Eating Right For and On Your Outdoor Adventures

Nutrition can be especially important when you are exerting so many calories hiking, biking or paddling!  You are burning a ton of calories, so you need nutritious fuel from the food but you also need a lot of calories.  The conundrum is you are no doubt trying to minimize pack weight.  What to do? 

I asked nutrition expert, Lucy Hayhurst of Well Balanced Nutrition to join us on the show today.

Meet Lucy Hayhurst, Nutritionist and Founder

Well Balanced Nutrition

Lucy studied Nutrition and Dietetics at the University of Dayton and completed her Dietetic Internship at West Virginia University Hospitals. After becoming a registered dietitian, she moved to Durham, NC and started Well Balanced Nutrition.

With over 10 years of practicing nutrition and wellness coaching Lucy offers a unique perspective coming to the table as an expert in behavior change. She helps take what you know and turn it into lifestyle habits.

Lucy combines her enthusiasm for fitness and playing in nature with her love for nutritious food and the result is a fun, interactive adventure for her clients. Lucy can light up a room and inspire a crowd. In addition to individual counseling, she is an author and motivational speaker.

Fuel vs Fluff

Nutritious foods are the fuel that give you the energy for your adventures.  But there is also a place for ‘fluff’!

A well balanced diet builds your glycogen stores (carbohydrate energy storehouse).  Fuel your tank with complex carbohydrates such as whole grains, beans, sweet potatoes and such.  The complex carbs burn more slowly and help keep your energy more consistent all day.

However, when you need a quick burst of energy, say you are about to do a major ascent, this is the time for fluff, or the simple carbs (think the ‘white’ foods like white bread, chips, etc.):  Lucy loves candy corn and nuts; I prefer a Snickers bar.

Salt is BAD, right?  Wrong!

 You can lose a lot of salt and electrolytes while on your outdoor adventures.  Sports drinks are often loaded with sugar (and sometimes TOO much salt).  Lucy recommends adding electrolytes to your water and avoiding the sports drinks.  Lucy likes a tasty electrolyte brand called Skratch.

 You can lose about a gram of salt per liter of sweat.  If you see a white ring around your hat or collar, you may be a salty sweater.  And I thought it was sunscreen:)

 Another easy and tasty way to add salt is to season your food with hot sauce!

 You want the color of your urine to be as clear as possible…if it’s yellow, you are not drinking enough water!  Hydration is just as important as good nutrition!  If you don’t want to carry so much water (it weighs 8 pounds/gallon or 1kg/L), bring a water treatment system.  Learn which one works best for you on Episode 3 of the Adventure Travel Show podcast.  Listen or download here (and see more info!), or on any podcast app.

Backpacking Food

Lucy says the time it’s most important to focus on nutrition is BEFORE your adventure.  But, you can be a little slack when you are on your adventure.  And sometimes “fluff” can even be helpful!

It’s best to graze during the day to keep your energy up, even if it’s just a little.  For someone small like Lucy, a Fig Newton or something similar each hour of hiking works.  Someone larger might need a handful of nuts.

ENERGY BARS

Often not the best choice.  Try when possible to go with the whole food options like nuts, hard boiled eggs, cheese, etc.  But when you need a burst of energy, an RX Bar would be better for you than a Snickers Bar, but both would give you the necessary burst.  Lucy says that if you can recognize most of the ingredients, you are probably fine.  Nonetheless, the RX Bars are a better choice because they use ingredients you would put on your grocery list.

Best Camping and Backpacking Food Options

Healthy backpacking food doesn’t have to weigh a ton.  Here are some of my favorite hiking foods.  Be sure to load up on hiking snacks as it’s best to graze throughout the day.  Your hiking meals can be easy AND nutritious if you choose from the list below.

Breakfast:

Instant Oatmeal with nuts, dried fruit and cinnamon.

Instant Mashed Potatoes with chunks of Beef Jerky

Whole wheat tortilla with peanut butter and dried bananas

It’s best to graze all day

No crash snacks:

Peatnut butter on whole wheat tortilla.  I like to also sprinkle it with raisins and roll it up.  Lasts for days without refrigeration and tastes like a PB&J treat!

Honey or Oat Bran Sesame sticks (look for near the produce section).  Mix in some nuts for more fat and protein.

Assortment of trail mix: some sweet and some salty so you don’t get tired of it.

Dinner:

Freeze dried meals are generally more nutritious than dehydrated meals (where the process can dignificantly reduce nutrients).  The freeze dried food retains nutrients but is expensive.  These meals are easy because all you do is add water.  Lucy’s fav is Mountain House Beef Stroganoff.

If you want to make your own meals, a hiking buddy RAVES about the food in the cookbook, Lip Smacking Backpacking!  I’ve bought it but haven’t cooked anything from it yet.

Other favorites include instant mashed potatoes, pasta and quick cook rice, stuffing mix.  I like the preseasoned pasta dishes and then add tuna or jerky for protein.  Soup mixes are also light yet tasty.

For protein, hard cheeses can last a few days without refrigeration.  Hard meats like salami and pepperoni do not require refrigeration.

Tuna in the foil packets, especially if packed in olive oil is tasty.  DON’T BRING CANS – too heavy!  The foil package doesn’t take up much room or weigh much in your trash zip bag.

