Navy introduces fitness, nutrition program at health seminar
By MC2 Kim Williams, Navy Public Affairs Support Element East

The U.S. Navy, partnered with Athletes’ Performance Institute (API), introduced the Navy Operational Fitness and Fueling Series (NOFFS) at the 49th annual Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Conference, March 25, in Hampton, Va.

The program is aimed at building operational performance in the fleet and includes tools for Sailors to improve their physical fitness and overall nutrition. Built on five pillar preps of eat clean, eat often, hydrate, recover and mindset, NOFFS allows those once stumped at the notion of building effective eating habits and exercise routines the ability to jump-start their performance by selecting foods and exercises that will help them meet the daily demands of their operational duties.

“NOFFS is a complete workout and nutritional program that will eliminate the guess work for Sailors so they can go about their daily fitness routines without having to seek someone out to help them,” said Lisa Sexauer, program manager of fitness and injury prevention for Commander Navy Installations Command.

The Navy will roll the program and its resources out to the fleet in June 2010 and it will become part of the command fitness leader course in 2011.

“The program will take us into a whole new realm of physical readiness in the Navy,” said Sexauer. “It’s certainly a departure from what has become familiar within our general population; it’s far more contemporary and will accentuate our ability to perform at a higher level operationally with greater durability and less risk for injury.”

The Navy and API have been working together for eight years to improve physical readiness throughout the fleet.

“We have taken a comprehensive approach working with the Navy including looking at the strength program, warm-up and cardiovascular fitness demands of a Sailor,” said Paul Cauldwell, API performance specialist.

“We also looked at the nutritional needs a Sailor has both abroad and while they are deployed. We wanted to ensure that the training we developed fits their lives just like we do for professional athletes.”

Cauldwell added that the overall goal of the Navy and API is to decrease injury to Sailors based on a sedentary lifestyle.

“We noticed a lack of consistency across the board in our research,” said Cauldwell. We want to bring that to the fleet. Ultimately, we want to take care of the Navy’s biggest asset, its Sailors.”

Once the program hits the fleet, Sailors will have menus, nutrition rules and food or “fuel” information at their fingertips. After conducting several focus groups on various platforms in the fleet, officials determined that enclosing the science of proper exercise and nutrition in a handy booklet was the best way to go to ensure that Sailors can understand and apply the fundamentals of a healthy diet and exercise to their lives easily.

For more information about the NOFFS program, visit the Web site
http://www.nmcphc.med.navy.mil/Heal...OFFS.aspx.