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Healthy Eating

So, if you don’t know me and my wife that well we are really into Nutrition and eating “Properly” as you will. My wife actually got started allot earlier than I did and it took the Army to let me know that what I thought I was doing wasn’t working and I knew it would only be a matter of time before I would end up with a weight problem. I quickly cut out certain foods and cut my portion size in half as quickly as I could, Although this did work I started to lose strength and feel drained. My problem was I cut my calories and nutrients way too fast and needed to re-evaluate my whole diet situation. I had to decide if this was going to be temporary or a change I was making to my life from here on out.

I restructured my eating, starting back at square one. watching not only my portion size but the quality of food that the portion consisted of. I did allot of research and read allot of blogs and web post about how certain foods can change depending on how you prepare them. I started to cook food in “Real Butter” and use Olive Oil and Coconut Oil to prepare my eggs, and recipes I baked with, and use more “oil based” dressings and slowly do away with sauces and dips I used to rely on.

After all of this nutrition change, I knew I needed to change my workout routine as well. Yes, I am in the Army and they force us to do physical training nearly everyday. But, was I pushing myself during that training? and was there more I could be doing? the answer is always, Yes!. I started to go to the gym during my lunch breaks and boy was I the newby. I wasn’t following a workout routine and had no ideal what I was doing. It wasn’t until my Brother in law visited us in the winter of 2015/2016 that I was introduced to Bodybuilding.com which is not only a supplement website but offers hundreds of workout routines, recipes and videos on exercises. From this discovery I knew I had allot of research to do. I watched dozens of videos and read just as many blogs about the different exercises to actually look like I knew what I am doing when I am at the gym. From reading the blogs I came across, Dr. Jim Stoppani. a bodybuilder who has his PHD in Exercise Physiology. He has his own Apps and supplement line which I following very closely to this day. Just having an app as a guide took allot of work off of me and all I had to do was walk into the gym and look at the app to understand exactly what I am to do. I started to take Protein supplements,vitamins and fish oils, and after one of his 12-week programs and starting one of his 6-week programs I started to feel and see a change. For the first time in my Army career I was able to achieve above 270 points on the Army Physical Fitness Test and earn the Fitness Badge. I earned a total of 289 points during the test.

Once I PCS’ed from Germany I continued to work out whenever I had the chance during leave and while at Fort Bliss waiting to deploy to Egypt. My nutrition was about the same and was kinda at a stay still with my muscle gain, no loss-but no gain either. Once I got into Egypt I started to get back into the gym hard and although I did not follow a set routine or an app I felt like I have done it for a long time to know what exercises I need to be doing. Again when I took my Army Physical Fitness test I raised my score to 293. Not a huge difference, but you have to realized that the Army has “age brackets” to the test and the older you get, the minimum scores go down the the maximum scores go up, so technically it’s harder to get a higher score. I had just had a birthday which put me into the next age bracket. I continued to do the same routine and eat the same things for the first seven months in Egypt but realized I wasn’t making any progress with weight loss or weight gain. I knew the reason for no weight gain=not eating enough food and not taking a excessive amount of protein supplements. But what about the weight loss? I was working out, Ie...lifting weights, doing cardio/HIIT and playing sports whenever I got the chance. The reason I chose to believe was...”Carbohydrates”. 

Carbs are essential to your body due to the fact that they provide your body energy by breaking down the food or drink into sugar. But with that sugar your body can store it as fat if it is not burnt off. I had to step back and see what kinds of carbs/sugars I was putting into my body for energy. I first thing I did was research the food I ate and how many carbs are in each item. Like I said, I ate the same things almost everyday and never knew what I was eating as far as nutrition facts are concerned. I will give you an example of my basic breakfast: 4 eggs, with diced; peppers, tomatoes, onion, cheese and ham. a bowl of oatmeal with peanut butter and a tbsp of honey. 2-3 slices of Honey Dew Melon and two small cartons of milk, one plain, one chocolate. Pretty simple, right?   I calculated how many carbs are in my daily meal and was surprised at what I found. 

