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Filed under Diet & Nutrition, Plant-strong diet by 
Assembling food and fuel to pack into cooler and boxes for our camping trip to Yosemite! From the upcoming Fit Food Quickies™ Cookbook.
True to my promise to report in on how I fueled the heady and grueling ascent to the top of Half Dome n Yosemite last week (see How A Busy Woman Trains To Climb Yosemite's Half Dome) I'm here to report that we did the whole darn thing on our usual, easy prep fare.
That means piles of plants and potatoes, big bowls of grain, fistfuls of fruit, beautiful grainy breads and colorful beans, and a few nuts and seeds thrown in for fun, flavor, and rib-sticking gusto for long days of hiking.
Eating this way for years has defied the "need lots of protein for muscle and energy" myth that I've seen disproven over and over again. As a matter of fact, the more I learn, the more it is clear that the very edibles we have been led to believe by the four food lobbies as "building strong bodies" can be crippling to our health and sap our vitality.
Cramming The Cooler
Packing for a 4-day camping trip, when you are used to lots of fresh and fibrous foods as we are, just takes a little more planning – and space – than the cheese and salami route. Not a problem. It took one giant cooler and 2 large cardboard boxes, along with my backpack brimming with sandwiches, apples, and snap peas for the journey en route.
Along with and including the starter staples as in the image at the top of the page, I packed:
- 2 quarts of brown rice that I cooked in the rice cooker and then froze as part of the "ice" for the cooler
- 1 dozen large fuji apples
- 2 dozen bananas
- several cups of steel cut oats and rolled oats
- raisens
- bag of grapes
- cans of cooked beans
- loaves of bread
- large bag of tomatoes
- jar of peanut butter and jam
- 2 bags baby carrots
- 2 giant bags of snap peas
- McDougall soup mixes – about a dozen
- Annie Chung noodle soup
- almond milk
- flax seed
- Lara Bars
A Day in the Menu
On our big trek day to Half Dome we had a typical day's eats. As that is pretty fresh (shall we say emblazoned?) in my memory, let me run through the day.
Plant Powered to the top of Half Dome
Breakfast:
Our launch time out of camp was planned for 6:00 a.m., still flashlight time in Yosemite Valley, so I needed to prep breakfast the night before and store it in the bear locker. I took a couple of cups of rolled oats, a handful of raisens, and soaked it in the pot overnight. In the morning, a quick heating of same delivered two steamy, sweet bowls of grain which I topped with a full banana each, scoop of flash seed, sprinkle of sucanat, and splash of almond milk. Full tanks, and ready!
For the hike I packed and we ate through the course of the 10 hour trek, round trip:
- two hummus, tomato, and avocado sandwiches on sprouted grainy bread
- two peanut butter and banana sandwiches
- four giant fuji apples
- 4 lara bars
Of course, we packed several quarts of water. As we neared the challenge of the last "sub dome" (I call it a pyramid, a giant stair-step process up to the base of the dome) and the haul up the cables themselves, I ate my two apples to get more glycogen packed in my muscles, already sponges to absorb more stored energy from the exertions early on. This proved to be a good strategy as I never ran out of juice. Just got a little winded. After all, we were at nearly 9,000 feet.
Mission Accomplished!
Our arsenal of eats proved to be perfect for the day, we had enough to go on and even came back with a couple of the Lara Bars. And ten hours later, after crashing into camp, we caught our breath, and then treated ourselves to veggie burgers and salads at Yosemite Lodge.
What are your tricks for packing and eating healthy on the run or camping? Share your ideas in comments below!
Filed under Blog, Diet & Nutrition, Travel by
Terror grips your gut even before you slide up onto the near vertical granite wall you've got to glue your nose to if you want to haul yourself to the top of Half Dome in Yosemite. Call it a summer highlight or sheer foolhardiness, but this week's ascent of Half Dome ranks as one of lifetime's peak experiences.
The crazy journey to summit Half Dome begins with an over-eight-mile hike (yes, that's one way!) and UP nearly 5,oo0 feet of steep mountain trails, with the most challenging leg – hauling yourself up the cables with sheer arm strength and purpose of will to the top – the last.
The cables. Straight up. Here I go.
We hoofed it out of base camp at 6:15 a.m., steeled by a cup of courage and giant, steamy bowl of oats and bananas. Backpacks crammed with water bottles and a full arsenal of eats (more on food and fuel in another post), we layered up against the 4,000 ft. elevation Sierra cold, fully mindful that the day's trek would more than double our elevation, with the Half Dome summit hovering at just under 9,000 ft.
How Does a Busy Woman Train For This One?
What kind of hours do you imagine you might need to get into this kind of shape?
Truth is, with just 2 tweaks to my usual, time-minimized workout routines for busy women, I was primed for the job.
How 27 Minutes Of Workout Time Got Me To The Top
Believe it or not, my weekly workout routine time – totaling 3 1/2 hours/week overall – that averages out to about 27 minutes a day – did the trick. Here are the key pieces that put me, literally, over the top.
1) Burst Training: I knew, looking ahead to the Half Dome climb, that I would need explosive bursts of energy to meet the demands of clawing up the cables the last portion of the climb. I not only kept up with my 3x a week 15 minute Burst Training (see my FREE Fitness Breakthrough Kit for complete instructions and schedule), but I added one more 60-second burst. Still did the whole bit in 15 minutes per session.
With Greg at the top of Half Dome, west horizon
2) I added pull-ups: Using my ballet bar as fitness toy, I added 2 – 3 sets of 15 reps per week. With my feet on the floor, body in table position and an overhand bar grip, this move strengthens arms, shoulders and back – really targeting the lats in a big way – for the task ahead: Pulling my body weight UP those cables, with feet as stabilizers and back up.
3) Quad strengtheners: Thigh Warriors, Fit Quickie #6, has proved to be my best friend in building rock-solid thighs and were my ace in the hole on this one. I did my usual routine on this one, just making sure I pushed my limits each time. (How low can you go?)
4) I kept up the calf work: Knowing that gecko-style climbing and holds on vertical faces demand strong calves, my usual calf-raise routine did the trick.
5) Glutes and hamstrings: Fit Quickie #6, Gorgeous Glutes and Hamstrings are a mainstay of my workout schedule and proved to be excellent prep. Incredibly, I came back without a sore fiber in my backyard.
Here's The Best Part
The same targeted body-shapers that I've come to love for the feel and look they create turned out to be the very best tools for building the body I needed for undergoing the strength challenges of the Half Dome quest.
And when you think about it, this makes perfect sense. At least for the cable-climb portion of the journey, extreme demand on muscles held under tension was critical to prepare for.
Later, at moonrise from Glacier Point, Half Dome floating in the background
Much of the time was spent hovering in bent knee position, calves and quads tensed for the hold. Arms, doing same, with short pause points at crossbars on the granite face, following by explosive seconds to the next landing.
As it turned out, I had the wind, the arms, the back and the legs to do it. And make it back the full 16+ mile hike round trip, hitting camp once again after 4:00 that afternoon. And all on my focused, minimized workout schedule. Yahoo!
Next time I'll tell you all about how I fueled for this one. This may surprise you, too!
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