Category: Health and Fitness

Letter Re: Some Thoughts on How to Live in Times of Hunger

Jim: I recently completed my third 10 water only fast.  The previous one I did was 13 years ago.  Here are some observations. 1) While the first two times I did a 10 day water fast the hunger disappeared in 3 days, this time, it took 8 days for the hunger pangs to stop. 2) I was much more sensitive to cold temperatures.  Bear that in mind and take appropriate measures. 3) Adding a little salt to the water I was drinking helped significantly with the lightheadedness and tendency to get faint when rising. 4)  A colonic cleansing on day …


Letter Re: Some Thoughts on How to Live in Times of Hunger

I have experienced two different times in my life of going hungry. The first time I went with very little food for three months. I went from 145 lbs to 115 lbs. I am 5’8 and my weight should be around 140-160 according to the Body Mass Index (BMI). The second time wasn’t as bad because I knew what to expect. I went from 175 lbs to about 135 lbs. I now weigh a comfortable 190 lbs. I purposely gained weight above the recommended 160 but I try to keep my weight maintained just under the obese level. I do …


Some Thoughts on How to Live in Times of Hunger, by ShepherdFarmerGeek in Spokane

We prep in large part to keep ourselves (and those we love) from going hungry in the event of a disaster or crisis.  Yet there’s no way of knowing in advance what kind of crisis we will face, nor how long our supplies will last. Even the most prepared among us could find their supplies wiped out in a fire, in a raid or natural disaster. And our plans for gardening or hunting could be completely disrupted by any number of things. What this means is that at least some of us are going to go hungry, and its possible …


Family Planning WTSHTF, by N.S.

Everyone wants to be able to take care of the family When The Schumer Hits The Fan (WTSHTF).  We have all read dozens of articles about how to garden, store food, keep seeds, protect our homes, and generally go about the living of life day-to-day.  We’ve heard the mantra: Life after the TSHTF is not for the faint of heart, nor the easily-grossed-out.  We’ve also seen a few that go into detail on how to prepare medically for disaster.  While all of us will be working hard to provide for our families and keep them safe, we also need to …


Three Letters Re: Beans, Bullets, Band-Aids and Hygiene

I was just rereading the original posting about “beans, bullets and hygiene”. The author wrote to be sure to check out the discount bins for after season sales on holiday soaps. He wrote that while the soaps may be strongly scented “nobody will care after TEOTWAWKI what they smell like”. But actually, it may matter.    We live in the country. We’re not daily assaulted by the highly aromatic city folks wearing their cologne, perfume and scented body washes. So when we do happen to come in contact with them, we can smell them coming from quite a distance.   Its sorta’ the …


Beans, Bullets, Band-Aids and Hygiene, by Jason L.

Everyone knows the rules, stock up on as many beans, bullets and Band-Aids as you can afford. As important as the big three are I feel that Hygiene is more important than some. Over the last few months I have been monitoring my family’s use of shampoo, soap, laundry detergent, deodorant, toothpaste and bathroom amenities. I can firmly tell you I am not prepared for this area. How often do we just jump in the shower, grab the shampoo and squeeze a glob onto our hands before washing our hair for 20 seconds and washing it all away? My family …


Application of Bodybuilding and Supplementation to the Crunch, by A.T.

I am just beginning my journey into the prepping world and it is amazing when I look back over the last year just how far I have come.  Being only 22 years old, and living on my own since 18 away at school and living in a large metropolitan area, it wasn’t my first priority when I first left home.  I went through my first few years living the typical college life.  However, two years in, traveled to China for a while and it really opened my eyes as to how messed up the government of that country is.  What …


Letter Re: Physical Fitness and Trigger Time

JWR, After reading the recent MBR article by Zorro, it seems that all the amateurs still fuss over the 5.56/7.62 or 9mm/.45 debate. At our police agency here in the Southwest, we focus on increasing our trigger time via the SIRT laser training pistol, practicing fundamentals through live and dry fire, working through scenarios (lessons learned) and practicing “range fitness”. A great resource for range fitness is www.militaryathlete.com. Rob Shaul speaks of high percentage shooting positions based upon the experiences of combat veterans, as well as developing the fitness needed to put the gun in the fight.  It seems that …


