The Prepper Broadcasting Network - Patriot Power Hour #305 - 6 Spectra of Preparedness

Episode Date: May 14, 2025

Each week on Patriot Power Hour, Ben ‘The Breaker of Banksters’ and Future Dan explore the latest Liberty, Security, Economic & Natural news, providing the situational awareness needed to execute your preparedness plans. Questions, Feedback, News Tips, or want to be a Guest? Reach out!Ben “The Breaker of Banksters” @BanksterBreaker on XFuture Dan@FutureDanger6 on X

You You want statement of purpose should I email you should I put this on your action item list you decide your level of involvement We are the prepper broadcasting network Network. You are now listening to the Patriot Power Hour, the newest show of the Prepper Broadcasting Network. This live episode features the situational awareness you need to practice self-reliance and independence. Introducing your hosts, Ben, the Breaker of Banksters, and Future Dan, the editor of the the

the the the the into the news blitz. You ready for this? Go for it. Alright, let's start in the Liberty column. Liberty indicators on this live May 13th. Beautiful evening, rainy, but I love the rain. AG says tens of thousands of videos of Epstein with children as well as other We have one more article here in the Liberty column. The president may suspend habeas corpus to end a legal alien invasion. In national security, the second column on futuredanger.com, there is no active indicator or headline and that

is literally after one week ago the Indo-Pak War seemingly was boiling over. In fact, while we were on the air, there were just about the time we were in the air, there wasn't just artillery strikes, but a huge, huge air battle. But a ceasefire essentially has been declared, knock on wood things have been quiet. Ukraine, Taiwan, Israel, Middle East, all from a security standpoint, quiet. So no articles right now. Economically, excuse me, Treasury to hit the debt limit in August. Will they raise the debt limit in August. Will they raise the debt limit by

how much will certainly keep you up to date here on Patriot Power Hour. America's largest grid operator warns of summer power shortages. A topical news article under grid goes down However, compared to where we were a year or two ago with the

rise of bricks and the fall of America certainly does not seem like the US dollar is going anywhere anytime soon with all these deals going on whether it the trade war with China like is dangerous news and there really is not too much of a natural column. There's not much uh dangerous news real fast. Let's go look at just to round out the economics. I suppose over the last week, Bitcoin has climbed from 93 K to 104 K. Yep. Could have made $11,000 in the last week by

low sell high. That's my suggestion. Gold on the other hand has gone down a bit in the last week from about $3,400 and remember it was at $3,500 a few weeks ago down to $3,256 which certainly is not concerning or low if you own gold. In fact let's look at the one month the price of gold is not uh both uh Patriot Power Hour both uh Patriot Power Hour the news blitz. It's quite an incredible jump over the years. We've been on air future Dan here both uh Patriot Power Hour generally and specifically here

on Prepper Broadcast and Network. So, that's the news blitz. Anything you wanna focus on in particular right now? It's not often that two of the columns are empty of news but they are. So, pretty safe evening in early

May 2025, I'd say. Good time to keep on prepping and uh well, we're in the middle of ration of ruins. So, every little bit of stress that I could you know, avoid is helpful with my quest for massive calorie deficits and other challenges. I'm not complaining. I'm not complaining. I'm not complaining. I'm not complaining. I'm not

complaining. I'm not complaining. I'm not complaining. I'm not complaining. I'm not complaining. I'm not complaining. I'm not complaining. I'm not complaining. I'm not complaining. I'm not complaining. I'm not complaining. I'm not complaining. I'm not

complaining. I'm not complaining. I'm not complaining. I'm not complaining. I'm not complaining. Hey fire wolf forge. We see it in the chat. Thanks for listening. We're gonna maybe maybe talk about some of these headlines later in the show but there's not really much new here. They are headlines. You know not not really changing anything on the heat map dashboard. So what Ben and I wanted to do tonight is Have a conceptual conversation about Prepping and just another way to look at it perhaps so At the end of the show, maybe Ben will do a recap of rational ruin tell everybody how we're doing with the mountain house but for the time being I wanted to jump into something we've been maturing over

several episodes what do you say let's do it let's have at it so we're showing a pressure gauge but why a pressure gauge well give it some thought came up with this kind of simple system to help you Reconsider survival and and preparedness to survive so What we're going to talk about we're calling the survival spectra. Okay, and there's six Spectrums on for the total survival spectra food water temperature energy moisture And your temper

and what's interesting about those six factors is They they show how your body handles different levels of things it needs to stay healthy. And if you think of it like a gauge where the green zone is the, is the comfort zone, right? And different people have different comfort zones for these matters. So the picture we got here is a nice wide from two and a half to seven and a half wide on the top, right?

Lots of people's comfort zones for food, water, how cold it is or warm it is, their energy level, how wet or dry their conditions are and how their mind reacts to that. How wet or dry their conditions are and and how their mind reacts to that They're gonna you know I think it's fair to say that most modern Americans their Comfort zone is pretty narrow pretty narrow for these things So let's talk about you know what each of these spectrum are their scale, right? So the scale goes as you can see on the screen To the left the you know it's something that's completely deficient

You don't have enough of it, and it can make you sick or kill you starved dehydrated Hypothermic right starved is a lack of food dehydrated lack of water hypothermic lack Heat right and it kind of scales towards almost enough close To okay, but not quite right. That's when you feel hungry thirsty just cold Your comfort zone is the middle you feel good. You're sated. You're hydrated thermo neutral And then it swings the other way to on some of these, you know Some of these more than the other but you know too much right, you know you you

And food and water the hard ones to go too much on right, you know, it's easy not to overeat it's easy not to drink too much but temperature It's easy not to overeat. It's easy not to drink too much. But temperature, you can go very hot conditions and be in danger from it, right? And that's where it swings all the way to the right on the gauge. Way too much can be dangerous. Hyperthermic, right?

