Eating Trail Food at Home

Posted by: Gershon

Eating Trail Food at Home - 09/22/11 10:13 AM

I work at home, so have a lot of time to experiment. In the morning, I've grown to enjoy sitting out on my deck and cooking my oatmeal or other grain hot cereal with fixins added while other people are rushing off to work. I also play with different ways of using the Svea stove and have learned to use only 2 or 3 grams of white gas for each meal.

In my cupboard, there are about 20 Mason Jars with various dry ingredients for meals. My trail snacks at home are usually some mixture of nuts, raisins, dehydrated bananas, chips or whatever will fit in about half of my little 2 cup pot.

We cook fancy for lunch and supper as I also enjoy gourmet cooking. But sometime during the day, I'll go out on the deck and cook one of my lunch or supper recipes or test something new.

The calories say I should be gaining weight. I eat 5-6,000 calories a day. (I was shocked when I tracked that.) But I'm losing weight. I've lost about 20 pounds in the last 6 weeks I needed to lose with high energy and no hunger. Maybe instead of great trail food, I've discovered a great diet plan.


Posted by: balzaccom

Re: Eating Trail Food at Home - 09/22/11 10:53 AM

If you are eating 5000-6000 calories a day, and not gaining weight, then I would see a doctor.

Or check your math.

I ride a road bike most days, and east about 3,000 calories a day, and my weight is stable. It's hard to imagine eating 6,000 calories in a day. The guys who ride the Tour de France do that....with double plates of pasta for all meals.

But they are using up those calories. It doesn't sound like you are doing that.

Posted by: Gershon

Re: Eating Trail Food at Home - 09/22/11 11:59 AM

I don't do doctors. Except to have my ears cleaned once, I haven't been to a doctor since I retired from the Air Force 18 years ago. Can't remember the last time I've been sick. Not even a cold. I seldom get headaches, but when I do, I just close my eyes for a minute, empty my mind, and they go away. Now I'm too old to die young.

Maybe people undercount. This morning, I had a bowl of oatmeal and fixins (300 calories) and 40 grams of peanuts. (237) calories. For lunch, I'll have a grilled cheese sandwich on homemade rye bread with peppers and onions and some chips (763 Calories.)

Somewhere along the way before lunch, I'll eat a fresh banana (155 calories) and probably have some peanuts or walnuts and raisins. (Another 250 calories or so.) So, I'm at 1600 by lunchtime at 11:00. Then there are the afternoon snacks, supper, second supper, bedtime snack, and a cup or two of hot chocolate or hot carob drink.

Generally, I'll only have a small serving of meat once a week or so. So, I say I'm "mostly vegetarian."

The times I put on weight is when I slip off a diet of organic food which is what happened this spring and summer.

Lots of times during the day, I'll go outside and pace on the deck while I ponder something or other. According to the pedometer I do about 8 miles a day. This is probably overstating it a bit because of the short paces at the end.



Posted by: finallyME

Re: Eating Trail Food at Home - 09/22/11 12:20 PM

So.....you're a hobbit. smile
Posted by: FredMT

Re: Eating Trail Food at Home - 09/22/11 12:28 PM

I have a nearly endless supply of freeze dried food, because I do a lot of testing. I like to gourmet up my home food with it. For instance, mandarin oranges, spinach, and slivered sprouted almonds in regular jasmine rice. I would not have these items at home if they were not f.d. they would go bad the minute I turned my back. Plus I tend to leave town for the mountains on a moments notice. I find that eating meals with more than 1/2 freeze dried and dehydrated makes my colon feel a little strange during digestion. My mother says the same thing. I do not weigh myself, because I seem to stay at the ideal weight no matter what, but when I eat more than 50% backpack food, I always feel like I am losing weight. without getting into depth on nutrition, I think more care needs to be taken to round out EVERY (freeze dried and dehydrated) meal. For instance, when you hear that cooked tomatoes will give you more nutrition than raw and adding olive oil helps even more. Or that Quinoa is a complete protein with all amino acids so you can digest it. Others here most likely can be more tech savvy on this, but that is my gut('s) reaction to my extensive testing.
Posted by: balzaccom

Re: Eating Trail Food at Home - 09/22/11 10:00 PM

Uh...if you do your math, it's you who are over counting.

oatmeal and fixins (300 calories)
40 grams of peanuts. (237) calories.
a fresh banana (155 calories)
some peanuts or walnuts and raisins. (Another 250 calories or so.)

