The Post-Denali Diet

The most discussed topic on the mountain, besides when we will summit, is about food.  We fantasize about different meals that we will eat when we return and savor in our brains the different tastes and textures of food.  This is all understandable given that we are eating chocolate, nuts, packaged crackers and jerkey and cheese, soups, and an occasional home-made quesadilla or semi-pizza.  We mostly dream about fresh vegetables and steaks and burgers and ethnic foods and the ability to eat of of this and not worry about when the next bathroom break would be available.

I left for Denali at a low-weight for me of about 129-130 pounds.  When I returned I weighed about 124-125 pounds which is not too much weight loss.  This also includes whatever I ate in the few days after the climb – which was a lot.

Since my return I have been on the “post-Denali Diet”, as have most of the people that I talked to after the climb.  The week I came back, I had big steak dinner, chinese food, thai food, indian food etc.  We had a company picnic party at work where I declared that my goal was to take in 10,000 calories that day (I did not succeed thankfully – which is good since at sea level we are not burning 10,000 calories a day like we are on some climbing days. (An average height/weight person burns about 800 calories an hour running, and if you’re climbing with a full 50-60lb pack and pulling a sled of near equal weight, I think you can burn 1,000 calories an hour easily.  On summit day, which was 14 1/2 hours long, we hardly took in enough calories or drank enough water (only 2 liters plus a thermous), we must have burned 15,000 calories in one day.)

I’m still eating and stuff I shouldn’t be.  I still eat a lot of salads, but have had lots of burgers, and other unhealthy food, topped off with an occasional Cinnamon Dolce Latte from Starbucks, chocolate cookies, and worst of all, snacking at night while reading – even after I’ve brushed my teeth – yuck.

Despite working out for 10 of the last 15 days (running, weights, rowing and biking), I’ve put on the 5 pounds I lost and its time to go OFF the diet and back to “normal” eating (for me), mostly salads with grilled chicken, grapes for desert and cut out the snacking in between mails.   We’ll see how it goes as the urge to eat is still there!