Jim:
Recently Paul Harvey mentioned that hospitals are making some expensive upgrades. It seems the standard operating tables, which are rated to hold a five hundred pound patient, are not sturdy enough. The standard doors, at forty two inches wide, are not wide enough to accommodate today’s obese patients, so they are being widened. Hydraulic hoists are being installed. Longer hypodermic needles are being ordered to penetrate thick layers of fat. Even the toilets are being reinforced.
I sincerely hope this does not apply to you, but the painful truth is, if you are so large you can’t fit through your front door, you are not going to survive any emergency. One of my friends, now deceased of an obesity related heart attack, broke his foot simply by walking across his living room floor. At more than 450 pounds, he could not walk even half a block. Simply walking to the car exhausted him.
I’m not trying to be cruel here, and I do sympathize with the overweight. With all the excitotoxins and appetite stimulants in today’s foods, it is difficult not to gain weight, no matter what you do. This area seems to be taboo among survival and preparedness writers, but it is critically important to your survival chances that you get in shape. I’m not talking winning marathons or iron man competitions here, just getting rid of the excess weight and getting some sensible exercise. My friend died while sitting at his computer, not running for his life in some emergency. Even if he had a helicopter to take him to a well-stocked cabin in the Canadian wilderness, it would have done him no good. All the firearms in the world would have helped him not one bit. A library full of hunting and survival books and videos and DVDs would have been useless. My friend dug his grave with his teeth.
It is not like me to point out a problem and not offer a solution. Here is my secret weapon against obesity: You may recall the grapefruit diet that was so popular decades ago. Recent research reveals that grapefruit contains an ingredient that aids in weight loss. Please read that last sentence carefully, because it does not say that grapefruit causes weight loss, only that it aids in weight loss. You can’t chase down a pizza with grapefruit juice and expect to do anything but gain weight.
The secret recipe could not be simpler. Simply mix half pineapple juice and half grapefruit juice, to make a one cup drink. That’s all there is to it. The combination of those two juices is a very powerful and fast appetite suppressant, and it usually hits me before I finish the glass. While it works anytime to fight the urge to eat, the best time to use it is before the bedtime snack. You know the one I am talking about, the one nobody admits to enjoying. Food taken before bedtime is not needed to fuel the body, because the body is at rest. That meal goes straight to your fat deposits. If you can eliminate that meal alone, you will most likely lose weight.
Don’t expect any ten pound a week miracles with this drink. Slow steady progress is the key to success. Then you will give your other preparations a chance to help in the event of an emergency. – Doc at www.bigsecrets.cc
JWR Replies: Thanks for mentioning diet and exercise. I concur with you wholeheartedly. I should emphasize those more in my writings. My apologies if I heretofore haven’t sufficiently emphasized them. Indeed, a key part of preparedness is physical fitness. The rigors of a post-collapse world may be too much for some SurvivalBlog readers, unless they demonstrate the determination to control their weight and get plenty of exercise. For those of you that are overweight and out of shape, start making some changes today. Eliminate junk food from your diet. Eat healthy catabolic snacks. If you are stuck behind a desk at your job, then at least get out on your lunch hour for a daily walk. Make that walk part of your daily routine. (It is a good idea to set the calendar on your PC with an alert pop-up message.) Park your car at the far end of the company parking lot. Use the stairs instead of escalators and elevators. Join a fitness club. Buy smaller plates. It is little things like these, collectively, that will gradually make you trim and fit. It just takes some discipline.