4 eggs=3-4 grams, 

all above egg add ins=9-12 grams 

one bowl of oatmeal=50-60 grams

 tbsp of honey=17 grams

 2 tbsp peanut butter=6 grams 

2 slices of Honey Dew=12 grams

2 milk boxes=24 grams

Total Carbs for just Breakfast=135 high end

That’s not too bad for an active person looking to maintain the same body weight for an extended period of time. The recommendation is 2 grams per pound of body weight, so a 200 lb person should be eating around 400 grams of carbs per day. That’s according if that person does weight training and is modernly active. To lose weight however it is recommended to drop those percentages to 1.5, and to 1.0 and even farther to 0.5 if you are serious about it. I am only 150lbs, so those numbers were high for just one meal. I decided I needed to look more carefully about the carbs I ate. I decided to start doing what they call “Carb Cycling” which is you start with 1 gram per pound of body weight, and the next day you drop your carb intake by 0.25. You can either raise it back the following day to 1.0 grams, keep it at 0.75 or drop it even farther to 0.5 or 0.25. I started out slow not realizing how it would effect me and let me tell you, it was bad. I didn’t realize it at first but I felt “drained” and wanted to fight everyone who looked at me weird or talked to me wrong, I wasn’t the same person. Gladly I caught this and thought about it before I started to say something and it lasted only a month, thank God. But I kept working out like normal and although I have felt more drained I have noticed a drop in body fat, especially around my thighs, which if you didn’t know me, I was fat in high school and always had a problem losing fat in my thigh area. I started “Carb cycling” back in March 2017 and now it is June 2017. I feel better about not wanting to fight people and still have to watch what I eat. I still have a “Cheat Meal” and enjoy cook outs and ice cream,but I plan for it. If I know there is going to be a dinner or outing that I want to enjoy myself at I cut my carbs to 0.5 grams the day prior, 0.25 the morning and possibly the afternoon of, and use the actual event to eat honestly whatever I want. But the following day I go back to eating 0.5 grams again. My typical week looks like this: Sunday=1.0, monday=0.5, tuesday=1.0, wednesday=0.5, thursday=1.0, friday/Re-feed day=2.0, Saturday=0.5 grams.

Granted I don’t always make these numbers but I try to get as close as possible. Changing my snacks and what I eat during my meals takes forward planning and extreme discipline. I can always try harder with my meals and training but that’s the great thing about it! it is all about how much you want it! no one can make these choices for you and the reward is totally worth it! I am happy I make these choices and will continue to fine tune and I can always learn something new. This is the first step to a lifetime of learning.

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I’m Back! Part 2/2

Around mid December is when everything started to break. Helicopters started to have multiple issues and we couldn’t received parts fast enough. We went from 4/4 helicopters to 1/4 on multiple days and even worked about every weekend until the middle of February. Christmas was, sad to say, nothing special this year. I had to work the 24th and 26th and New Years Eve, didn’t feel like the holidays at all. I do understand the reason for the season but when you can’t spend it with family and all you see are Helicopters and Sand to don’t even think about it.

This constant breaking and fixing of Helicopters went on for about 2 1/2 months and finally as I write this we are 3/4 and things are looking up.

But to stop being negative rewind back to early February. I got selected to attend a 3 day trip to Cairo sponsored by the MFO. I was selected because I am isolated to North Camp and I had to most time here of the few people requesting to go. I went with a great group of people and when we flew into south camp I was able to spend two nights on the town and eat at restaurants and do a little souvenir shopping, which was much needed. the third morning we flew from Sharm El Shiek airport in Cairo and had a whole tour bus and tour guide to ourselves for the three days. Cairo was an experience, I will attached photos, to say the least. Parts of the city were typical third world country with people begging and living in the streets digging through garbage and some parts were first world with Malls elaborate building and wealth. It’s sad to see that that so many people are not be taking care of, unlike in America. We went to the Cairo museum the first day and got to see thousands of Artifacts, even Kings Ramses’ (the same from the story of Moses) Mummy and King Tutankhamun’s(Tut) coffin and golden head dress. I couldn’t take pictures of those but got lots of the other things within the museum. That night we saw the Pyramids and the Great Sphinx at night with a light show and story.

The second day we went to see the great Pyramids and all I can say is...WOW. The architecture and history is so amazing and the fact that you can walk up and touch them and go inside is amazing! We spend about 2hr taking pictures and going into the various tombs surrounding the Great Pyramid. I could go on about the history of the third Pyramids or you can read about them yourself at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pyramids-of-Giza

After the Pyramids shopped at a local perfume shop and as a typical tourist I bought into it  and purchased some things for me and my wife. After we ate at a local restaurant nd had delicious Egyptian food, Meats and Pita with various spreads, yum. we had down time until that night which we went to the Nile river to have a dinner cruise which was a fantastic dinner and live show.