That's less than 1,000 calories before lunch. Unless you want to count your lunch (a grilled cheese sandwich on homemade rye bread with peppers and onions and some chips (763 Calories.))

And then count your lunch again.

So in fact you're at 1600 AFTER Lunch. And if you eat roughly the same thing again for the rest of the day, that puts you at about 3200 Calories for the day, not 5,000-6,000.

I am not trying to pick nits here....but it's pretty common to estimate that an adult male needs around 2500 +/- per day...so you are in the ballpark with 3200. And that's good estimate for on the trail as well.

With 5,000-6,000 you are way off the charts. The guys who ride in the tour de France use that many calories every day, but they are working harder than you or I will ever work, at home or on the trail...
Posted by: Fiddleback

Re: Eating Trail Food at Home - 09/25/11 10:44 AM

Originally Posted By Gershon
I don't do doctors...I haven't been to a doctor since I retired from the Air Force 18 years ago...


tick...tick...tick. Just' sayin'. wink

Still, my diet is similar in concept. But I would word the subject differently, 'Eating Home Food on the Trail'. Most of my hot dinner meals are dehydrated portions of dinners served at home. Trail breakfasts don't differ all that much either.

FB
Posted by: billstephenson

Re: Eating Trail Food at Home - 09/28/11 12:04 PM

Originally Posted By Fiddleback
Originally Posted By Gershon
I don't do doctors...I haven't been to a doctor since I retired from the Air Force 18 years ago...


tick...tick...tick. Just' sayin'. wink



I don't do doctors either. Almost all the people I grew up with are now taking some kind of prescription drug, most are taking several kinds, and have been for years now. Almost all of them have suffered side effects and/or adverse reactions from those patent drugs, some of them suffer from serious side effects. At least one has died as a result of those "side effects".

As a rule, people put way to much faith in doctors and ignore the known side effects of the drugs they take. When drug companies tell you in their TV ads that "Death" is a side effect, it's because they know people die as a result of using their drugs, not from the condition the drugs are prescribed to treat.

tick...tick...tick. Just' sayin'. wink

Posted by: Heather-ak

Re: Eating Trail Food at Home - 09/28/11 12:34 PM

On the other hand, my husband has a "natural" blood pressure high enough to put him in the hospital - even in his fit 20s. Additionally, at their worst, migraines for WEEKS and horrible insomnia. Now are they all likely related? Yup, husband is type A perfectionist. However, without his meds he (and I) are miserable.

I will say, I wish his Dr. would talk to him about other ways to keep some of this on track - he could prob. reduce the amounts of his meds through excersise, meditation (or at least learning to deal with lack of perfection in other people) and less processed food (my fault as much as his.)

There is definitly a place for Dr.s - but no excuse for not educating yourself too.
Posted by: sarbar

Re: Eating Trail Food at Home - 09/30/11 10:58 AM

Ummmm....I have no issue taking my blood pressure meds faithfully, daily. Looking at my maternal and paternal history I will keep doing that thankyouverymuch. Both my parents died way too young from the side effects of.....uncontrolled high blood pressure. It is genetic in my family and I was running high at 16!! I even take meds while pregnant - funny is I take a med that is out of patent many years ago and is such an old one that most pharmacies do not stock it (it has to be ordered). I can tell you that my oldest son was a hair over 5 lbs, born at a shy 36 weeks. My second son, when I was on meds, was born at 38 weeks and 9 lbs. I am pregnant again and I am looking to have another giant - all due to my BP being controlled! High BP leads to small babies - the placenta reverses the BP and leads to ultra low BP in the infant.

I'll take the side effects (the only real side effect I suffer from my meds is severe anemia in pregnancy).

And controlled BP is better than renal failure which my Mom had happen. She spent 7 years on dialysis before her heart gave out (very common in D patients).

I don't take medical advice blindly, I do my research. But I'd rather not live how my Mom did. It was no kind of life.

And PS: I eat an overall lower sodium diet, work out, keep active, don't smoke or drink and when not pregnant eat nearly all vegan. But genetics I cannot beat.
Posted by: billstephenson

Re: Eating Trail Food at Home - 09/30/11 12:52 PM

Originally Posted By Heather-ak
There is definitly a place for Dr.s - but no excuse for not educating yourself too.


Exactly.

