Survival:Beyond the Bug-Out Bag
We all agree that being prepared for an emergency is important. That's why preparing a "Bug Out Bag" that will allow you can grab and go can be a lifesaver. So I began posting information here over 6 years ago, and I'm updating that information regularly. I've also gone beyond the traditional products. Because creating "the bag" is just the first step to being prepared, not the final product. We now know we each need to have at least 30 days of essential supplies like food water and medicine. We must be our own first responders.
I cover topics like:
*Products I both use and trust.
*Often forgotten items you need to have in your bag.
*Psychological and Emotional planning for the family
*Planning for Kids and Seniors
*What to do when Plan "A" fails?
This includes a curated list of links from a variety of sources too. I'll be sharing and updating links to sites I buy from and products I use. So we are clear, I have no sponsors, so the opinions, both good and bad, are my own.
Join me as I begin the 7th year/6th season of productions in an ongoing series of podcasts for you and your family to use and to share with others as you build a community. Is this fun or what?
Survival:Beyond the Bug-Out Bag
Beat the Heat: Hydration and Travel Health Tips
How can a simple hike turn into a life-threatening situation? Discover the critical insights on hydration and learn how to protect yourself from the dangers of dehydration, especially in scorching heat. Through a sobering cautionary tale, we uncover the body’s essential need for water and provide practical tips to maintain hydration, including why you should avoid excessive caffeine, alcohol, and sports drinks. Also, understand the outdated and potentially harmful practice of using salt tablets. Ensuring proper hydration before, during, and after physical activities is your best defense against heat-related illnesses.
Are you traveling soon? We share expert advice on staying healthy and hydrated while on the move. From the must-have refillable water bottle to the importance of packing easy, well-tested snacks for those with specific health conditions like diabetes, we cover it all. We also discuss the significance of understanding how your medications may affect you during travel and the benefits of being prepared for unexpected situations. Plus, don't miss our monthly firearm training classes, including concealed carry and home defense shotgun courses, aimed at keeping you safe and informed. Tune in for a wealth of knowledge to help you stay prepared, hydrated, and healthy no matter where life takes you.
GRAYL Water System
USCCA site
Class Information: Refuse to be a Victim Personal ProtectionTraining
For questions and comments, email me at: profprepper@protonmail.com
Please "Follow Us" or Subscribe, and remember that this program may be downloaded and shared for educational purposes. It may not be resold, edited, or used for other purposes without written permission.
Music Pond 5 Individual License, Commercial
Music Pond 5
Levee Blues_15 Sec (Swampy Harmonica) 78705066
Copyright: Refuse to be a Victim Personal Protection Training 2018-2024
Well, here it is the 10th day of June. I promised I'd check back in and let's talk about the heat. Come on in, let's get this thing started. Hi everybody, Bill Bateman, part of the team here at Refuse to be a Victim Personal Protection Training. We are located in the Medford White City area of Southern Oregon, 6800 Kershaw, where Kershaw turns into Corey, out there by the old Camp White Range. As a matter of fact, it's an abrupt turn, so slow down when you're coming in. We wanted to see you at the gate, not through it. Okay, Promised I'd check in. I am on hiatus taking a break.
Speaker 1:A lot of things going on, but this business with the heat is something I feel the need to share. Some reminders, especially as it's looking like taking a hike can actually be hazardous to your health and there's a story in the news about a gentleman who is in Greece and he was taking a hike and there was extreme heat and he ended up expiring. And it's not because he did anything wrong, it's because it got real hot and the terrain got really unstable and he ran out of ability. He got dehydrated and boom, and it's terrible. I hate to see that happen to anybody. It's happening all over the world, so it's not just an isolated incident. So the big world news is the temperature. We all know it. All you have to do is walk outside about five o'clock in the afternoon and it's pretty obvious if you're in an impacted area.
Speaker 1:Well, one of the things we have to be careful about is the self-image we all have, and I've had to undergo a lot of work with mine. I'm a big guy. I've always been able to be strong, stay healthy, bada bing until recently, and now I still look at myself as strong. But I also look at myself with my experience, at being smart enough smart enough to think myself, either avoiding a situation or, if I get into trouble, start being aware and realizing I've got a problem. That's how you get old. You don't have to win every fight. You avoid most of them, and if you have to give the ones, you're in everything you got.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about hydration, because water is most of our body and it's something we must have. It's the thing we can last the least without Food. A couple weeks, air okay, that's the top of the one you got to have like air every couple of minutes or you're in trouble and water three days. It starts getting really, really freaky. But you don't have to be hiking across the Mojave or out in Death Valley. You have to stay hydrated if you're going for a hike, if you're at work, especially if you're one of the wonderful people who work outside, like on power lines or working in the fields or something like that. But even now, going out for a simple walk is something you gotta. It's hot, it's damn hot. It's good if you're with your partner, but not good if you're in the fields. So staying hydrated when you work makes it easier to keep the necessary balance of liquid.
