>>911358Try to eat at a caloric surplus to build muscle while on your trip. Fat is your friend for this because of the weight (9kcal per gram fat vs 4 kcal per gram carb/protein).
Not eating enough carbs and fat will have you sweating and pissing out your muscles and the protein you ate to rebuild them after you've consumed the max of body fat you can burn in a day. You'll reek of ammonia because of it.
A lot of hikers will scoff at this, but I usually carried an extra day of food in case I found a dope spot I wanted to chill at or a cool section of trail where I wanted to take my time. Also, some hiker will inevitably not bring enough food, and will be very grateful. The amount of good will I received out weighed anything I could do at give at the time. I still consider myself in debt to the trail.
Take enough resources (money and time) so that you can do what you want when you want. Allow yourself more time to finish than you think you will need. I originally thought I would do it in 4-5 months and be done, but I found that I enjoyed it much more when I took my time. But I guess that's not for everyone. Have the goal in mind to finish, but also realize that there is luck and patience involved. I know people who got fucked physically because they were in too much of a hurry and had a bad fall or crippling stress fractures, or were low on money and had to try to make do with a pair of shoes that had lost its tread a month before, only to slip down a steep piece and take them out of commission for months.
Take your time. I outright told myself I could quit, but if I wanted to quit, I had to wait until October. Don't get stressed by not meeting a goal for the day. Eventually I stopped setting daily goals and just stopped when I felt like it. Someone told me a phrase they had learned: "you'll get somewhere." Don't stress over progress because it can only ever be a step at a time. By the time October rolled around, I was dragging out the finish. Continued.
