You probably think this post is going to be about investing money and it is in a way, but what I’m talking about here is investing in your health.
Mrs Jarhead running a brutal race in Maine. 15 miles of cross country hell.
Recently my father, a great guy, big-time storyteller, and hard-working man was diagnosed with high cholesterol. My mother, always there to look out for his health swung into action and changed his diet. My parents have been married 48 years (coincidentally that’s my age, ahem) and Dad knows when to dig in and when to let it go. He’s been a meat and potatoes guy all his life and loves a hamburger and fries as much as the next guy; however, at age 69 he now finds himself in the position of having to eat healthier.
They came to visit last night and he was proud to point that he’d already lost five pounds from his new way of eating and said he didn’t miss the fatty foods and desserts as much as he thought he would. He had a couple of veggie burgers on the grill and some baked chips and seemed content while my two-year old bounced around on his lap taking little bites of his healthy food.
I got thinking about it later and figured that all the working out that I’ve done in the past will help me in the future, as long as I keep at it and do it sensibly to avoid injury. Eating right, watching my weight, and getting regular checkups, will all benefit me in the years ahead. I keep wondering what would happen if TSHTF and six months after the balloon goes up I’m diagnosed with high blood pressure or some other disease that could have been controlled by exercise and a proper diet. I wouldn’t be real happy with myself that’s for sure because that’s something I have control over.
Seriously, where’s the sense in going through all the time, trouble and money of getting your preps in place if you’re not going to be around to use them because of a heart attack or something that can be avoided with a little effort put in now? Your family will benefit from the preps of course, but without your guidance will they thrive or even be able to survive?
My dad is going to be ok. He’s in pretty good shape for a man his age, he’s not overweight, and he stays active, which is a good combination for a long life. I love both my parents and want to see them both around for a long time to come.
Mrs Jarhead gave birth to our daughter on August 19th and being an older father I think it’s important to take good care of myself, so that I’ll be around and healthy while she grows up. And since her two-year old brother is so much like me when I was a kid I know he’s going to need guidance! (I was a pretty high energy kid according to my mother.)
Remember, a goal without specifics is just a dream, so here’s my goal. By December 31 I want to get to a weight of 170 lbs. Right now I’m around 184 lbs (when Mrs Jarhead started gaining weight from her pregnancy so did I.) Now it’s time to get fit again. She’s a marathon runner and is already talking about getting her body back and she’s motivated me to get started again as well, so now it’s time to pick up the weights again and get serious about getting back in shape! As of Tuesday September 27, 2011 the clock is ticking for the two of us! If anybody else out there would like to drop a few pounds and maybe get a little more fit let me know. It’s always nice to have someone else involved when you’re trying to achieve a goal.
-Jarhead Survivor
BTW: I’d like to thank those that wrote with survival scenarios. I appreciate the feedback and will see what I can do to get them on here in the future.
7 comments
“coincidentally that’s my age, ahem” – lol
“I keep wondering what would happen if TSHTF and six months after the balloon goes up I’m diagnosed with high blood pressure or some other disease that could have been controlled by exercise and a proper diet. I wouldn’t be real happy with myself that’s for sure because that’s something I have control over.”
High cholesterol and high B.P. are easy to diagnose @ home, but I think during SHTF those annual checkups will be a thing of the past. You’re not going to have the luxury of CBCs and metabolic panels to identify deficiencies and excesses before chronic disease takes hold.
This is why it’s absolutely imperative to follow your advice and make changes now. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure..
Also, during SHTF you’re not going to have as many options as you once had. Right now, changing your diet is as easy as buying something different from the grocery store; a luxury you may not have during SHTF. What happens if your garden fails and you have to live off stored food for a season? Is your stored food healthy?
It would suck to realize you have chronic high blood pressure or high cholesterol and are being forced to live on Spam you’ve stored for 6 months to a year.
One of my cousins lost 15 pounds in two months with no exercise involved, giving up bread and sweets alone. He was very surprised to find that out.
I had the same problem when we had our daughter. I’m back down to about 190 from 220. 170 is the target. Working out is cheap. Medications and health complications in the future are expensive. If things really do go off a cliff in the next twenty years then a lot of the problems that are treatable now might just lead to an early death in the future.
A pretty important item to consider, especially when…
* once a big SHTF hits, you’re not going to have many choices as to what to eat – it’ll be what you have on hand, or can get hold of. Odds are good that your larder is going to be full of food that allows for long-term preservation, and for high calorie counts. This means lots of calories, fats, preservatives, and a bajillion other things that aren’t going to do your body any long-term favors. MREs for instance are made with a titanic calorie count, since it’s assumed that the combat troops who eat them are burning those calories in, well, combat. I personally got to see quite a few guys who were fit and perfectly healthy before we deployed to the first Gulf War, but since we were in the USAF, we don’t burn that many calories – these same guys didn’t take the calorie load into account. They came back flirting with forcible discharge because they’d gotten rather fat… in mere months. In a SHTF situation, you’ll use a lot of calories at times, but not always (especially if you have ample preps). This means that you’ll spend a lot of time sitting around, but still eating a high-calorie diet (depending on what you have stocked).
* A healthier body is less prone to infection and injury. Throwing your back out now is not too big of a deal in an age of modern treatment and surgery. Having it happen post SHTF (and it will happen a lot if you’re not physically prepared) means you easily end up a cripple. A minor infection now, no big deal – some antibiotics will clear it right up. An infection post-SHTF will often be fatal.
* A healthier body will recover faster, and can make the difference between life or death in the case of serious illness. For instance, a few months back my wife and I got a minor touch of food poisoning. I spent the next morning barfing and sipping Gatorade. By that afternoon I was fine again. My missus however is in pretty rough medical shape, so she wound up taking a trip to the urgent care clinic to be fed IV fluids, Hydromorphone (pain control), and Promethazine (anti-emetic). Post SHTF, she’d likely have died from dehydration.
* being overweight can lead to diabetes… and insulin isn’t exactly going to be plentiful post-SHTF. Having diabetes post SHTF is an eventual death sentence. If you’re type2, you might luck out by weight loss and a huge stash of Metformin to help ease you off the needle. OTOH, you probably won’t.
* a healthy person can run like hell and stand a reasonable chance of fleeing life-or-death trouble. An unhealthy person (at any weight) will likely either get killed by that trouble because they couldn’t run fast enough, or by the heart attack that inevitably occurs because you were running like hell.
All of these things and more are good, solid reasons to not only keep yourself healthy now, or at least work towards being free from medication and reaching a reasonably healthy state.
Glad to hear the your dad was open to change, most his age think they know it all.
Exercise & the elimination of sugar will lower cholesterol substantially. There are 2 great books on the subject – Prevent & Reverse Heart Disease and The China Study. I’ve poured through many books on the subject & these 2 I found to be the best. They are very well researched and written by 2 different authors who never considred the approach the discovered.
If you make diet & exercise the focus, the weight will drop naturally & relative to the diet. Too much exercise can work against you because the body goes into an anaerobic state where it bypasses consuming fat & consumes muscle so, balance is key.
I’m with you on the weight loss gig. I’m currently sporting about 215 when I should be under 200. (I was 205 when I graduated so get off my case). What’s your plan to lose it? Train for the marathon with your wife?