The third day we went to a Egyptian cotton store which I purchased a few clothing items for myself and spouse and went onto various Churches and Mosque's around Cairo, one of the churches was “supposedly” where Joseph, Mary and Jesus had live in the cellar for a couple of month and actually got to see the cellar, even if the story was false it still was a great experience.

From there we went to the Egyptian war museum and saw a cool show and live equipment from the war against Israel in the early eighties.  Final stop was a mall close to the airport and I have to say the it was probably the biggest mall I have ever been to, this is where the first world and wealthy part of Cairo come in. They had most shops that the mall in America would have and I even got Cold Stone ice cream before we left. After about 2hrs of free time we got back on the bus and headed to the airport. We flew back to Sharm El Sheik and had to be up by 0500 am to fly back to North Camp, again I am not complaining about not spending more time there.

Since I have been back up north things are pretty good! I have worked a couple of day on the weekend but things are getting fixed and I did managed over the whole aircraft fiasco from Dec to Feb to receive an A on my History II class. I am now taking Federal Government and trying to juggle Work, School, Gym and family time via Skype. One usually gets the shorter straw but I try to not let that be family time. I am doing well and as I write this I only have around 4 month left. I am already talking to Megan about moving and traveling to my next assignment, which is Fort Carson in Colorado Springs. I am super excited and cannot wait to see what the rest of the year holds in store. Until next time...hopefully won’ t be 4 month, bye.

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I’m Back! Part 1/2

Hello Everyone, I am finally blogging again. I believe the last blog I wrote was before I went home on leave to see my family and new baby girl back in October. A lot has happened since then and I want to catch you all up to speed.

Leave was wonderful...but too short. I was home from the 18th of October until the 4th of November and did so many fun things with my family. I met my beautiful daughter Madelynn, spent much needed quality time with my son, Levi and wife Megan, got a new Tattoo and met up with some old friends.

We made a lot of trips to museums, such as; Air Force aviation Museum in Dayton, OH, the Toledo Zoo, Suter’s Corn maze in Pandora, OH, The Henry Ford Museum in Detroit, MI and many other outings. The weather was starting to get cold and having all of my winter clothes back home was nice.

My trip home was an unique one, I had 3 or so layovers and spent 10 hours or so in the wrong section of the Frankfurt airport and slept on the most uncomfortable chair ever but was able to make it back home to my family. Seeing them for the first time in 4 months was the greatest feeling I have experienced so far, having Levi run up to me to give me a hug and holding Madelynn for the first time was so overwhelming I wouldn’t have given that feeling for anything!

For the most part I kept up with my diet while I was home. Ate out a couple of times for dates with Megan but ate most breakfast and lunches at home. I didn’t go to the gym while I was home due to me not wanting to take time away from my family but used Matthew Spallinger’ home gym the two Sundays I visited the in-laws.

I also started to add more to my tattoo, I got a cross with a bible verse I Hebrew back in 2010 while I was in AIT after Basic Training and took me 6 1/2 years to add to it. I decided to go with the Medieval/ Armor theme and add shoulder Armor around the cross and on part of my back, I will include pictures. My artist wants me to come back once I am done in Egypt to touch up any parts that didn’t heal properly and I might have him add my Family Crest and chainmail down the arm...but we will see.

My time home was amazing but super short. I was in Ohio for a total of 18 days and boy did they go by quick. Once I was back in Egypt I got back to South Camp in Sharm El Sheik around 0100 am and was on a helicopter by 0900 am to fly back to North Camp. I cannot complain since South camp is very unenjoyable and there would be no reason for me to stay. Once I made it back to south camp I hit the ground running with BGFAO flight the next morning and as always maintenance. I took the month on November off from School since the next class started as I went on leave and didn’t want to be doing school while I was home or travelling. I did receive a B+ for my first college class which I was proud of.

Jump forward to December, on December 1st I took over as head maintenance lead for North Camp, not a huge task but we only have 10 people to work on 4 helicopters. I managed the maintenance in Germany but had way more support and resource to get the mission done there and I would soon discover that.

