Cleaner Sugar Substitutes

Sweeteners

Wondering what is out there when it comes to sweeteners? I grew up wanting to add the sweet stuff to my cereal, then my tea, and for awhile I was adding it to my coffee. Now, monitor the sugar  intake of my son, who is a type 1 diabetic. We have definitely learned a bit about sugar in the past 1-1/2 years!

I include a little information about the glycemic index of a few of these substitutes. Glycemic index is the ability and rate of a particular food to raise blood sugars. A food higher on the glycemic index will raise blood sugars faster than a food that is lower on the glycemic index. So, on your journey to becoming a more health conscious individual, here are some sugar alternatives that you may have not known about already, and some that you know about.

As with just about everything we eat, there has been research that shows pros and cons of foods. Oftentimes, the results from one study can contradict the results from another. If you hear the same results often, you may be more likely to believe it. Also, listen to your body, and the affects that food can have on it, as well. For the longest time, the artificial sweetener sucralose, which also goes under the name of Splenda, was causing me horrible migraines. The following are just a few options to consider as replacements for white sugar.

1) Agave-most agave comes from the blue agave plant. This sweetener is sweeter than sugar, so you will want to use less than you would of sugar. It is also lower on the glycemic index.

2) Rice amasake-made from fermented brown or white rice (or mix of both). This sweetener looks like yogurt, and adds some texture, but not as much sweetness as sugar. You will have to experiment to see how much you want to use (a few recipes I've seen call for 1-2 cups, but maybe start with less).

3) Brown rice syrup-has a higher glycemic index than sugar, so you will probably use less than sugar.

4) Barley malt-not as sweet as sugar, but it causes lower spikes in blood sugar, and can also be beneficial for the texture of baked goods.

5) Date sugar-made from finely chopped dates, so adds fiber, but is more expensive than sugar. Date sugar doesn't melt like regular sugar, but can replace equal parts brown and white sugar. It may appear as small black flecks in baked goods.

6) Fruit juice concentrate-made from fruit juice that has been cooked down. You can find this in the frozen section.

7) Evaporated palm sugar-made from coconut palm blossom juice. Substitute equal parts of white sugar, and enjoy because it looks, tastes, and melts like white sugar. It's also low glycemic index.

8) Evaporated sugarcane juice-may be very similar in nutritional content as white sugar, so use caution. This can be used in equal parts.

9) Stevia-a sweet herb from South America, and is several hundred times sweeter than white sugar, but with zero calories. It can be found as a powder or liquid extract. 1 tsp. replaces 1 cup of sugar.

10) Xylitol-comes from a birch tree, and is almost as sweet as sugar, but fewer calories. It also is lower glycemic index. It's been shown to promote healthier teeth and prevents cavities (you can find it in gum), but in larger doses, it can cause GI issues.

11) Yacon syrup or powder-made from yacon roots, which are South American vegetables, tastes similar to molasses, and doesn't elevate blood sugar levels.

Clean Eating & Saving Money

http://authenticsimplicity.net/yourgrocerybudgettoolbox/

Tips to Smart Shopping

Since I know that we probably all like saving money, I'd like to talk a little about doing that!

Here are 5 Tips to Smart Shopping:

1) Plan menus and shopping lists.

This helps you to cut out some of the ingredients that you think that you need, but come to find out you don't, or maybe not in the amount that you thought.

Decide which recipes you are going to use, and plan out how much of each ingredient you are going to need. That's it! If you want to keep track of the items in your kitchen, you might like the Out of Milk app for your smart phone. It's a free app, and it's also really easy to use. You can even scan the bar codes of specific items you'd like to add to your list.

When planning your menus and shopping lists, consider buying foods that you know you will use up (especially if you buy those items in bulk), then prioritize those foods into your meal planning. When we shop at Costco, we usually buy primarily non-perishable, longer-lasting items, or items I know we will get through before they go bad.