Or when it comes to your temperament, panic, right? So, you know, imagine each spectrum has a range green in the middle of the comfort zone and red on both sides start to get in trouble. And the body seeks balance, right? It wants to be in that comfort zone, loves to stay where everything feels right. It's it's homeostasis really is the, is the $10 word, right? It's the homeostasis and for food

your stomach's gonna growl because of Hormone graylin hormone it when it's hungry and it's gonna feel full when you've eaten enough the leptin hormone right water Right you know your body feels thirsty when you start to you know slide to the deficit side Energy you know you feel sleepy when need rest so this is pretty simple stuff, right? so What's interesting is they still you know different six different spectrum or scales they start to affect each other not enough food You're starving makes you tired exhausted dehydrated can make you you know

Super skin your skin, you know super dry right, you know too cold or hypothermic You know uses energy which then again makes you exhausted. So the compounding effects of this are are an interesting Aspect to it. So, you know, if you've been cold, hungry, tired, thirsty, and sleepy all at the same time, you know, you're starting to get into the deficits on many of the scales. It's not, you know, you know it when you feel it. You don't like it.

Some of these spectrum are external temperature, the air temperature, the weather of your environment, freezing snow to scorching heat, right? And that's where shelter comes in, right? Being properly sheltered to protect you from that. Moisture, right? Rain, humidity, or even super dry air effects on your skin, your clothes, those are imposed externally on you. And if you think about it, water and food are external. You have to have them, you have to provide for them, right? So those are outside resources that have to come into your body to maintain that needle in the green zone.

Others are internal, right? They're sort of second order effects of temperature, moisture, water and food. And I'm talking about energy depends on how, you know, how much food you've had, how much rest you've had, how your body uses energy, you know, that's internal. And then there's temper temperament, your your emotions your reactions to stress danger fear Right. That's internal. So those energy and temperament usually follow The the primary external, you know temperature moisture water and food, right? So For some of these you can think of a scale

Perfectly from 0 to 10 like the gauge that we're showing right now and that's temperature It'll it'll it's dangerous in both directions for others. I said this earlier food water Easy to avoid overdoing it. It's not something that preppers talk about like what are your preparations for not overeating? Doesn't make sense, right? It's possible to get injured on the excess side But you know, it's not it's not really a consideration So Where are the tipping points? Where have we been in our lives and can think back to your? Tipping points where you are getting out of the green into the red or your you're in the red

But you know the needles going down or up in a way that you know had a compound effect Effect maybe you you know you were calm you were patient you were emotionally under controlled and it started to get into anxiousness and Maybe even burgeoning on panic right so and maybe even verging on panic, right? So where have those tipping points been in our lives? We're gonna talk about those in a moment, right? But the reason we're talking about this on Patriot Power Hour is it applies

to our Azure Highland exercises to include Azure Highland 4, Ration or Ruin going on right now, big time with food. So what I advocate for is widening comfort zones. Preppers think about how to train to handle tougher conditions and how to make their comfort zones bigger without hitting red danger zones, right? So, you know, what we're doing in rash or ruin practice fasting get used to less food with without going towards

starvation right without malnourishment right that's why we're supplementing you know building mental strength to stay calm you know to be ready so that panic stressful situate you know stressful situations don't turn into panic right so we're going to talk about lots of ways to train for the you know widening your comfort zone and why is that important because if you look at the graph the gauge when you when whenever you're hitting that red and coming off of the green you feel it. It's the suck is starting right and how different people react differently to that and and the ones that don't cross that barrier very frequently or Maybe young, you know earlier in their lives. They did it all the time, but they haven't done it a lot lately

you got you got trouble going on when you're crossing that tipping point and You know how to be mentally prepared prepared for it I believe it's very important because you know, you know SHFT situation Mental preparedness is every bit every bit as much important as material preparedness. So in short, the survival specter are basically like six gauges that you can visualize. And if you think about where's your green comfort zone, is it shrinking? Is it expanding?

Is it, is it a good place? Do I need to train further to push the boundaries again and remind myself of how to control myself when things start going wrong, when, when it's time, time to use your preparations then. So, you know, want to talk about this, how training can widen your comfort zones and just, you know, bring this forward. We, this forward we this this network is Really really focused many of the hosts

you know before many great hours of content talking about things like the food the water the Shelter how to keep them intact how to build them up to be resilient, right? That's the material side What if everything you've prepped for is no longer usable you've been driven away from everything prepped your material solutions are Not available to you for whatever reason think of a thousand scenarios, right? but are you ready to continue to survive without without that and

Met you know the mental game is a big part of it, so there you are the six factors I'll repeat them again. We can talk about them. I want to hear from you Ben about food water temperature your energy level the you know atmospheric conditions that were really wet or really dry and and your temperament Right, you know and temperament, you know moving from calm to

The absence of fear would be apathetic And swinging the other direction would be anxious trending towards panic When when have you tested your boundaries on these? different survival spectrum and the pandemic is trending towards that. Let's start with food. I for some bitcoin donations. I swear I will do this. Jay says, hey, dream team, I can hear some changes just from your rational ruin. How do you

feel? Mental clarity, how you adjusting to lack of diet? Well, that's almost perfect segue into what Future Dan was just talking about. And here we go. Want me to go through each one and give a couple examples you said of maybe in my life when I stress tested or went into the red zone, as well as just last few years, right? Right, right.

Okay, Let's start with food. Honestly, just in the past year, let's start before ration of ruin. Just in the past year, I started to push my comfort zone on the fasting point of view. I had probably never, almost never in my life got more than 24 hours without eating until March or April of last year.