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About a Year

So I am going to use this post to talk about my newly found love for nutrition and fitness...well when I say “new found” it’s been about a year. So around this time last September I went in for my semi-annual Army “Height and Weight” screening where they see how much you weigh according to a handy little chart they determine it you need a BMI measuring tape test. Since I have been in the Army I have never had a problem making my recommended weight, which is 174 lbs. I have fluctuated a lot in my career from 168 to 158 to finally a whole 170lbs! I thought I was going to weigh less than I ever did due to my wife making healthier food choices with our groceries, but I didn’t even take into account “portion control” yes I was eating heathier foods but have big portions and having the occasional soda at work over the course of six or so months took a big toll, at least to me it was. After that point I set my sights on cutting weight and trying to get down to my previous weight of 160lbs. lose 10 lbs. or more, doesn’t sound too hard right? but losing it and trying to keep it off was a whole other goal in itself that I wasn't thinking ahead on.

I decided to cut my portions in almost half for the next month or so after and although I didn’t change my diet but I ate less which was a good start right?...or so I thought. I love reading about nutrition and found out that cutting calories to fast in a short period of time is really bad for your weight loss goals. Yes you may lose weight but it tricks your body into thinking that those are all the calories it will receive and start working with what you give it. It will operate at a lower efficiently and in the long run cause even a slightly higher calorie intake to make you gain the weight that you worked so hard to lose come back. I did just that and saw fast results but after a month or two I started to gain the weight back slowly, luckily I caught it before I gained more than 5 pounds or so but I knew I had to rethink my whole diet.

I technically started fresh after about two months of trial and error. But I was missing something else from this whole “New Me”...if you guessed exercise you are correct! I did the standard Army PRT (Physical Readiness Training) but I heard time and time again that it will only help you to maintain, not progress. Which is what I have been doing the past six years in the Army. My wonderful Brother in law visited my family over the Christmas holiday while we were in Germany and I knew my brother in-law, Matthew Salinger, was really big into fitness and has been since Jr. High school. I decided to ask him about work out routines and supplement's. He introduced me to Bodybuilding.com which sell all the great supplement's but have thousands of easy to follow work out’s and weekly articles about various topics about nutrition and workouts. I decided to spend the next couple of days reading articles and finding a workout routine that I could follow for a little bit to get started. I found “Jim Stoppani’s Shortcut to Size” which is a 12 week program and they even had an app which I could take my phone to the gym and easy to follow guides for the workouts and also the nutrition. I did just that and stuck with it for the whole 12 weeks, I saw great results and got addicted. I started pushing myself during morning PT and doing my thing in the gym during lunch. Over the next three months or so I tried different workout routines and started to shape my diet into something I really enjoyed. Eating more natural ingredients, trying to eating multiple smaller meals through out the day and stopped drinking soda and fruit juices. Of course I have a “cheat meal” at least once a week, it’s mandatory to know you are getting a reward by working out and eating healthy 6 days a week, but just one meal not a whole day. Granted during our vacation to Italy was like a cheat week because Europeans don’t eat much protein for breakfast and have carbs with every meal, so that was a rough week. But it’s a good reminder that because you have been eating healthy for so long just one “bad” meal can make you feel guilty and start eating better the next day.

After 6 years in the Army I finally earn the Army Physical Fitness Badge” which is no easy task. You have to earn a 90% in each category of the test, which consist of: Push Ups, Sit Ups and a two mile run. I finally earned it in April and hopefully maintain it once I take my test next sunday. I love the new me and can only continue from here, plus it gives me something to do while I am stuck in the desert. I wanted to share some pictures from the past couple of years where I look back and I thought I looked kind of on the “ bigger” side and the bottom picture is the most recent me. I hope this gives everyone who reads this motivation and like me you can go from not running a single mile in your whole life to running two in 13:41, you have just got to want it!

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where do I begin???

Wow! where do I begin? so much has happened since I last posted. I became a proud parent to a beautiful baby Girl! and started my first college class. I was so surprised when my wife called me saying she was going into the hospital early (16 AUG 16) instead of her due date (27 AUG 16) granted I know only 5% of babies are actually born on their due date but I was nervous for her. She stayed at the hospital for a night and on 17 Aug she told me that they were going to induce her and to wait until it was time to have our baby. So I waited...for not even an hour and I received a call on Facebook messenger from Megan. It was Andrea, Megan’s sister and even though I heard my wife screaming and knew that it was really happening, she told me that after they broke her water the baby was coming out fast. I was able to see the whole birth and talked to my wife and just watched my beautiful little girl for a while. I was so happy and even though I could not be there I am so thankful for all the support from out families and how tough my wife is. My parents had our son Levi and brought him up later to see his little sister. He was really stand off-ish and is still warming up to her at home, but he is really sweet to her and is careful around her. I already can’t wait to be home and to spend time with Megan, Levi and Madelynn. We named her Madelynn because we liked the name and thought it sounded elegant. We changed the spelling to “Lynn” because that was my Mother’ s middle name.

