Things you can mooch along the way

[davidbonn]

These are a few small things you can often find in gas station mini marts, coffee shops, and delis along your route that can make your eating better.

• Small containers of half and half.  Either for coffee at breakfast or to add to whatever pot of hash you are making that night.
• Little packets of butter.
• Packets of hot sauce
• Packets of mustard (especially if you can find dijon mustard)
• Little things of jam and honey.  Great in oatmeal.
• Wasabi horseradish
• Soy sauce
• Blue shop towels from mini mart gas stations.  These are awesome.  Both for cleaning up your bike, cleaning dishes, and cleaning your body.

[Jocycleph]

Great suggestions, @davidbonn! Condiment packets are so handy for adding extra flavor without extra weight. I hadn't thought about blue shop towels before - those would definitely come in handy for cleaning up along the route. There are two items on the list I'm not a fan of: hot sauce and wasabi horseradish.

[davidbonn]

Everybody is different.  There's nothing wrong with that.

For me if I am exercising hard and needing to wolf down 4000+ calories per day I find a bit of spicy food helps the experience.  When I am eating a great deal it seems like my taste buds get desensitized and everything seems to taste like wet newspaper.  At least with some hot sauce and other spices the meals taste like spicy wet newspaper.