Okay, okay. Over that one year period, I went on at least five or six 72-hour fasts. I also went on like a five and a half day fast during that. I also just kind of revamped my diet. It made it much cleaner. Lost maybe 10 pounds during that time, not a ton, but definitely healthier performing better

physically. So but before that I was probably much more vulnerable to lack of food number one and I would say there is at least long term having too much food of course is because you get out of shape. Maybe too heavy. You know, if you can't do any pull ups, you might, it might not just be a strength issue. It could be you're a little too heavy. So, you're going to need that strength to weight ratio to be as high as possible, as much strength for a pound of body

weight if stuff hits the fan. So, I think food, at least in the long term, eating too much and I would say you can get sick to your stomach if you eat too much or eat bad things. So, what have you done that? When was the last time you did that and you made it made that mistake? Does alcohol

count? Cuz alcohol is the most prominent example that in my life where I ate or drank too much and felt sick about it. It definitely doesn't hydrate you. So, it must be food. That's a little bit of it. Uh maybe more realistic. Here's a great

example. When I was it all came to me nowadays but when I was uh a kid, you know, playing varsity football, Friday evening, 7 PM was our kickoff, right? Yeah. And we would have something called Victory vittles at 4 30 PM and they would bring in great food and I would stuff my fat 17 year old face because I was so hungry and I often felt kind of a sluggish at the game. Yeah. And I didn't

really understand it. But now I'm like, oh my god, that was like the worst. Totally. That's totally on the excess side of food. Again, something that as an adult, easy to plan for, but Hey, just to make up a crazy scenario, what if there's fresh meat and no refrigeration and you've been rationing cause you don't have a lot of food? Are you, are you ready to eat, um,

an excessive amount of that food and take the consequences that come with it, you are you ready to eat um an excessive amount of that food and take the consequences that come with it. Sluggishness, you're bloated and and and you're probably going to be tired. So, it's going to make you more sleepy in a survival

situation where being sluggish and sleepy isn't what you want to be doing, right? You got a trade off to make there, right? Definitely. Definitely and uh just relating to rationing. I feel more alert definitely a trade off to make I mean, after a few days of fasting, there's a quick drop off but uh let's just say if if I don't eat until four or five 6 PM in a day, then I feel

great up until then. You know, I'm just uh anyway, there is something about overeating a little bit both short term and long term definitely. Yeah, the spectrum we're talking about though is is about the now. How is your body now? And it gets weird because in a long-term scenario, overeating might produce a situation.

Well, you just just watch the alone show, right? Most of those people go in to the competition overweight. The winners of several people that have won it have and the skinny people who are just not overweight in the least, they struggle. They struggle once the starvation hits, right? Sure. But we're talking about the now because that's where you get the tipping point. So you talked about a tipping point of pushing your tipping points for the deficit in food and really crossing boundaries in that regard in

only for the first time in the last few years of your life and and then hearkening back on the mistake of overeating and the effects of that. Let's let's do let's do water now. Have you have in your life have you hit either end of the spectrum on water? Uh over hydrating is hard to do. Yes, I was going to say I get alcohol and I hardly drink anymore but alcohol has had a lot of fun with it but

it's very poisonous and being severely dehydrated in the morning. One time I went to go get an IV because I just couldn't get my um water up and I just kept you know, being sick to my stomach and I've had that from the flu as well. So, if we're

not just talking about near alcoholism over looking at you get very sick when stuff hits the fan. You could be having real problems uh keeping fluids down. So, honestly, maybe super dehydrated when I was younger like 121314. I was maybe super dehydrated when I was younger like 121314. I had

the flu really bad. I remembered one time and but otherwise, it's unfortunately like too hungover or whatever set aside the alcohol though. Have you have you ever gone? Yeah, I'll tell you. I'll tell the audience that you know,

during Azure Highland three at the end of that, you know, dark trail march. I was really thirsty. I mean, I wasn't in a danger zone, but it definitely brought me back to points in time where I didn't have the water I needed. And I felt it. Did you do Azure Highland 3? And I mean, we tried to use the LifeStraw

and the Stream at the end of that, found out those things don't fill you up with water really fast. Hey, that in the stream at the end of that and found out those things don't fill you up with water really fast. Hey, that's the most relevant and great example of most recent example of where I was truly dehydrated because

well, if you remember, I one of my canteens fell off. So, uh I was lack some water on that March. It was like July. It was hot overnight, sweltering even I was trying to get some water I mean, it took a lot of effort. It took 10 freaking minutes, you know, but anyway, that was that was a hit in the red zone, not literally impeding my physical ability, but not very far away. A couple more hours of that could have been rough pushing your comfort zone wider, though you agree.

Yeah, that was definitely pushing the comfort zone and not in a true danger area. So, it's good to do that sometimes. How about temperature? This one goes both ways pretty, you know, equally left and right. deficit to excess. What's maybe do it this way? What's the

coldest you've ever been? What's the coldest you've been in the last 3 years? What's the hottest you have ever been and the hottest in the last three years? Coldest. Harkens back. All my stories are like football or

drinking but football as a kid in Colorado, especially in like October, early November, we often played in late season tournaments and playoffs and stuff stuff. So we were playing really late. So it was so darn cold. We're talking like foot plus a snow on the ground. Occasionally, we would even

practice in a barn or something but just just so damn cold even with multiple layers gloves all all that just feel like everything's going to fall off. So that's good. Never actually got frostbite all the times I lived in Colorado in the Midwest. Heat! Here's a good one for heat. I don't know if it's the hottest I've been, but again, it goes back to an Oz or Highland.

