I'm not sure whether to post this in exercise or food ... but ...
My family is leaving for summer vacation in the mountains in a couple of weeks. Yay! We do a ton of hiking, mostly day hiking, with probably one overnighter backpacking loop. It's one of my very favorite things in life.
This is the first hard core hiking trip I've done since I've lost the weight and I'm trying to think ahead to plan for appropriate food & snacks to take along. It's sometimes a struggle for me to make sure I take in enough to fuel my activity level (and not bonk!), but not too much so that I just overeat. When I'm talking hiking, I mean day hikes of anywhere from 8 to 12 miles, in moderate to strenuous terrain. During the last trip 2 years ago, we logged 65 miles within 2 weeks. I'm sure we'll top that this year, the boys are older and stronger now.
I just love things like trail mix and granola, but that's so high calorie, and it would be too easy to go way overboard on that. I have no portion control ability with it. What I've thought of so far are things like: low cal peanut butter sandwiches (lite wheat bread, sugar free jelly and peanut wonder), home-made trail mix (low fat popcorn, fiber one cereal, unsweetened dried cranberries), carrot sticks, small bananas, 100 calorie protein/snack bars. Any other ideas? It needs to be portable, compact, and require no refrigeration.
I know this sounds like a lot of activity and it is, but at 5'2" and 112 pounds, I just don't burn the calories that bigger people do!!! It sucks, but I know I just can't eat as much as everyone else does. Oh yeah, I have to take the high calories stuff along for DH and the boys .... and just not eat it. So, it would be helpful to have really tasty, but lower energy-density, alternatives !
Thanks in advance for any help!!