What Is This?
What is this
Welcome to Valley To Peak and thanks for stopping by. I'm a Dietitian by trade and enjoy spending time in the mountains when I need a break from the day-to-day duties involved with being an RD (Registered Dietitian). I created Valley to Peak for a few reasons:
To help take some of the guesswork out of meal planning when heading into the backcountry.
To help people with the nutrition piece of "getting in better shape" or training for an event.
To provide accurate (read: science based) nutrition information.
Guess Work
There's enough to remember when heading into the mountains. Nearly every endeavor requires some piece – and often multiple pieces- of gear; tents, backpacks, boots, bows, game bags are only scratching the service of things you're trying to remember. Our job is to take the guess work out of the nutrition piece of that. We will create menus based on foods you like to meet the demands of whatever adventure you're about to embark on. What's more important is the fact that these menus are not just built around ensuring you have food in the backcountry, but ensuring you have the right food for the backcountry. Check out the meal planning packages here.
Getting in "Better Shape"…Nutritionally.
You've done your homework. You've picked a state, applied for the tag, drew the hunt you wanted and even started mapping out where you want to at on night one. The problem? You realized elk season is only a few short months away, you're 10lbs heavier than you want to be, and don’t have the leg strength to drag out a grouse, much less the 6-point bull you've been looking at pictures of on Instagram. Insert our nutrition packages.
These are designed to run over several weeks with multiple check-ins to ensure you're still on track to meet your goals. They provide nutrient-dense meals and mini-meals spaced throughout the days to help you meet whatever your goals are.
Nutrition Is a Science?
Yep. Shocking I know. Trust me, I probably wouldn't have signed up for the first class had I known it at the time either. Nonetheless, here I sit loving the science behind it all.
I recognize you're able to get any number of backcountry meal plans already created for you simply by rushing to google, typing a few words, hitting "google search" and having pages upon pages of plans to choose from. Are any of those actually for you though? So many factors go into your individual nutrition needs and performing optimally in the backcountry. If you've put any time in, in the mountains, you know nutrition is hardly the place you want to cut corners.
There's a trend in in the world of nutrition among folks who spend time in the mountains that says fat and total calorie intake is king. While I'll agree calories matter to go the distance, I (and science) would argue that what those calories come from is more important. As you work harder sucking in what little oxygen there is, your body requires a higher ratio of carbohydrates for the most efficient supply of energy. Few of those meal plans we googled earlier are set up this way.
Don't hesitate to shoot me an email about anything you find here while perusing and thanks so much for stopping by.
