Week 1 — Not the problem I expected.

I had plenty of concerns for the first week: old injuries flairing up, hips/knees/ankles giving out, plain endurance. That has all been a challenge, but what nearly took me out was a surprise — not eating enough.

We brought plenty of food, and had a decent plan.

• Oatmeal breakfast, 500 cal
• Jerky, trail mix all day, 1000+cal
• Pepperoni and hard cheese, 500 cal
• Pasta and protein dinner, 1000 cal
• Little candy bars dessert, 200 cal

Numbers are approximate, but this is in the neighborhood of 3000 calories per day. I figured that would be pretty good, and if I had a slight deficit, no big deal, right? I certainly have a little padding I could stand to lose…

Well, when your days start to look like this:

Even 3000/day is not going to cut it. This is especially true when the exercise messes with your​ appetite, you skip oatmeal to get an early start, or you occasionally leave the trail mix in your bag where it’s annoying to get to. Oops.

I was fine until the morning of Day 4. Within 20 minutes of hitting the trail, I felt like I had gone all day. It was just a brutal wave of exhaustion. Thankfully, Krissy Baker crammed some candy-loaded trail mix into my mouth, and I immediately started bouncing back (and figuring out the problem).

So here I am, confronted with the opposite problem to the one I’ve had all my life; I need to eat way more than I 'want' to. Hilarious. Cheers to guilt free eating.

Notes: Daily calorie estimates are from the Google Fit app that I leave on during our hikes. It uses elevation, speed, and my weight (pack not included).

Also, I sadly didn’t finish that pint of ice cream like I should have. I snapped that photo to make a light-hearted food joke before I realized that it was serious business.

Keep up your calories, trail mates.