FRESH FOOD

Alas, most fresh food does not travel well.  You are lucky to get a day out of it, and it is usually pretty heavy since much of it is made of water.

If you do bring, say a banana or apple, PACK OUT the skin and core.  Even though it is biodegradable, animals will eat it and then can learn to associate humans with food.  BAD IDEA!  Leave no Trace includes everything!

They are Tricky!  Naughty Food Company Tricks

Enriched:  They’ve taken out the whole grain goodness and replaced it with refined flour and some vitamins.  Go for the whole grains instead.

Natural:  This term really means nothing when it comes to food labeling.  Ignore it.

Multi-Grain:  Just because it’s multi-grain doesn’t mean it’s WHOLE grains (see enriched above).

Cholesterol or Gluten-Free:  You’ll see this often on packages that NEVER had cholesterol or gluten to begin with.  The company is just trying to ride a trend.  You’ll see this trend bandwagon also with the word “protein”.

“Protein”  is sometimes soy protein isolate, which while a protein, not something you’d put on your grocery list.  Lucy encourages us to buy foods that have ingredients we recognize and would put on our grocery list.

Well Balanced Nutrition

Reach out to Lucy for:

Nutritional Education

Wellness Coaching

Learn Intuitive and Mindful Eating

Visit  Well Balanced Nutrition

Get Lucy’s helpful FREE Newsletter packed with recipes, motivation and ideas!

Apply for a FREE coaching Call!

Jason Koop’s Secret Rice Ball Recipe

Jason Koop trains and coaches athletes.  This is the rice ball recipe Lucy recommended.  Learn more about Jason and his coaching here.

Sweet and Salty Rice Balls

Makes about 12 rice balls.

2 Eggs

1 1/2 Cups Uncooked Basmati Rice

2 Tbsp. Honey

1 Tbsp. Soy Sauce

Instructions:

1. Cook the rice.
2. Scramble and cook the eggs.
3. Combine rice, eggs, honey, and soy sauce in a larger mixing bowl.
4. Scoop small portions into sandwich bags and tie the ends off.

Per Ball: Calories 115 // Carbohydrate 20 g // Protein 2 g // Sodium 327 mg

 

Bacon and Egg Rice Balls

Makes about 12 rice balls.

2 Eggs

2 Strips Bacon

1 1/2 Cups Uncooked Basmati Rice

2 oz. Grated Parmesan Cheese

Salt to Taste

Instructions:

1. Cook the rice.
2. Scramble and cook the eggs.
3. Cook the bacon. Drain excess fat and chop.
4. Combine rice, eggs, bacon, cheese, and salt in a larger mixing bowl.
5. Scoop small portions into sandwich bags and tie the ends off.

Per Ball: Calories 133 // Carbohydrate 18 g // Protein 4 g // Fat 5 g // Sodium 327 mg

 

(C) Active Travel Adventures, LLC – All Rights Reserved

Complete Transcription

Note:  This transcription is ‘machine’ transcribed so there is bound to be boo boo’s.  However, it will give you a general idea and time stamp of when who said what:)

 

Kit: (00:00)
To pack or not to pack, to eat or not to eat and what to eat. That is the question. That is the adventures dilemma. Eat impact the food fuel you’ll need to successfully complete your adventure while minimizing pack weight, learn tips and rules of thumb of what food to pack on your next adventure. I’m also learned when it’s a great idea to eat candy corn, all this and more coming up next, welcome to the venture travel show podcast. I’m your host kit parks. Whether you’re backpacking, day packing, bike packing, or even paddling space and or weight is always the issue and making sure that you have the energy that you need to complete your adventure is obviously super important as well. You sure don’t want to bunk out or hit a wall before you’ve gotten to the end point of the day. And like I said, it’s the conundrum.

Kit: (01:01)
How do we balance weight, space, and fuel? And by fuel I mean food fuel. So I’ve asked one of my hiking buddies, Lucy, who knows all about this stuff to join us on the program today. Our guest today is Lucy Hayhurst. Lucy studied nutrition and dietetics at the University of Dayton and completed her dietetic internship at West Virginia University hospitals. After becoming a registered dietician, she moved to Durham, North Carolina and started well balanced nutrition with her. Over 10 years of Practicing Nutrition and Wellness coaching, Lucy offers a unique perspective. Come to the table as an expert in behavior change. She helps take what you’d know and turn it into lifestyle habits. Lucy combines her enthusiasm for fitness and playing in nature with her love for nutritious food and the result is a fun, interactive adventure for her clients. Lucy can light up a room and inspire a crowd in addition to individual counseling.

Kit: (01:55)
She’s also an author and motivational speaker before it gets started to all the information that we talk about today. Plus a lot more of more technical information is on the website, adventure, travel show, podcasts. Slash. Nutrition. I’ve got tons more tips, ideas, and some recipes and link to even more recipes so you keep your energy levels up high for your entire adventure. So let’s get started with Lucy. So Lucy, I first met you when we were at us. In the same hiking club in Raleigh and we’ve actually been backpacking together. How did you get involved in all this outdoor adventure activity?