2) Clip coupons & Use rewards card programs

This can save you a little money, unfortunately though, not all of us have time to clip coupons! But, if you get coupons in the mail, get coupons from the newspaper, or where ever, it only takes a few minutes to browse through those coupons for some healthy brands that you can save some money on. Oftentimes, coupons are for unhealthy foods, while the healthy items are for brands that are often the more expensive foods than other items in the natural foods section, or organic section at the grocery store. What it comes down to, though with coupons, is that you can look around at prices of items that you buy often (even comparing prices and brands between stores), or foods that you want to try, & match coupons that way!

With the rewards card, you can sometimes download coupons from the store's website to use when you swipe your rewards card at the store. You can also gain points that may get you discounts on things like gas at that store's pump station (which is usually located near the store). I've also recently found out that you can sometimes use the store's rewards points at other stores, too (including some other gas stations)! You can ask your store, or browse around online to find out how you can use rewards.

3) Compare brands/stores & Price Per Unit, & Shop during Sales

As I mentioned in tip 2, to save money you may have to compare the cost of different brands of the same product. You can look at the Price Per Unit, which is usually located on the shelf tag. Sometimes the store brand can actually be more expensive (& full of more preservatives or more sodium) than a name brand, while other times I've found the opposite to be true! I usually whip out my phone & use the calculator to determine which item is a better value, especially if the products are in different quantities. Here are some calculations I use: 16 oz. = 1 lb.; 8 oz. = a cup.

While, to "save on your health," you can compare between brands for things like the sodium content, and general overall goodness of the ingredients (often the shorter the ingredients' list; the better, as well as the list with the easiest names to pronounce). The quality of products and taste differences vary so much between brands too, so you may have to experiment.

To compare between stores, the quality of, and deals, as well as sales, offered on products can be considered. Some stores, like Albertson's, for example, offer buy-one-get-one free deals on their meat, while both Albertson's and Fred Meyer have, from reviews that I've seen (and from my own experiences), good quality meat. The rewards program comes into play here, as well.

4) Buy in Season & Local

Another way that you can save money, is to buy produce that are in season, as well as locally produced food. If the food is produced closer to the store's location it may cost less to get it there (this goes for foods that are in season, as well, since it may not have to be shipped from overseas, where it is in season). This can also benefit the town you live in by buying local, or in season during Farmer's Market season, for example.

5) Don't shop while hungry!

I've sometimes found myself shopping while hungry, which causes the costs of that shopping trip to go up a bit! My stomach's hunger drowns out my brain's sensibilities, and I end up wanting to eat just about anything and everything. I can usually combat this by storing some longer-lasting snacks in the car (since our son's a diabetic, it's a good idea to have snacks for that too!), & then I can just eat a light snack which will get me through the shopping trip. By not being hungry during your shopping trip, you can save on calories, too, not only on the caloric content of the foods you select to buy, but on calories while shopping (especially if you are shopping at Costco when the samples are out)!

How to eat healthy, for less at Costco:
http://www.wholeisticallyfit.com/2012/09/26/wiaw-costco-edition/

44 Healthy foods for under $1:
http://greatist.com/health/44-healthy-foods-under-1

Some low-cost meal ideas:
http://eatathomecooks.com/2012/09/more-low-cost-meals-battling-rising-grocery-costs.html

Food Relationship

http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/originals/
cf/d8/3b/cfd83be44af778dc203dd92dfc212588.jpg

Food, What Kind of Relationship Do You Have w/ It?

If you’re like me, occasionally you struggle with a slight (or maybe not so slight) obsession with food. Today, as we’re beginning, or continuing this journey to gaining a healthier relationship with food, think about what foods you struggle with the most.

I want you to write down your goals that you want to achieve during this month, and beyond, then tell a friend or comment.

Then, ask yourself if the food you struggle with satisfies your appetite or stimulates it. If the food is to relieve stress or reward yourself, I love this saying I saw recently: You’re not a dog, so don’t reward yourself like one!

Find other ways that you can relieve stress or reward yourself. Write those down on a sticky note, and put them where you’ll be able to see them when you’re stressed, or put them where your reward stash is (& will hopefully not be any longer). What you wrote down should be strong enough rewards that you can break that bad habit of using food in an unhealthy way.

