Food for hiking

Thanks for the info guys! I have adapted my menu to keep to my regular nutrition plan when I am hiking. This involves eating a balance of protein, carbs and fat at each meal. For me, this approach allows me to keep my energy levels constant throughout the day and avoid losing body weight (ie muscle mass) on hikes.

There are a few tricks to this. For example, I now carry a packet of those Woolworths mini salamis on every hike. They are a good protein and fat source and are easy to stash in a pocket to consume on the move.

Another trick is to pack a few servings of meal replacement supplements (the ones targeted at gym types) in ziploc bags. They contain protein, carbs and even some fat so if you don't have a lot of time to stop and prepare a meal, you simply throw this into a cup or bottle of water, mix, drink and carry on. It actually works quite well.

Despite all this talk of eating on the move, my favourite thing is to spend some time sitting in the hills preparing food. For this, I concur that tuna is the superfood of choice.

Breakfast is a Woolies breakfast bar and a cup of instant oats with some whey protein with a spoon of cocoa thrown in!

For lunch its tuna and Provita with some Melrose cheese blocks. When it is hot and there is lots of sweat flowing, I usually throw in some extra salt.

For dinner, it depends on how much fuel you can use on the trip (as cooking time for this is fairly long), but I find that a packet of Tuna Mate and a few tuna sachets (sorry Ghaz, Tony and Adrian; I haven't progressed to tins yet!) is a great way to refuel after a long day.

Snack bars like the ones that Ghaz has referred to also feature if the days are long.

For the most part this is a lightweight food solution that keeps me very well fuelled and cramp-free, even on long days (well, long by my standards, which is about 25km). It is certainly not "fast and light", though; so I suspect that if I was doing fast hiking I would pare it back a bit and sacrifice some of the nutrition plan!

Tony and Ghaz, I will attempt the tinned tuna approach in September!

I found these at Spar. Used once for a hike, light, easy to prepare, and tasty. Like 2 minute noodles on steroids.
I had just the pasta, but next time will add some dehydrated mince or similar..



Nutritional info:



Also available in Beef & Onion, haven't tried that though..
I didn't add milk, just the sachet

Touch Foods Africa recently sent me 2 of the hiking meals they sell (the brand is Wise Company) to review on my youtube channel. Anyone else tried out this brand? Here is a link to the video if anyone would like to know what I thought of them:

They just sent 4 packs for myself and Hobbit to try out on our upcoming GT. Will post feedback afterward.

They just sent 4 packs for myself and Hobbit to try out on our upcoming GT. Will post feedback afterward.

Thanks! I saw your facebook picture I'm interested to see what you think of the breakfast-type meals - never tried those!