Lucy: (02:33)
Well, I started playing outside when I moved to North Carolina back in 2009 and I didn’t have a job. I didn’t have a lot of money and I realized that you could hike all day and it costs almost nothing. So that really got me into the woods. And then it was when I met my ex who introduced me to a lot more adventure and we met Whitewater rafting in West Virginia.

Kit: (02:59)
That’s another thing I love to do as well. In fact, I’m going to be going on my very first long rafting trip for a whole week out in Idaho this summer. So I’m really excited about that.

Lucy: (03:07)
I’m excited to hear about it.

Kit: (03:10)
Today we’re going to be talking about your nutritionist and we’re going to talk about getting healthier or doing healthy things for our bodies home, doing some of these adventures. Cause a lot of times we tend to just grab the convenient junk food, whatnot. But you’ve got some better ideas for us and about things that we should be doing both before our adventure in preparation. And also once you’re on the trip. So how important is it for us to have the proper nutrition before we go on some of these adventures?

Lucy: (03:37)
You know, I love this question because part of the reason I go backpacking is so that I can eat candy, corn and peanuts, which is one of my favorite trail mixes and nobody would really qualify that as a health food. But as you know, and everybody out there that’s done those kinds of backpacking adventures, there’s a lot of calories that you’re burning. And so every now and then having a little bit of what we call fluff, like candy corn is okay, it’s not going to kill us. But what I talk about with people, especially those getting ready for something that’s rigorous, whether it’s a race or an a travel adventure that we really want to focus on fueling our bodies. So do you think about this concept of food is fuel or fluff? Oftentimes people are labeling food is good and bad and I can tell you that doesn’t really help them out much because then they just get in this spiral of, oh I was bad today. And they just continue to make less healthy choices versus saying, oh, I’ve eaten good fuel for my body and now I’ve got a little bit of room left. Let me enjoy a little, you know, potato chips or a few candy corns or whatever it might be.

Kit: (05:00)
When we go out there, one of the considerations for a lot of us, whether we’re backpacking or bike packing or even rafting for that matter, weight is an issue and a lot of the junky food tends to be lighter weight. What’s she, what kinds of things should we be thinking about? Cause we’ve got to balance the weight with the nutrition with also taste. And so how, what’s our thought process or how do we go about figuring out what we want to do?

Lucy: (05:24)
So I think that this is a bit of two conversations, so I’m curious, should we start with the before the trip or do you want to dive right in? Sure. Okay.

Kit: (05:35)
But before the trip, how do we get our bodies prepared as far as nutrition goes

Lucy: (05:40)
when we’re preparing. Then anytime that you’re in that kind of training mode, I got to listen to the podcast where you were talking with the trainer and I really enjoyed that because it’s that reminder that we probably shouldn’t expect our bodies to just go out and hike up the mountain without having any preparation, especially if you’re carrying weight and that’s where training your body as well as training what fuel you’re going to use while you’re out there. Super important. So before you go, it’s really a matter of finding the right foods in balance. We had talked a little bit before about should I eat three meals a day or should I snack throughout the day and on this journey, whatever adventure you’re going on. But specifically on the journey of life, your body is unique to you and the best part of the journey is learning what is gonna work best for you.

Lucy: (06:38)
So there might be a little bit of playing around with that as you get ready for your travel adventure and knowing that. All right, let me put this to the test because if you go out into the wilderness and you’ve packed nothing but rice and beans, but you haven’t really eaten any rice and beans, but you are deciding like, oh, I’m going to be healthy while I’m in the woods, you might end up really regretting that with some gastrointestinal pain or just other yuckiness. My, uh, my husband was in his sleeping bag after a particularly fibrous dinner and he had bought one of those, what are they called? The sock things that you can fit your whole body into. It’s like a giant sheet. Anyway, he was worried that that little bag was going to become a, a giant poop. So gotta be careful, try out your fruits.

Kit: (07:37)
Is there a different mix of, of the fats, proteins, and carbs that we need to think about before because assuming that we’re going to be extending more energy than normal, is there a certain components we have to think about ahead of time? And then let’s talk too about once we’re out there too. So still in the pre training mode are the things that we need to get our body used to because it could be using more of that once we’re out on our activity.

Lucy: (08:01)
Yes. Yeah, and it’s going to be activity dependent, but a lot of times, especially this day and age where carbs are still considered evil, then people really underestimate how many carbohydrates they are burning out on the trails. So being sure that you do have sufficient what we call the simple as well as complex carbs

Kit: (08:25)
and tell us the difference between complex and simple carbs.

Lucy: (08:28)
So the difference between simple and complex is sometimes easy, right? If you look at a piece of white bread, most of the buns you find at restaurants, so on and so forth, that’s going to be simple carbs. That means they go into your body, they break down pretty quickly, turn to sugar, which turns to energy. So these are great when you’re doing those activities and your body just needs that energy available. But we also want to make sure that we combine include plenty of complex carbs. So that’s going to be the more brown foods, right? So the whole grains, the sweet potatoes, Keene, Wa, butternut squash, so on and so forth.

