We wrote briefly about Wilderness Athlete's Meal in a Bottle supplement back in December and the good folks at the company sent me a bunch of samples of their products they think might be of interest to troops in the field.
As the Army tries to forge "Warrior Athletes" with its new PT program (and other services have done the same) it stands to reason that the extreme sports industry and its nutrition component will have greater application to military life than ever.
Let me just say one thing first -- I am NOT a big supplement guy. Sure, I've downed my fair share of GU, PowerBars and Clif Bars in my mountaineering/kayaking/skiing days, but they were always a means to an end. So I approached these samples with a slightly pinched nose.
At the top of my list is the Hydrate and Recover powder. It tastes good, seems to work and doesn't leave an evil residue in your Nalgene. Next down the line is the Meal in a Bottle. It's essentially a chocolate shake and seems to fill me up just fine on those couple days where I had to have lunch on the run. My problem is that the scoop is too big for anything but the widest mouth bottle and you need a hefty amount to make the mix per the instructions.
Next I'd put the Performance Bars. They taste no different than a Power Bar and have the same stretchy, tooth aching grind to gulp down. Drink a shit ton of water with these because you'll be gasping for air when you're done with one.
Lastly, I'll talk about the Energy and Focus supplement. All I can say is Whoa! This stuff is raw, unprocessed, pure crack...Think of a Red Bull in powder form. Sure it's got all the vitamins and nutrients that a solid hangover helper should have, but it also has Golden Root, Gotu Kola (whatever the heck that is) and, more importantly, 125mg of Caffeine. Yeah, that's the ticket. Gulp down a bottle of this and you're buzzing bigtime. Sure, it tastes like a banana-flavored Flintstone vitamin, but it'll keep you up through the end of your 0100 to 0900 watch.
But beware, the Energy and Focus leaves a nasty residue and smell that you just can't shake, so devote one bottle to just that.
So again, I'm no expert, but I will say the Wilderness Athlete stuff seems like a good alternative to the Cyber Builter roidrage drinks and it's made specifically for the type of Warrior Athlete we're seeing in the field.
For anyone interested in trying some of their products, be sure to use coupon code 15%KITUP for a discount.