Our very first one when we went through the dinosaur brush as we call it. And maybe this integrates with some of your other thoughts that these different spectra they kind of are interrelated so very tired been awake 35 hours let's say had done a lot of physical exercise the night before and we went and it was starting to get hot and I was wearing pretty relatively heavy clothing again in June or July and it you I'm kind of feeling a little dizzy, a little like all these components are starting to hit me at once and I definitely felt like a little bit of heat exhaustion kind of just like dizzy kind of felt like I was going to puke a little bit all crash it at once. So you're all-time high on the heat excess heat given the activity you're given right now, just

sitting at the beach but just in Azure Highland one most recent, I would say again football like two a days in August and it was like 105 degree heat index and just like it was just pure torture. So that's the closest all time

but in the last few years, it was Oz or Highland. It's just a combination of the physical exert years, it was just the combination of the physical exertion, the humidity, the heat, and the tiredness all combined was I felt pretty damn overheated. Was Azure Highland three got

them get out on pushing the cold side recently for you or have you been colder recently? That was not super cold. I felt like um and this is one where I feel like I had a you know, have you been cold the green zone shrink. Yes, I've when it's cold out, I'm like, yeah, you know, maybe I don't need to go out there. Uh you

know. So yeah, I think I've let the green zone shrink a bit but it wasn't super duper cold in my opinion. I was cold but I wasn't I was uh more overheated with our first Oz or Highland than I was uh the middle of the you know, you're not dressed for the cold. So, it's less of a factor. So, you know, you you you you might be carrying

something throughout your lifetime that helps you in that direction. Would you say? Gotta assume as much um people that grew up in the equatorial tropics could probably do a lot better than I can and I can do a lot better you've had a lot of sunburns or

super dry conditions. When have you hit those maxes in your life and when have you pushed those green zones gone towards tipping points on on the moisture spectrum in the last three years? Last three years. Let me think if I've been soaked

and just sitting in my soaked I'm really glad that I played a lot of football as a kid you know, you're not going to have a cumulative effect or or whatnot. Um going back. I mean football. I'm really glad that I played a lot of football as a kid because just totally soaked and miserable and muddy and you just eventually you'd love it. So, when you go out to practice

or a game and you know it's going to be crappy weather, you literally just jump into the biggest puddle you can just to get it over with and then, you know, you kind of learn that sort of philosophy or. That's like pushing your comfort zone right before the game. That's a great example is that you're trying out of the locker

room. It's going to suck. But as soon as you get into it and get dirty and get warmed up internally, you know, playing the game, it's not going to matter. So just to break it mentally dive into a wet cold puddle to say, all right, my green zone, just I'm pushing it now. I know how to push it. I'm going to do it right now. Jump in the puddle. Yep. There you go. How about, uh, on the dry side, you ever been anywhere that was like parts dry, arid, you know,

the type of stuff where your feet and your skin, your hands can get kind of so dry that they get painful your lips your eyes okay yes a little bit growing up in Colorado because it's pretty damn dry there but I definitely remember in the winter in Indiana and the Midwest generally pretty freaking dry you got some hard water a lot of limestone and all that wind you could I've been to the US generally pretty freaking dry. You got some hard water, a lot of limestone and all that wind.

You could definitely get wind burn and I learned quickly don't lick your lips, you know because you're just going to get the worst chapped lips ever. So, I've not really done any desert survival sort of thing by any means in terms of very low humidity or very dry.

But, uh, you know, dry cold is sucks. And I've had a lot of that. Yeah. Yeah, totally. And you know, the moisture thing, definitely the depth, the excess side in this case is, is what you worry about. Cause when the temperature starts going down and the humidity or you're just soaking wet and soaking clothes, you don't have shelter, you can't start fire.

It's a typical survival topic, right? Protecting against hyperthermia. So moisture and temperature really compound. That's the environment coming right after you. Okay. We didn't mean to save it to last, but it worked out well. Let's let's talk about energy. And we're talking about energy like optimal is, you know, you're, you're well rested, energized and, and the deficit side is easy to understand.

It's you know, you're getting tired and then you're getting exhausted, right? But the excess side, you know, you're overstimulated, you're jittery, you're over-energized. That's not a good state to be in either in certain times and places. When have you hit those kind of extremes? Lately and maybe rational thing yesterday. like uh or I'm just like I wrote

I've been fasting for a couple of days. I've been fasting for a couple of days. I've been fasting for a couple of days. I've been fasting for a couple of days. I've been fasting for a couple of days. I've been fasting for a couple of days. I've been fasting for a couple

of days. I've been fasting for a couple of days. I've been fasting for a couple of days. I've been fasting for a couple of days. I've been fasting for a big adrenaline spike. There's other hormones and other aspects. And just simply being hangry, just being kind of irritable, I'm sure has rolled in that a little bit. So I would say from a temperament, like over aggressive. Whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on, hang on. We're talking about energy. Let's leave temperament.

Sorry. Let's leave temperament. Sorry. Let's leave temperament. Cause they, they do, they blend together. Obviously you can't separate them, but we're going to try to analyze this in these dimensions. Over-energized can swing quickly to exhaustion, right? You get hyper alert for too long. You're not going to just, you're not going to come off of the red side of the dial, like the 10 on our screen right now.

You're not going to be hitting that 10. And then when the extra energy wears off, it slides back to a nice straight up five on the dial, you're going to drop to the opposite side, that swinging nature of The energy spectrum like I guess the other ones they don't really behave that way, right? Well, I guess externally You know the temperature right in your fear and conditions where it's super hot during the day and getting pretty cold again at night That's tough, right? That'll exhaust you so I guess that one does behave that way if you're in the right climate. But internally, that energy from a lot excess swings back on you, doesn't it? Do you feel that during Rationer Ruin? I have not been, if we were just gonna use the scale, the one to 10, I have not been below a three, except one night, and that was this past Saturday night.

