The Four Folders of Self-Defense – Alain Burrese

One of my co-instructors for the 8-hour Active Shooter Response course we’ve taught to over 3,000 members of our community likes to describe our brain as a computer. Have you ever been searching for a file on your computer and had the little thing spin and then the message “file not found” appear? Our brain is like that computer, and in an emergency people will often freeze not knowing what to do. Their brain is going “file not found.”

I like this analogy, and that is why I have devised many of my programs around four file folders. The information I teach provides files for those folders so that in an emergency people can find a file. This “file” is a response that can save their life. Rather than staying motionless not knowing what to do, the brain can find a response and hopefully kick start the person into movement. Movement saves lives. In life-threatening situations, often seconds matter. Having a “file” in the folder and knowing what to do can save your life.

There are other components to why we freeze in an emergency, so I’m not saying that just learning a response will prevent that from happening. But that is a topic for another time. In this article, I want to discuss the four different folders of self-defense and what kind of responses you should have in each. These folders are Avoid, Escape, Deny, and Attack Back. The responses you have in these four folders can keep you save and save your life. So, let’s look at what each folder contains.

Avoid. The primarily concept that can keep us safe is awareness and avoidance. These two go together because to be able to avoid a dangerous situation, you must be aware of it. I spend a considerable amount of time teaching situational awareness, and even give a free guide to situational awareness away on my website, because it is so important.

Briefly, situational awareness is being aware of what is around you, what is going on around you, and how your actions are affecting your personal safety. Practice recognizing where the exits are. I don’t like to be anywhere that I don’t know the ways out. Pay attention to what others are doing. If you see or sense something out of the ordinary, your safest option is often just leaving. Get out of the area and avoid the potential danger. Avoid going to places where violence is more apt to happen. Avoid people who engage in behaviors that are more apt to get you into a bad situation. Avoid acting in a manner that will get others upset with you. Some people won’t be rude back, they will punch you, or worse, shoot you for your behavior. Avoiding is always the best way to stay safe. So, stay alert, be aware, and avoid what you can.

Escape. If you have an option to escape to safety, that is almost always the best response to keep yourself safe and alive. In the federal “Run – Hide – Fight” response to an active shooter, this is what the “run” is about. Escaping. I personally like using “escape” better because it may mean jumping out of a window, rather than running. It may mean diving behind cover and crawling to a safe place. If a building catches fire, you must escape the burning building. In a plane crash, you must escape the plane before dying of smoke and fire.

Being aware, which I said was so important, allows you to identify exits, cover, and escape routes. Knowing these will increase the speed in which you can escape to safety and save your life. This is why before every flight, they tell you to look for the nearest exit, which might be behind you. Running away to fight another day is not just a silly kid’s rhyme. Escaping to safety is actually a very wise principle for your personal defense plan.

Deny. This is the “folder” I get asked about the most, but once you understand what it means, you will see how it fits into our overall safety and defense options. Deny represents denying access to anyone who wants to do you harm. In our Active Shooter Response course, we use a “run – lock – fight” model. We changed the federal “hide” to lock because hiding and hoping isn’t a plan, and lock represents what we teach more accurately. We teach people in the “lock” phase to lock doors and barricade entrances. This denies the shooter access and is proven to save lives in active shooter situations.

There are other ways to “deny,” and that is why I use the term in my programs. I use the same terms in my personal active shooter programs as well as safety and self-defense lectures and classes to keep some consistency in the way I teach. For instance, in both my kid’s self-defense/bully classes and my adult safety and self-defense programs I teach a non-aggressive power stance with an affirmative command to keep a person back. This is also called boundary setting. This is essentially denying a person from getting close enough to attack you. Often, this can deescalate a situation and prevent physical violence from happening. It also puts you in position to Attack Back if the person refuses to adhere to your boundaries. Another example would be to put a desk or table between you and an aggressive person to deny them the ability to physically attack you. Holding a chair out in front of you to keep a knife wielding aggressor away is a form of denying, as are other defensive measures to deny an attacker the access or ability to hurt you.