From: https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/
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Day 2 of Clean Eating Challenge

8 Reasons to Detox 

Today, I want to talk a little about detoxing your body. Previously, you may not have thought much about what you were eating. After all, a lot of what is available in the store or at fast food restaurants is generally toxic to your body. All the more reason to do a detox cleanse. You can find detox drink recipes available online, and below I've included a simple cranberry detox drink. There is a lot of variety available depending on how in depth you want to cleanse. Some detoxes last for weeks, for example Beachbody's Ultimate Reset, while others only last a few days.

The need for detoxing shows why, more and more lately, especially in other countries, a lot of products are being banned. There are, however, toxins that naturally occur in organic produce, as well. Below are a few of the unnatural things to avoid in the food that you buy and eat, and reasons you may consider detoxing for.

1. Artificial food dye: which are found in so many things! Even if you don't think it'd be in something (like ready-to-make biscuits), I'd rather be safe then sorry! It can inhibit nerve-cell development.

2. Brominated vegetable oil: Makes food dye stick to liquid, but also may cause birth defects and major organ damage. You find this in sports drinks and soda pop.

3. Potassium bromate (or bromated flour): Affects your kidneys and nervous system. Found in commercial breads and baked goods.

4. Azodicarbonamide: Bleaches flour, plastic, and can be found in breads, frozen dinners, boxed pasta mixes, and packaged baked goods. It can cause an asthma attack.

5. BHA & BHT: Waxy preservatives linked to cancer and tumors. Found in cereal, nut mixes, gum, butter, meat, dehydrated potatoes.

6. Synthetic growth hormones rBGH and rBST: Harmful to cows and linked to increasing tumor development in humans. You can find it in dairy products.

7. Arsenic: which can be laced in chicken!

8. Farm-raised salmon: they're full of antibiotics!

I know cleaning up my own, and my family's, diet has done wonders for how we feel! It takes time to completely feel better, but you will begin to notice almost right away when you start cleaning up your diet! It's as though your body is sending you a 'thank you'!

Here is a cranberry detox water that you can get started with. There is another way to detox with cranberry juice, which involves apple pectin, and psyllium fiber, as well as dandelion leaf (you can look this one up on the web). Cranberry juice on it's own is great for it's antioxidants and anti-cancer properties.

Cranberry H2O

Drink between each meal.
Mix 8 oz. unsweetened cranberry juice, or 3 Tbsp. concentrate, with 56 oz. plain water (or 64 oz. if using cranberry concentrate).

https://www.facebook.com/Sarahsdrive

Clean Eating for Life

Clean Eating is Not a Fad Diet, It's a Lifestyle Change

How do you see clean eating? Do you see it as just another fad diet; something to do for 30 days to try to lose 100 pounds, get discouraged, then move on (disappointed) in your attempts to find that magic weight loss bullet? Or, maybe you see clean eating as the be-all-end-all feel good diet? You think eating everything green, "green," expensive, and organic will have you putting your hair in dreadlocks, changing your name to Rainbows N Butterflies, wearing rose-colored glasses, and saving the earth (and your own health). Well, take the rose-colored glasses off, or keep them on, if you need them to see; clean eating isn't all about eating everything, green, "green," expensive, or organic! It can actually be pretty inexpensive, when you think of all the junk food and eating out that you'll come to realize was actually more expensive (both for your health and your pocketbook)!

Clean eating is not a fad diet that has rules to make you feel deprived or starved by the end of the day; clean eating is a lifestyle change. You can take a pill, use a wrap, have a surgery, but do those results last? Do you have to work hard to get those results? If the answer is 'no,' then what's to keep you from taking those results for granted? What keeps you from getting comfortable with those results, and not feeling like you have to work to maintain them? The truth is, is that often the things that you work hardest for are the things you'll work hardest to keep. However, once you've developed those habits to get you to your results, you may still become comfortable, but another truth is, is that habits are often done with little thought. So, with little effort, you're liable to keep practicing those healthy habits that got you your results in the first place! It will just take time to develop those habits, to begin with!

