Doing without

[WalknTrot]

Take a normal two week period while you are at home and religiously write down the menu you prepare along with all of the "extras" you and the members of your family normally eat.

Take a hard look at what is on the list, evaluate it for nutrition, fat and sugar levels, then see how you can reproduce it with preps. Many of us on the board can help with recipe ideas to replace things, but you will want to work slowly toward using more preps in your regular diet.

 

[Sharon]

Take a normal two week period while you are at home and religiously write down the menu you prepare along with all of the "extras" you and the members of your family normally eat.

Take a hard look at what is on the list, evaluate it for nutrition, fat and sugar levels, then see how you can reproduce it with preps. Many of us on the board can help with recipe ideas to replace things, but you will want to work slowly toward using more preps in your regular diet.

Not that's an idea I can grab onto. If I can see something on paper and go from there, I can usually find my way. Thanks so much for that suggestion!!

 

[Worrier King]

No. It is because my diet consists of dry nutritional components that do not need to be cooked or further cooked.

hmmmm...

Interesting, could you elaborate on that please?

 

[astrogirl]

Astrogirl,

Potassium does not provide sodium. It provides potassium.

Duh.

I said that they provide electrolytes.

 

[Caplock50]

At this late stage of the conversation, all I can add is...listen to your body. It will tell you what it needs. If you are craving burgers and fries, then your body needs something they supply, what ever it is. And, we would not be the 'leisure nation' we are if comfort was not a need to be fulfilled.

There it is; take it and run with it.

 

[Sharon]

At this late stage of the conversation, all I can add is...listen to your body. It will tell you what it needs. If you are craving burgers and fries, then your body needs something they supply, what ever it is. And, we would not be the 'leisure nation' we are if comfort was not a need to be fulfilled.

There it is; take it and run with it.

Caplock I always knew I liked you, now I know why. Bet you're just a big ole' teddybear...

 

[night driver]

Ther reason you forgot is that your brain works like that. We forget painful things. We forget the pain, and sometimes the situation that caused it. It doesn't have to be INTENSE pain (like Childbirth) it can be disappointment in our performance (like disappointed that you couldn't ake it without the comfort foods last tiem, etc).

Heck the ability to forget pain is wired in pretty darn far down, because you'd be SURPRISED at the number of women who go through a natural delivery who say "NEVER AGAIN!!! NOT GONNA DO IT AGAIN!!" and well ther are a LOT of second births... and VIRTUALLY ALL survivors of natural deliveries go back to having sex....


c

 

[Caplock50]

Sharon, nope! I'm an onery old coot who likes to shoot first and ask questions later. I'm lean, mean, and tough as nails. Even the rattlesnakes faint at the sight of me. Turned a skunk into stone with just a glance, just the other day.




(Shhhhhh! What you trying to do? Ruin my reputation? After I've worked so long and hard to develope it? )

 

[hitssquad]

Maximum anti-senescent nutrition, without cooking

my diet consists of dry nutritional components that do not need to be cooked or further cooked.

Interesting, could you elaborate on that please?

Here is a similar post:
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?p=1958307#post1958307

I eat rolled oats which I buy in 50lb bags (this would store better as unrolled, but it would require a grain-roller); dried nonfat milk from Honeyville grain, 50lb bags; wheat bran, 25lb bags; various nutritional-component powders and pills from...
http://www.bulknutrition.com
http://easycart.net/BeyondACenturyInc.
http://www.epicdental.com
http://www.emeraldforestxylitol.com/sunshop/
http://www.geronova.com
http://www.iherb.com/store.html
http://www.vitacost.com
http://www.vitaspace.com

...various culinary herbs and spices and various seeds in bulk from natural food stores; and various anti-senescent pharmaceuticals such as metformin and selegiline (I currently stock the latter in liquid form, which needs to be refrigerated; without refrigeration, only the dry form would be workable.)

The nonfat dry milk mixes easily with cold water when it is first mixed dry with rolled oats, even though it is not the easy-mix version. I eat most of the seeds and herbs/spices separately as a mixture prepared cold in an electric blender. It could be mixed without a blender with more-difficulty and less-favorable results in terms of unlocking the nutrition.