Putting your life solely in the hands of someone who's spent five or ten minutes listening to you and another five or ten minutes reading results of some tests is not a good idea.

You have to review their diagnoses, and their prescription for treatment. If you do that you might find you don't really suffer from what they've diagnosed. Or, you might find that there are other, better, treatments. Or, you might find that their prescription for treatment will adversely react with treatments you are already undertaking.

Herbal remedies work, sometimes better than prescription drugs, and often with no harmful side effects. I'm not saying to ditch your prescription drugs and your doctor, but I think it's always important to learn about what ails you and the treatments available to you, and it can't hurt to speak with your doctor about incorporating natural remedies into your treatment and transitioning to them from prescription drugs.

The most important thing to remember is that doctors do not know everything. They do not always know about the latest and best treatments for every ailment they encounter. Don't expect that when you go to a doctor, it is incredibly unreasonable to do so.

Here are some herbal remedies for high blood pressure.

Heather, it sounds to me like you and your husband might both benefit if he took a little Passion flower laugh
Posted by: oldranger

Re: Eating Trail Food at Home - 09/30/11 01:37 PM

I have an appointment for my annual exam with a doctor who has been seeing me since 1983 (he was the park dive physician when I was an active SCUBA diver) and he knows me well, both my medical history and my lifestyle choices, as well as my end of life concerns. I don't pick doctors at random.

My annual physical last year resulted in a major procedure from which I am fully recovered, thanks to Ed's choice of the doctors to which I was referred. All in all it was a very positive experience.

Any of us bears the ultimate responsibility for our health and well being, particularly through our life style choices, as well as the strategic and tactical decisions made as we face medical situations. A good doctor who knows us well is a valued partner in choosing good courses of action. That kind of doctor is less likely to pop pills just so they can get to the next case.

In my mid 70s, the only medication i take is a daily baby aspirin. That is the result of good physician choice, reasonable lifestyle decisions, decent fenetics, and dumb luck.
Posted by: Fiddleback

Re: Eating Trail Food at Home - 10/01/11 10:13 AM

Originally Posted By oldranger
I have an appointment for my annual exam with a doctor who has been seeing me since 1983 (he was the park dive physician when I was an active SCUBA diver) and he knows me well, both my medical history and my lifestyle choices, as well as my end of life concerns. I don't pick doctors at random.

My annual physical last year resulted in a major procedure from which I am fully recovered, thanks to Ed's choice of the doctors to which I was referred. All in all it was a very positive experience.

Any of us bears the ultimate responsibility for our health and well being, particularly through our life style choices, as well as the strategic and tactical decisions made as we face medical situations. A good doctor who knows us well is a valued partner in choosing good courses of action. That kind of doctor is less likely to pop pills just so they can get to the next case.

In my mid 70s, the only medication i take is a daily baby aspirin. That is the result of good physician choice, reasonable lifestyle decisions, decent fenetics, and dumb luck.


+1

It's hard to not to do doctors if one wants a periodic checkup. Yet those checkups are important...too many serious problems don't show symptoms until they are really serious...high blood pressure, high cholesterol, prostate, colo-rectal, lung and other cancers, etc. Many (most?) of those develop over time, i.e., one's health status is not static. Beyond the issue of early or 'in time' detection, some of these common problems have relatively high successful treatments.

Those that 'don't do doctors', meaning they don't do preventitive health care such as periodic physicals are irresponsible to themselves, their families, and society as a whole. They may indeed get away with it...but their quality of life will not meet its potential.

They even may not be able to hear the tick tick tick ... grin

FB
Posted by: sarbar

Re: Eating Trail Food at Home - 10/01/11 12:09 PM

While herbal remedies can be beneficial one needs to be very, very careful with taking them especially if they are taking any over the counter or prescribed medications. There can be nasty complications. Also...women of child bearing age and children need to be beyond wary and avoid anything without proper guidance. (Let me put it this way I do not take any herbal meds as there some that can cause early labor - not a good thing). There are even herbal teas that can cause abortions......made from trees.

Heck, I am sure few know that handling large amounts of fresh sage can cause a severe drop in BP. I found that out by accident when pregnant with my oldest. I nearly passed out in my garden as I was cutting back my sage plantation with bare hands. I now garden always wearing gloves for that reason, as I grow a lot of herbs.
Posted by: Gershon

Re: Eating Trail Food at Home - 10/01/11 04:28 PM

deleted.

