I Love Snack Time

This image was taken on a snack break!

Packing snacks is essential to my photography.  If I get hungry, I can't think about anything else except where my next meal will be.  During the workday, I have snacks I munch on every hour so it only makes sense that I will still need to eat every hour while photographing.  For some reason, this has been a hard lesson to learn.  

I went for a sunrise hike yesterday to the amazing Lake Isabelle.  It was a beautiful (although cloudless) morning with almost no wind.  We had to leave the house at 3am to get there in time, but it was well worth it!  At that time in the morning, well, any morning, really, I don't like to eat much first thing.  I need coffee to get me started and then I eat later. At my desk job, this doesn't create any difficulty since I am not burning many calories, but on the trail this became a problem.  About 2/3 into the hike I completely bonked.  There was no fuel left in the tank to get up the only hard part of the entire hike. I slogged up the last part of the trail and then ate a couple bars, but I was really frustrated with myself for not eating properly.  What do you eat in the morning to get going?

Normally, I love the Clif Bar Mini packs, just not first thing in the morning.  They are sold at Target and Amazon and have 18 mini bars per box with 3 different flavors.  They are about 1/3 the size of a regular Clif Bar so I can eat a whole one and be done with the wrapper instead of eating part of the regular size and trying to wrap it up in my pocket for later (and inevitably having a messy pocket all day long).  If you put these in a part of your pack that gets warm, they taste like warm cookies or brownies.  On the downside, if they get too cold, they are practically inedible.  I know someone who broke their tooth on a cold Clif Bar!

Proper snacking isn't just for the hiking trail, either.  Even photographing flowers in a garden or home can leave me totally depleted.  I lose track of time and end up on the far side of hungry needing a quick fix.  As much as I would like to down a Snickers and keep going, I know that probably isn't the best way to solve the problem!