What to buy and what not to bring on a 30-day trip

There is a part of the food on the go that doesn’t come down to calories or grams: it comes down to decisions in the supermarket aisle.

What I put in the cart and what I leave there knowing that I will buy it along the way. What can be reused. What I add to the dinner and why. And one thing that a lot of people take for granted and that I leave at home on purpose.

This is the logistics of food to cross the Pyrenees in less than 30 days.

First of all: what I didn't take with me

In the supermarket, I pick up a can of tuna, look at it, and return it to the shelf.

Not because it's not a good idea, but because I buy that at the refueling stations. You have to lose weight, weight, weight and weight.

That is the great advantage of such a long journey through this area: you pass through many villages. That takes a lot of the burden off my shoulders when I pack my backpack.

When I go on short trips, I do bring some cans of sardines or tuna with me. Here, though, not so much. Here, everything that can be bought on the go is bought on the go.

The four points of refueling

Apart from the villages I have four prepared refueling points, I'm going to leave them with Tony before I leave.

The first one is already entering the Central Pyrenees, which is right where the villages end. There I estimate that I could be without being able to buy for about five days, or with some villages open but with the risk that they will be closed at the time I pass by.

That's why starting from that point the backpack gets heavier, and that's why I bring home the nuts: almonds and peanuts, which have a lot of fat, and dehydrated banana.

What I eat at each meal

Without going into the calorie calculation, which is another story, here is the structure:

Breakfast: Oatmeal with chocolate chips, a coffee and a smoothie. The smoothie weighs 27 grams per serving. It’s a filling smoothie that’s marketed for weight loss, low in fat, but that provides all the nutrients you need.

During the day: Nuts, dehydrated banana and five dates. Everything was prepared the night before. Every morning, when picking up the store, I take the food for the day to the rice cooker so I don't have to stop along the way. In a trip like this, practically everything is done on foot.

Snack: Here comes what I call the cucumber. When you’ve been walking all day, there comes a moment when your body says enough is enough, and that’s where the big smoothie comes in—the one with 800 calories per serving.

To that smoothie I added what I call the bomb: a pre-workout dose with 150 mg of caffeine, plus vitamin C, niacin, B12, folic acid, beta-alanine, creatine and arginine.

That said, I don't take the full dose of the smoothie. Adding 800 calories at seven in the evening doesn't make sense when I'm going to have dinner shortly afterwards.

Dinner: Couscous with textured soy.

I've tried couscous from several places and I've ended up with one that soaks up the water in five minutes and is also good. That matters more than it seems when you're going to eat it twenty nights in a row.

And textured soy is a real treat: 50 grams of protein per 100 grams And it practically doesn't weigh anything. Among that, the oats, the morning smoothie and the afternoon snack, in terms of protein, I'm more than covered.

My natural medicine: the spice bottle

This cannot be missing. And it’s not just for flavor.

• Turmeric with pepper. Anti-inflammatory. It is the main one and it is used every day.
• Garlic. Anti-inflammatory and antibiotic. However, don't overuse it or you'll bleed out.
• Onion. Because I like it, and I think it's antiseptic. I'm not sure, I don't want to say anything stupid.
• Oregano and basil. Because I like them. They will have their own properties, but I won't tell you what they are.

I already have all this prepared and mixed at home. For the refueling I take the whole bottles and mix them there, without having to take anything out of the packages.

The spice I left at home on purpose

Cinnamon.

I like it and sometimes use it. But I don't recommend it for such long trips.

One of the things that’s used a lot in diets is because it helps regulate blood sugar levels. And that, on a journey where what you’re looking for is exactly the opposite — energy spikes available when you need them— is not something I’m interested in.

So he stays home. I'll note it down in case someone decides to throw it in their breakfast without thinking about it.

As always, warning: I don't want to get involved in a field that doesn't suit me.

The bags: the cheapest system I have

I put everything in dog poop bags.

They weigh practically nothing, are much more durable than they seem, and save me a lot of money. Before I used sealed bags for everything. Now I only use two: The one for the bag, which is sacred, and one or two for food and hygiene.

The system:

• The five dates of each day, in their own pouch
• The couscous comes in two-serving bags, each one. I don't charge extra for them even if they last a long time, because if they get too full I lose space for handling them.
• And as I empty them, I reuse them for trash

There I have two separate ones. One is for recycling, which I empty into the trash cans in the villages. And the other is for intimate waste: tampons and sanitary napkins, which I use daily because I only wear panties for a few hours.

Eating even when you're not hungry

And here comes the most important part of all.

A lot of people tell me: «You just don’t have an appetite». I do have an appetite. But there are days when I not only don’t have an appetite, but it’s really hard for me to eat. It’s really hard for me.

And you have to eat the same amount. Because this is very exhausting and the fundamental thing is not having a full stomach, it's to be well nourished.

That means prioritizing nutrition over «I’m eating this because I want to.» We’re surrounded by junk food. I’m currently in the weight-gain phase; I gained a couple of pounds before leaving, and I’m eating a bag of chips while recording this. But those are empty calories: they don’t provide any nutritional value.

Every now and then you eat some donuts or a chocolate bar and they give you a hefty sugar kick, and that's fine. But if you can choose, before that, some dates: they give you the same amount of glucose and on top of that they also bring the rest.