Post Summary
I’m detailing what I ate to fuel an 850-mile hike.
I hiked about 25 miles a day and had to carry all of my food.
I learned some valuable lessons about exercise and nutrition along the way—and they’re useful for any active person. I cover:
Four nutrition rules for endurance exercise (hiking, runs, weighted walking, etc).
Selecting the right foods for endurance.
Getting enough protein and electrolytes.
The perfect protein bar for long outings.
My “calorie bomb mix” (good for endurance and surviving the apocalypse).
A common food that is magic on the trail but a recipe for diabetes at home.
A seed that fixes a common mineral deficiency (we should all eat it).
A warning about electrolyte powders and a natural electrolyte source that’s far better than LMNT.
Foods I planned to bring but ditched.
And more …
Watch the video above and read the text below.
Quick housekeeping
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The post
It’s time for Gear Not Stuff1.
Read more about the idea behind Gear Not Stuff here.
In short: Gear Not Stuff is a framework that helps us make smarter purchasing decisions. Gear has a clear purpose of helping us achieve a higher purpose—a tool we can use to have better experiences.
Today’s Gear Not Stuff covers what I ate while hiking 850 miles across the desert. (Learn more about the hike here).
For 40 days, I hiked from sunup to sundown across a wild landscape carrying a heavy pack. Fueling all of that effort required a lot of food. The journey sometimes felt as much like an eating competition as it did a walk through the desert.
But I couldn’t eat just anything. Food is heavy, and I wanted the lightest pack possible. I had to factor in a food’s weight, nutritional quality, ease of storage and consumption, and much more.
I learned a lot about nutrition and exercise.
Watch the video above for a breakdown of each food (note: you can speed up the video by clicking the three dots in the video progress bar).
Read the post below for a detailed list of the foods.
Along the way, I also explain four rules around eating for endurance so you can fuel properly, avoid issues, perform better, and use food to boost your fitness.
Foods I ate on the trail
I’ve separated these into breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks.
We left three caches of food in the middle of the desert and cobbled together meals in grocery marts and gas stations in tiny towns.
Breakfast
I’d eat half of breakfast as I hit the trail and the rest a few hours later, usually around 10 o’clock.