Speaker 1:If you're dehydrated when you start work, you may not be able to drink enough during the day to catch up your body's need for water. Drink before you feel thirsty. By the time you're feeling thirsty, you're already behind in fluid replacement, and dehydration is a key contributor to heat exhaustion. That's a medical condition, folks. Your work performance may suffer when you're dehydrated, even if you don't notice. Now, if you're working in the heat, drink one cup, that's eight ounces of water, every 15 to 20 minutes. Now this translates to about one cup quart per hour, and drinking at shorter intervals is much more effective than guzzling down slamming that quart of water all at once.
Speaker 1:There's also such a thing as too much. Do not drink more than 48 ounces or one and a half quarts per hour. Drinking too much especially other fluids like sports drinks, energy drinks can cause a medical emergency because the concentration of salt in the body gets too low. We are, after all, one large chemistry project. Another thing that's important you need to hydrate after work. Most people need several hours to drink enough fluids to replace what they lose through sweat. The sooner you get started, the less strain you place on your body from being dehydrated. Now, hydrating after work is even more important if you work in the heat.
Speaker 1:Chronic dehydration increases the risk for a number of medical conditions, such as kidney stones. What to drink? Well water Basically, such as kidney stones. What to drink? Well water, Basically. That's the key idea, as long as you're getting the proper balance in your diet to replace the salt lost in sweat.
Speaker 1:Now, some energy drinks contain a lot more caffeine than coffee, tea or soft drinks. Drinking several of these can raise the caffeine levels, which if you have an issue that's putting pressure on your heart, along with the heat generated issues. And many energy drinks contain a lot more sugar, which adds extra calorie. Now I used to come home and love having a couple of beers, but alcohol can cause dehydration. Drinking alcohol with 24 hours of working in heat can increase the risk of heat illness.
Speaker 1:What about salt tablets? I remember the Navy. They used to give us those like M&Ms. Well, it's not good to take salt tablets. In most cases, salt can be replaced by eating normal meals. And don't skip when you're working. Talk to your doctor about the issue of salt tablets if that's something that's part of your plan. Caffeine not that big a deal, but prolonged sweating lasting several hours, Maybe sports drinks with balanced electrolytes are another option. Heavy consumption of sports drinks will add calories, but if it's that or passing out, I can see the benefit of either.
Speaker 1:Now, one of the things is having enough water with you. I've talked about having water in the car. Highly important. The interior of the car and we've talked about having water in the car highly important. The interior of the car and we've talked about this before does get over 140 degrees on a very hot day. The trunk is going to be a little bit better, so I store any emergency water in my trunk.
Speaker 1:I also looked at a number of different bottles to carry. Now I'm a big believer. I have a Yeti, a Yeti Rambler. It's 64 ounces. It does not have a liner and to me that's highly important. If you ever have to boil water in your water bottle. A plastic liner is a no-go. I also have the solid plastic bottles to carry. They're a little lighter, they don't bang into stuff and leave dents, and there are the Nalgene. They're the number of things you should look for in a water bottle to make sure it's going to work for you Non-leaking, non-breaking, being able to drink out of it simply.
Speaker 1:And if you ever think you may be in a situation that you need to go ahead and filter your water a product called the Geopress Filter and Purifier Bottle. It's by Grail G-R-A-Y-L. I'll leave a link on the front of the program. It's something you can put water in and then, much like a coffee press, press down, the water is forced through a membrane and you will get very, very good water in a very short amount of time. Naturally, you can't put that over the fire. Which brings us to the question what are you going to have in your car or with you? They have these little plastic cups. They have these little metal cups. If you really want to get into it. Fine, If you're going to have some paper cups, a red solar cup, you know whatever you're going to have, not a bad idea. The bare minimum extra water, Bare minimum extra water in the amounts you're going to need.
Speaker 1:If I was looking at a full day, I'd want to make sure I had at least a gallon of good drinking water available. And if it's in a big bottle, you want to make sure you don't spill it, you want to make sure it's strong. I see a lot of the cheap water bottles you can get. They actually break. You can squeeze them too hard. They'll break. They're cracking. You got water over the front seat no bad plan. So when you're looking at that, looking at the water, filter it. If you think you're gonna be in that type of situation and believe it or not, sometimes you are, even if you don't think you will be. I've gotten into that. I've got some of the filters that look like a little straw. Worst case scenario. It's certainly better than nothing. And I carry my Yeti and I have in the car a couple of plastic water bottles in the emergency in case I have to store it, stock it, grab some from the gas station, get it out of a hydration station.
