[pct-l] food strategy,

[Paul Robison]

my Wife Echo wrote this up,  i know very little about computers.  she wrote an 
Excel / Access program for her work that is over 4 million cells, so she's been 
doing it some ; )   like you said, spreadsheets... they spread.

i totally agree with what you've said,  as you add more and more info to it;  it 
gets harder and harder to use.  so we've focused on 'fat' 'fiber' and 'protein' 
with a master line for calories; and info for cost.

i think our real focus right now will be for ease of logistics... my sister 
mails our boxes for us, so making bags into 'day rations' makes it easy, if our 
pace is faster or slower we can call her and say 'hey, can you add 2 more day 
bags to our Wrightwood resupply' etc.  


sunday evening we made stoveless daybags and got 15 done @ 2700 calories per 
person.  i think this system affords a simplicity that was not found in trying 
to make custom boxes for each resupply point.

the downside is there is a little bit of waste,  say all of our bags include a 
dinner, but one night we get dinner out,  etc.  but in order to make the whole 
process uniformly easy not only for us prepping, but for my sister mailing, 
we'll deal with the few wasted meals.

Thanks for your insight,  keepin is as simple as possible to retain legibility.
~Paul

PS, has anyone used the company 'just tomatoes etc'  their products store really 
well if you suck&seal them in a vacuum bag,  and make wonderful little treats, 
at 95 calories an ounce for the berries and fruit !  obviously they're not 
walnuts or peanuts,  but it's good to have some taste variety.





________________________________
From: CHUCK CHELIN <steeleye at wildblue.net>
To: Paul Robison <paulrobisonhome at yahoo.com>
Cc: pct-l at backcountry.net
Sent: Mon, December 13, 2010 11:05:11 AM
Subject: Re: [pct-l] food strategy,


Good morning, Paul,
You’ve created a good food selection tool.  It should be helpful during your 
hikes. 


I’m a confirmed left-brained planer so I created a very similar spreadsheet 
beginning about six years ago.  The primary objective was to develop a tool for 
use at home by my logistics manager, i.e. wife, when she prepared boxes for 
those segments where I didn’t buy locally.  As is often the case “scope creep” 
crept in and the spreadsheet – well, it spread.
When developing my Excel tool I entered the attributes of many, many food items, 
both cookable and ready-to-eat; off-the-shelf stuff as well as my own 
creations.  It started with basic considerations such as Calories/ounce and the 
balance of fat, protein and carbohydrates, but it quickly included an 
ever-expanding array of attributes such as vitamins, electrolytes, fiber, 
preservatives, etc. ad nauseam.
In spite of all my criteria, detail, and macro-driven sort routines, the thing 
was far too complicated.  It just couldn’t solve equations with so many 
variables; it couldn’t tell me anything useful about what eatables I should 
carry that I didn’t already intuitively know.
Regardless, the project wasn’t a waste:  I had to stop and think about what was 
important.  I learned a great deal about food constituents.  I learned – again – 
that simple an easy is better than difficult and complicated.
The ultimate result was a practical tool that friend-wife has used for the past 
four years.  When I report in from the trail I only need to tell her: 1) How 
many Calories per day I want, 2) how many days I project for the resupply 
segment, and, 3) where to send it.
She enters the target Calories/day and – by day – selects a balance of items 
that automatically sum to that target.  She bags those items by day, packs the 
whole in a USPS Priority Mail flat-rate box and sends it with pre-printed 
address labels.  I never know for sure exactly what a box will contain, but I 
like just about anything that’s lite in weight, and since she’s been feeding me 
for 45 years now she has it pretty well figured out.  It works well for us.
On the trail my body will tell me with a craving what I may be lacking in my 
diet.  When I get to a trail town I will probably load-up on essentials such as 
fresh fruits, vegetables, pizza and beer.  That will usually get me back in 
balance to undertake another segment eating dry, brown stuff.
Enjoy your planning,
“The problem is not shortage of data, but rather our inability to perceive the 
consequences of information we already possess.”  - Jay W. Forrester, Technology 
Review, Jan. 1971
Steel-Eye
Hiking the Pct since before it was the PCT – 1965
http://www.trailjournals.com/steel-eye


On Sun, Dec 12, 2010 at 7:13 PM, Paul Robison <paulrobisonhome at yahoo.com> wrote:

as far as food strategies,  my wife has been making a spreadsheets with foods
>what they cost per calorie, calories per ounce, etc. etc. etc.
>this is an ongoing list,  and reflects our 2010 resupply boxes,  our 2011 boxes
>will be different but they aren't entered yet.  we're just getting to actually
>making them
>
>does anyone else use a spreadsheet like this to calculate nutrition?
>https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AuUCgf1GlgCddGx6ZlhGeHNOeEtxWDFWOUV5MkQxalE&hl=en
>
>
>
>i know most people buy as they go,  this is questions for the people who send
>boxes.
>
>~Paul
>
>
>
>
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