08:45 – I’m still working on the section I (first month) chapter on security and defense. I just finished the section on protecting your home and started the section on organizing and protecting your neighborhood from looters, which are the primary threat during a short-to-medium term emergency. Just ask the folks in areas near the Ferguson riots, or indeed in any of the many other areas that have recently faced threats from civil unrest. I have a final, short section on firearms to write, recommending a shotgun and/or a .22 rifle for each adult or teenager, and then the first draft of that chapter will be complete.
As always, I’m trying to keep things as simple and inexpensive as possible. Some preppers can afford to spend $100,000+ on a rural retreat and another $100,000+ on supplies, but not many can afford that. So I’m trying to keep things as practical as possible for my expected average audience. That means many people will take issue with my recommendations, which is fine. If you can afford more and think it’s justified, spend the extra money. But many people will be pressed to buy even basic preparation supplies, and it’s them I have in mind.
Or, as another email correspondent indicated here today, even a natural event like a blizzard or flood or tornado brings these gremlins out and about, thus in the bad old days, the mayors and cops issuing “shoot to kill looters” orders.
On the trending disasters waiting to befall us, there is this variation on the Mr. SteveF playbook entry:
http://cluborlov.blogspot.com/2015/03/financial-collapse-leads-to-war.html#more
Last night I was tweaking my survival supply list while listening to music. I realized I needed an entirely new category, entertainment. I have no problem living without TV if I have a steady supply of books but neither may available during a major disruption. Plus I might be in too close of quarters with family or friends who are, shall we say, difficult to live with, and some children.
So I added playing cards, board games, notebooks, pens and pencils, construction paper, water color paints, etc. All of which can be had very cheap from the Dollar Store. I also added a copy of “According to Hoyle” for some new games and to end arguments over rules.
Diversions will be important on long dark nights when things seem bleak. It might even be fun.
Don’t forget the ultimate preparation, “H”.
Don’t forget the ultimate preparation, “H”.
lmao
My own prepping is now working on my health, weight loss almost done, getting in shape with P90X3 and HIT routines, eating better, supplements (particularly for the brain, don’t want to end up like Mr. Ray), etc.
Could our gummint get any worse? Boner is going to cave on amnesty. HILLARY! using personal email account, apparently during the entire Benghazi episode. HILLARY! tapping into BJ’s foundation which is getting millions in foreign donations. Wut a country!
Mr. Ray is A-OK; it’s me you don’t wanna end up like.
My weight went down from 265-275 to the current 245 over the past year. I do need to get out more with exercise and to eat bettuh, though.
Sunny with blue skies today and could hit 30! Maybe 40 tomorrow! But wintuh ain’t over here by a long shot. Technically about three more weeks, but in reality probably six to eight more weeks, with Mud Season coming along in there somewhere. True spring maybe in late April. Maybe.
I cut out food with sugar a few months ago. My weight is down to 190 from slightly over 200 and still slowly falling. Refined carbs are next on the list.
It’s currently 33 degrees and sunny here. Supposed to get up to the mid 50’s. Solar output was about 38 KWH yesterday and Sunday. If this keeps up, we’ll get 100% of our electricity from solar this month.
Rick in Portland
Sugar is good for you. Fast energy. Fats are also good for you for long-term endurance. I just read a study that examines very high-fat diets for Marathon runners and others who need sustained energy output. Some of them are now going with diets that are up to 80% fat in terms of calories consumed. Historically, back when humans were hunter-gatherers, the diet of the hunters was very heavily skewed to fats with proteins making up most of the rest. Very few carbohydrate calories.
Dunno about sugar being good for you. From what has been floating around the past couple of years, sugar and easily digested carbohydrates spike your insulin, which tells your fat cells to stock up. I’ve been restricting carbohydrates for quite a while now, and it definitely helps with the weight.
I have another motivation as well: I’ve observed for years that, if I eat a lot of sugar, I am in an absolutely stinking, foul mood an hour or two later. Dunno why, but it’s consistent. Something about my personal brain chemistry, I suppose.
My cardiologist says that since I did not lose the 10 lbs that he ordered me to lose last year, I now owe him 20 lbs. Actually, that would be nice. 250 lbs on 6’1″ at 54 is tough on the knees when I take my daily two mile walk. I have cut back on the doughnuts…
We are at 73 F here in the Land of Sugar and heading for 75. 76 F tomorrow and then a sudden drop to 35 F tomorrow night.
“US running out of room to store oil; price collapse next?”
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/us-running-room-store-oil-171025359.html
I was wondering when this was going to happen. $25/bbl oil, here we come.
Given that the body converts food into sugars, I fail to see how a reasonable amount can be harmful, but clearly see why an excess would be bad for you. Like most poisons, it’s the dosage.
For good advice on diet and diabetes check out some of the videos on YouTube.com by Dr. Neal Barnard …
Breaking The Food Seduction – by Dr. Neal Barnard
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDgA3T_JF2A
Uploaded on Sep 29, 2011
Whether you’re drawn to chocolate, cookies, potato chips, cheese, or burgers and fries, we all have foods we can’t seem to resist—foods that sabotage our best efforts to lose weight and improve our health. These foods are winning the battle—but that’s because we’re fighting it in the wrong place. As physician and leading health researcher Dr. Neal Barnard explains in his groundbreaking book, Breaking the Food Seduction: The Hidden Reasons Behind Food Cravings— and Seven Steps to End Them Naturally, banishing these cravings is not a question of willpower or psychology— it’s a matter of biochemistry. Based on the author’s research and that of other leading investigators at major universities, his book reveals the diet and lifestyle changes that can break these stubborn craving cycles.
