Prepping Physically
I wanted to have an honest conversation with you guys (I hope you will join up in the comments) today about the hardest thing about prepping.
So much of prepping is “relatively” easy. I’ve seen James Wesley Rawles call it the 3 B’s – beans, bullets, and bandages. Food and clean water, protection, and first aid.
Even for use where we are now. We’ve got a decently stocked basement. Finally, we have a (what feels like our first real) garden! I have several ways to preserve produce – water-bath canning, pressure canning, and dehydrating. Way to purify water? Check! We could heat our house with wood if necessary. We have a couple of totes of first aid supplies, and we can protect ourselves if push came to shove.
Getting stuff is easy. Learning to use stuff is a bit harder. It takes time to learn how to use a firearm. It takes time to learn how to light a fire, but it’s still relatively easy to learn. Gardening definitely takes time to learn – sometimes years because things don’t always go wrong the first year. Your garden can throw new curveballs at you each year. Learning to pressure can is a little bit of a challenge, and making your own soap isn’t hard, but it still takes effort.
Gathering your supplies, learning to use your gadgets, and learning how to do things for yourself takes time, but the hardest part of prepping isn’t one of those things.
Most of us aren’t into running half marathons 1-2 times a year. Most of us think that being “active” is enough to be physically be prepared. Ask me how I know. I’ve been overweight my whole life, and right now, according to BMI index, I would fall into the morbidly obese category. I went on my first diet when I was in third grade. I lost weight easily when I was in high school. In college, one summer I lost 20 pounds without trying because I was power walking to my summer job for 10 minutes three times a day.
More recently, I’ve tried various approaches to weight loss. I’ve done Trim Healthy Mama, Keto, the GAPS diet, calorie counting, and even Noom. I never took more than 3-5 pounds off after multiple months, and it would go right back on. I had walked off and on before, but never really pushed myself. We purchased a commercial grade treadmill and I used it here and there.
So this time I was going to come at life from an exercise driven approach. Two months ago, however, I decided enough was enough. I was going to walk. My goal was to walk fifty miles in one month. The first month, our family had a working vacation. I made it to 44 miles that month. Spending 6+ hours in a car two days in a row doesn’t do much for a person’s ability to walk 2 miles or more a day. This month as of the writing of this article, I have three days left (I started on May 21st), and I have walked 46 miles so far.
I have walked 90 miles since April 19th. Yes, that’s right N-I-N-E-T-Y. Guess how much weight I’ve lost. Go ahead and guess. I’ve not changed my eating at all, but I’ve way upped my activity level. I’ve lost a whopping ZERO pounds. Yep. Walked 90 miles, didn’t increase my food intake, and I’ve lost no weight. I’ve also been working to walk faster. I’m not taking leisurely walks (except when I’m walking the dog and he slows me way down, but that’s by far NOT the majority of my walking). I’m walking between 3.0-3.3 miles per hour. I’ve even started jogging small portions of the 2 miles that I walk. Slow and steady wins the race, right? Not for me this time.
Let’s talk about something else. One of the reasons that I started walking as much as I have was to lower my blood pressure. I’ve been on low-level blood pressure medicines 3 times during my life. I was always able to get my blood pressure back under control through various means – extra water intake, reducing stress, taking magnesium etc. Well this time, even with walking, drinking extra water, magnesium, AND taking my blood pressure medicine, my blood pressure has gone UP!
Yes, I am currently working with a doctor through all of this. Yes, I’ve had my thyroid tested (on multiple occasions). No, I’m not giving up. Walking has become a part of my life. I walk every day that I can find 1-1 1/2 in my schedule – it takes a girl time to change put on shoes and get cleaned up afterward. My goal is to walk 6 days a week, but never on Sunday. I’ve met that goal for 6 of the last 8 weeks. The other two weeks, I walked 5 times.
But no one is talking about the fact if we don’t deal with these things now, it could very easily be too late to deal with them if the crap hits the rotating wind device.