You know, actually went fishing, didn't work out, whatever. It was still a fun time. I came back, but I was so tired. It was only like 9.30 or 10. It felt like it was three in the morning. So that was a total drop of energy. Totally blew out. I also went for like a three mile hike earlier that day. Drove three hours round trip. So that was a huge swing negative of energy. However, the rest of Rationer Ruin, I've been able to keep my low energy level at like a four or or even higher. Um and again, I

don't want to conflate the two because we'll talk about why they're separate but my physical energy I feel like has been pretty steady and pretty damn good during rational ruin. It's it's my mental aspect that's kind of a day wire. Well, energy includes mental energy. That's for sure. You have the mind power to get things done or you're energized so they can swing to excess and to deficit, right? You can be mentally exhausted even if you physically do anything all day, right? But true. Oh yeah. When we talk about temperament, the sixth survival spectrum, that's, you know, a better name for that might actually be fear, because that's what you have either an, you know, a deficit in, which I would call apathy in a

survival situation, right? All these other things start to go into the red on you, and then you get apathetic, and you could definitely get apathetic if you're hypothermic, right? So that's, you know, put cold goes directly to apathy in if it gets extreme apathy. But moving back towards the green, you're just anxious. Then you're in the green. You're calm. You're patient. You're you're you're handling your emotions and then excess fear, like that, or I'm sorry, it's going to go from, uh, apathy, but you know, a negative deficit and then it's

going to go to your comfort zone, calm, clear patient, then it's going to swing into anxious and then all the way up to panic has has anything we've done in Azure Highlands hit those needles for you and maybe you can tell us in your life when you've hit either of those needles in a way that you knew it was bad and you

didn't like it. Yeah, when we were doing the dinosaur trek, the anxiety was getting up to the seven or eights not because of how I felt then, oh my god, this hour or two hours or three hours and we get turned around and then all of a sudden my mind's like, oh my god, what's going to happen? What's going to happen? I'm like, so I had to be like, look out. We're

so close to everybody. We're not literally lost 50 miles in the wood and we're going to die. So, but I did start to slip in a little bit of panic of oh **** Oh man. What happens if I spray my ankle here or I do have a heat here or I do

have a heat stroke or I do have or one thing you told me later which I'm glad he didn't say at that time was oh yeah by the way there's a lot of underground hornet nests here if one of us had stepped on that it got stung 40 times it would have

been a pain in the ass to try to drag out medical help. So anyway that I totally thought of that at the time. And I saw your condition and said, you know, let's wait to see if we kick up time for jokes. Probably not a good time for jokes. So good assessment there because it was compounded because let's go back. You had less to eat. You've been hydrating, but it was really hot out. So you were, you know, the needle was heading to the deficit on water while we were doing that. Temperature, you already talked about, 85 degrees or warmer.

We had gone all night and arrived at objective gruff at Dave's house and got very little sleep and energies were, you know, running low. It was beautiful day out. So it wasn't like it was raining on us. But four other of this survival spectrum were already getting tested. And you got yourself in that situation and pushed the,

you know, the excess, you know, there's excess on. I got it. I got another point on that. I just, I kind of knew this inherently, but this is really pulling it out right now. Yeah, I had let my guard down because we had gotten to objective gruff. We had actually eaten some great food. I mean, I remember that oatmeal with the blueberries and everything at the NBC homestead. And so then after that, after we had all kind of settled in and I kind of like let my guard down. Didn't sleep or fully rest, but an hour or two of chilling. Well, you say like your guard down.

What you're really saying is you were your needles were all getting back into heading straight up on the gauge. You're getting back to comfort zone and everything. I thought I was like I had started to get in there. And so when I went back into the red zone, it was kind of like an extra punch to the face. I started to to get in there and cumulative comprehensive effect. Now there's other spectrum scales that you can measure for how you're reacting to survival situations.

Like we could we could have one of these dials for pain, but pain only starts in the green and starts heading to excess, right? You're without pain, zero on the dial would be straight up and it would just go, you know, to excess, right? A little bit of pain, a lot of pain, but that's a dimension that doesn't swing into the other side, right? You know, so for listeners out there, there's probably other spectrum that we could consider very interested in seeing your comments and what you're thinking about along the lines of food You know outside of the of the food water temperature energy moisture and and temper or temperament that we talked about here and and But when I thought about this and I said well, these are the six

That really drive preparation prepping to find a way to be in the right place to be prepared in the right way so that you're not your needles aren't getting thrown into the red when something You know a crisis hits right yep It could be other dimensions like this love to hear from listeners on what their thoughts are on that But I thought about most of them are just they don't resemble But you know from one side deficit to one side excess these six we think do But again, you know excess food excess water excess energy But again, you know, excess food, excess water, excess energy, right? Those are, you know, excess moisture, really dry. Those aren't necessarily the most dangerous side of the dials. Those, those tilt to the deficit side, right?

But temperature swings both ways. And I would argue temperament does. If you get apathetic, you're not afraid and you're too exhausted, too wet, tired, hungry, thirsty, and mentally and physically drained to, you know, take care of the next step to live in the now and to solve the problem at hand. That apathy could be, you know, a contributing factor to a deadly situation. Certainly can. And imagine when stuff actually hits the fan if a family member was hurt really bad or even killed or even if you had to evacuate and leave your dog behind or there's just going to be so many emotional things going on as well as literally in your face that you know you want to

have at least a little bit of wiggle room or the ability to get back you know maybe you want to have at least a little bit of wiggle room or the ability to get back. You know, maybe you're going to hit that nine or a ten out of anxiety. That's just how it's going to be. But can you quickly recover, get

your bearings and try to get back into the green zone? That's a little bit why we do these exercises. I'll tell you that and just other and going back to preparedness. Generally, you can do these panic about it. You're panicked about it, you're in danger pulling your own security. Absolutely. Great point.