Rather stay on the topic of trail food at home. Sorry about that. Or home food on the trail.
Posted by: Fiddleback

Re: Eating Trail Food at Home - 10/02/11 09:18 AM

Originally Posted By Gershon
deleted.

Rather stay on the topic of trail food at home. Sorry about that. Or home food on the trail.


OK! I wanted details on the 'lose weight on 6000 calories a day' diet anyway. Details about the diet and the activity that burns it off?

I pay more attention to my weekly, rather than daily, calorie intake. And I've found that, unless I'm faithful to my exercise program (a big 'if' at times), I start gaining weight once I surpass 14000-15000 calories per week...little more than a third of the that in the OP. Agan, without devotion to exercise, I don't start losing weight until I drop below 12500 calories a week. I know everyone's metabolism is different but...

FB
Posted by: balzaccom

Re: Eating Trail Food at Home - 10/02/11 11:54 AM

Well--as I pointed out, it was more like 3200 calories a day...

Posted by: Gershon

Re: Eating Trail Food at Home - 10/02/11 12:54 PM

I belong to a group where most everyone is at a reasonable weight. But everyone does it eating differently. But they all eat organic food and very little meat. I'm pretty sure organic food is the common factor.

Posted by: skcreidc

Re: Eating Trail Food at Home - 10/02/11 01:10 PM

Eating less meat is a big part of it. Go meatless one or two days a week. Eat less red meat. Mix in stuff like sardines now and then. It's funny, but some of these old diets that are now touted as healthy were sort of survival diets. That is what they ate because that is what they had. Once western civilization became prosperous, the meat content of the diet jumped up. This is especially true in the U.S.

sK
Posted by: billstephenson

Re: Eating Trail Food at Home - 10/03/11 12:25 AM

Originally Posted By Fiddleback
Those that 'don't do doctors', meaning they don't do preventitive health care such as periodic physicals are irresponsible to themselves, their families, and society as a whole.


Fiddleback, I wish it were, but it is not as simple as "go get your check-up and you're a responsible person who's doing the right thing". According to what I could easily find, going to the doctor is the second leading cause of preventable death in the U.S.

Deaths from avoidable medical error.

List of preventable causes of death.

Originally Posted By oldranger
I don't pick doctors at random.


That's certainly good advice, and the importance of it is made very clear with those links above.

A little closer to on topic, I don't recall hearing of anyone dying from eating trail food at home, so I figure that must be pretty far down on the list of avoidable deaths laugh






Posted by: Fiddleback

Re: Eating Trail Food at Home - 10/03/11 08:36 AM

While health, or health conditions, can be effected by different foods; weight not so much.

It is always; calories in, calories out. Burn more calories than ingested and one will lose weight. Different foods can hurt or help attaining a certain calorie target but, in the end, less calories eaten than processed is the (non-surgical) way to weight loss. Stoopid science. mad

My main evening meal on the trail pretty much reflects many of the meals I eat at home. The difference between the two 'diets' is the gorp, nighttime snacks, and such I have on the trail.

FB
Posted by: BZH

Re: Eating Trail Food at Home - 10/03/11 01:02 PM

Originally Posted By Fiddleback
...
It is always; calories in, calories out. Burn more calories than ingested and one will lose weight. ...


If that were universally true, then the Atkins diet would not work.
Posted by: midnightsun03

Re: Eating Trail Food at Home - 10/03/11 09:13 PM

Calories are calories. There's nothing magical about protein calories that makes them less fattening than carb or fat calories. It is just that proteins and fats take longer to digest so the body feels satiated longer than it does on carbs, so you eat fewer calories overall. There is some chemistry involved that I'm not addressing that makes a small difference between types of carbs (high glycemic versus low glycemic), but the bottom line is that your body stores whatever excess you take in regardless where it comes from. Once your muscle glycogen stores are full up your body stores the excess as fat. If we don't exercise and burn the muscle glycogen stores then most of what we eat gets stored as fat from the get-go. Most people could live for days without eating, although it isn't easy (or fun) when your body is converting fat to energy. This is a simplistic answer to a complex phenomenon, but the saying holds true: calories in should equal calories out or you will gain weight. That is, as long as you have a normally functioning thyroid. If your thyroid is out of whack then all bets are off.