Kit: (09:12)
So on our adventure, there’s a place for both of them. Exactly when we’re out there, we actually want some of the, when I call the white things versus the brown things. I spend my days at home trying to avoid all those white things. Ha ha ha. That’s half the reason I go backpacking. So it looks like we want the whites or the simple carbs when we’re about to do a major center, something that we need a lot of energy quickly. How about fats? Fats, ah,

Lucy: (09:41)
let’s say it together. Fat is our friend. Ooh, I like the way you speak. Tell us why that is our friend. That is, first of all, it’s what makes the food tasty so we can’t forget that fat is really important for helping us absorb the vitamins and minerals that are fat soluble and it’s also there to keep us full longer. If you think about those little Debbies, then those are pretty high in sugar. I don’t know about the fat content or protein for that matter, but the fat and protein are especially important for keeping us going longer.

Kit: (10:23)
Does it make a difference which kind of fat?

Lucy: (10:25)
Oh yeah, but that would be a whole episode all in itself.

Kit: (10:29)
How about a couple of rules of thumb instead?

Lucy: (10:32)
Yes. If you look at it and you can identify the original source of where it came from, then that’s a pretty good indicator that it’s a good fat. So you think about your nuts that you put in your trail mix. That’s great. Think about the coconut oil that you use to make the granola. That’s wonderful. Thinking about Avocados, not that everybody’s bringing those on the trail, but I did do that in my last backpacking adventure. Thinking about nut butters and these kinds of healthy fats are going to be better fuel.

Kit: (11:06)
At the end of the interview I’ll have some more details about what she’s talking about here as well as on the website, adventure, travel show, podcast. Slash. Nutrition. What about meat? Fats like beef, fat. That’s something we can pronounce and we can see where it came from.

Lucy: (11:21)
Yes. Uh, coming from my perspective, I always encourage more happy, healthy meat. So things that are grass fed, organically raised, those are going to be a better option.

Kit: (11:33)
And then how about salt when we’re out there too, cause we’re perspiring so much. Is Salt something we need to be paying attention to?

Lucy: (11:41)
Certainly. And it’s going to be there whether or not you try to add it. For most of us, so anytime you’re eating anything out of a crinkly, there’s typically going to be sodium included. When this becomes really important for our profuse of sweaters, especially those that have discovered that white rain around their hats or maybe around their t-shirts. If you’re seeing that, that’s a pretty good indicator that you are a salty sweater, which means it might be a little extra important for you to intentionally add salt, whether that’s doing the salt tabs for people that are really into more of the endurance longterm kind of activities. Those might come in and, or I’m a big advocate of hot sauce because it’s tasty and salty.

Kit: (12:37)
I love that tip. That’s a great tip. Well, it appears I’m one of those salty sweaters. I just thought that was dirt or sunscreen or something. I never really made that connection. I didn’t know I was leeching out my salt at those electrolytes. So it’s not just about the salt.

Lucy: (12:52)
People put a lot of emphasis on salt, but we can’t forget magnesium, potassium and the other electrolytes are also important to

Kit: (13:00)
replenish. If I see those rings on my hat, does that tell me that I’m not drinking enough water? No. It means you’re drinking lots of it

Lucy: (13:07)
water and your body’s getting rid of it as it sees fit, um, to try and keep you cool. And some people found that there’s a lot of benefit. They carry the little powders of different electrolyte enhancers. So you know, especially when you’re on the trails, sometimes just drinking water all day it gets old. And at the end of the day having one of these little powders, there’s one in particular called scratch that I’ve heard great things about. Uh, I haven’t tried it yet myself, but it’s a good electrolyte blend and it’s a little flavorful.

Kit: (13:41)
All right, I’ll have to put a link to that in the show notes and on the website. So let’s talk about things that we can, again, we get back to, it’s hard to, to carry things on the trail or in a backpack of, or our bike pack. We’re bike packing. What are some nice healthy options of things that actually tastes good that we could be bringing with us? Such good questions. I subscribe to that

Lucy: (14:04)
the lighter is better and so I do partake in those frozen meals. Actually, I was on a backpacking trip with a friend of mine who knew I was a dietician and he was excited and he didn’t say this ahead of time, but he was looking forward to traveling with the dietician to see what I ate, assuming it was going to just be the pinnacle of health and wellness, so he was really horrified when I pulled out my most favorite meal, which is the mountain house beef stroganoff to have for dinner that night because I don’t subscribe to needing to focus on your health on the trail. That’s something that you need to be doing off the trail, but there are ways to be healthier while you’re out there without adding a lot of, for instance, I really love those little pouches of the fruit and Veggie blends just to give me a little like wink and a nudge at some nutrition. That’s the colorful kinds of nutrition. They’re not always the most lightweight, so some people also get into the freeze dried fruits or vegetables. I did start making some of my own backpacking meals, so I was able to sneak in a little bit more veggies with some freeze dried carrots, potatoes, celery and so forth.