Just remember, there's not one thing that, by itself, will give you healthy weight loss (or maintained weight), a fit body, and overall good health. Unless, of course, that one thing is a healthy lifestyle. Clean eating, in my opinion, is part of a healthy lifestyle. The food that you eat can really make a difference in so many factors of your life! I don't put much emphasis on calories, as I do on the types of food that I eat. Over time, I've been able to train myself to make healthier choices in life, and in the foods that I choose to buy, and it may take time for you, as well; if you are willing and ready to begin cutting out the junk that you may have been knowingly, or unknowingly, feeding yourself. You may have known what certain foods were doing to you, but for many reasons you have continued to consume them.

Are you wondering where to begin your journey to developing those healthy habits of clean eating? That is one of the reasons I've decided to blog a little each day, for the next 30 days, about clean eating. Today, a great way to begin, would be to prepare for the coming week! You can start planning out healthy meals for the week and preparing your snacks, to help you stay on track. To begin prepping, grab your trash can, trash bag, or bucket, & start chucking, throwing, dumping, and getting rid of the junk. If you think it's junk food, it probably is! Foods with artificial flavoring, high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), food dye, nitrates/nitrites, BHT, and loads of sugar! Get rid of the white bread, and T.V. dinners, both of which are loaded with a lot of sodium and other preservatives.

Here are a few items for your shopping list to help get you started to eating clean for the rest of the weekend and for the coming week:

For meat: fish such as tilapia, halibut, or salmon, and other meat like boneless, skinless chicken breasts, ground turkey, turkey bacon, nitrate/nitrite-free lunch meat (Boar's Head or Natural Hormel area a few examples)

For dairy: low-fat cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, eggs, and egg whites, low-fat or skim milk

Almond milk, soy milk (carrageenan free)

For produce: spinach, kale, zucchini, cucumber, tomatoes, carrots, celery, garlic, basil, green onions, white/red onions, avocado, bananas, blueberries, lemon, apples. To help with prep, wash and prepare the bulk of your produce. You can wash your leafy greens, & sending them through a salad spinner. Pre-wash/-slice your cucumber, tomatoes, carrots, celery, onions, and fruits.

Whole wheat/grain bread (without HFCS), low-carb tortillas, brown rice, quinoa, old-fashioned rolled oats

Walnuts, pistachios, almonds, raisins, pumpkin seeds, chia, flax, hemp seeds

Almond butter, peanut butter (I recently tried powdered peanut butter called PB2, & it was actually pretty amazing, with 85% less fat/oils), or other seed/nut butters

Hummus, salsa

Olive oil, nonstick cooking spray, cinnamon, sea salt, black pepper, cocoa powder

With the above ingredients, you can come up with a few different combinations to add variety to your meals. Here are a few ideas for clean eats breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, and dessert:

For breakfast, you can go for the bacon...turkey bacon that is, and eggs with basil cooked in a pan coated w/nonstick spray or about 1 Tbsp. olive oil. Or try some almond butter, raisins, and old-fashioned rolled oats cooked together for some delicious oatmeal.

For lunch, you can make an easy sandwich using either whole wheat bread or low-carb. tortillas, the nitrate/nitrite-free lunch meat, a few slices tomato, a handful of baby spinach or kale, 1/8 sliced avocado (you can use the slices or mash them to use as a spread), onion (although, sometimes I'm careful about this one if I'm going to be around people for the rest of the day :) ). Most days, I have Shakeology, my meal replacement shake, for lunch. You can make yourself a protein smoothie with a substitute protein powder.

For a snack, you can dip some carrots in hummus, and/or munch an apple (you can prep ahead, by per-slicing & spritzing w/lemon juice to help prevent browning). You can grab a handful of walnuts,  pistachios, or pumpkin seeds.

For dinner, you can cook up some lemon salmon, or tilapia w/ cooked kale or fresh baby spinach, and a side of quinoa topped with salsa.

For dessert, mix a tsp. or two of cocoa powder with 1/2 a cup of yogurt topped with almond slices.

What kinds of clean eats do you like? I would love to hear how you began (or are beginning) to make healthy changes in your life!

