Day 14 - reflecting on food on the trail as I recover

My friend Amy wants me to write about what I am eating on the trail. I will give you an example but it is not exact because I did add different items at different times to create some variety.

I begin my day with 2 tablespoons of soaked chia seeds. I soak them the night before with some electrolyte mix or possibly some lemonade mix. By morning they have swollen up and are gelatinous and I slug it down and hit the trail as early as possible.

Some time later in the morning, hopefully in a sunny spot, I eat my big breakfast. This is two packages of Love Grown gluten free breakfast cereal, powdered goat milk and 2 tablespoons of dried fruit. The goat milk is awesome because it contains fat. Most powdered milk is fat free and I really want the fat content for warmth. I soak this overnight in my Bot and eat it when it is convenient.

I allow myself 4 snack bars throughout the day. Possibly 2 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon but I will eat all 4 at once if I am in the mood. Once I hit mile 500, I increased my snack bars to 6 per day. I really tried to stay away from the sweet snack bars that are really just candy bars in disguise. I have pumpkin seeds to snack on too. About a 1/2 cup per day. They are a combination of salted/roasted ones and raw ones. I figured that I would need the salt in my diet and I do, however I prefer the raw ones. During the first week on the trail I had some soaked and dried pecans that my mom made for me.

Lunch is a meaty bar or a half bag of Crave jerkey and a power wrap. The power wraps are amazing! James found them in Hawaii and I ordered a few cases. They are raw sprouted seeds wraped in seaweed. They are different and delicious and come in many flavors.

Dinner is 2 cups of mixed freeze dried veggies plus a packet of miso soup and a half packet of instant mashed potatoes. I may add some dehydrated olives or a packet of tamari for interest. An entire packet of mashed potatoes "feeds 8" and I have found that a half packet is perfect at the end of the day. Another variation of dinner is a cup of bulk instant soup (like corn chowder or split pea or lentil soup) and a bullion cube and 2 cups of veggies.  I bought freeze dried veggies in bulk. I got carrots and spinach,  kale powder, tofu and sweet potatoes.  They are all quite good.

every day I am alloted a half a chocolate bar or a caveman bar for my sweet treat. It may be gone by 7 am but the beauty of it is that I get to choose when to eat it.