Nutrition Plan

Q: Could you detail what dietary plans you have? What will you eat, how many calories per day?

Food from Ready Store

A: One of my first sponsors was the Ready Store. The president of Ready Store brought his bike in to be worked on and when I told him about my expedition he asked what I would be eating. I need to have meals that are easy to prepare and are light to carry so I wanted mostly freeze dried food. Ready Store is a top seller of Mountain House food and has their own brand of food, Saratoga Farms. 

I have been working on a food plan with Saratoga Farms for many months now. We are planning on 50 days of food at 7,000 calories per day for a total of about 350,000 calories. For breakfast I have things like eggs and bacon, breakfast skillet, eggs with ham and peppers, instant breakfast drink mix, and orange juice. For lunch I have a some Saratoga Farms Mountain Man stew that I can make in the morning and put in a Hydro Flask and eat for a lunch break. I also have a lot of freeze dried fruits, bananas, strawberries, oranges, and blackberries. Also I love the Honey Stinger waffles, so I have a lot of those and some Sports Beans that I can eat on the bike. 

Food and bike in the crate

I love that I can take strawberries with me. One year when I was doing LOTOJA I pushed too hard on the king of the mountain and ended up completely bonked going through star valley. When we got to Alpine the Russ' wife had a bunch of strawberries. I think I ate more than my share of them, and for some reason, maybe the strawberries, I recovered and finished the rest of the ride feeling good. Russ struggled a bit on that last stretch, I think it is because I ate all his strawberries. So anyway I love that I get to take strawberries with me.

The crate all ready to go to Antarctica

For dinner I have a variety of freeze dried meals, Lasagna, Sweet and Sour Pork, Chicken a la King etc. I also have some freeze dried cheese that I can add to the dinner meals adding calories and flavor. I will buy some butter in Punta Arenas to add to my meals and increase the calories.

Overall I know it is hard to eat 7,000 calories a day so I am trying to gain a bit of weight before I go, however my riding schedule seems to be preventing me from gaining weight. Getting everything ready to go these last few days has cut into my riding time, but it also has cut into my getting extra food so the weight gain isn't happening. 

All the food got packed into the crate with my bike last week and is on its way to Chile. When I get there I will take everything out of the cans and vacuum pack it into bags, and eliminate all the extra packaging that I don't need. I have to do it in Chile because the food has to be in its original containers to be able to get through customs.