Friday, January 16, 2009
Hungry Hippos and Honeynut Cheerios
Right now Kyle and I are both hoping that our training will make us lose weight and inches. It hasn't done much so far, but we can keep hoping...and maybe dieting. The trip itself, however, will require a major mental readjustment: suddenly calories and carbs will be good, vital, and in short supply.
In order to keep our tired bodies going we'll probably need to consume around 4000 calories per day. I'm pretty sure we'll be up to the task of eating that much food; the problem is finding it. We don't want to carry many pounds of food but we also can't afford to buy many meals on the road. Our current plan is to always supply our own breakfast (fingers crossed for free hotel breakfasts with bagels and mini cereal boxes) but to get dinner from hosts or restaurants. Lunches are still being negotiated; Kyle wants to save money by eating what we carry (meaning the same things we had for breakfast), but I'm lobbying for stopping at grocery stores to supplement with food that is fresh and/or cold. Sadly we both agree that we can't afford to lunch at restaurants.
We've also been brainstorming about what food we can easily carry. I'm going to have to find an real energy bar that I like - right now the best I've got are Nature Valley granola bars and Snickers. We might also try those gels though quite frankly I prefer to chew and taste my calories. My strange habit of drinking fruit punch Powerade with meals will finally come in handy, however, and so will the power packed portable meal that I discovered a few years ago: peanut butter and honeynut cheerios. When I'm at home I make a peanut butter and honeynut cheerio sandwich on whole wheat bread for pre- or post-ride meals, which has the added bonus of being great with skim milk. (To the dismay of my mother and future mother-in-law I very rarely drink milk.) On the road, however, I'll be content with just a spoon and a jar full of peanut butter and honeynut cheerios. I discovered this unexpected (but delicious) combo out of absolute necessity while studying abroad in England for a few weeks. The kitchen in our hotel/hostel was so utterly disgusting that none of us wanted to set foot in the room. Lacking a bowl, a spoon, and a refridgerator in which to store milk made my honeynut cheerios rather useless, so for some reason I poured them into my jar of peanut butter and carried this around until I could commandeer a spoon (which was stolen, I'm a bit ashamed and frightened to admit, from the Tower of London cafeteria). And so a culinary creation was born. Now I just have to figure out how to keep the peanut butter from sticking to the roof of my mouth for the entire ride...
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| posted at: 12:01 |
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