How to pack nutritional supplements on a long tour
 

I currently take nine different nutritional supplements every day. So far I just don't take them while on tour. But I want to take more and more and longer and longer tours in the future and have some concern for doing without the regular supplements as I travel. That's even more true knowing that I'll sometimes compromise on food quality based on what I can find easily available and easy to prepare.

My nine bottles would take up too much space. Dumping many days of supplements into a zip lock would be possible I guess. It would be hard to be very accurate about how much of each I'm taking in a day. But maybe just shaking up the bag a little and grabbing a handful and knowing I'm getting about the right amount on average is the best approach.

Are there other users of nutritional supplements on tour? How do you pack them?

I have a medical bag that has some meds and vitamins.

So are you taking powders or capsules?

Tips for carrying medication on tour ...

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...cation-on-Tour


Also, for touring purposes, is it possible to find one multi-vitamin that has most of what you're taking?

And where are you planning to tour? Just because you're touring doesn't immediately mean that your diet will be bad. For example, you should be able to find fruit and veg in markets etc. in many parts of the world.


And ummm ...

Are you talking about dumping pills in a ziplock bag, and then taking a random handful of them?

The answer probably depends on what you are taking. If it is pills and capsules, it doesn't seem like it should be that big of a deal to manage.

Personally I either take nothing or a multivitamin when on tour.

One thing that I think helps is that on tour you eat enough food that, even if it isn't all high quality, you are likely to not have any big deficiencies.

Hi Walter,

Good quality nutritional supplements are important to me, as well. I only take a few (mostly minerals), but I dump them into ziplock bags. Since I know my daily regimen and what each tablet/capsule looks like, the rest is simple. I also use an excellent powder called Fruitful Harvest that simply mixes with water, that fills the gaps when a good variety of food isn't always available. (http://www.daystarbotanicals.com/pro...ulharvest.html).

As you probably know, unfortunately there is no such thing as a high-quality "multi-vitamin" that the body can actually absorb.

For longer tours, I have resupplies of supplements mailed to me, along with other consumables and treats, to predetermined Post Offices (sent to "General Delivery") along the way.

I hope this helps. Safe journeys,

Ted

While I use various nutritional supplements at home, I don't use them when touring. PITA. I think the extra food required when biking almost every day provides more than adequate nutrition. I'll vary my touring diet to suit how I'm feeling and that's about it.

You can buy very very very small ziplock bags that work wonders for pills. I used that recently and it worked great.

Re: Carbonfiberboy--"While I use various nutritional supplements at home, I don't use them when touring. PITA. I think the extra food required when biking almost every day provides more than adequate nutrition. I'll vary my touring diet to suit how I'm feeling and that's about it."

While your premise is mostly true when not touring in remote areas or areas where "healthy" options don't appear to be available. It is much more difficult to eat healthfully when touring in third world countries. Of course, I don't think the OP was thinking of international touring.

In many areas in the United States, a convenience store is the only source for purchasing "food" (there really isn't much "real" food in convenience stores). I certainly do the best I can with what resources are available, but many times when touring my daily food supply is a compromise, at best, compared with the food choices I make at home. I find that a few well chosen supplements are very helpful to fill the gaps when touring.

General Delivery mail drops to postoffices along the way.

Good for travel within your own country ... not good for international travel. As I say in the link I posted, if you're travelling internationally, whatever you bring in the way of medications etc. need to stay in their original bottles.

And without diverting away from the original subject too much, there are OTC medications we take for granted that are illegal in other countries and can land you in jail. Research before departing on this is essential.

The only 'suplement' I carry myself is Nutribar Vanilla Shake powder in a ziplock bag. Its intended as a meal replacement and is OK for that but I usually mix up a batch and use part as a milk replacement on cereal and drink the balance at the first break during the day.

There's a number of equivalent products on the market and they all travel well, don't absolutely need refrigeration, and provide vitamin and mineral supplements as well as calories.

i meant to add that as a caveat. Lol

Thanks for all the good ideas everybody.

Yes, we eat more on tour. But that's because we need more nourishment. I don't think we're just burning calories on tour. We're also wearing down our bodies more by day and need more nutrition to recharge by night. So some of my supplements seem to me at least as important while on tour.

My thinking is something like this: Protein is specified as so many grams per kilogram of body weight or lean weight. IOW it's a fixed number that doesn't increase with exercise quantity. Fat's the same way. The only thing that has to vary is carbs. Vitamins are the same way. You don't burn them. So the more you eat, as long as it's reasonably healthy, the more you get. I notice that successful vegans are those who work or exercise the hardest, like stage racers, construction workers, and the like, simply because they can eat more. My experience bears this out. If you haven't tried going without supplements, then you simply don't know, you're just speculating.

You know that folks who do long difficult unsupported tours, like around the world or Sweden to Everest, are not packing supplements, simply because it would be impossible.

Maybe you tour like you're on a mission to accomplish a goal, but lots of us tour in a much more relaxed manner.

In the summer, when I'm at home and not on tour, I might cycle 200+ km a week.

When I'm on a tour ... I might cycle 200+ km a week.

The difference being that I've got all day to cycle that when I'm on tour and can do it at a relaxed pace ... but when I'm at home, I'm working full-time so I've got to cram the cycling somewhere into my week.


And I try not to eat more when I'm on tour. Sometimes it happens because there's just so much good food out there ... we gained weight cycling up the Rhine Route because of all the wonderful ice creams :D ... but generally we do try to eat normally, and eat a well balanced diet including things like fruit, veg, whole grains, yogurt, cheeses, etc..

I used to take vitamins but gave them up after listening to Dr. Dean Edell on the radio recommend against it. He is convinced that most people are better off getting their vitamins and minerals from whole foods. He believes that the multi-million-dollar supplement industry is a racket.

I have followed that advice for decades now and I have saved thousands of dollars and feel like a million bucks.

I just use the boxes with 7 compartments. My trips have been up to two weeks, two boxes per week (morning box and night box) meant no more than four boxes. Put those and other medical and first aid stuff in a drybag.

Exception is when I leave the country, I cut back to only prescription pills, one multi-vitamin, aspirin and ibu-profen (spell?). I only carried pills in their original containers when I crossed borders. For international trips, I carried the boxes with 7 compartments empty when crossing borders.

How long are you going for? If for a long time (for me that would be over a month), will any mail order suppliers ship to an address along your route? If in USA, can you resupply along the route at Walgreens or CVS or similar?