So I left off with some comments about it not being possible to overeat while thru-hiking. This appears to be absolutely true, with the possible exception of eating too much in one go (see post heading up to Apple Dam). Obviously eating for thru-hiking you want to eat as much calorie-rich food as possible (things like peanut butter have the most calories per unit weight = more calories for less to carry! That said, I haven't yet invested in a jar...though I've been tempted by Nutella). Consequently there's a lot of junk food on any trail resupply list; I am going through a bag of cookies, a king size block of chocolate and three boxes of museli bars per week. But don't freak out (Mum), I'm still trying to get a somewhat balanced diet.
Nathalie says thru-hiking makes you become very attuned to your body's needs, and it's true. It lets you know when it wants a rest, but it also lets you know when it needs something in particular ingested. Eating so much dehydrated food you're likely to not get enough Vitamin C, and this seems to tie into the fact that most days I crave fruit juice and oranges (if none of these are to hand I pop a Vit C tablet). I find I cannot eat as much 'heavy' food as I used to and so heading into towns you'll find me making a b-line for unusual choices (for me) like salad, though really anything fresh will do. Porridge is my staple for breakfast and pasta snacks for dinner while 'out bush' but in town I tend to have toast and eggs for brekky (I miss toast!) and whatever I feel like at the time for dinner. I generally walk past the shops and see what takes my fancy, whether that be steak, pizza, salad or sushi (it's never yet been pasta). Though admittedly, often it's the shop that involves the least amount of additional walking that gets my custom.
Lunch on the trail is where I change things up. Some days it's just museli bars, but if I'm well prepared (both to shop and to carry the significant extra weight) I'll have tortilla wraps with meat (salami or beer sticks), cheese (a standard block of tasty lasts ok if you keep it in a cool part of your pack--not the sunny front pocket!) and vege (red capsicums are my favourite as they are light and if you choose carefully they stay crunchy for days, but cucumber and avocado have also been savoured). I also carry sachets of flavoured tuna on longer stints between resupply--they offer tasty variety and protein for when the salami has run out.
That's another thing: I normally don't like things like salami. Given the option back in the 'real world' I probably wouldn't eat it. But on the trail I love it, for lunch, or chopped into a pasta snack for dinner. I guess it's just another example of your body knowing what it needs: if the food has something you need in it then it's probably going to taste good. And while thru-hiking, pretty much everything has something in it you need, so pretty much everything looks, sounds and smells good to eat. Except maybe celery. Normally I like celery, but it's not something I'd be running to find 'out here'. Is this my body being clever and knowing it takes more energy to digest than it provides? Who knows! (There's probably a research project in that for some keen food scientist...).
So that's the low down on my experiences of trail diet thus far. Stay tuned for other random posts as I think of them (and find time to type them up). Alternatively ask me a question; I may come up with such a long rant of an answer it will be worth a separate post!
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