Lighter was more fun

I bought a steel framed gravel bike to tour with to finally have an appropriate machine. I was using a carbon framed road bike before that. The new bike is great, but it led me down dark paths adding more gear ( cause I could and the Surly rack it came with seemed cool..). So I am so much heavier now. My mileage has gone way down. I tend to ride in mountainous areas. First thing to go: The Schulz seatpost will be traded in for a carbon one. The surly rack will go. But I liked the aero bars for comfort so I guess I’ll need fork racks to take some gear up front. The Old Man mountain gravel pannier are great but slightly low volume. Not sure what I’ll do with those. I love the trunk bag setup however- it had a perfectly fitting Tupperware in it for fresh food. Any other ideas would be appreciated. To be fai, I also brought coooking gear and a chair… loved the chair as well but I may need to switch to a lighter one. All this, or just accept less mileage. One thing I realised after 10 days of this is I miss the sensation of “flying” or floating I had with the previous bike as soon as I got on it. Tires have a lot to do with it I suppose. I went from 28 to 40 Thunderos. ..