Clean Eating 101

Clean Eating Groups

As you've heard me talk about before, I'm a Team Beachbody coach, & I'm out to help others to achieve their fitness and nutrition goals! I'm about supporting and motivating others, even if they don't choose to purchase any Beachbody products through me (although, that is nice when that happens). I simply want to see lives changed! One way that I've been seeing lives changed is through free clean eating groups. I've talked a little about these in a past blog post, and I wanted to tell you a little more about what we have been calling clean eating, as well as the successes that my clean eating group members have been experiencing in about 30 days' time. These groups are amazing! If you have been wondering what the clean eating hype as been all about, I would love to answer your questions, and to have you join us!

What's the Clean Eating Hype About?

If you were like me about 1-1/2 years ago, you may think that you are already eating pretty healthy. You may try to limit how often you eat fast food, pizza, hot dogs, donuts, candy, milk shakes, etc. Maybe you eat these types of food only 2 or 3 times a week, but maybe you don't know that they can still be too often. Little things can build up, and eating only about 500 extra calories per week can add up too: to about 1 lb of weight gain for that week! But, it's not just the weight gain that you should be worried about by eating these types of food-period! Since I began hosting clean eating challenges, I have learned quite a bit more about clean eating, & am now extremely passionate about what I purchase at the store. In fact, last night I spent about 45 minutes at the store, and walked away with only about ten items! I get a little fed up with all the preservatives, fake fillers, food coloring, and high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), so I'm getting pretty picky about what I spend my money (and my health) on!

I've gotten pickier about what I eat, because as I do more research, and as I feel the effects when I revert back every now and then to eating junk, I want to eat the junk less and less. It does bad things to the body, and since I've chosen to eat less junk, I've begun to feel better! When you find out what certain preservatives are used for, in addition to what they're used for in food, you begin to wonder why you would put it in your body. For example, azodicarbonamide is used to bleach flour and plastic, used in shoe soles and yoga mats, and is also found in breads, frozen dinners, boxed pasta mixes, and packaged baked goods. Unfortunately, it may cause respiratory problems and allergic reactions.

Another example is brominated vegetable oil, which allows food dye to stick to liquid, and can be found in sports drinks and soda pop. This additive may cause birth defects and major organ damage, not to mention the allergic reactions, possible inhibition of nerve cell development, and ADD/ADHD aggravation that may be attributed to the food dye that the oil sticks to. I often will type in a search engine just about any ingredient that I don't recognize. That's how I've been able to find out the majority of what I've learned. I still take the information I found out with a grain of sand, but when I find the same information over and over again, as well as experiencing the symptoms first-hand (usually prior to finding out that they are possible side effects), I believe it!

I'd rather not risk my, or my family's, health on junk. My body, and your body, deserves to be fed quality fuel. Much of what is put into food is not utilized very well by our bodies. Ever wonder why you can't lose weight? Maybe you exercise five or six days per week, but the scale and measuring tape around your waist aren't moving; It just might be what you are eating that is keeping you from losing weight and inches. I've seen this over the past few months, as the combined total, from 11 members, in the first clean eating group that I hosted lost over 50 lbs in 30 days! True, some of the members were working out during those 30 days, but guess what, you can't out workout a poor diet! These members cut out processed foods, HFCS, white flour and white sugar, among other things, and chose to make healthy meals at home.

So far, in the two clean eating groups going on right now, over 3 weeks' time, there has been a total loss of 23 lbs from 7 members! One group still has one more STAT-urday (or weigh-in on Saturday) to go, while the other group has two more. Through clean eating, these members are regaining their health and taking back their lives! They are telling me things like "I have felt so much better physically," and "I only had 2 slices [of pizza], but I felt like I ate the entire thing to myself. I felt so bloated, and was dragging all afternoon. It's amazing the difference I can feel after cutting out that kind of food for only a couple days! I won't be cheating again any time soon!" That is why I'm passionate about clean eating, and about passing my knowledge about it on to others!

Interested in Clean Eating?

