7 Mile Hike & Low Carb Picnic – Fueling Up For Fitness On A Keto Diet

It’s the first day of Fall. 🙂 I love the change of seasons. It’s exciting, refreshing, and always puts me in mind of new starts – which is a great time to set goals.

Yesterday was the official last day of Summer, and I was out hiking one of the most rugged and remote areas of Middle TN. The trails were littered with Fall color already! With everything still green on a HOT sunny day, and red & yellow leaves scattered across the trails, nature illustrated the start of it’s transition beautifully…

This particular hike was an ambitious undertaking. MUCH more ambitious than we realized going in, lol. Not only was it a couple miles longer than indicated, it was a seriously rugged trail with lots of rocks and hills to navigate.

Fortunately I fueled up on a good breakfast, and we brought along healthy low carb foods, because we were in the depths of nowhere for a good 6 hours!

The topic of fitness & exercise always brings up a good question for those on a low carb / keto diet. Traditional advice is to “carb up” before a workout (for energy)…

I actually hear this question a lot. Two of my male friends and business peers are both ketogenic weight trainers, so we’ve discussed our own experiences on this in detail.

You don’t have to carb load or “fuel up” in ketosis because you don’t have blood sugar spikes & drops like people who fuel their body on carbs.

On a keto diet, you fuel your body with healthy fats instead. So you don’t have to do anything special other than just eat high fat healthy foods. 🙂

They’ll be discussing that in more detail in the Free Keto Summit, including interviews with keto athletes. It’s all virtual so you can attend from home, and it’s a great opportunity to learn the science behind how & why a ketogenic low carb diet works:

My day yesterday included 75 grams of protein, with 72% of my calories in healthy fats. You want to keep your protein at 25% or below of your total daily calories, with a minimum of 70% healthy fat. And low carb, of course – 20 to 30 net carbs max.

I started my day with 3 large eggs and 1.55 ounces of colby jack cheese cooked in MCT Grade Coconut Oil. Note: Make sure you use UNrefined coconut oil. Otherwise you might as well just be using lard. 🙂 The refining process removes all the healthy benefits of coconut oil. This was healthy AND delicious:

We headed out early, and packed up lots of low carb snacks for the hike.

One of the things I brought was pumpkin seeds. I had a packet of Jalapeño/Salsa Scout Backcountry Pumpkin Seeds – but I wasn’t sure I could handle the jalapeño (lol) so I also brought along some italian herb seasoned pepitas:

I got the Scout Backcountry pumpkin seeds in my last Keto Krate box. The others came from the produce section at Wal-Mart. I liked them both! The spicy ones were good with crisp cucumbers and dried beef, but I liked the italian seasoning a lot too.

Here’s what the Scout Backcountry pumpkin seeds look like:

They’re a little messy, lol.

Fortunately we had our picnic by a river, so it was easy enough to wash up after lunch. What I LOVED about the product… was the packaging. 🙂

That made me smile, sitting on the top of a waterfall. 🙂

The pumpkin seeds would be PERFECT on a big fresh salad! 🙂

You know what else is great on a big healthy low carb salad? Cello Parmesan Whisps – they are a perfect crunchy, tasty replacement for croutons! I got those in my September Keto Krate too…

Speaking of food, here’s the spread we enjoyed at the top of the waterfall yesterday, after a good 3+ miles of HOT hiking:

It made for a great picnic at the top of Horsepound Falls! I didn’t eat all of that, of course. 🙂 I ate a lot less than I expected I would… but it totaled up to 555 calories and 77% healthy fat once I entered it into MyFitnessPal. Actually that didn’t include a few bites of the dried beef & Cello Whisps, but I didn’t eat much of either…

When you’re eating nutrient-dense foods that are also high in healthy fats, you don’t need as much because they’re more filling…

Which makes your backpack a lot lighter. 🙂

This was my first time trying the Biltong Seasoned Dried Beef. It’s like beef jerky, but more tender to me – and it had a nice mild flavor to it. It’s all natural 100% unprocessed beef, no nitrates or additives. This also came in my last Keto Krate.

I only had a few bites of the dried beef and parmesan whisps.

I mostly ate the crisp cucumber slices, 25 grams of pecans, a couple of string cheeses – then both types of pumpkin seeds. That didn’t seem like much at the time, but like I said it was over 600 calories and I felt quite satisfied.

After lunch we played on the waterfall, which was hardly a trickle. We seriously need some rain here in Tennessee! This is my FAVORITE picture of the day, me sitting on top of Horsepound Falls playing in the water. 🙂

Of course in my usual adventurous fashion I had to “hike the falls” too, since we’re obviously in some kind of weird drought and it wasn’t the gushing Falls it usually is. 🙂

The Collins Gulf is a seriously remote and crazy hike!

This is a shortcut we took at one point, which is straight uphill (about a 60° angle). I was grabbing on to roots for dear life 😛 lol. It was a scary, fun adventurous hike!

Fun outdoor fitness adventures are my FAVORITE way to get in shape!

Like I said in the beginning, this particular hiking adventure turned out to be more than we anticipated, lol. What we thought was going to be a 2+ mile hike to Horsepound Falls turned into 7+ miles, and two very wiped out hikers. 😛

Those were some serious miles too! Steep inclines, boulders, twists & turns… It’s very remote, and very rugged.

I came in completely wiped out last night, and was grateful to have easy low carb leftovers to enjoy for a quick dinner. It was just a simple bowl of creamy cheesy broccoli & cauliflower which was oh so comforting after an exhausting day. 🙂

It’s always smart to have easy healthy meals made up, or to cook up enough so you can grab leftovers on “tired nights” instead of having to worry with cooking!

See? No carb-loading necessary. 🙂

I pushed myself to my absolute limits on healthy foods, healthy fats, and lightweight portable keto snacks! It was the perfect day of great exercise and great foods.

I love all the fun low carb, keto friendly foods I get to try from my Keto Krate boxes every month. That’s really helping me mix things up and add some variety to my meals (and hikes!).

Speaking of, I have a Sneak Peek of the October Keto Krate that’s shipping next week. If you sign up now, you’ll get that same box. If you click on that link you can see my last three boxes in the comments there too.

Use this link: http://www.travelinglowcarb.com/ketobox and look for “the secret” at the top of the page – I think you can get a discount code that way. 🙂

I hope you enjoyed the hike, and feel more comfortable about adding exercise and strenuous workouts to your low carb lifestyle now. It’s not necessary for weight loss, but it’s heart-healthy and it’s great for toning and building muscle!

There’s so much more to learn, so be sure to sign up for the Free Keto Summit that starts in a few days!

It’s all virtual so you can watch/learn from home (or anywhere), and it’s a great opportunity to learn the science behind how & why a ketogenic low carb diet works. 🙂

Best,
Lynn Terry,
aka @LowCarbTraveler

p.s. I included my referral links in this post, so thank you in advance for using those links when you check things out or sign up or just want to read the reviews on various things! *cheers*