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Each day on the GIT, you are going to encounter some kind of public park,
gas station, or restaurant. There is always somewhere you can find water. This
was good news because I wouldn’t need to carry a bulky water filter or
plastic pot.
I rode the bike all summer and seemed to be “in shape.” Some medical
standards would disagree and put my 5’11” tall 215 pound frame into the
technically obese category. Carrying it well is
no consolation to the belief in the averages, and that weight puts me at a level of risk for
all kinds of heart, cholesterol, and diabetes problems of which, I do not
want to be a part. The bike ride would be semi-strenuous by my standards; so
I figured that if I kept my intake to 2500 calories or so, I would be
getting fit fast, and in a good way. Not a starvation diet, but a proper
diet linked to a grueling workout.
Nutritionally speaking, mountain climbing and multi-day thrubiking are
not much different from each other with one notable exception: You can
afford a to carry a bulkier
packaged food on a bike.
I’ve used super-duper freeze dried lightweight food on mountain and
multi-day rock climbs just because I had to maximize the amount of days I
could carry. Shorter three or four day climbs allowed me to use military
meal-ready-to-eat or MRE’s.
Planning – Meal: Dinner
After a long
day of doing anything strenuous, an MRE is like having a full course dinner at Morton’s Steak House. They’re
great! I heat water in a pot with the main course bag. The water gets used with the MRE drink mix. I even have the punch mix hot. It is not necessary to use a stove, MRE's come with
their own chemical heater. Put water and the main course in the heater bag,
and you've got a hot entre. I don’t know about drinking that water though. When hungry, an MRE with a hot drink will put you right.
Every MRE
has a small pack or tissue paper, spoon, napkin, salt, pepper, small Tabasco
sauce bottle, wet-wipe, sugar. There’s something to mix with water to be
consumed hot or cold, a desert cake, cookie, or candy; two large crackers
with something to smear on them (either peanut butter, jam, cheese, or my
favorite jalapeño cheese spread), a side dish of rice or potatoes. The
Menu's main course is listed in on the outside of the thick plastic bag,
This bag is reusable
as a garbage storage bag. Maybe not mentioned to this point, but the kind of
outdoor living espoused here is “leave no trace.”
MRE’s cases
come in two basic menu selections. There is an “A” case and a “B” case. Fat,
Protein, and Carbohydrate grams are balanced and it has an energy content of about 1200-1300 calories. These would make up
about half of my daily food requirements.
Menu “A”
01 - Chili w/Beans
02 - Pork Rib
03 - Beef Ravioli
04 - Cheese & Vegetable Omelet
05 - Chicken Breast
06 - Chicken w/Noodles
07 - Meatloaf w/Gravy
08 - Beef Patty
09 - Beef Stew
10 - Chili & Macaroni
11 - Vegetable Lasagna
12 - Veggie Burger w/BBQ Sauce
Menu “B”
13 - Cheese Tortellini
14 - Spicy Penne Pasta
15 - Beef Enchilada
16 - Chicken Fajita
17 - Sloppy Joe Filling
18 - Meatballs w/Marinara
19 - Pot Roast w/Vegetables
20 - Spaghetti w/Meat Sauce
21 - Tuna in Pouch
22 - Chicken w/Dumplings
23 - Chicken Pesto & Pasta
24 - Chicken w/Salsa
Planning – Meal: Breakfast & Lunch
Figuring our how much is the balancing act. Shooting for a typical day of
2200-2800 calories, with the MRE taking up 1250, leaves a total of 950-1550
for the rest of the day. The lion’s share of these calories should be
consumed at breakfast.
Now here is a little backwards fill-in thinking. I’ve already recounted the
praises of clif bars, and they have a calorie content of 250 per bar. Two for lunch
would make up 500 calories. Add the MRE to that: 1800 calories. To hit 2500
or thereabouts, Fill in breakfast with 700-800 calories of oatmeal and milk.
I would usually leave the stove set up overnight so that I could have my hot
breakfast with minimal interference in the morning. Hot
oatmeal and hot milk are my favorite breakfast foods on the trail. It
doesn’t matter if you re in the dessert or on a glacier it’s always cooler
in the morning and this hydrated high calorie breakfast will give you
sustained energy to take you well past lunchtime.
One package of the oatmeal is too thin to cook in my pan, two works better. It is a balance of nutrition and cooking ease. The oatmeal
packets vary between 130-160, so again we’ll say 150 calories for sake of
ease. Two packets make up 300 calories, leaving chocolate or dehydrated hot
milk to take up the slack between 100 and 700 calories
I always carry a 20oz thermos wide mouth insulated cup. The cap allows the
drink to stay hot for quite a while. For breakfast,
Swiss Miss or any generic will do. I am filling it based upon the caloric
content that I need, not the recommended hydration from the side of the
package. This means I am usually drinking a very thick chocolate or milk
flavored cream-like substance. Each hot chocolate packet is about 120
calories , and it takes two or three to fill out the breakfast calories.
If you can find it, it would be better to use individually packaged milk and
maybe only one chocolate milk packet for the drink. The chocolate milk is
sometimes so terribly sweet, you look forward to just finishing it so you
can wash it down with some fresh water.
Planning – Meal: Food Summary
Breakfast: (Lowfat*)
2x
Oatmeal 300 calories
4x
Hot Chocolate 480 calories
Lunch
3x clif bars 750 calories
Dinner (Balanced)
1x
MRE 1300 calories
TOTAL CALORIES: 2830
-1 clif bar
TOTAL
CALORIES: 2580
TOTAL WEIGHT
OF FOOD : 2.9 pounds or 1.3 kilos per day. (9 days = 26 pounds for food)
*Generally Lowfat: Fat has been taking a knocking for a long
time and it is really unwarranted. There seems to be a mass public hypnosis
that tells us if it is fat, it is bad and will make us…well… fat! It’s just
not the same. All food is composed of three things, ok five if we include
water and minerals. But it is safe to say in general, all food is going to
be some combination of Carbohydrate, Protein and Fat. Carbohydrates and
Protein are 5 calories per gram where a fat gram is 9 calories –almost
double.
What does
this mean to someone who is interested in having enough to eat and at the
same time limiting the weight of the food they are carrying on their back?
Load your diet with fat, it is easier to carry! Since it is easy to cart
around the extra weight on a bike, I eat a balance of the three.
Fat
is good, cheese burgers are good, bacon is good. If I could, I would get a
double Royal with Cheese!
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