Soon, I will be hosting a clean eating group here on my blog. I will provide 30 days' worth of clean eating recipes (including snacks and a few desserts) and shopping lists to those who want to sign up for a free Team Beachbody account, which will also give you a place to track your weight loss and other measurements, as well as give you a place to track your workouts. You can also use your account to reach out via the message boards to others who may be facing the same struggles, or who may have answers to the same fitness or nutrition questions that you may have. Throughout the month, starting February 22, I will be providing information (did you know that corn is actually as grass; so when you see "grass-fed" beef, you might want to think twice?), a few recipes, and tips and tools that I've been accumulating involving clean eating.

I look forward to the opportunity to support and motivate, since I know how hard it was to begin changing my own eating habits (it has taken me about 10 years to completely cut soda pop out of my diet). I also look forward to learning more from you about clean eating! If you are ready to join me for a journey to cleaner eating, please go to teambeachbody.com/signup to get your FREE account, and use my coach referral id:      i i b 4   Once I'm your coach, I will send you the recipes and shopping lists via the e-mail address that you provide through your account. Thank you, in advance, for your desire to regain (or maybe gain, for the first time) your health!

                                                          Let's do this together!

A Sailor in the Navy

One Big Ship! USS Abraham Lincoln http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Abraham_Lincoln_%28CVN-72%29

What Was I Thinking?

Have you ever had someone tell you that you couldn't do something, and then you did that something that they told you you couldn't do? Well, that's how I got to be a sailor! Now, don't get me wrong, this wasn't the complete determining factor, but it helped to push my decision. "Why navy," you ask? Well, I have no idea! I originally signed up for the air force (my dad had been in the air force, so maybe that would have been a better fit than the navy), and when I decided that I wanted to enjoy the summer right after graduating from high school instead of going to boot camp, I gave up the opportunity to have a job that may have potentially led me to working for NASA! So, I decided to ditch the air force and go navy. Well, you live and you learn, and you end up working with a bunch of guys in the bottom of the USS Abraham Lincoln, standing boring and tiresome watches, while at the same time experiencing some pretty amazing adventures and destinations!
Unfortunately, I don't know where my photos are from when I was on the ship. They may be at my parent's house in their computer files, so, for now, I have to use photos from the internet :( I will try to post them as I find them!

CVN 72 http://www.motortrend.com/features/112_0105_ac/photo_13.html

I went to navy boot camp in March 2005, 10 months after graduating from high school. I was 19, and very naive! Looking back, I feel like I was pretty sheltered. Don't get me wrong, my parents did a great job of raising me and my 2 brothers, but I grew up oblivious to the reality of what I was to experience at boot camp and later on the Stinkin' Lincoln, or the Devil's Flag Ship (as I heard others call the huge aircraft carrier that I would later choose to be stationed on. I'll talk more about my time on the USS Abraham Lincoln later, but this time around, I'll just be talking about my time at boot camp). I knew I was naive, especially looking back, knowing what I know now; close to 9 years later. I was miserable at boot camp! Was it hard physically? No. Emotionally? Oh yeah! I can honestly say that I grew up during those 3 months at boot camp, and the 3 months following, while I attended Machinist's Mate A School, both of which were in Great Lakes, Illinois.
 

http://strategyandwar.com/United_States_military_history_books.html

Boot Camp
My brain has decided to shelter me from the majority of what I experienced at boot camp, because it was such a traumatic experience! I know that it was either really late at night or really early in the morning in March 2005 when I arrived off the bus at boot camp in Great Lakes, Illinois.  All of us new arrivals had to change out of our civilian clothing into smurfs, or blue navy sweats, from almost the moment we got there. Shortly after that we went through a mandatory urinalysis. I was so nervous about having to pee in front of others, especially the mean woman who was doing the urinalysis for the women. I had to walk around the room visiting the drinking fountain every time I passed it, until I could finally go to the bathroom. I remember going through a line with medical personal who were wearing hoods who, as you walk down the line, vaccinated you as you went along. I remember getting what we called the peanut butter shot in our behinds, and recall dumbfoundly looking around the room at the other medical beds where other recruits had their rear ends sticking up ready for the shot!