Letter Re: Physical Fitness for TEOTWAWKI Preparedness

James: After reading the BYU Kid’s excellent article on physical fitness for TEOTWAWKI, I had to respond.  I had to take exception to his statement that Crossfit wasn’t recommended because it’s “Metabolic conditioning is not conducive to the ultimate goal of being useful, functional and simple.” The heart of Crossfit is in fact functional fitness for Law Enforcement and our Military.  I’ve been involved in fitness all my life due to my chosen occupation as a police officer (now retired) and my current occupation as a protection specialist which is what most people refer to as a bodyguard.  I’ve been …


Letter Re: Physical Fitness for TEOTWAWKI Preparedness

JWR: In his recent article, The BYU Kid offered some pretty solid advice regarding physical fitness, but neglected to mention a couple things that are important for some of the exercises he mentioned.  1.) The pushup should be done slowly – most people when doing pushups tend to rush through them as fast as they can. While there is something to be said for explosive power training, for the purposes of functional strength the pushup should be smooth and controlled – two seconds for the descent, hold at the bottom for a second, then two seconds for the ascent. Make …


Physical Fitness for TEOTWAWKI Preparedness, by The BYU Kid

There’s one thing that’s guaranteed in any SHTF or TEOTWAWKI situation, and that’s the age old adage that only the strong survive. But how do we get to that point? How can we improve our strength with things that will actually be adaptable to a survival situation? I would like to lay out a few selected exercises that have direct carryovers to very important skills and suggest a program for you (not my own) and offer a couple workouts that you can incorporate into your current routine. First, let’s talk about what’s not necessary: any routine found in a bodybuilding …


TEOTWAWKI Vitamin and Mineral Recommendations, By Dr. Bob

Vitamins and minerals are a multi-billion dollar business currently in the US.  Our food is plentiful and fortified, and the use of these pills are generally completely unnecessary.  Medically, the recommendation for vitamins and supplements–from multiple sources–is as follows:  There are no vitamins or supplements needed for typical adults eating a balanced diet with regular sun exposure or consumption of fortified dairy products.  That being said, WTSHTF there will be obvious changes to our typical fattened-calf diets.  Plan accordingly, but there is very little that some people will do, stretching the valuable resources of the rest of us.  Depending on …


Avoiding Heat Injuries, by Dr. Bob

As it is affecting so many of us right now, seems like a good time to give you some information about heat-related problems and preventing heat stroke and heat exhaustion. Heat Exhaustion most often occurs when people work or play in a hot, humid place and body fluids are lost through sweating, causing overheating of the body.  Usually a person is dehydrated to some degree, from mild to severely.  The person’s temperature may be elevated, but not above 104 degrees.  Now, most of us can go inside a cool down either in air-conditioned vehicles or homes.  Even the movies are a great …


Letter Re: How to Live Longer Now and After TEOTWAWKI

James: I love the blog and a lot of the articles. I am a dermatologist and wanted to comment on the Vitamin D article posted on July 21, 2011. Despite what you might read on the Internet, you cannot get a significant amount of Vitamin D from sunlight. This is a huge misconception. Even if you tanned for 8 hours, you would only get about 3% of your daily Vitamin D. You would also cause a lot of sun damage which increases your risk of skin cancer. I realize a lot of information says otherwise, but if you check with …


How to Live Longer Now and After TEOTWAWKI, by Kevin D.

Many people take a multi-vitamin.  Some people take multiple supplements.  However, an often overlooked vitamin deserves your closer scrutiny – vitamin D.  New research indicates that vitamin D has holistic effects on the body that cannot be replicated by any other supplement.  These positive effects include, but are not limited to, reduced cancer rates, reduce incidences of heart disease, lower blood pressure, reduced incidences of influenza, and more.  Best of all, for most people, obtaining the proper dosage of vitamin D is incredibly safe, simple, and inexpensive.  In fact, some researchers believe so strongly in the benefits of vitamin D …