Kit: (15:24)
One thing I learned in my research is that the freeze dried food is better for you than the dehydrated food because you lose some of the nutrients when they dehydrate it. But the freeze dried not so much and it has a significantly longer shelf life, sometimes up to 30 years. So what’s the deal on when to eat? When we’re out on our adventures? Do we graze all day long? Do we eat our three square or what? What’s, what’s the latest on that

Lucy: (15:52)
yet? That’s a good question. I always encourage that you’re doing a little bit throughout. So if you’re doing something that’s requiring a lot of energy, um, hiking, biking, paddling, whatever, then anything over an hour we recommend that you refuel with some sort of, typically some carb and depending how long you’re going, maybe carb as well as protein. So I take marathon runners as an example because they’ve needed to get good at this running three and four hours where you don’t necessarily feel hungry. I eat breakfast and I can go hike, you know, two or three hours and not really feel hunger, but my brain starts obsessive thinking of food and that’s when I know, oh I guess my body’s trying to tell me that I need a little bit more energy right now even though my mind is like I just ate. It’s been two hours.

Kit: (16:51)
So are we talking a handful of trail mix or talk to us a little bit about portion size.

Lucy: (16:56)
That depends on your size. I’m not a particularly big person, so I’ll have one fig Newton and that’ll be fine for another hour. But for somebody that’s bigger and or carrying more weight on their back or otherwise they are going to need more energy. So it’s very, very body dependent. There’s not a super secret magical formula. It’s a matter of tuning in and listening to your body and if at the end of the day you feel like a bottomless pit and you just can’t get full, then that’s a good indicator that you didn’t eat enough and you need to do a little bit more feeling throughout the day tomorrow.

Kit: (17:33)
Now let’s talk about energy bars. I hear they’re good. I hear they’re bad to hear. They’re full of sugar. I hear they’re just wasted calories. So do you have any opinions on those?

Lucy: (17:42)
I do. So I was at a convenience store tour with a client of mine and we were at all the foods that they offer at at a normal gas station store and we got to the Plethora of energy bars and he’s not going on the trail. He’s good about to get on an airplane. So he’s like, which one is the best one? And I had to be honest with him for that scenario, when you have apples and are boiled eggs or yogurt without a lot of sugar or nuts, when you have other whole food options, I’m always going to encourage you to eat that first. When you’re eating a bar, they’ve taken whole foods and processed them into this, what they call a health food. But if that was really true, then that wouldn’t be able to live on the shelf in your cupboard for a months or years at a time. So when you’re on the trail, I think that there’s plenty of good options because sometimes you just need energy. So it’s not about being perfect picture of health, it’s about being fueled for what you’re doing. So I would say, yeah, I’d rather you choose an rx bar versus a snickers bar because our x bar is going to be a little bit better balanced energy.

Kit: (19:06)
So if we’re trying to be healthy and we’re looking at these bars, are there any rules of thumb or any advice of this many grams of sugar is good or bad or tall? Talk a little bit about that.

Lucy: (19:17)
Yes. Yes. When health is your, would your motivator, I mean, what’s you’re going for? I skipped the nutrition facts numbers because it’s not, it’s a jumble and I’d rather you just go straight to the ingredients list. Um, I mentioned the rx bars because when you go the ingredients list, you’ll see it’s nuts. It’s egg whites that they’ve powdered and it’s dates or some other dried fruit. It’s whole real foods. I don’t know. I don’t necessarily want to pick on the ones that I don’t agree with. I just always encourage people to look at the ingredients and if you can recognize most or all of the ingredients is things that you would put on your very own grocery shopping list. Then choose that. If you can’t pronounce it and you don’t know where you would find Gargamel and so lasts of then then that might be something that you can put back on the shelf

Kit: (20:16)
at home. I try not to buy things that come in boxes or bags and kind of use as my rule of thumb to keep away from the processed foods array. The way I understand it, they’re removing a lot of the nutrients when they do a lot of the processing. So can you talk to us a little bit about what is processed food?

Lucy: (20:34)
Well, if you are going to the grocery store, 99% of the food that you’re buying is processed, processed simply means that somebody else came in and has prepared this for you in some way. So if you look at, we’ll go to the produce section, kind of visualize that. You can see there’s whole carrots and then you can see those carrot chips or those baby carrots. Those baby carrots are processed. That’s just big carrots. What they’ve dwindled down into a little baby size, bite size. So, and that’s in a bag, but then you get into the what’s actually in this. So we’re now in the aisle and we’re talking about Ritz crackers. Then that’s where it’s like, okay, that’s processed in a way that there’s, when you look at that label, it’s enriched wheat flour and that word enriched. That means that they’ve taken the whole grain, they’ve stripped all the nutrients out of it, and now it’s just white flour.

Kit: (21:41)
And so if I understand it right, I think they strip out the, the whole grains are what we consider the goodness of it. And then they quote unquote enrich it by adding some vitamins back to it.

Lucy: (21:51)
Exactly. Yeah. It’s a, it’s very much like that, so it’s back to the ingredients list. When you look at that bag of baby carrots, it still just says carrots. So even though it’s processed, it’s still a good choice. But then if you look at the laundry list of ingredients on cereals and other types of foods and bags and boxes, then that’s when we know it’s probably better just to make a different choice.

Kit: (22:17)
So they trick us with the word enrich, trying to make us think that that’s good for us. They also trick us with the word natural, which I believe does even have an official definition, so you can pretty much use that however you’d like. Any other words? They trick us with multi-grain. Oh boy. Tell us why.

Lucy: (22:37)
Yeah, often they, they want you to think that you’re being virtuous because it’s multi-grain, but that doesn’t actually mean that it’s a whole grain. It just means they put a bunch of different grains into that particular food.