 

[barb43]

Is this the only food that you consume? Do you have a medical condition that requires you to live this way, or is it by choice? I'm really curious . . .

 

[Sharon]

Caplock, I'm married to a former Marine who is presently Fed. Police that's just like you. Most people are scared to death of him, including many men, but they should see him talk to me and the puppies when he's home and no one is looking. LOL...OK, I'll keep your secret. Still love ya!

Nightdriver....you're probably right, but I need to learn this lesson. I've gotten a lot of understanding and suggestions here that will help and have comforted. Thanks, guess I don't feel to bad knowing just how human I am...but I wish I were a little better at it. Ahh well, time takes time.

 

[seraphima]

Please believe me, in a survival situation there is no such thing as too much fat! Now in America we have to ration ourselves to fats because our homes are heated and most are doing very little real physical work.

When you have to keep warm either by hauling, cuting, and chopping wood, or by eating, one can eat huge amounts of fatty foods.

Veggies are good, but most have no fat. Fats and oils are probably the most precious food commodity after salt. If TSHTF, we will all lose plenty of weight, and most will be hungry...

 

[hitssquad]

Why preppers prep

Is this the only food that you consume?

For the most part. I keep some wet items like tomato sauce and mustard in the fridge, and I have a couple of flats of cans of beans and tomato paste, but those are not essential to the diet.

(I forgot to mention before that I like fermented soy products such as tamari and/or miso, and unfortunately they are wet. I haven't figured out what to do about those, yet. Maybe I will have to learn how to brew them myself.)

Do you have a medical condition that requires you to live this way

No.

is it by choice?

Yes. My concerns lie in the future, and therefore being miserly and careful in the present feels comfortable.

 

[breezyhill]

For the most part. I keep some wet items like tomato sauce and mustard in the fridge, and I have a couple of flats of cans of beans and tomato paste, but those are not essential to the diet.

(I forgot to mention before that I like fermented soy products such as tamari and/or miso, and unfortunately they are wet. I haven't figured out what to do about those, yet. Maybe I will have to learn how to brew them myself.)


No.


Yes. My concerns lie in the future, and therefore being miserly and careful in the present feels comfortable.

aren't you going to be annoyed when the mushroom cloud goes up and you realize you could at least have eaten a pepperoni pizza once in a while?

breezyhill

 

[texastee]

I'm a little confused....why not break down and have the place hooked up to electric?....what would it cost $300 or $400 a year..............

 

[hitssquad]

Texastee,

It can easily cost several tens of thousands of dollars up-front to have grid electricity hooked up to a remote home.

 

[texastee]

just sounds like a lot of suffering to me....even if it was $2000, it would be worth it....I would imagine they will be using this place for many years to come..........

 

[hitssquad]

I don't think a figure as low as $2,000 is typical for hooking into the grid. Where are you getting your figures from?

 

[Sharon]

LOL...we're doing the work ourselves, always have. We can only spend a week or week and a half up there each time. We've had to gut the whole house, replace part of the roof, have the well redug, and so on and so on. DH has the upstairs wired, and next time we go we hope to have the downstairs wired, then we can probably hook up. In a short time we'll have the electric done. Then it's finding a good deal on the refrigerator, deciding what kind of stove (probably propane), and we're good to continue.

 

[texastee]

I saw a good deal on a frig at Home Depot....$99 for what looked like a double sized dorm frig....Had a separate freezer ...probably wouldn't use much power.

 

[Double_A]

I don't think a figure as low as $2,000 is typical for hooking into the grid. Where are you getting your figures from?

IIRC from a few years back cost to bring in electricity to a home in the mountains west of us was $10,000 per mile. Many found it cheaper to go with Solar electric panels and a genset for extended cloudy periods.



Back to the topic at hand, when I do alot of physical labor my hunger goes down until I'm fully hydrated.

Personally I think fats are much more important than people realize and often discount their value as opposed to carbs and protein.

I read a story probably 20 years ago now about a backpacker hiking the length of the Applachan (sp?) Trail. He came up to one of his pre-planted food stashes and proceeded to eat a whole stick of butter, his body craved fats since all he had eaten for several days was freeze dried foods.

I have plenty of peanut butter and jams/jellies on hand.

I'll never forget that scene in Soylent Green where that jar of strawberry jam is as precious as gold.

