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!!

That's a pretty good list of ideas, so I can't think of much else. There are other kinds of fruit you could bring--apples, apricots, grapes, etc. and veggies--snap peas, sliced fennel, sliced bell pepper, celery, etc.

For a full day hike, I would definitely pack a sandwich. A lot of times, we'll stop some place like Panera or Subway (some place that has nutritional info for their menu) and pick up sandwiches to bring on the hike with us. Everyone can get what they want. Other than that, I usually just bring energy bars (100-200 calories each) and fruit on my hikes. But we don't really do a lot of eating while hiking, unless we are stopping to have lunch (in which case, we have the sandwiches).

All kinds of beans (you'll have to get canned) require no refrigeration and are highly energy dense foods and relatively low calorie.

I used to hike up a canyon 2 miles up, and back down again, every day with my dogs and we did it in an hour. I could eat whatever in the heck I wanted with that activity level and I was about 36. I know you're small (and take fewer calories to heat :-) ) but truly, when you're getting that much exercise if you'll just listen to your body and eat until you're 'not hungry' anymore until you're 'full as a tick' (sorry for that visual), I think you'll be SUPER FINE!! Have a great time on your trip!

Becky