Kit: (22:51)
Okay. I’ve fallen for that one. Any other ones you can think of that’s a good one.

Lucy: (22:56)
Cholesterol three your pretzels were always cholesterol free. They just decided to put that on the label because they can,

Kit: (23:05)
I often see packages touted gluten free. Gluten free. Exactly. They’ll put on packages of things that never had any wheat in them. Exactly. But they’re just trying to sell something and yeah, they’re riding a trend.

Lucy: (23:20)
[inaudible] and so, well we see that a lot with protein. Now. I’ve been hearing a lot of my clients are choosing special k protein blend and so I finally looked at the label this week and they add soy protein isolate, which I’m not saying that’s not real food, but it’s not necessarily something you’re going to put on your grocery list again. So I’d rather you eat a hard boiled egg with a bowl of oatmeal or something. Whole grain, like whole grain toast from bakery. Okay.

Kit: (23:56)
What other advice would you give us? Uh, things that we can think about or bring with us when we go out on the trailer or bike pack or wherever it is that we’re going.

Lucy: (24:04)
The travel food is, I’ve just learned about a really wonderful resource. I’m going to have to send it to you cause I can’t think off the top of my head what it’s called. But for the cyclists of the world, there’s something called these rice balls or, or rice bars and you can make them sweet or savory. So for people that are just feeling a little inundated with all this sweet that’s jammed packed on the, you know, in the bars and so on. These rice balls basically make rice and then you put a layer of maybe it’s barbecue meat or maybe it’s um, cinnamon apples or blueberries or whatever. And then you do another layer of rice and you make it so that at this own little energy bar that you can wrap up in foil and it’s really easy to, to eat while you’re out on, out on the trails.

Kit: (25:02)
Are these rice balls good for multiple days or is it something you have to eat within a couple of hours?

Lucy: (25:08)
Oh, it’s good for multi multiple days. Well, it’s not something I’d keep on me for over a week, but if you’re out there for a couple days and then it’s going to be all right.

Kit: (25:21)
Okay. Yeah. I’m always afraid about things going bad on me. So a big fan of I’m at, one thing I like to do is take a tortilla and spreads and peanut butter on it and put some raisins on it and roll that up. And that’s delicious. That’s a great one. I don’t, I only eat it when I’m camping, but it’s actually pretty darn good. Any other favorite things that you’d like to bring on that would fall in the nutritious side that are also good to bring out?

Lucy: (25:46)
Yeah, I really like the Sandwich thins. Uh, so, um, do a veggie patty, like some sort of, um, Morningstar, whatever vegetable tatty that I can heat up and then toast the sandwich then. And I’ll do that and I’ll bring those little packets of mayonnaise and mustard with me and I’ll have a delicious little

Kit: (26:09)
fake hamburger on the trail. Any of the things that you want to tell us about things that we should be thinking about for nutrition and keeping ourselves in balance while we’re getting ready to do our adventures or out on our adventures. I always just

Lucy: (26:23)
remind people that your body’s telling you things all day, every day and the key is learning to tune in, so on this journey, a whatever next adventure you’re preparing for while you’re training or while you’re getting ready for the adventure. Start Tuning in and noticing when can I tell I’m hungry after an adventure and how do I know when I’ve had enough and what are the best snacks that are going to not give me, you know, blow to, or yeah, I can just give me enough fuel to keep going.

Kit: (27:00)
That sounds like something we should be doing everyday anyway, just to see how the different foods make our bodies feel. Yes, ma’am. Just being a little bit more mindful afterwards. We know we’re supposed to be mindful while we’re eating, but not always doing that, but I probably don’t think afterwards, Oh, do you know they didn’t really sit that well with me or that did great and feel wonderful.

Lucy: (27:19)
[inaudible] exactly.

Kit: (27:22)
So good. Now listen, I understand that you finally wrote the book. You told me you were going to write it. Why don’t you tell me about that?

Lucy: (27:28)
I did a, well it’s called T. G. I m, start happy, stay healthy and it’s a workbook that you could, it’s designed to be a once one entry per week, so 52 weeks, but you could also read the book front to back in about an hour if you want to. And it’s the idea that when we start with the idea of loving this journey of being our happy, happiest, and healthiest selves, start happy, stay healthy. If you come to it with the approach of I’m going to learn to enjoy this journey, then it goes a lot better than when we’re punishing ourselves and dieting and restricting. And so the, each of the entries just offers a different tip and tool of how to treat yourself well on the journey of life.

Kit: (28:25)
Can you share one of the tips that are in the book?

Lucy: (28:27)
Certainly. All right, so one of my favorite entries for this upcoming travels spring in summer and fall season, it’s staying well balanced through summer vacations and I provide five different tips for how to enjoy your vacation without feeling like he’s completely run yourself off the road of healthy and happy and it includes certain tips. Obviously if it’s a travel adventure then you’re already going to be physically active hopefully. And then it just talks about being careful about what we’re drinking, how many calories we’re taking in that way. Also just the importance of fiber because you like to keep things moving while you’re traveling. At least I know I do.

Kit: (29:14)
Well, I’ll put a link to in the show notes for your book. Um, is that available everywhere or how, how do people find it?