Dr. Neal Barnard, “Healthy Approaches to Weight Control, Reversing Diabetes, and the Best of Health”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZtPGyLaiHE
Recorded at George Mason University, Fairfax Campus on October 21, 2014.
Many more, just do a search for “Dr. Neal Barnard”.
don’t want to end up like Mr. Ray
Good advice indeed.
Mr. Ray is A-OK
Jury is still out. I only post on my good days.
There is substantial evidence that at least is to the partially tested theory level that gut bacteria are the dominant cause of obesity. They appear to thrive on low-fat, high carb diets. So the obesity epidemic in the US may well be an actual epidemic.
The main objection against sugar is the fructose in it. That actually isn’t fast energy, as the body sends it to the liver, where it gets converted to glucose or to fat. (Fructose is too reactive; the body doesn’t want it in the bloodstream.) Besides taking hours, that process contributes to fatty liver, a disorder whose prevalence has greatly increased as sugar consumption has increased. (Or to be precise, sugar plus high-fructose corn syrup; they’re nutritionally about the same.)
Pure glucose is sold in 50-lb sacks as “dextrose”, and (by this theory, at least) is nutritionally superior. It supposedly is about 70% as sweet as sugar.
There is another theory which says that fatty liver only happens if you have a choline deficiency — as many people do, on account of avoiding eggs and other good sources of choline, largely due to ridiculous worries about cholesterol. If you have enough choline, the liver uses it to export the fat it makes from fructose, so you don’t have to worry about fatty-liver-associated metabolic disorders. This is not a well-popularized theory, like the “fructose is evil” theory is. But it is well backed up by scientific evidence, which Chris Masterjohn has done a good job describing; see his site cholesterol-and-health.com.
“So the obesity epidemic in the US may well be an actual epidemic.”
Ya know, I was beginning to wonder about that, seriously. There are just so MANY hugely obese peeps in the country now, everywhere I go and from what I see on the net. I realize there are over 300 million peeps and maybe there’s that many more obese but naw, they’re just everywhere now. And by far mostly women, of all ages. And I realize the prevalence of cheap, mass-produced junk food, too, but I’m finding it harder to believe these are the only factors anymore. Of the dozen young people living in the big structure across the street, an architectural blot on the neighborhood, exactly three of them are not morbidly obese. And all but one or two of them smoke like chimneys.
And anytime I visit any of the three supermarkets over in the “city,” it’s fat peeps galore, customers and cashiers. Occasionally there will be a skinny teenage girl or svelte MILF but that’s about it.
Our son, the same height as me, now probably outweighs me by 40 or 50 pounds, and it’s blubber, at 29; DIL outweighs HIM, at 5’6″, by at least 40 or 50 pounds, over 300 easily. They don’t cook at home; it’s all fast food and frozen junk. Zero exercise.
I just hope the grandkids don’t end up like that.
We humans, especially those of us in the US, have gotten incredibly sedentary. Somehow people think taking a short walk or spending 45 mins at the gym makes up for spending 23 hours a day either sitting or laying. It’s certain;y better than nothing, but people on the whole just need to get off of their asses. There’s a new saying out, “Sitting is the new smoking.”
As for weight loss. It’s mostly a math game of calories burned vs calories consumed. So, as Denis Leary says, “I’ve got a weight loss plan for you. Put the fucking fork down.”
It’s mostly a math game of calories burned vs calories consumed.
Not if you have “bad” gut bacteria. A controlled study was done in mice. A control group and one with the bad bacteria were fed the exact same diet. They were similarly active. The control mice held their weight constant. The other mice gained weight and developed pre-diabetes. Then, they did fecal transplants to the control group from the fat mice. The control mice gained weight and developed pre-diabetes. The mice had hormonal changes and other problems.
Recently, a woman in the UK got a fecal transplant for a C. Diff. infection. The donor was her obese daughter (about 10 YO, IIRC). Within a year she was obese.
“As for weight loss. It’s mostly a math game of calories burned vs calories consumed.”
While on some level this is true, it turns out that counting calories is a terrible way to lose weight (by losing stored fat.) If that is your goal, you are much better served by counting grams of sugar, and carbs, and restricting both.
The main issue is that your body is not a test tube, and does not use the different types of food in the same way, so for weight loss purposes, calories are not all equal.
All you have to do to recognize this is imagine eating 2500 calories of refined sugar (and a vitamin supplement) a day vs. 2500 calories of mixed meat, veg, and starch. No one would argue that those are equivalent in terms of their effect on the human body, and if you are willing to argue that, then please try it for a week. (Since I’m not interested in slow motion suicide anymore, I won’t try it in that direction, but I’ve tried it in the other direction–cutting out as much sugar and carbs as possible, and I can attest that it is a VERY effective way to lose fat.)
For people that routinely overeat (take in more food than their body needs) putting down the fork and pushing away from the plate can be simple and effective. But if you don’t also address whatever issues are causing the overeating, you will not be successful losing fat over the long term.
nick