Health Readiness in the Deployed Environment: One Soldier's Success Story

Readiness--Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. Mark Milley has said--is and will remain the U.S. Army's number 1 priority. The Performance Triad--sleep, activity, and nutrition--supports health readiness as a foundation for individual and unit readiness.

What does the deployed Soldier do to ensure health readiness in the deployed environment, however? Eight hours of sleep every night? Everyone who's been there knows that doesn't happen because of duty requirements and stress of deployment.

1st Lt. Ashley Alameda, during deployment to Camp Arifjan, reported on her approach to maintaining readiness with the use of the Performance Triad.

"Sleep is probably the hardest thing to get around here, especially if you're trying to work on physical fitness or have family back home. Many people are out in the barrack hallways talking to family back in the States at all hours of the night," 1st Lt. Alameda said. Like most deployed Soldiers, her family and friends are halfway around the world, and the time difference has her up when they are asleep.

Between physical training, morning spin class, nighttime Zumba classes, and a full day's work, sleep gets put on the "back burner", said 1st Lt. Alameda.

She is not alone. Sleep is made more difficult by the ready availability of caffeinated and energy drinks. Those beverages may keep Soldiers awake while on duty day or night but also interferes with sleep when it is time to hit the sack.

1st Lt. Alameda's remedy? She resolved to get to bed at a decent hour as often as possible. She tries to minimize access to electronic devices near bedtime. Her alarm goes off at 0400, though, and she's back at it for another full day.

The Performance Triad encourages Soldiers in a sustained operating environment to get as much sleep as possible and try to establish and maintain a routine for sleep. Napping during downtime and cutting caffeine six hours before sleep when possible will not only improve sleep but also improve performance.

Sleep banking prior to a high operations tempo may help Soldiers be more resilient to fatigue. Up to two weeks prior to the start of a mission, you can pay down your sleep debt and bank sleep by getting eight or more hours of sleep.

1st Lt. Alameda also found she was gaining weight despite daily workouts. The easy access to homemade cookies in care packages, not to mention fast food tacos, pizza, chicken wings, and doughnuts, was a distraction.

"I can see how easy it would be to put even more weight on," 1st Lt. Alameda said. "I came out here on a mission, though. I will be great at my job. I was not going to let myself fail." She committed to get in better shape and lose weight. She saw right away that better nutrition needed to be part of her approach.

She turned to healthier choices in the dining facility, where there is a daily offering of grilled chicken, fresh fruits and vegetables. She admits it takes some imagination to not get tired of eating the same thing every day.

The Army recommends that deployed service members aim for at least eight servings of fruits and vegetables each day. They are packed full of essential micronutrients such as vitamin C and antioxidants. A diet high in fresh fruits and vegetables also helps to maintain hydration, which is critical to sustaining performance in deployed settings.

Proper fueling will help Soldiers to perform and excel at a professional level, much like a world-class athlete does. A four-to-one carbohydrate-to-protein ratio prior to intense activity will fuel your performance. Eating a healthy snack with a four-to-one carbohydrate-to-protein ratio within 30 to 45 minutes after intense activity will dramatically help you to recover.

Although getting plenty of exercise may seem like the least of a Soldiers worries, it is still critical to help your body pump oxygen most effectively to working muscles. Exercise creates endurance for long days and longer nights. It supports peak performance throughout ongoing missions. And--this is very important--exercise builds resistance to injury.

1st Lt. Alameda uses an app that calculates calorie intake compared with calories burned while exercising. Fitness apps can be useful tools for those wanting to lose weight and track and set fitness goals. She also works out more to offset calories if she feels she has consumed too many calories.

1st Lt. Alameda faces the same issues all deployed Soldiers face when it comes to maintaining health readiness: it's hard to eat healthy, it's even harder to get adequate sleep, and fitness is never more important.

However, it is possible to maximize your readiness potential with the tools in the Performance Triad Soldier Challenge Guide. The guide will help Soldiers get the sleep, activity, and nutrition they need, even in a deployed environment.

Health readiness and the Performance Triad are directly linked. Healthy Soldiers are fit, ready, and resilient. The Performance Triad is a tool that will help Soldiers be fit for enduring missions.

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