 

[Jesse]

G'morning!

Except for the occasional departure, such as when we're traveling, we live and eat now as we would then (if/when the stuff hits the fan) - assuming that situation doesn't deprive us of our preps and/or life that is.

We wouldn't be able to work in the same field financially, but that's okay. We know what we'd be doing than and wouldn't mind that particular "change" a bit.

We've lived without electricity and running water for months at a time MANY times before in our lives. That's not a problem for us, and we're not worried about it. People lived that way for thousands of years and much of the world still does.

The only physical thing we can't do is manufacture my medication. Life may not be as much "fun" (if I survive at all) without it. It's not a situation I can control, so I don't worry about it - what's the point?

I figure that when we get down to it, it's GOD Who takes care of us now - and grants us our every breath. We *all* live and die by HIS Grace - no matter how many preps or health problems we have. - Jesse.

 

[SmartAZ]

A change in exercise will have that effect. You said you had to carry water. Is it possible that you didn't carry any all day? Just sat around enjoying life? That will reduce your appetite. It sure does for me. I don't get hungry until I get out of the house. In fact, I don't get hungry until I'm about four miles down the road, the same figure you mentioned.

 

[astrogirl]

Personally I think fats are much more important than people realize and often discount their value as opposed to carbs and protein.

I read a story probably 20 years ago now about a backpacker hiking the length of the Applachan (sp?) Trail. He came up to one of his pre-planted food stashes and proceeded to eat a whole stick of butter, his body craved fats since all he had eaten for several days was freeze dried foods.

I'm a long distance backpacker -- I've done about 1400 miles of the Appalachian Trail so far, actually -- and I think you're right.

Carbs are way overemphasised in an endurance type activity. After I'd done Atkins for a while, I tried to change my trail diet to something closer to that, and *wow* did I feel better. I ate lot of nuts and jerky and tuna packets. This is not to say I wasn't eating carbs, but I cut back on sugar, especially the typical junk sugar that hikers eat all day long. I feel physically better for adding the fats, and was able to do more mileage on a daily basis.

 

[Worrier King]

Here is a similar post:
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?p=1958307#post1958307

I eat rolled oats which I buy in 50lb bags (this would store better as unrolled, but it would require a grain-roller); dried nonfat milk from Honeyville grain, 50lb bags; wheat bran, 25lb bags; various nutritional-component powders and pills from...
http://www.bulknutrition.com
http://easycart.net/BeyondACenturyInc.
http://www.epicdental.com
http://www.emeraldforestxylitol.com/sunshop/
http://www.geronova.com
http://www.iherb.com/store.html
http://www.vitacost.com
http://www.vitaspace.com

...various culinary herbs and spices and various seeds in bulk from natural food stores; and various anti-senescent pharmaceuticals such as metformin and selegiline (I currently stock the latter in liquid form, which needs to be refrigerated; without refrigeration, only the dry form would be workable.)

The nonfat dry milk mixes easily with cold water when it is first mixed dry with rolled oats, even though it is not the easy-mix version. I eat most of the seeds and herbs/spices separately as a mixture prepared cold in an electric blender. It could be mixed without a blender with more-difficulty and less-favorable results in terms of unlocking the nutrition.

Very interesting. Thank you for that info hitsquad.

Not to be personal, but I'd wager your body mass index (BMI) gives you <4% body fat?

That is superb proactive discipline and conditioning.

Do you do a occaisional change reward of variety, or the hot meal now and then, or strict regimen?

7.62x39 here.

 

[MaxTheKnife]

A snapshot of reality

This is a good thread Sharon. It really is. It's making people stop and think and that's always a good thing. Your openness and honest attitude has made me think about this thread for most of the day. And that makes me want to share my thoughts with you. I'll call it a snapshot of reality.

You got my point earlier about having food and being glad to have it when you're hungry. I can't count the number of times I've seen folks here post that you should prep what you eat normally. But I'm going to stick my neck out and say that in my opinion, that's just not being realistic. I guess some folks will get mad at me for stating the obvious and uncovering a misconception they really believed was possible. Hence, the snapshot of reality. I'm going to use myself and my own routine to make my point, so be patient with me. I really do have a point to make. Most of us get our food from the grocery store, don't we? What happens when there isn't a grocery store full of food any more? Forget eating out. Eating at all is going to become a huge challenge if you don't have any food stored. DUH.

