C
heryl Strayed became a bit of an overnight celebrity ear-
lier this year when Oprah chose her book, Wild, to be the
first selection for Oprah Book Club 2.0. Many people fell
in love with her story of hiking a portion of the Pacific Crest Trail,
admiring her determination and attitude. Well before her book
was published, my now wife Julia and I, with only a single night
in a tent together, decided that we would attempt to hike the Pa-
cific Crest Trail, as our honeymoon no less. The undertaking was
daunting to say the least. Planning and preparation are a crucial
aspect of taking on a 4200+km hike that would last well over
4 months. With absolutely no experience, we had to research
everything from gear to food, from logistics to the proper etiquette
for wilderness bowel movements.
What ended up being the most challenging was nutrition. Julia
is vegan and I am a "pescatarian" (I eat fish). We love food,
creating delicious, healthy meals with a variety of fresh produce.
We love to experiment with new foods and recipes, coming up
with our own and learning from others. Vegans and vegetarians
must pay special attention to their nutrition to ensure no critical
nutrients are lacking, and this is especially true for those of us that
are extremely active. A typical long-distance hiker's grocery list
would be primarily made up of Ramen noodles, Snickers bars,
Pop-Tarts, fajita wraps, instant mashed potato and other calorie
dense, nutrient sparse foods. Truth be told, it's an opportunity
for people to eat whatever they want and still lose weight. It's
that miracle diet and exercise plan we've all been searching for!
Since you're out for 5 7 days at a time between towns, ev-
erything you eat you must carry. Since you're burning so many
calories hiking an average 30 to 35km per day, foods are scored
based on calories per ounce and you can only eat so much trail
mix before the sight of it makes you ill.
What we decided was that if we weren't going to get in the fresh
vegetables that we're used to, and the quality sources of protein,
we'd have to somehow supplement them into our diet. We use a
number of nutritional supplements on a daily basis, but now they
would truly be put to the test! For the duration of the hike, Julia
conceded to consuming whey protein, given the benefits and the
special circumstances. We also supplemented with Progressive
VegeGreens and PhytoBerry, as well as the Progressive multivi-
tamins. These 4 products essentially filled all the nutritional gaps
that a hiker diet creates. We would share a big morning shake
of the Precision IPLX protein with VegeGreens and have a huge
pot of large flake oats with almonds and brown sugar. When that
got unbearable we would switch to a high-calorie, high protein
breakfast bar instead. Either at lunch-time or dinner (depending
on where we found water) we'd have a second shake of the
same protein, but with PhytoBerry. For the first time in my life I
took my multivitamins religiously, three a day, just about every
single day. It didn't take long before other hikers started to ask
us about our shakes; so we got to preach a little bit and get oth-
ers thinking about nutrition. It's not difficult to get rundown when
you're essentially walking all day everyday in whatever weather
Mother Nature chooses, while constantly dirty.
Wilderness Fast Food
TOTALFIT ADVENTURE
Photographs cour
tesy of Brian Lafleur
23
www.TOTALFITmagazine.com
Vol. 2, Edition #3