On 22 Aug I started my first College class at Central Texas College, History 101. It is just an online class but I wanted to make sure I knew all what I needed to do and what was expected of me for the next 8 weeks. I did most of the reading up front and had a couple of class discussions and will take my first quiz this weekend. I am still nervous, but I think that is from the fact that I put it off for so long and can’t remember a lot of it for the life of me. I only have to do eight classes to get my Associates degree and am just thinking of my future in either the Military or apply this degree towards a Bachelor's degree down the road. 

For work I have been flying a lot, roughly 2-3 flights every week. That is a lot because my last year in Germany I was lucky to get one flight a month. But I am so much happier now than when I started and am passing time by going to the gym, doing school and of course writing this blog. I still have no idea when I can go home to see my family but I am just going to submit my paperwork with a couple of different dates and am hopeful one will get approved. I will post more later and hope to hear from everyone who reads this. Until next time.

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photos from flight

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one month down!

Hello everyone, I officially made it to the one month mark. It has been an exciting time here. I am in a much better mood and state of mind since I have been at North Camp and have made some good friends with some of the other Crew Chiefs and Flight Medics. I have been flying a lot and most of the flights are  random times, like a 0400 show for a 20 min flight. Or last minute run ups for a “ Just in Case” flight but it has all been good. I will try to sneak a gopro on a flight so you can see the War Torn land of the northern Sinai peninsula. I have been going to the gym everyday and trying to keep up with my diet but it’s kind of hard with the options they serve but I am holding on strong. I am also preparing for school. I enrolled at Central Texas College online and I am getting a degree in General Education, For now. The college offered me a lot of credit for my Military education so I only need 24 semester hours to get my associates degree. I will try to do as many classes as I can while out here and hopefully finish when I am back home next summer. I wanted to give myself options for either staying in the Army or get my foot in the door with a job if I get out. I know a degree in General Education is not a great end result but I don’t plan for it to be. I have been putting college off for 8 years and I thought this would be the perfect time to do it. I have no chance to see a promotion without college so I hope this will help. I start on the 22nd with my first class: History 101. I hope I remember most of the information from high school but I already received my textbook so I will be studying hard. As most of you probably already know I am not able to return home to be with Megan when she has our baby. There have been too many people leaving and not enough people to replace them. I still do not know when I am able to come home But it looks like mid October is promising. I would appreciate your prayers for my family while we are apart and that Megan has a great delivery. Other than that I don’ t have too much else on my mind. I hope to see and hear from everyone real soon.  I might start posting about workouts and nutrition, because I really enjoy that stuff in my spare time. Until next time, goodbye.

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To North Camp I Go!

Hello Everyone, in my previous post I mentioned something about me going up to North Camp once I had my location area orientation flight and I was correct! I arrived to North Camp last night. Luckily I arrived on the weekend so I can relax and get to know the location before I hit the ground running. Some things are different here, like: We have to carry weapons, more security and I have to show ID everywhere I go, we fly with body armor and M240 machine guns, kind of like a deployment I hear. Some enhancements are I get a much bigger room with wall lockers, mini fridge, and there is actually a washer and dryer in our building...but just one. I think I will adjust just fine. So let me back up a week or so to my flight, I had to get a local area orientation flight to be certified for the area and every year I have to get a physical done, written and oral test and have a flight with an instructor during the time of my birthday. So, I knocked all of that out and had a really cool flight as well. We flew about 50 feet off the water and the Sharm El Shiek area is all resorts on the water, so we got to see a lot of amazing sights. Since I was being evaluated I didn’t want to be flying with my Gopro so I didn’t get any pictures, sorry. I did hear that the locals don’t like people taking pictures of things so I may or may not get too many pictures of my flights out here, but we will see. After I finished all of my requirements I was told on Tuesdays the 26th that I would be going to North Camp on Thursday the 28th. I had to re-pack all of my things and somehow get it shipped north all within a day, luckily it all worked out and I was ready to go on Thursday. We were delayed more than half the day but we finally made it around dinner time last night. Everything is really close. I live in a high rise building with three floors and right across the street is the dining facility, FX (Store) and Gym, what more could I need, lol. I will post more once my work week as passed and can let everyone know how the flights are out here and how the work load is. So, until next time, Bye.