And other types of prepping just all feed into these. Now, could we find another one or two? Maybe I'll try to think of any, but it's pretty comprehensive. I feel like this list of six. It's pretty comprehensive, I feel like, this list of six. Yeah, well, thanks for hashing it out for me. It's the first time we've done it. We talked about it in previous episodes, kind of just as a brainstorm. But here are the six survival spectrums, the survival spectra in the plural.

I love to hear what people think about it. Now, you said last Saturday night, we were running Rationer Ruin, Azure Highland 4 right now now, month long exercise, the longest we've ever done by a lot. Usually the other other ones were just, you know, a two or three day event. This one's all month. You're so you're running a deficit on food. And for various reasons, you're running it, you know, on the X, XS side of energy and maybe a little bit on the excess side of agitation, anxiousness on the temperament scale while we were fishing.

And that brought about a lot of conversations about in a, in, in, in most scenarios that you personally are planning for survival fishing is not part of your tool sets not going to be part of your tool set. Is that does that stand is your position or are you are you looking in hindsight and saying hey I had a couple of my needles in the red and and and maybe maybe you know there is a place for it in your tools, survival toolbox. I'll say this. A lot of time, the truth comes out when I have the full gauge.

So I still believe it's a pretty dumb idea to go out fishing on the shore if there are literally marauders out there or people that'll kill you or stick you up. you're going to have some idea you know, how about this? If there's an economic collapse like the Great Depression but it's not just people getting shot everywhere, then yeah, you lose your job. You should go out fishing as often as you can. You ain't got much better

to do. You can supplement maybe your storable food. Great situation to be prepped for and you can consider that your own SHTF but on the other hand, if the power's been out for almost any time but especially if it's you know, you're not going to just I just feel like that is just so risky. That's it. What are your thoughts there? It entirely depends on the type of crisis you're facing entirely. Are you in a without rule of law environment or an excessive rule environment?

It depends. It's completely completely depends. But the reason I asked you to describe that is to give a little window into what we're dealing with on rational ruin, but also to think about, you know, you talk about the people in a fairly dense population area, their green zones, they're not a prepper and they are not an outdoors types of person. They've they're not a prepper and they are not an outdoors types of person They they're not a physical type of person. They haven't ever ever pushed themselves. They have Green zones that are tiny little needles and you know these people you see them in social media You know, it's in the commercials. It's in popular culture though slightest

thing but the You know the colloquial first world problem thing starts to put them on tilt when they're in it out of their safe space out of their tiniest of comfort zones and in the first week of a calamity There's gonna be so many people pushing through tipping points and getting deprivations and excesses that they've never had to deal with that it puts fear into you. You should put fear into all of us if you're near them.

I think that's what compounds your opinion on fishing itself, at least where you live. Yeah, just uh people are so volatile and I'm seeing what happens to me when I'm I'm still eating. I'm still eating uh more than 6000 calories a week and after just one week, I'm more aggressive. I'm more

like, hey, I want what I want. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes I'm a little too passive or too nice. So let's just say I'm getting some things done at work that I should have got done before, but I also got to make sure I'm not a jerk about it. But that's a good thing. But if everyone's trying to rush to get gas and the

pumps stop working or there's huge lines or rationing fights are going to break out. There could be shootouts. My point is if it starts to even get to that point, I don't even want to be near any humans hardly at all. Just so much volatility,

especially that first week or two and um yeah, I want to be tougher myself but a good secondary effect of this rationale ruin is like wow, if this is affecting me and I'm I'm not saying I'm the toughest guy but I'm somewhat tough and I've

been trying to expand my comfort zones whether working out or mental strength and all that over the many years the fasting over the last year or I've been out of my house for a while now. I've been out of my house for a while now. I've been out of my house for a while now. I've been out of my house now. I've been out of my house now. I've been out of my house now. I've been out of my house now. I've been out of my house

now. I've been out of my house now. I've been out of my house now. I've been out of my house now. I've been out of my house now. I've been out of my house now. I've been out of my house now. I've been out of my house now. I've been out of my house

now. I've been out of my house now. I've been out of my house now. I've been out of my house now. I've been out of my house now. I've been out of my house now. I've been out of my house now. I've been out of my house now. I've been out of my house

now. I've been out of my house now. I've been out of my house now. I've been out of my house now. I've been out of my house now. I've been out of my house now. I've been out of my house now. I've been out of my house now. I've been out of my house

now. I've been out of my house now. I've been out of my house now. I've been out of my house now. I've been out of my house now. I've been out of my house now. I've been out of my house now. I've been out of my house now. I've been out Yeah, yeah, I mean if the pharmaceuticals I will put them into the red When they come off of them an entirely different scale, right? So yeah

Absolutely. Well, I think Rasha ruin and all the Azure Highlands are for me an opportunity to start hitting tipping points that I haven't been at for a while to and to try to accomplish something that's usually manually, physically hard to do something practical hand, you know, try to do something hard with my hands in the outdoors to, to, to, to trained in survival skills while some of these needles are tipping into the red is, is useful for useful for me to just as a confidence builder You know I'm a little bit thirsty. I'm a little bit hungry. I'm really really tired and

I know I'm getting a little bit apathetic and just mentally say all right. I'm crossing that boundary I've been there before I Got to correct the situation. I got to just stay calm and keep that temperament Whatever you do if any of these are are vital or if any of these are You know First among their peers. I would say it's temperament the mental don't let the fear set in