Lucy: (29:21)
It’s on Amazon.

Kit: (29:24)
Don Amazon. Okay. I’ll put an Amazon link into the show notes and on the website and then also tell us a little bit about your, your coaching and your well balanced nutrition business.

Lucy: (29:35)
I be going to, well balanced nutrition. It’s, you know, how you go on Google or any website and find, there’s just 14,000 different new diet and lifestyle recommendations, right? It’s like, I don’t know, should I be Vegan? Should I go Paleo? Should I whatever it, there’s so many options and it’s very confusing. And what we do as nutrition wellness experts is we take a lot of what you already know and help you make it become your lifestyle. So we’re talking about behavior change and longterm goal achievement instead of those chronic fad diets.

Kit: (30:22)
Can you share a success story about one of your clients?

Lucy: (30:25)
Oh my gosh, yes, please. I have one that she was, or she is an avid hiker, loves to go stomp in the woods as she says. And she broke her ankle unfortunately while hiking twice, um, in the last two years. And the last one really got her down and out. I’m needless to say, she, when she was out of commission from hiking, she got a little depressed. So we’ve met in November of last year in 2018 and she recognized that there was some emotional eating going on in the evenings. So that was really the first thing that we tackled. And she developed some other tools and coping mechanisms where she was no longer relying on the food at night. And then in January she got some blood results from the doctor that she did not like. So she was very motivated to address some of her other eating habits. And together with, we have an online tracking tool, so of course an app where we’re able to stay in touch with our clients in between appointments and we are able to watch what you’re eating, give some guidance and feedback to help you make those really healthy, well balanced choices. And she’s now lost about 27 pounds and is hiking at least three or four miles almost every day.

Kit: (31:44)
Hey, good for her. Now Lucy, can people do this online with you or do they have to live in the triangle area of North Carolina?

Lucy: (31:51)
It depends, um, on your preference. We do have virtual sessions available. Insurance covers our services if you’re in the area, we’re in south Durham.

Kit: (32:04)
Oh good, good. I’ll make sure I’ll put links to everything in the show notes in the website so that people will be able to find you and Lucy, it’s been great talking to you. It’s been so long. I’m so glad to hear about you and your business and I remember you saying on our backpacking trip that you wanted to do that new, you went out and you actually did it and you’ve been doing it now for over five years. It’s wonderful.

Lucy: (32:24)
Yes. Thank you so much. You were very helpful on the journey and I’m so grateful.

Kit: (32:30)
I’ve got a few more of the nitty gritty details of some of the things that we need to think about when we’re thinking about our nutrition both before and during our one, whatever our adventure might be. And I’ll put all these in, like I said, the show notes and the website. However, I will also have a downloadable pdf that you can either download or it’ll come automatically with the monthly newsletter next month that’ll have some of the key figures that you need to know to kind of get an idea of what you need to do and bring. So it’ll all be in on a single piece of paper. Make it nice and easy. So anyway, a couple of takeaways and a couple of things that we need to add to Lucy’s and my discussion. I love how she said think of food as fuel or fluff.

Kit: (33:10)
And the important takeaway that we’ve got from today is obviously we all know we should be fueling our body with nutritious foods. However, the fluff comes in handy. Let’s say you’re about to do a major ascent or there’s something you’re about to do. This going to take a whole lot of energy. The fluff is what’s going to get you that energy quickly because it breaks down so quickly. So that’s when you want Lucy’s case, the candy corn or for me a snickers bar or something like that, that if you just need that little burst of energy, that’s when you use the simple carbohydrates, the complex carbs, keep your energy at a good level all the time. And talking about energy, where does it come from? There’s an important thing I learned about [inaudible], I’m probably saying this wrong glycogen and this is your stored energy, your stored carbs. The body can only store so much about 500 calories worth in your liver and anywhere, depending on your body, 500 to 2000 calories in your muscles. So these are our gas tanks. We have to keep refilling. If you’re doing something with high intensity, you’ve got to keep that constantly replenished. So that means adding 15 to 30 grams early to top of our tanks.

Kit: (34:22)
And also I read too that if you’re, let’s say you’re doing a long distance hike or you’re really, really pushing yourself on whatever it is that you’re doing. And most examples that I read about it would be like long distance hiking where every day you’re getting up in, you’re hiking, you know, anywhere between 10 and 30 miles a day, whatever the case may be, they encourage you to eat your last meal like 30 minutes before bed so that during the night your body stores that glycogen so you’re ready to go the next day. When you don’t get the proper nutrients and you don’t replenish your body, not only are you losing the energy stores, but you might also be missing out on some of the micronutrients and some of the negative effects of those. If you’re not getting enough vitamin C, that’s going to depress your immunity and also can cause some damage to connective tissues, which is super important.

Kit: (35:08)
When you’re doing something with your muscles in your body, that’s really important, so you’ve got to figure out some way to add some vitamin C to your date. A lack of vitamin C can also exacerbate some aching swollen muscles. If you’re not getting enough vitamin B’s at the B vitamins, that’s going to really affect your energy and your and your metabolism. I’ll also affect your nervous system. If you don’t get enough vitamin B, you might become sluggish, you might make some bad decisions, your brain’s going to be a little foggy, so super important as well, and you need to try to get some calcium in there somewhere too because that can create some cramps. And so when did you get all cramped up in hiking, you’re probably not getting enough calcium, particularly for women. You want to make sure you’re getting enough iron and a good source of that could be some dehydrated Kale. He probably didn’t get a taste it just mix it in with something else.

