Living a life that is rich in health and fitness is becoming way more common practice in this day and age. More and more folks are caring about what they put into their bodies and the long term effects of neglecting their health. For me, this all boils down to fear. I am simply fearful of not being able to do the things that I love for as long as possible. As many of you know, that is bowhunting the backcountry. In light of that, I started watching what I ate as well as working out on a regular basis. Longevity is what we are striving for here. So, when I heard that someone was coming out with health conscious meals for the backcountry, I was thrilled. Meals that were made with real food from the real world. As someone who lives mostly off of wild game, this was extremely appealing to me. Heather’s Choice meals for adventuring had my attention and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on a few to try out.
Before we get into the actual meals that I am referring to, I think it is important to know where they came from, and more specifically, who is responsible for bringing them to life. Alaskan resident Heather Kelly is the brainchild of the company you see before you. Graduating with a degree in Evolutionary Nutrition, Heather knows a thing or two about diet. She’s also no stranger in the fitness department. Heather excelled as a collegiate athlete, in rowing specifically, helping her team win their 5th and 6th consecutive NCAA National Championships. Throughout that whole journey, diet was always a huge priority, and where she learned a ton about eating for optimal performance. From there, Heather dove into backcountry packrafting. This was where the foundation of Heather’s meals were built. They needed to be packable and nutritionally sound in order to earn a spot in Heather’s backpack for the demanding journey ahead. After tons of in the field testing, Heather Kelly took the leap and started the company Heather’s Choice in August of 2014.
Heather’s Choice was made out of a necessity really. There simply wasn’t anything on the market that offered clean organic meals for backcountry adventures, and that was something that really hit Heather when she started backpacking herself. So, what did she do? Made her own meals of course! Heather started dehydrating all manner of meals/snacks and sharing them with her friends. After some time, she had a solid menu offering breakfast, snacks, and entrees. All of these meals are made from quality ingredients and humanely harvested protein sources. A few that come to mind are grass fed bison, elk, and wild caught sockeye salmon. That is just stuff you are not going to get in your average backpacking meal. Heather’s Choice is far from average and that shows in Heather’s meals.
As I said earlier, this all was extremely appealing to me. Anything I can do to make better decisions and live a healthier life, I am game to check out. The cherry on top was hearing the ingredients. The idea of being able to fuel my body out there with things like salmon and venison, both things I would eat at home, had my attention. As I’ve gotten older, it has become largely apparent to me how much the food you put into your body, effects how you feel. When you eat better, you just plain feel better. As many of you know, backpack hunting is hard enough as it is. Refueling with unsatisfactory fuel is not something that you should strive for.
Black Espresso Packaroon
Fortunately enough, I was able to try quite a few of this stuff out on a recent backcountry bear hunt I went on, here in Arizona. Eagerness accompanied me as I made my way down the trail to bear camp. The biggest thing I noticed after trying this stuff out, was how full I felt afterwards. Even with the small snack bags of packaroons, I was completely satisfied. Packaroons are these delicious little coconut snacks, about the size of a half dollar. I had the same experience with the dinners. These bags of food look small, but I promise you, they are jam packed with fulfilling deliciousness. Another thing that stood out to me, specifically with the entrees, was how meaty they were. These are not mushy bags of slop. You need to actually chew this stuff. Again, real food.
Aside from how tasty these meals are, I noticed some other things. First, is how small they are. The entree bags are probably about a 1/3 the size of a competitor’s bag. I love this, because it frees up space in my backpack. I feel like that is something I am always trying to do. On top of that, is how much water you need to use in order to prepare them. Most other backpacking meals take 16 ounces of boiling water to cook right. Heather’s Choice takes 10 ounces. This is something that I can really appreciate, because out here in Arizona, water is sometimes scarce. The less water I need to use for cooking, the better. That gives me more water to drink and less filtering to do. Win win situation, if you ask me. Now, to contrast that, Heather’s Meals do take a bit longer to cook than the standard of 10 minutes we all know so well. These are going to take 20 minutes to rehydrate. Small price to pay for an even better meal at the end of the day.
I actually remember hearing Heather on a podcast some years ago talking about her Paleo friendly backpacking meals. Back then, she didn’t even have packaging for them, and was actually in the process of running a kickstarter page for Heather’s Choice. The goal was to get enough funding to have legit packaging for her meals. I was beyond thrilled when I later heard that it was a success. If you want great results in life, you have to put in great effort and Heather has done nothing short of that. It has been inspiring to watch her company grow from when I first heard her speaking on that podcast years ago. For more information on Heather’s Choice meals, head on over to Heather’s Choice. If you have not yet tried this stuff out, do yourself a favor and order some for your next trip.
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