MNS
Posted by: Gershon

Re: Eating Trail Food at Home - 10/04/11 09:40 AM

Without getting too scientific, I've found it's very difficult to gain weight no matter what I eat if I walk or run 6 miles a day. For bicycling, it's about 18 miles a day.

My diet has varied a lot over the years, so I'm not sure it makes a lot of difference as long as it's reasonable.

My interest in when I started this thread was simply to find a lighter weight way to avoid the food mood after the third day. I haven't found an answer yet.

Posted by: BZH

Re: Eating Trail Food at Home - 10/04/11 11:47 AM

Originally Posted By midnightsun03
Calories are calories. There's nothing magical about protein calories that makes them less fattening than carb or fat calories. It is just that proteins and fats take longer to digest so the body feels satiated longer than it does on carbs, so you eat fewer calories overall. ...


I've never seen any study that showed the Atkins diet resulted in weight loss due to less calories consumed. My understanding is that the Atkins diet works because it forces the body into a state of Ketosis were the body gets its energy from stored fat instead of consumed food. So, again I say it is not universally true that calories are calories. The metabolic function of your body plays a role.
Posted by: lori

Re: Eating Trail Food at Home - 10/04/11 01:05 PM

Originally Posted By BZH
Originally Posted By Fiddleback
...
It is always; calories in, calories out. Burn more calories than ingested and one will lose weight. ...


If that were universally true, then the Atkins diet would not work.


Define "work." If the only goal were losing water weight, it probably does work. If the goal is a healthy way to lose weight, it probably doesn't, because your body does need some other things the Atkins religion doesn't provide.

So saith the dietitian I have known, who is extremely frustrated with fad diets that omit segments of a healthy diet and contribute to her ongoing war with eating disordered clientele.

I have also known someone on a somewhat modified Atkins diet... he had the worst BO ever.
Posted by: BZH

Re: Eating Trail Food at Home - 10/04/11 04:51 PM

since fiddleback was only talking about losing weight, my term "work" is defined in response to him as only about losing weight.

Discussions about diets is certainly an interesting one (though perhaps a bit off topic). In reality all diets have an abysmally low success rate in terms of long term weight loss. You can say that is because people don't stick with the diet. That is true, but not enough emphasis in diets (imho) is put on people's willingness to stick to them. These diets do not just exist in theory, they have to be able to actually help people.

.... ok, now I will try to focus on the topic at hand.
Posted by: midnightsun03

Re: Eating Trail Food at Home - 10/04/11 09:50 PM

You're still going to use the calories taken in (as proteins and fats) before you start burning your fat stores for energy. If you're losing weight on the Atkins diet it is because you are burning more calories than you are taking in. Again, the calories in fats and proteins are no different than carbohydrates, except that carbs are quickly digested and the energy liberated goes to refill muscle and liver glycogen stores first. If the carbs satisfy the body's energy needs then the calories from fats and proteins will get stored as fat. If you're not eating carbs then the proteins and fats will be used when ingested, but they are much slower to be digested, so in the absence of quick glycogen then the body will get the energy needed to digest the fats and proteins from whatever sources it has available, including your fat stores. But if the body gets what it needs from fat and the ingested calories aren't needed, they will be stored as fat. So you're back to the original problem of calories in must equal calories out or you won't lose weight.

MNS

Posted by: sarbar

Re: Eating Trail Food at Home - 10/05/11 05:54 PM

That is very true.

The key in a vegan diet to being a relatively normal weight is that one doesn't fill up on junk food - if you quit eating meat you have to sub it with nutrient dense foods that fill one up. Nuts for example are high in fat but have a lot going for them - and if one porks out on raw nuts they will pay the price down the road (ie..running for the bathroom). A diet high in fiber keeps one full. A whole foods diet does this naturally. That being a well rounded diet of say grains, nuts, seeds, vegetables and fruits.

Even a meat eater can do this. But not with things such as fried meat or organ meats. It has to be meat in moderation and preferably lean cuts.

But it has NOTHING to do with the food being organic. You can eat conventional produced foods the same way. What DOES matter is that one doesn't consume highly processed foods. An apple is a apple, same with rice. It means though cooking a rice dish from scratch versus grabbing a box of preflavored and parcooked rice that is high in sodium and bad oils. And I might add that there is plenty of cruddy bad for you junk food out there that is organic. You can still eat junk food on a 100% organic diet......the only difference is the organic junk food is artificial flavoring/coloring free. Still empty calories.