Don't let the apathy set in stay on that green zone in temperament that's what it appears. I would I'm like, yo, Yoda says fear something I I need that's something I I need to practice every day and one thing you've talked about is if you don't exercise these skills or this competency or just this toughness, it shrinks and every

day that I'm not trying to improve. I know I'm getting worse but you also can't drive yourself too crazy but uh but yeah, I glad we're doing Ration of Ruin and uh looking forward to going fishing again getting my revenge on them fish. Now when you're dealing with these things it's important to remember in 2025 that a hundred years ago most people didn't have electricity right and and and start picking major technological milestones going all the way back to the ice age, right? You know, where shelter was less, less affording of

your comfort zone than it is, you know, even even 300 years ago, you know, with wooden architecture houses before that, but go on back to the Paleolithic if you want. But humankind is able to survive. We are here today because, you know, way, way, way back in time are biological and behavioral mechanisms to maintain that balance in the spectrum's comfort zone. You know, we're capable of a lot. What I'm trying to say is we're capable

of much, much more than we've challenged. You know, there's countless stories of, you know, air crews during World War II that bailed out and had to survive for months, you know, and, you know, lost on the ocean in a raft after your ship sunk and all those, you know, crazy extreme survivor stories, right But the people could do it

some of them could but if you again if I come back to if you panic or Everything's gone wrong and you're you're just absolutely apathetic You're not taking care to survive for yourself Then you know if you don't have the temperament everything else is you're not taking care of your life, you're not being apathetic, you're not taking care to survive for yourself, then you know, if you don't have the temperament, everything else is a real, real

problem. So, Ratchet and Ruin, right now. How you doing? I feel like I'm doing okay based off my weigh-ins and I'm not going to share the spreadsheet tonight but maybe next week and definitely at our Friday wrap ups. I'll start bringing the spreadsheet to share but I've been keeping track of my weight first thing in the morning and right before I go to sleep. Now, it looks like I've lost about between two and a half to three pounds. One thing I've noticed is the

weight fluctuations are huge. So if I've gone 36 plus hours without eating and then I eat the storable food, a lot of sodium, a lot of carbs, and just food generally because I didn't have any, I can gain eight to ten pounds in just 24 hours and then it'll quickly fall right back off and So there's a lot a lot of swings and before ration ruin, you know, you always gain and lose weight throughout the day I would usually about a four pound swing four to five pound So almost doubled the volatility of weight, but it's also on a quite a downtrend. My energy levels are I'm not on a tight but it's also on a quite a downtrend. My energy levels are equal or better both from what I'm

tracking on my spreadsheet as well as just what I feel like. Um my workouts are equal or better. My mental clarity and aggressiveness at work is more. So, I'm getting like anxious or tweaking out there but I will say again sometimes I'm concerned about over revving this first week or two and then by week three or four I might swing back to the

apathetic so that's a little bit of a preview that I'm I'm running my RPMs pretty high right now and I don't feel too bad about it but I'm also like, how long can I keep this up? So you had said when we kicked this off that 2500 calories is your normal, what you use to keep at your normal weight. So somewhere around 17,500 per week. We've cut our diets to 6,000 in emergency food supplies plus supplementation.

I'm doing the muscle milk, 160 calories times four or five a day, even on the no solid food days. even on the no solid food days. So this is a deficit without a doubt. And we're in week one and a quarter of a four week exercise. Do you anticipate this deficit to continue to provide you with perhaps some of the benefits you just said, or when can you foresee starting to hit real deficiency, you know, what's the difference between you with perhaps some of the benefits you just said or when when can you foresee

starting to hit, you know, real deficiency tipping point on the hunger scale. It's this is uncharted territory for me, which is what I'm stoked about. Like I said, I only started fasting about it a little bit more than a year ago and a lot

more of a keto and a lot losing a pound or two a week for the next 8, 10, 12 weeks and in theory again in theory would have no negative physical effects. Now once I get to that level and my body fat drops 10, 12 percent or lower start eating some muscle away. Now a huge thing is vitamin supplementation. Now, a huge thing is vitamin supplementation. I have been supplementing with vitamins, fish oil, cod liver oil. So, even though my calories are

quite a deficit, I have been able to get some of those nutrients in there. So, I feel like I have, this is a, you the I'm not joking. I'm not joking. I'm not joking. I'm not joking. I'm not joking. I'm not joking. I'm not joking. I'm not joking. I'm not joking. I'm not joking. I'm not joking. I'm not joking. I'm not joking. I'm not joking. I'm not joking. I'm not joking. I'm not joking. I'm not joking. I'm not joking. I'm not joking. I'm not joking. I'm not joking. I'm not joking. I'm not joking. I'm not joking. I'm not joking.

I'm not joking. I'm not joking. I'm not joking. I'm not joking. I'm not joking. I'm not joking. I'm not joking. I'm not joking. I'm not joking. I'm not joking. I'm not joking. I'm not joking. I'm not joking. I'm not joking. I'm not joking. I'm not joking. I'm not joking. I'm not joking. I'm not joking. I'm not joking. I'm not joking. I'm not joking. I'm not the last year that, hey, I'm gonna always carry a little bit of extra love handles because an extra 20, 30, 40,000 calories of fat on my body could be super useful as a prepper. I might not have washboard abs, but I'd rather be able to go without food or limited food for a couple months if I needed to. I've never

tested that though. So, now, I'm really going to, you know, test it and we'll see what it's like in the next few weeks. I'm pretty much right now at the furthest I've been right about now. So, the uncharted territory,

especially starting next week, I think. Yeah. Yeah. Me too. Me too and uh haven't had a I'm in the Mountain House. I I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean,

I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean,

I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, you can make a little food I like all those things. The packages are small though. And then therefore, the cost per calorie,

Mountain House is much more expensive than Ready Hour. It is, and I'm going to try to put together cost analysis. I need to figure out when I'm gonna be able to do this, but I need to do it. I'm gonna try to figure out when I'm gonna be able to do this, but I need to do it I'm gonna try to figure out a cost per calorie essentially Between ready hour and Mountain House. So if you were gonna eat, let's just say you ate 2,000 calories a day No fasting none of that one week seven days at 2,000 calories days 14,000 calories already our versus 14,000 hour or 14,000 calories of of uh

mountain house. I I said I would pay twice as much for mountain house per calorie but I got a feeling it's probably gonna cost like two and a half or three times. Yeah. Yeah. I was I'm right there with you. It's it's it's you're paying for it. You're getting what you pay for. And we talked about ready our and how we felt eating it. And if you know what depends on how you prep depends on how your plans are. It depends on your means. So throwing throwing a chunk of change into Bitcoin and watching it run up might be a way to be eating a product like Mountain House that does seem to have more to offer in certain regards, but not in cost.

