Polar Explorer Eric Larsen
Day 23: Systems
overcast, sunny afternoon -15 C -29C windchill
09 December 2009 | Antarctica
Each day for lunch (during the day) we eat the following: 1 Clif Builders Bar, 1 Clif Bar, 1 package Clif shot bloks, 1 Lara Bar, 50 grams of salami, 50 grams of cheese, 1/2 liter of soup, 1 package of biscuit browns (British crackers), 4 pieces of candy, 100 grams of chocolate and 100 grams of gorp (nuts and raisons).

While each lunch is the same, each of us chooses to eat our lunch in different ways.

Bill eats his salami and cheese right after breakfast. The rest is left in a zip lock but 'pre-opened'. At each break, he pulls out the bag out of his sled and grabs something to eat. 'I eat the chocolate first,' says Bill the consumate dessert lover.

Dong puts a bit more effort into his lunch preparations. 'Time to go to work,' he declares every night. Then, he proceedes to break up his bars, cheese, chocolate and nuts in a spare nalgene and drinks his lunch at breaks. At each break, he unscrews the bottle, tips his head back and waits to see what he'll win in the 'lottery'. Then he adds, 'I always win.'

As with most things on expeditions, I am purely function first. All my bars get ripped open and stuffed in my left pants pocket. My candy gets unwrapped and placed in a special pocket on my right sleeve. I drop my cheese in my soup to thaw it out and eat the salami immediately after downing the soup. I save my chocolate until the last break, only because after so many expeditions, it is my least favorite trail food.

What we eat never changes. As with most things on an expedition, structure defines our lives. Yet within this rigorous construct each of us is able to bend the rules to suit his needs.

Image: Bill drinking the last of his soup at lunch.

Remember, it's cool to be cold. Save the Poles. Save the planet.

For more information, please visit www.savethepoles.com

For information about guided Antarctic expeditions, please visit http://www.antarctic-logistics.com/

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