I remember bits and pieces of being in Ship's Staff (a group of selected recruits who stood watches and had jobs outside of the berthing (sleeping compartment) and watch standing, and then writing the watch bill for Ship's Staff. If you don't know what I'm talking about, watches are kind of like short jobs. Watch standing involved roaming p-ways (passageways, or hallways) checking on temperatures and making sure that no one was out and about at 2 o'clock in the morning! It also involved colors (raising the flag in the morning or lowering the flag at night), greeting those who entered the building (often just the officer in the morning, while at boot camp. This always had me stumbling over my words, and made me want to throw up). Thankfully, but maybe not so much, I soon was moved to the position of watch bill writer. As watch bill writer, I was able to keep myself off the watch bill, which made some people complain. One of the RDC (recruit division commanders) told me that I shouldn't worry about the complainers, because I was doing more work than they were. I still felt guilty though, and ended up  putting myself on the bill more often. Most of the other recruits stood watch strictly inside the berthing, while Ship's Staff stood watch everywhere else, and did other jobs, like cleaning the heads (bathrooms) outside of the berthing.

Berthing www.mashpedia.com

You might be wondering what the berthing compartment was like, as you might have seen various depictions of them on movies. I do remember it being very similar, in many respects, to what I've seen in the movies. The rack tossing, which involved the RDC throwing everything in your rack into the middle of the berthing. The racks that we had at boot camp had coffin lockers; you lift up the top of your bed like a lid, and all your gear is folded inside. Rack tossing usually happened when things weren't properly folded. We learned to fold our skivies (underwear), socks, white t-shirts, and our uniforms, among other things. The berthing compartment was huge, in my opinion. There was enough room for about 24 bunks, with plenty of room down the middle, if they had wanted to add more bunks. There was also a large laundry room, a row of toilet stalls, a small communal shower space, and an office with a glass window looking into the berthing.

Fire Fighting www.usmilitary.about.com

In order to graduate from boot camp, I had to pass a series of tests. I got points for how straight I was able to make my bed, fold my clothes, pass uniform inspections, written tests, the gas chamber, shoot a gun, march, run a mile, and various tasks in the water, as well as passing a swim test. I hate to swim, and I am still not a strong swimmer. Thankfully, though, I was able to pass the swim test after 1 additional remedial session, and in the 4 years that I was in the navy I never had to put my swimming ability to the test. At boot camp, I also had to go through damage control training, where I learned about shoring (or patching holes) that could happen on the ship, as well as fire fighting. Again, thankfully, I didn't have to use these skills on the ship, either! As a division, we had to work together to pass the 12-hour long Battle Stations, which required us to put our newly learned skills to the test. To finish up boot camp, we had one final assignment as a division, to get through the pass-in-review, or what I would consider graduation, where we marched in our dress uniforms in front of family, friends, and the chiefs, officers, and other military personal who mattered for our passing.

Boot Camp Graduation http://mybossier.blogspot.com/2010/04/great-lakes-boot-camp-graduation-april.html

After Boot Camp Graduation

My parents and grandma were able to make it to my boot camp graduation, and I remember being so happy, relieved, and quite a bit traumatized when we were allowed to finally meet up with family. My grandma couldn't stay for long, but my parents stayed for a few days. We spent a few hours catching up, and then I had to check into my "ship" (or next base, or living place) at Machinist Mate A-school "across the street" (which was literally across the street) from boot camp. Once I got through the rest of Friday's obligations, I was released for the weekend. Unfortunately, because of the standing that all new sailors start with at A-school, I had to wear my uniform the entire weekend. My parents took me out to dinner that night, sleep in a hotel (and the first bed that I'd slept in for the past 2 months that wasn't a bunk), and visit the botanical gardens the next day. My parents and I ended that day with a trip to the NEX (the Navy Exchange) store, where we bought a few items that would help me adjust a little better. They got me signed up for a cell phone, so I could better keep in touch. I was still pretty traumatized after the past 2 months of being away from home, and I couldn't help, even at 19 years old old, to cry when my parents had to head to the airport.