Speaker 1:All things to consider, let's take it to the next level. Let's look at traveling. I take Concealed Carry Magazine, USCCA US Concealed Carry Association. I get my insurance from there and I also like their magazine. Whichcca US Concealed Carry Association. I get my own insurance from there and I also like their magazine, which comes with your purchase of insurance, your subscription of a membership, and I am really enjoying an article that they have this month on traveling and it talks about when you travel. You hop on the plane and you got to go through TSA, so there's all the things you can't have.
Speaker 1:And they talked also about water, how important it is for you. And when you're walking across the parking lot to get the rental car at 11 o'clock in the morning, it's not a bad idea to have water you can count on. They also find that they have kind of given up on trying to get it through the checkpoints. I get really angry when I find you have to pay $8, $9 for a bottle of water from the little shop inside. They got you. Deal with it. Get yourself a good plastic bottle that you can fill then at the hydration stations in the airport. They haven't taken those out yet. So if you need fresh water, you've got it and fill it up before you leave the terminal. Also, when you look at snacks and this is another thing that's very important getting food in the airport can often be difficult.
Speaker 1:I have a classic story. I had a flight to catch from here to there. I jumped off one flight, ran down, got on the other flight and I didn't have any food. The flight didn't provide food. They didn't even have the nuts. It was a cheap flight and were it not for a person who was very kind and didn't even have the nuts, it was a cheap flight and were it not for a person who was very kind and didn't even take money for it, I got a couple of protein bars.
Speaker 1:As a diabetic, I especially have to watch my food intake, especially when under stress. So if you suffer from low blood sugar, from diabetes, from any condition that might impact you when you're on the road, know now what you can pack in your shirt pocket. I have in a backpack or my shirt pocket, whichever I happen to be rocking at the time. I have discovered some really good fig bars. They're light, they're good to carry. The Nature Valley granola bars seem to work out pretty good to me.
Speaker 1:And if you're going to try something new, try it at home a couple times. First, Because when you're running around and you're throwing in that chocolatey bar with your regular fig bar and then you've got water from the airport, you don't want to end up with diarrhea or an upset stomach, that going across the parking lot in the middle of a heat wave is not someplace't want to end up with diarrhea or an upset stomach, that going across the parking lot in the middle of a heat wave is not someplace. You want to be. Test this stuff out in advance. I have my list. I know what's going to work. I have my foods. I have my glucose tablets, Diabetics.
Speaker 1:You know what I'm talking about these are a carbohydrate replacement and know your blood sugar level. I was talking to a health care practitioner and they said Bill, do you know the number that you start going into deficit, that your blood sugar starts going, spiking down rather than spiking up, and you're having a problem. So it's our responsibility. I talked about not only being stronger, being smarter. We need to know just about how far we can go and then back that off 10%. Don't be the person gasping, wheezing, having a blood sugar attack, dying of thirst, with dry mouth, whatever it is, know what medications are going to do to you. I've had to take some new and interesting medications recently which would really impact my traveling because they make me have dry mouth. It's affected my voice just a little and I'm always licking my lips. I find that I can go through a 12 ounce glass of water every couple of minutes just by sip, sip, sip, sip.
Speaker 1:You're in charge of your personal machine, Know what's affecting you, Know what you're heading into to the most you can. Obviously, you have no guarantee that all the flights in Salt Lake City are going to be canceled. Okay, Start looking as soon as you hear for supplemental food, for supplemental water. Make sure. I even had to deal with my flashlights recently. I can take a flashlight on the plane if you can take the batteries out because they don't want fires from the thing coming on in your pocket. Fair enough, what type of flashlight you're going to carry, and having a flashlight can be really, really valid, Even if you just put regular batteries in it or they'll let you take out the battery for your little pen light the thing that's about four inches long. That can be really handy if the power goes out in the terminal that happened in Denver. If you end up wandering around across the parking lot at midnight looking for that rental car that happened in San Diego. There's a lot of things when you're traveling.
Speaker 1:We all go in with an expectation of things are going to be okay. We now have to start going in. Things might not be okay. I've got confidence. I have trust, Absolutely. I also have smarts and trust in myself and my planning, so that my wife says turns to me and says I can't see a thing. I guess, no worries, baby, we got this, Click, click and you got a flashlight. Or I'm thirsty, you got the water. It's just about you and I looking out for each other. So, in high heat, hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. That's our story for this week. I'm still on break. I'll be back as I can over the next couple of weeks.
Speaker 1:There are, of of course, excellent classes coming up. Second Saturday of each month is the concealed carry class. Yes, indeed, register for that in advance. We've got the shotgun class, which is still my favorite Home defense shotgun. Oh my gosh. I will say I learned the most in that class about home defense than I've learned in several other sessions. So there's a lot of good things. And for you advanced people, there's the Beyond Concealed Carry. So make it your summer goal Stay hydrated and get learned up. That's all I got for this week. I look forward to seeing you next time or out at the range. Until then, be safe and keep your head on a swivel. The preceding was a presentation of Retired Guy Productions.