I start my day pretty early. I get up around 5:30 every morning and park my lard but in this puter chair and have a look at the bomb. I look at my email and check the weather. By 7:00 A.M. it's time to water the garden and let the chickens out and feed them. Then I do whatever I can before it gets too hot to be outside. Now, if the grid were to go down, my routine would change in a very big way. Why? Because most of what I do is centered around electricity. Like sitting inside in the middle of the day staying cool from a window AC unit. So I have my routine set up around the power grids ability to provide me with what I think I need and feel is important to my day. Heh. Why do I spend an hour and a half on the internet in the morning? Because I can. But if the power was off, that would no longer be an option. So what would I do different? I would spend that time in the early morning hours before it got hot ensuring that we had water enough to drink and wash with. I'd also spend a great deal more time watering the garden since I couldn't just use the garden hose. I'd have to haul water in buckets and that would take a great deal more time. That's reality. I would also make sure that I had all the things I needed for our two meals for the day. We don't eat breakfast around here.

Now, since the power is off, the grocery stores are going to run out of fresh food real fast. And since you can't pump gas without electricity, no trucks will be delivering any more food. The food in the frozen and chilled sections in the grocery store will most likely go bad before it can all be sold. And then there's only dry and canned goods left. How long will that food last? It's anyones's guess. So I'm going to be real happy with myself knowing I've stored lots and lots of good healthy food for the coming hard times. And I won't have any reason to go down town at all. I'll be pretty busy managing my own little corner of the world anyway though. I'll have to run my generator several times a day to keep my refrigerators and freezers working so I won't lose what cold food I have. And I'll be defrosting and sun drying and smoking what meat I can from the freezers during that time so I can conserve my gasoline supply. We won't be running the generator for lights or TV. It will be for emergency purposes only. I get tickled at folks who say they can't store gasoline because of ordinancs at their apartment or whatever. Your vehicle is the best gasoline storage device available. Just keep it full!

What could cause the grid to fail? My first thought is an EMP burst over the central U.S. Game over. Is that really a possibility? I don't know for sure. But it could conceiveably happen. With the world's current state of affairs, it's very possible. I know this seems like a rambling post Sharon. It's hard to get all of my thoughts on this subject in a row and present them logically.

Right now, me and my family eat very well. We don't really eat fancy, but we eat well and plenty of it. Why is that? Because we can afford it and it's available. When it's no longer available, we'll have to do something different. Won't we? That's reality. So all the beans, rice, corn, flour, sugar, grain etc... is going to be a virtual smorgasbord. Isn't it? And I guess that's all I have to say about this for now. What do you think Sharon?

 

[Sharon]

Oh Max, thank you so very, very, very much. All these years I've read "store what you eat". But I've thought, well now, how can I store hamburger for a year? It gets freezer bite, even when suction packed (and I don't can). How can I store frozen veggies? They too get old. And so on and so on!!

I've just yesterday and today been going through ALL my stored items (well not the 5 gallon buckets yet) and am amazed how much I have. Not enough, but a lot. LOTS (like 120 cans) of chili, about 120 cans of veggies, canned broth, canned soup, gallons of pancake syrup, bottles of chocolate, and so on and so on. Enough candles and matches and lamp oil to last a year or more. I could go on and on. But, do I eat chili everyday? Nope. Do I eat scads of canned veggies? Nope! Do I live by oil lamps and candles? Nope. But I can.

When we are in Ohio DH says our getting up and going to bed times are basically regulated by the "can see, can't see" method. We have two solar, wind up radios and they work wonderfully. We have our oil lamps and we know how to take care of waste with little water...been there, done that.

We have three lakes by us and a small stream on the property. Wouldn't want to drink it, (we do have the good water filters) but we could. We heat with wood mostly...have lots of pairs of long johns, sleeping bags, etc. and etc.

Ohio taught us a lot and continues to. We lived in our present home for 1 1/2 years without water. So, been there, done that and we just might make it for a while.

Thanks Max!

 

[MaxTheKnife]

Sharon, you are a breath of fresh air. God bless you and your husband.