Not in cost, but it's still last 25 plus years based off the packaging. One way I look at I'm not sure if I'm talking about packaging and and one way I look at it, I like to tear my survival food. You know the at the first layer is just my pepper pantry and this is stuff that I use in my regular day and I just have a whole year supply of it and I rotate it. Number

two would be something like Mountain House like hey, this is the best version. It's also the most portable version. So I wouldn't necessarily eat that straight away, but that's kind of a higher tier. And then not saying ready hours the worst or anything like that, but that's kind of like the base layer where, oh, I got six months of ready hour. Also, I can share with people. I can give it to people. If I had a friend, guest, family member that was with me for whatever reason, I needed to barter it. But on the other hand, maybe I would personally eat the ready hour, but barter the mountain

house because my neighbor is a little more sensitive to the taste and I could get way more. I don't know. Something to think about to have different kind of layers. I guess that the bottom layer would be like spam and Twinkies. So you got to have that supply if you're a prepper, I guess. I don't know how long that would be edible, but yeah, more to follow on the product review of Mountain House.

Jerry's still out. Still a lot left to be eaten this week, but we're going to proceed through Mountain House this week. Next week is XMREs. We're going to hit the meals ready to eat that'll you know skyrocket on the cost dimension and we're gonna see what it tastes like but the portioning and packaging might be Might have advantages This is what we're doing this month. And the last week of the month,

we're going to put those three, you know, self stable brand name options up against Dave Jones is homemade. dehydrated food, we're going to we saved up for the last week, the endurance on that expected obviously be lower. He's not producing stuff with additives that take it to a 30-year shelf life. But that's what we're doing this month for ration or ration ration or ration. Either you're rationing or you're headed towards ruin. So looking forward to getting with you and James and Dave on Friday and see what we really think about Mountain House this week. Yes sir, the second week review. Be sure to tune in that, tune into that on Prepper Broadcasting Network this Friday. Although I will

say I kind of want to go fishing this Friday evening around sundown because I think it should be good, some good fishing. So maybe right after we're done. I'll hop in So but really I think this has been a great show or coming up on a little bit more than an hour Do you want to say Sloan six says stay with the dog probably talking about? The situation where I said you had to leave your dog I would do everything possible never ever ever to leave my dog. I'm not going to leave my dog. I'm not going to leave my dog. I'm not going to leave my dog. I'm not going to leave my dog.

I'm not going to leave my dog. I'm not going to leave my dog. I'm not going to leave my dog. I'm not going to leave my dog. I'm not going to leave my dog. I'm not going to leave my dog. I'm not going to leave my dog. I'm not going to leave my dog. I'm not going to leave my dog. Attic or in your garage attic 120 130 degrees in there go in there

Just lay in there or even do some slight calisthenics Nothing crazy Go at it build that build that comfort zone and keep it strong You know you might think you could do something that you did five ten twenty years ago But if you haven't done it lately, maybe can't. Gotta keep yourself tested if you're Dan. So awesome show. Anything else you wanna hit on? Yeah, it's important to say that there's the green zone, there's the tipping point, they're stepping into the red

and then there's doing stupid stuff that can get you hurt. So don't do the stupid stuff. Again, we are supplementing with vitamins minerals protein this whole month of ration are ruined because we're not trying to replicate absolute deprivation and food. It's not healthy. Same thing with heat. Same thing with cold. Same thing with miserable conditions. It's important to get out there. Test yourself. Hit those tipping points, but you gotta be wise about it. You gotta have a buddy system. You have to have backup plans. Right now, I know I could go to the grocery store if I had to, right? Like I'm not

putting myself in an all or nothing survival situation just to try to, you know, get extreme and touch those poles and risk and do any risk with the exercise, right? That's my, you know, disclosure to our audiences. We're not advocating to go and do anything dangerous. Don't do this at home if it's not safe in your health and your conditions But another just to wrap up even if you do hit those tipping points and you're exercising it How long before the comfort zone shrinks back up again? starts to tighten up you haven't pushed yourself and and when you cross those boundaries in the future Could it be happening on a day that the entire future danger heat map is black on red crisis now? It's going down. Your prepping plans are in effect. If you're not ready for that, if you haven't pushed yourselves to deprivations or excesses,

it's going to be a lot harder under those circumstances to get used to it again. Well said you need a balance. You need some reserves for when stuff really does go down but you also can't be just sitting on your laurels because every day you're not working. Uh you're getting weaker. So you don't burn out but don't be

apathetic. Good luck. It's the human condition. Find that good balance. It's all about finding that balance, but also expanding what you can do and what you can recover from when you get some bad news or something bad happens physically, mentally. Bounce back.

Keep on prepping. Keep on grinding. All right, future Dan. Great show. Looking forward to hitting some more tipping points with you in the near future on Ration Ration. Ruin Ben. Deal. I'm down. We'll talk to you guys on Friday with the week to review.

Until then, enjoy your food, because I'll be dreaming of some tonight. the the Thanks for watching!