Category: Food stuff

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Why this project came about!

Hey there, thanks for following my project!
I sincerely hope that You enjoy the ride and find some value in reading about the preparations and, later on, the hike itself and the subsequent results.

Anyway, I´m well aware that the vast majority of people would consider 30 days hiking in the wilderness worse than divine punishment and so I feel compelled to share my reasons for this project!

  1. As You probably already figured out (if You know me at all), I´m not one of “most people” in this case – on the contrary, spending time in nature depending on myself for days and weeks is amazingly relaxing and fulfilling for me. If You haven´t already, please check out my Off The Grid Hiker blogg for more tours and adventures!
  2. I´ve been on the low carb side of life for the better part of 10 years and personally feel and perform a lot better being fat fueled than sugar burning and earlier this year decided to really try out the ketogenic diet. Leaving no more than 25g of carbohydrates per day in my diet, moderating protein intake to 1-1.5g/day and kg of body weight and devouring tons of healthy fats dropped me from around 15% body fat to well under 10% in less than 2 months without ever feeling hungry, fatigued or experiencing any cravings. Interestingly enough I didn´t even work out very much, mostly walking and a few short lifting sessions weekly.
    Feeling constantly energized and content got me thinking about how this way of eating would work in a hiking situation and I decided to check it out.May 1st I landed on Kauai and the next day my friends Dayna and Jason dropped me of at the Kalalau trail head for a few days hiking along the beautiful Napali coast (more on that tour here).
    I started early afternoon and the first day was horrible, travel and crappy airplane food had kicked me out of ketosis and I had to literally sit down and rest several times during a long uphill stretch…
    Having brought only beef jerky, macadamia nuts and coconut oil (besides some instant coffee) for provisions saved me as I was back in ketosis the next day and the few days hiking turned out fantastic!
    This experience naturally added to my curiosity towards hiking in a ketogenic state that originated from the 2015 hike in Lappland and I decided to stay under 20g of daily carbs this year
  3.  I totally expect these 30 days in the wild to have a massive positive impact on my health, not only physically due to the clean air, food and water, but also mentally, emotionally and spiritually as a result of the closeness to nature, time for contemplation and reflexion as well as freedom from distractions and influence from advertising, social media, email etc.
    By doing some rather extensive blood work and collecting urine samples for testing stress and sex hormone status, as well as measuring waist and hip circumference, a few skin folds and scale weight before and after we hope to be able to show an improvement in all or most of the areas tested. Thereby inspiring others to use our findings to improve their own health with or without our guidance and support.

Below You can see the main parts of my pack, weighing in at 32kg (70lbs) its a little heavier than I´d like yet there´s np way around this while bringing the stuff I need for the tour and being able to get all the documentation.

 Food supply, 15kg / 33lbs totalCamping equipment and clothes

Please check out the short video, share this post with people You know who could benefit, and leave a comment below to share Your thoughts!

Mahalo, I appreciate You!

Peace // Claes

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Let me tell You a story!

On July 31th 2015 my wife at the time, Maria, and I left Riksgränsen (a small tourist station along the road from Kiruna to Narvik) for a 4 week hike. Early on we decided to bring provisions for the entire trip with us from the start which, needless to say, was challenging.

As stated earlier I’m rather fat adapted and enhanced that by cutting out all sugars and most starches a good week before we started the trip. Maria, on the other hand, was mainly eating a vegetarian diet based on fruits and veggies with some nuts, seeds and the occasional cheese.

I thought she was planning too little food and during the last week before departure I persuaded her to dehydrate some beetroot and sweet potatoes, just to have some denser carbohydrates available.

Starting out we were both carrying way to heavy loads and the first few days were slow and tedious though we managed to motor along pretty well for the first two weeks. Then came the point when we ran out of beetroot and sweet potatoes and initially this could be managed by stocking up on milk chocolate every time we passed by a cabin selling provisions.

As You probably already know the nutritional value of chocolate doesn’t even come close that of good starchy tubers and You might already have guessed how this ended… Right, the simple sugars and fast carbs in the chocolate couldn’t sustain the energy output for long, I managed to get my hands on some butter and could give Maria my remaining coconut oil and still it didn’t suffice.

A few days into week four her energy levels were plummeting just 90 min after we started in the morning and besides physical hunger and lack of energy it affected her emotionally as well. In the end we cut the tour short a couple of nights and went down to Abisko early.

I, on the other hand, had a totally different experience – I usually eat beef jerky with butter/coconut oil and some nuts for breakfast and when the energy from that meal has been used, my body just continues burning fat from the storages of my body and I didn’t even notice the difference and frankly never got any dips or hunger pangs.

In 2016 I was out there for 16 days and actually had one third of the beef jerky and about the same of the coconut left over at the end of the hike. Out of the 16 days I only had three meals on three days, two days I ate once and the rest I had two meals. Always eating when hungry and never experiencing a dip in energy!

So, these experiences inspired me to go full keto this year and see what that feels like – stay tuned!