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Israel and Egypt

Hello again everyone I am posting to you from the MFO South Camp by Sharm El Shiek in the Sinai Peninsula. I was waiting until I uploaded my pictures but my computer is acting  weird so I will post those later. When I last posted I said I was flying out on Sunday the 10th of July. We ran into an issue where our airline would not let us fly into Israel without an Israeli visa, which I only had one for Egypt. So we were able to cancel those tickets and book new ones on a different airline for the following day at 0530 in the morning. We waited around all day and got to the airport around midnight and just waited until the ticket counter opened at 0400, we got to our gate in no time at all and boarded to arrive to our first of two layovers in Atlanta, then onto JFK in New York and finally to Tel Aviv Israel where we had to catch a taxi to the hotel they had booked for us. They have a shuttle bus that runs from Tel Aviv to the MFO and we caught that for our exciting 10 hour drive ahead of us. We arrived in South Camp just in time for dinner and were able to receive our room keys just in time for me to crash. The next couple of days were walking around in processing the various sections...ie, finance, ID cards. But I soon found out that the weekend starts on Friday and the first day of work for the week is Sunday...crazy I know.

I have already been here over a week and I hope the rest of the year fly's by just as fast. I have done some aircraft maintenance and try to help wherever I am needed but There are a lot of Mechanic's right now and they have been finishing up their jobs from before we got here, so once they leave it’s all on us “New Guys”. I start Flying next week and hopefully can be more vital to the team once I am signed off to fly. There has been talks about half of us new guys going to North Camp so next time you hear from me I might be relocated there. Like I said earlier I with upload some pictures and show you what I have been seeing in Israel and Egypt. Until next Time.

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a couple of pictures of the Franklin Mountains'

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Stuck in Texas

hello again everyone, As I write this I am still at Fort Bliss with CRC. My passport and visa came in on Thursday and I was so hopeful that my LNO (Liaison Officer) for Egypt would buy my tickets that day and I would finally be on a plane this weekend!...Not the case :( his plan is to wait until next Friday to ship a bigger group of Soldiers out to Egypt all at once, instead to one here and one there. So needless to say I am stuck here until Friday the 8th. So in the meantime I will just keep going to the gym, watch movies and try not to go AWOL...just kidding. The next time I post will probably be in Egypt and I will start posting pictures and give everyone a brief run down of my week. in the meantime I have a few pictures around base that you can look at. Until next time 

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Blog Starting and Life in Texas

So, I decided to start a blog to put my thoughts and progress into actual digital format. I am really bad at communicating with people so this is the best way I came up with for people to see exactly what I am doing while away from my family In Egypt. I might continue posting after I come back, next summer, but my wonderful wife already has a blog that does that at: littlebabywalker.tumblr.com, and she is much better at adding new post and updating it. 

If not everyone knows I am Active Duty in the United States Army and will be coming up on my 7th year in September. I am a 15T (Blackhawk Helicopter Crew Chief). The best way I can describe my job is: I am a mobile mechanic, I do quick repairs and inspections on the helicopter, I also fly with the pilot’s in the back to provide an extra set of eyes and passenger support to whomever my be riding with us. I am getting stationed/Deployed to Sinai Egypt for an unaccompanied tour for a year. As I write this I am sitting in El Paso, Texas at CRC (Conus Replacement Center) which is basically a central facility for individuals, not whole units, deploying to an overseas area. A lot of Army Reserves and National Guard. I am all done with my Training/Validations but I am waiting on a Passport and Visa in order to enter the country of Egypt. I have been told it is complete and needs to be picked up and shipped from Virginia so I am playing the waiting game. It is extremely hot and not much to do around base unless you want to spend money at the PX. I don't have room in my luggage for extra stuff, so mostly movies and Gym is what I have been doing. I will post more, maybe once a week unless life and work has been boring and will post pictures of my life in Egypt. Until next time, Bye.