lenA

In two weeks I'll be leaving my house on a self contained week long trip. Three 75 mile days to intercept RAGBRAI, then four 50 mile days with that mass of humanity.

My carry along staples include, nuts, cheese, dried sausage. I stop at quicky marts and get hamburgers and hot dogs, toss the buns, and put them in one of those little trays then pile onions, kraut, and pickles from the condiment bar.

Usually at around four hours I like to have a big diet coke......seems to fool me into thinking sugar rush, but there is no crash.... the buzz just tapers off. Before I camp for the night I stop at quicky and fill my 20 oz themos with coffee for the morning...don't care if it's not hot.

All you can eat buffets work for me. I'll look for a cafe where I can order a cheese omelet. Rotisserie chickens from grocery stores are a regular. If I don't think I can eat it all, I will of course, eat the skin and fat a toss the white meat.

I don't carry any cooking stuff.

Always looking for new ideas for low carb eating on the road

hyegeek

I like to take, already peeled, hard boiled eggs with me. A couple in a baggy is a quick snack. I just did 144 miles fuelled by 5 eggs and a handful of nuts. That the wonderful thing about tuning your body to low carb, you really don't need any fuel as your body knows how to use the fat reserves. I eat mostly to keep that empty feeling away.

On the other hand, once I stop for the day, then the real re-fuelling begins and I can pack away quite a bit of dinner.

BigAura

Tuna and salmon in foil packs are easy to carry and eat protein.

Cyclebum

Peanut butter?

Not hard to go low carb when touring, but what's the point unless you're diabetic. I do low carb when at home for weight and bp control, but not when touring.

Nick The Beard

Totally.

tshelver

Gawd, that's actually of processed high fat high sodium food... I prefer to eat as natural as possible. Maybe u don't follow a low carb diet, but I just couldn't force that much garbage down my throat.

Fortunately here where I live now, fresh food is easier. Grilled chicken chicken and pineapple, avocado and chicken with brown or fresh black rice or whole wheat bread (or I leave the chicken out) kinilaw (raw fish with vinegar, fresh ginger, coconut milk, onion, chillies), mongo bean stew, jackfruit stew, 'tropical muesli' (homemade from oats, mango, banana, nuts, soaked in milk) and so on form a large part of my diet.

muesli is real easy, I pack ready mixed and add milk and fruit from the vendors.

Cyclebum

LOL. All natural peanut butter, the kind you got to stir for 10 minutes to mix with the oil, is garbage? Where you comin' from with that man?

Do you have a chef when touring, riding three hours ahead of you to get all that fancy food on the table for when you get to camp? The op's point being low carb, readily available and convenient. No chef needed.

One could cross the US on peanut butter, hard cheese, Snicker bars, vienna sausage, apples, oatmeal, and V-8. Be in great condition when finished. And throwing up at the sight of all.

BTW, as noted in my post, I do eat low carb when home, just much more basic, organic home garden grown vegies. What are mongo beans? That kinilaw stuff looks like taste bud fun. Reckon I could make that with catfish?

Walter S

Good natural food does not have to be real time consuming. It's still not as fast as some alternatives but you get what you pay for. And a life on the road while eating healthy food is not difficult with some planning and recognition of its importance for healthy living over the long haul.

But obviously it all has to do with whether you find living on natural food to be important or not. For me it is. I always come back to "you are what you eat". So I don't want hormones, pesticides, preservatives, and other chemicals polluting my body.

There's nothing wrong with complex carbs. They're an important energy food. I try to avoid processed food as much as possible. While it's not always convenient I try my darndest to stay with natural raw ingredients consisting mainly of fresh fruits and vegetables (50%), then complex carbs and protein for the other 50%. So that equates to dried/fresh fruit, nuts, leafy greens, broccoli, eggplant, oatmeal, beans, rice, boiled eggs, occasional fish - and then variations on that based on what I find and feel like. Then every couple days or so I'm likely to have a weak moment and have a bag of doritos or cookies.

It's not as convenient as fast food burgers but that's about the very last thing I would put in my gut on tour or not.

lenA

I eat to live, not live to eat...dropped the gourmet thing years ago. Fat is my friend and primary fuel..I drink a gallon or more of water a day at this time of year.. I need a lot of salt. I take my micronutrients in pill form...the body could care less.

