I HAVE COME TO THE CONCLUSION that the most important aspect of resilience is health, that includes both fitness and nutrition. Think about this, water weighs 8.34 pounds per gallon, so a five gallon bucket or jug of water weighs almost 42 pounds. That’s a single day’s requirement for my family. How far could I carry that if I needed to transport it back to the house on foot? What about ten gallons? On the other hand I can be physically fit but nutritionally weak. Here is a “just off the top of my head” short list of some of the ways that good health leads to resilience and independence:

• Recover faster from physical labor
• Self defense
• Lessen dependence on sick care system – saves money, less need for meds
• Hike farther and faster if you break down somewhere
• Better chance at getting out of a burning house or building, or surviving a tornado or earthquake
• Body can endure injury better

Another thing about health is, the road to good health where nutrition is concerned is not found in the things we have been educated on for our entire lives. Just like everything else fed to us (ha! Get it??) by our gubment, there has been a money trail behind the information being disseminated.

My wife and I watched “Fat Head” over the weekend and it was yet another “aha” moment. I don’t think I mentioned it, but a couple of weeks ago I re-evaluated what I thought I knew about nutrition based on several things I have been reading and a couple of interviews that I heard. I came to the conclusion that we were not designed to eat so much grain (which is basically grass), but to eat the animals that eat the grass. I initially heard it from the Paleo diet perspective, but I am not going Paleo. Then I heard more about it from the Primal Blueprint perspective, which is more in line with my thinking than Paleo, but I am still not sold completely on it either. I am convinced, however, that certain fat is healthy for us and we are starving our bodies and brains without it, while other “healthy” fats are not. Corn oil was not even used for human consumption at the beginning of the 1900s, it was used for making paint!

After watching “Fat Head” on Sunday, I understand a bit more about the benefits of fat, particularly saturated fat. For instance, coconut oil is loaded with MCTs which feed the brain. So yesterday I bought some to use for frying and to put it in my coffee instead of cream. It is different, but I could get used to it. It is a good substitute for cream as it removes the bitterness of the coffee like cream does, but I still like some sweetness in my coffee, so I’ll need to figure that part out.

Since I have started restricting grain products, my insulin requirements have fallen significantly. I am still concerned with the amount of meat I take in though. Without grain based products, that pretty much leaves meat, fat, fruit and veggies. Most fat (which is now going to be my primary source of energy) has tied to protein, and I still think Dr Kelley (who cured himself of Pancreatic cancer) made some good points about our bodies response to an overload of protein. He said that our pancreas produces hormones and enzymes to deal with the food we eat, one is insulin which is for dealing with glucose (all carbs break down into glucose) and the other is an enzyme called pancreatin which breaks down protein. Pancreatin also breaks down cells that try to become cancerous so they can be removed them from the body. When we overload our body with too much protein, we don’t produce enough of the pancreatin to deal with mutating cells. So I am looking for snacks that aren’t loaded with protein but are more exciting and filling than veggies. Bring on the fat!

What I Did Yesterday to get Closer To My Goal:

• Worked on resume, updated format. [resilience: getting closer to being ready if something in my current income situation changes. Liberty: getting closer to a job that pays more with less time/possibly work from home and more control over how I spend
  my time]
• Replaced hose in backyard so my “soaker hose solution” will work. [Less time watering, more consistent watering so my tree and garden don’t die.]
• Watered and turned compost bin [Improve soil quality and sustainability]
• Bought coconut oil to Improve health