Kit: (35:58)
Your backpack food tends to be a little bit bland, so I’d also recommend bringing an assortment of spices, particularly the hotter ones, like the red pepper flakes, chili powders, et cetera. Lucy recommends bringing the hot sauce. It a lot of times you get the little condiments from the packets and I also like to say the condiments like the Manet’s a mustard, they’re great for travel. Changing up your spices can make the same foods taste different every night, which will help a little bit. To give you a little bit of variety at little pack weight, I want to talk about different meal ideas like breakfast, one of my favorites, and it’s kind of counterintuitive, but I like something warm in the morning, particularly if it’s a little chilly in the morning. I liked instant mashed potatoes with beef jerky chunks in it. It gave me some protein, it was warm, it was filling, it was easy and fast. So that’s one of my go to favorites of course, oatmeal. And if you could add some nuts in that and some dried fruits that makes that quite tasted, it brings some cinnamon.

Kit: (36:58)
One of my favorite lunch things, as I mentioned earlier, is taken a whole wheat Tortilla, slathering it with peanut butter and then sprinkling with raisins and rolling that up. It lasts a long time. So you can carry that with you for several days, not worrying about refrigeration and it’s tasty. Filling full of good proteins and good snacks that you can bring nuts. Of course they’re, they’re calorie dense and they’ve got the good fats in them so, and the protein. So that’s, that’s an excellent source. Also hard cheeses, you can bring hard cheeses and they will last a few days for that. Refrigeration, none in the soft ones, but the hard ones. Also hard meats like Salamis and pepperoni’s don’t need refrigeration as well. That’s great to get some extra protein dinners. The packaged meals were usually my go to and now after what I’ve learned from Lucy and in my research, I’m going to stick just with the freeze dried versus the dehydrated because of the better quality of the food with it.

Kit: (37:54)
The nutrients are preserved better. Yes, but they’re expensive if you don’t want to spend the money. I met a man when I was hiking up in my hiking robe up in Raleigh and he said he had to deal with his backpacking buddy. He had to carry the kitchen and the food in exchange for the buddy making and preparing all the food and the buddy used a cookbook called lip smack and backpacking and he said everything that the guy made was delicious. So I’ll put a link to that too on the website and in the show notes. [inaudible]

Kit: (38:26)
good source of carbs are those little honey sesame sticks you can buy and I like these little upbrand sticks that I get over it and like the near the vegetable area I throw myself, but they’re also greatest snacking foods. It’s a good idea to bring a little bit of a small container of olive oil or canola oil to add a little bit more fat to your dinners as well. Some of my favorite protein sources are of course beef jerky, beans, nuts, seeds, powdered milk, powdered soy protein plus you get some calcium with these last two. I like the tuna that comes in the foil packets and then if you get some of the oil, if you get it in the olive oil, that’s going to add a little bit more fat to it. And again, like I used those little convenient store Manet’s is that don’t need to be refrigerated so I can make like a tuna salad in the pouch and speak in the pouches.

Kit: (39:15)
Please do practice the leave. No trace. You pack out all of your garbage. That includes your toilet paper. I usually keep a big Ziploc bag and I labeled trash. I don’t get it confused and everything goes in there and don’t forget to drink plenty of water. Hydration is super important. If possible, use one of those bladders that so that you have constant access. You’ll tend to drink more if it’s there and you don’t have to drop your pack or get somebody to grab your bottle for you. You can learn more about your water options and what a treatment options. On episode number three of this podcast, the adventure travel show podcast, I’ll also put a link to that in the show notes, and a good rule of thumb is if your urine is yellow, you’re not drinking enough. It should be close to clear and that tells you that your body is getting proper hydration and consider bringing some of the electrolytes because the sports drinks I keep reading are not really the best thing for you.

Kit: (40:12)
Some of them have too much sugar, some of them have too much salt. If you want to make your own mix, you can add some salt to water. When you’re sweating and you’re working out, you lose about a gram of salt per liter and when looking at the labels, as Lucy suggested, anything that says Syrup means sugar. The only good syrup’s truly are the honey and maple syrup and try to get your sugar more from the fruits than from the processed sugars that they add in there. Remember, you don’t have to memorize all this stuff. I’ve got it on the website for you. Adventure travel show, podcast.com/nutrition and there’s also going to be a recipe for ace, a snickers trifle and links to some other recipes as well that you might find interesting. I hope you learned a lot from today’s program and many thanks to Lucy for coming on the show to help us out. Be sure to subscribe if you haven’t done so already, it’s free and available on all podcast apps, including now Pandora, which we were selected to join. If you’ve enjoyed today’s program, please share it with your adventurous friends. Word of mouth is the number one way that podcasts are found, and so you are instrumental in building this podcast. Thanks. I sure do appreciate it. I also really appreciate that you give your time to listen to this podcast. Thanks. Until next time, this is kit parks adventure on.