on camp-outs and hikes. One of the things we did at BALOO was learn a few simple things that we can cook at camp using foil pouches.

In the first foil pouch, we put a frozen hamburger patty in the bottom, then some potatoes, onions, and frozen mixed vegetables. For the potatoes and onions, we used a french-fry cutter like at In-n-Out (southern California burger joint that makes french fries fresh from potatoes). Then we could either squirt in some Italian dressing or some cream of mushroom soup. [Aside: Thank goodness I checked the ingredients before hand. The cream of mushroom soup had MSG in it and would have made for a miserable day.] The trainer said it was important to use a frozen hamburger patty because as it melted the melted ice would make steam to help cook the food. If it wasn't frozen, he said to just put an ice cube inside the pouch and it would have the same effect. I was really pleased with how well it turned out. I would have liked to put some salt and/or Chipotle Tobasco on it, but it was decent on it's own.

I learned a new technique for making the foil pouches. If you do it so the seam is on the sides and it's symmetrical, then you can flip it from one side to the other to cook it on both sides without putting a seam facing down to leak. After about 20 to 25 minutes when the foil pouch poofs up like a pillow, that tells you it's done cooking. It's important NOT to use any sort of tongs on the foil pouch that could rip the foil. They taught us to use some leather gloves for picking up the pouches off the grill and flipping them over without tearing them.

The second foil pouch was for pigs in blankets. This was something simple enough the kids could get involved in doing it. You just wrap a hot dog in a Pillsbury crescent roll dough and put it in the foil pouch. He recommended spraying the inside of the foil pouch with the non-stick spray, and turning the pouch on the grill every 2 minutes (to keep it from burning on one side) for about 12 minutes.

The third thing we had that the trainer made of us was corn on the cob. He put some butter on frozen ears of corn, wrapped them in foil but didn't seal the ends. They turned out pretty good, too.

None of the things we ate on Saturday were gourmet by any means, but it was easy stuff to prepare at camp. The trainer commented that's why you want to be sure your boys continue on into Boy Scouts, because then the scouts cook their own food and the adults make their own. He said he likes having filet mignon with the other scout leaders while the boy scouts make whatever hot dogs or other stuff they scrape together.

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Fitness

I haven't been doing so hot on wait loss the past two weeks. I've basically maintained my weight, so at least I wasn't putting weight back on, right? One of my problems is I haven't been doing as much PT as I would like. Last Monday at Command PT, I hurt a muscle in the middle of the left side of my back. I'm not sure how I did it, but it came on suddenly as I started my run. I had only run like a block from the Bloch Arena gym when the pain started, and within half a block later, it got suddenly so bad that I couldn't run anymore. It hurt to breathe. I walked back to the gym to find our corpsman to have him take a look at it.

Doc used some highly scientific latin type of name to describe what it was, but I didn't understand it. Not surprisingly, he told me to take motrin, use cold packs on it, and recommended I not go to Command PT for the rest of the week. I needed to do something to burn some calories though, so I just went to the gym and rode the exercise bike on our Command PT days (Wednesday and Friday).

Today I really wanted to get back to running. Of course, it was raining out, and that means the gym was packed with people. Luckily, I got the last treadmill in the gym... but was it good luck or bad luck? The treadmill kept wigging out on me. I was trying to run a heart-rate program with my Polar HRM watch, but it kept suddenly and drastically raising the incline on me (even though my heart rate was above my target zone already) and then not responding when I pushed the buttons to lower it back to where I wanted it. The good news is, my back was a little sore, but it was okay.

It's too bad I missed our Command PT on Wednesday. Apparently our old trainer a.k.a. "PT Nazi" suddenly packed his bags and moved back to the mainland, and all of our single Sailors were rather pleased with the replacement trainer. I hear she's... uh... not bad to look at. I hope it'll boost our attendance at Command PT (yes, everybody's supposed to go to Command PT, but there are always excuses). COB said she "took it easy" on them since it was their first session with her, but she really kicked their butts. It'll be interesting to see how tough the workout is on Wednesday.