My point is this – you may think that if something hard happens – if the S really does hit the fan – you may think that your increased activity and work may just be what your body needs to deal with your issues. It may not be. Dealing with health issues may not be as easy as you are expecting it to be. Deal with them NOW.
How long has it been since you’ve had a physical? How long has it been since you’ve had comprehensive bloodwork drawn? Do you exercise regularly – and I do mean regularly as in 3-5 times a week or more? If you aren’t physically active now, how do you think you’re going to transition to being physically active if we experience TEOTWAWKI? You may be left in the dust even if you are a skinny couch potato.
Did you know that 1 out of every six adults in the United States takes some sort of psychiatric drug? Most of those are antidepressants. Are you one of that number? I know for a fact that people who are put onto psychiatric drugs are told NOT to go off of them without a doctors approval (so don’t think I’m telling anyone reading this article that they should stop taking prescribed meds – I’m not). I say all of that to make a point. Anxiety is at historic levels in this country – even for people who aren’t taking drugs for it.
If we, as a country are anxious during a time of (relative) peace, what are we going to do when our neighbors turn on us (if we haven’t already brought them into our prepping fold). How will our anxiety levels be then? My primary care doctor put me on progesterone. I was having classic low progesterone symptoms. While progesterone has stopped my going into full-blown panic attacks, I’m still experiencing anxiety attacks from time to time. This is HUGELY better than it was before. Even something emotional can have links back to the physical – that is why getting yourself checked out is so important!
If you struggle with anxiety, have you looked into things you can do NOW – again, our focus should be on NOW. We have to get a handle on these things before something huge and problematic is thrown at us. Here’s an article that gives you 10 natural ways to combat fear and anxiety. Here is another article on natural ways to fight back against anxiety.
Prepping mentally gets more ‘air time’ if you will than either of the other two categories, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be included in the hardest part about prepping. Mental preparedness is hard, but there are specific steps that you can take to help yourself prepare mentally.
Are you honestly prepared? I’m not talking about being prepared for the zombie apocalypse. Instead, I’m talking about are you prepared for that 4-5 day power outage after that nasty summer or winter storm. Have you taken small steps now to learn how to grow your own food, so if you had to grow more, you’re at least somewhat familiar with what you’re doing?
When we know that we have our ducks in a row, we tend to panic less, which means we can better handle whatever is being thrown at us.
After we had survived a tornado and the Ferguson riots, never did I dream that we would get attacked by a young adult with a knife. But when that did happen, I froze. Why? Because I didn’t expect something like that to happen to me (and my five kids) when it did. I hadn’t thought through what I would do if we were cornered in a room – no matter what the weapon was. We don’t think through these things often.
An (honestly) fun way of thinking through crazy scenarios is by playing the game Worst Case Scenario or the card game. They throw truly bizarre situations at you and give you 4 choices for what the best way of getting out of it is!
Need more suggestions on mental preparedness? I have a whole article on it here.
What are your thoughts on your physical, mental, and emotional preparedness? Do you think that they are talked about enough? Where do you struggle in those areas? Please share this with us in the comments, so that we can all be better prepared.
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Lots of us talk about fitness out here. Preppers are no different from any other group of folks. There are some that are real, some that are kinda and some that are just there. Those groups exist in the military and every other organization from school to business to church.
Buying cool toys gets you attention. Buying food doesn’t. Being in shape doesn’t make friends in the community. The social dynamics run preparedness unfortunately for most.
I’m 53 and at 0400 I’m up every single work day hitting it in the gym. I’m running and gunning at IPSC. In our group training we are carrying one another in medical class. On our next one we are even sweating it out in tyvex and masks. I hunt and I mean real hunting where you have to pack the animal out and there’s no such thing as stands and feeders carrying your own gear.
I’ve got 30yrs in the military and law enforcement and I’ve got to be better on my worst day than those who wish me dead on their best days. You must have the same mindset being into preparedness.