Starch and sugar are my enemies no matter what form they take. Too much protein stresses some organs as well

I try to encourage low carbers to come forward and tell their success stories...for many of us it has been an almost magical road back to good health....

Salmon and hard boiled eggs go on the list

Thanks

Cyclebum

1+. I got on the low carb bandwagon a short 9 months ago, the low salt wagon 3 months ago. With that, and paying attention to the cals, have dropped nearly 20 pounds, and not missed anything but the weight and high bp.

Burning about 3500 cals/day when touring, I do slack off the low carb diet. Still lost 3 pounds on a recent 2 week tour.

For the nibbles at home, in tent, on road, it's sunflower seeds, hulls and kernals. No mess. Yeah weird, but it works for me. They are first washed free of salt then toasted in the oven to nearly burnt. Fiber in the hulls, whatever in the kernals.

tshelver

Well obviously I'm not getting that in the USA, but all that food is readily available along the road at roadside carenderias (small food stalls) and or in the village public markets.
Along with plenty of fruit stalls selling a whole range of imported (apples and grapes mostly) and locally grown tropical fruit.

One variation on the kinilaw is to replace or augment the vinegar with a local lime juice.

Usually requires a firm fleshed, low fat fish. the vinegar / lime juice acts as a chemical cooking agent, cutting down the bacterial risk.

Kind of strange how a really poor country has much healthier cheap food available then the 'civilized' USA, with its vaunted industrial food system. Something is badly broken out there.

I don't have a problem with peanut butter, just find it easier to carry peanuts.
Lots of other choices also.

Nick The Beard

I'm diabetic and thus very sensitive to simple carbs and sugar. I've never done the bike tour thing but I'm pretty sure my experiences with long distance hiking carry over.

I would do is carry hard cheese, peanut butter, nuts, sausage, etc on the reg. When possible I would pick up fresh fruit in town but I would rarely carry the weight on trail. I saw a few people boil a bunch of eggs while in town for the night and carry them on the road.

I did eat a bunch of carbs, but noticed some were really great while others made me feel like turds. Black beans, lentils, and quinoa are my favorite with brown rice and small amounts of whole wheat bread filling in the gaps. Bonus that they are also good sources of protein.

Instant rice, instant pasta, instant mashed potatoes, and ramen gave me calories that got me from point A to point B. It was fuel but just barely.

Unfortunately, I don't think any of my suggestions but the egg one would be helpful given your restrictions.

Tourist in MSN

When I saw how much sugar was added to the non-natural ones, I decided I better put up with the stirring thing. At home, stir it once before I put it in the fridge, it does not separate once in the fridge.

But, nice thing about these forums is that you are certainly entitled to your opinion.

tshelver

Mongo beans are better known as mung beans in the West. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mung_bean

Quite high on a bunch of different nutrients.

Way better than viennas... Which reminds me of experiences from my youth: if you ever visited aa factory making processed meats, you'd likely be a whole lot less sanguine about eating the stuff...

Burton

Ain't a chance I'd ever risk eating hard boiled eggs that have been shelled and unrefrigerated for more thana couple hours. If you've got them stored in ice water thats one thing - otherwise food poisoning is too much of a risk. Canned tuna, canned cheese and canned salmon and peanut butter are easy alternatives that don't need refrigeration.

lenA

Sunflower seeds in the shell have become main snack food at home. A pound has about 24 net grams of carbs and 1500 calories and even cracking at a frantic rate, it still takes me days of movie watching or reading to knock off a bag. Can't think of a better food for a low carber to be addicted to. Perfect for us ex smokers and others who never got over the hand to mouth thing. Good source of vitamin E, minerals including potassium and phosphorus.

I've read that in some countries, cracking sunflower seeds is a national obsession. Big piles of shells at bus stops and all that.

bikebreak

I find that with a low carb diet I eat meals less often, but snack more. Salted macadamia nuts are a favorite snack.

Try butter in your coffee. Just a couple tablespoons, stir it in, it makes the coffee into a delicious low carb energy drink.
I did see tinned (canned) butter online once, so it is portable. But you can probably find it in any convenience store also.

Nick The Beard

I carry olive oil while backpacking for the calories.

Also, if you buy salmon or tuna in the foil package try to find the kind that's in oil instead of water. Its lighter weight and more calories to get you where you're going. Fatty fish is good for joints too!