A ripped 6 pack isn’t required but being the best you that you can be is.
I totally get where you’re coming from, but when people get into prepping they are already at different levels of preparedness. It’s the same with the physical aspect. We all start from varying aspects of it, grace needs to be given, but the discussion which I’m not seeing hardly any of online needs to be had. We need to encourage each other on to become the best version of ourselves that we can be physically.
I certainly don’t want to come off negative and discourage anyone. I want everyone to be the best they can be.
I applaud effort.
It’s a year round prep that takes minutes, anyone can do, anywhere and doesn’t cost a lot.
Here are some discussions on other places.
https://www.samanthabiggers.com/2019/02/28/overcoming-the-challenges-of-prepper-fitness/
https://www.backdoorsurvival.com/mental-and-physical-preparation-for-shtf-long-emergencies/
https://www.americanpartisan.org/2018/05/ruck-it/
https://www.backdoorsurvival.com/prepper-fitness-for-self-defense/
https://survivalblog.com/?s=fitness
https://modernsurvivalblog.com/health/walking-survival-fitness-and-exercise/
http://www.prepperssurvive.com/search/Fitness/
https://www.theorganicprepper.com/?s=Fitness
Thanks so much, Matt!
I’m just happy if I hit 10,000 steps in one day. Seriously. Definitely suck at the physical stuff but I did lose 70 pounds last year (Weight watchers). I have been feeling like I needed to do a better job of making “me” a priority. All the preps and stuff don’t mean a thing if high blood pressure does me in. I’ve been very focused on all the other stuff, which is good and valuable but I need to be around to help teach what I have learned to the next generation. I’m the only one gardening, canning and preserving. I want the opportunity to pass this on (not that I’m a pro but I have learned some things).
Lisa, I’m right there with you. I usually hit 10,000 steps, but only because I walk two miles a day. If it weren’t for that, it wouldn’t happen. Great job losing 70 pounds. I need to lose a ton, but it’s just not budging. I had a great talk with my doctor today about it, and we are putting together a plan to help move things along, but we have to remember what is important is that we’re taking action. It’s not perfection; it’s direction!
I’m sorry to hear that you haven’t made any progress with your weight loss yet. I’m not sure what your diet consists of, but if you are consuming ” fat free” foods, you should stop. Most of that pre-processed fat free stuff has an incredible amount of sugar. I would also recommend trying yoga. If anyone rolls their eyes to that suggestion they never tried it or have not practiced the stretches properly. Have you thought about trading in your treadmill for an elliptical machine? It’s low impact so it doesn’t put unnecessary wear and tear on your joints like jogging will.
You seem to have the drive and determination. I’m sure you will reach your weight loss goal soon. Heck, maybe play some Eye of the Tiger while walking to help inspire you.
Thanks for the advice. We don’t consume fat-free foods, and I am doing yoga a minimum of once a week – sometimes more. The problem with replacing my treadmill with an elliptical machine is the cost. We invested almost $2000 in this treadmill 3 years ago, and it’s still going strong. We don’t have room for both, unfortunately. I am working with two different doctors and will start working with a dietician as well. We’re going to figure this out. Thanks for the encouragement. I’m going to keep it up.
So nice to see a website that is not mostly ads!
great thoughts
The important thing to remember is that it is going to take community groups to survive and rebuild from the ashes.
Thanks, Michael. I’ve made a conscious decision NOT to include ads in my site. I don’t want to annoy anyone. That being said since there are costs to run this (as with any website) if you ever find something that I recommend that has a link to Amazon, would you consider purchasing it through my link? It costs you nothing, but I earn a (albeit very small) commission on it. It helps me pay for my site which costs about $250-400 a month to run.
[…] mentioned recently that I’ve been walking two miles a day. Besides the time to actually walk, it takes time to get changed and ready. It takes […]
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Prepping Physically
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