Attack Back. This is what most people identify with “self-defense.” However, I like to define self-defense as keeping yourself from harm, and as we can see from above, there are many things a person can do to keep themselves from being hurt or killed that don’t involve fighting skills. While those options are often preferable, there may be situations where your only options are to attack back or be killed. Dying is not an option in my book, so we attack back. I use the words “attack back” because it provides a more offensive and aggressive mindset than “defending yourself” does. When your only option is to fight, you must be aggressive, ruthless, and do whatever it takes to ensure you survive and go home to your loved ones. If protecting others, you do whatever is necessary for all of you to survive.

After the proper mindset, attacking back includes all the ways you can physically stop another from hurting or killing you. And that includes killing your attacker if that is what it takes to stop them. Methods of attacking back include learning basic empty handed fighting skills such as hammer fists, palm heel strikes, elbow strikes, knee strikes, low kicks, and stomps. Attacking back also includes learning to use lethal and non-lethal weapons such as firearms, knives, batons, canes, and personal defense weapons such as pepper spray, kubotans, tactical pens, flashlights, and so on. One should also know how to use improvised weapons, which include one of my favorites for teachers, fire extinguishers, and anything else you can stop an attacker with. There are times when you have no option other than to attack back, so know this, train for it, and be a survivor.

Conclusion. The amount you put into each of these four folders will depend on your lifestyle and how committed you are to staying safe and being able to defend yourself if needed. And just like that article, tucked into a folder and stashed in the back of the file cabinet forgotten about, won’t help much when you are writing on that topic, if you don’t practice and train with the skills you put into your safety and self-defense folders, they won’t help as much as those who train regularly.

I do believe that having the knowledge with a little training is better than never exposing yourself to these concepts. That is why short classes that include 4-hour classes, one and two day classes, up to week long sessions, still have great benefit to many people. If a lady is walking out to her vehicle and guy grabs her to pull her somewhere, but she remembered to walk with her keys out and starts wildly hammer fisting the guys hand, arm, and face ruthlessly with the key sticking out the bottom of her hammer fist, there’s a good chance he will let go and she will be able to run back inside and call the police. Better yet, if she had been practicing awareness and noticed him ahead of time and asked for someone to escort her to her vehicle, he wouldn’t have attacked in the first place. Obviously, the more practice and training you have, the better you will be able to respond. Stress inoculation and adrenaline producing scenario training will increase your ability to react during an emergency. Buy you don’t need to train like you are in the military, or getting ready for a UFC championship bout, to be able to keep yourself and loved ones safe, and attack back against many common criminals.

Practice awareness and avoid situations when you can. Know the ways out and escape to safety if the option is available to you. Deny those wishing to do you harm access by setting boundaries, using barriers, and locking and barricading them outside when possible. When you have no other option, attack back with everything you have. Be ruthless, be savage, be a survivor.

About the author: Alain Burrese, J.D., is a former Army Sniper, a fifth-degree black belt in Hapkido, and a certified Active Shooter Response instructor. He is the author of 8 books and 11 instructional DVDs, and teaches a common-sense approach to staying safe and defending yourself through his Survive and Defend programs and website. For more information see www.surviveanddefend.com

 

Situational Awareness – Toby Cowern

Situational awareness is mentioned frequently in Self Defense circles. As it should be, it is a vital part of self defense strategy and training, and used correctly can help avoid confrontations outright or significantly reduce their impact.

Unfortunately, many pay mere lip service to Situational Awareness, and barely ‘mention it in passing’, not lingering to look at the details of the subject. For me Situational Awareness is a term which has both breadth and depth, and warrants much more investigation. One of the things I will briefly touch on today, one of the ‘deeper’ aspects of Situational Awareness is what I refer to as Environmental Awareness.

Environment is defined as; the surroundings or conditions in which a person, animal, or plant lives or operates. In contrast to ‘Situation’, where we are identifying and assessing the (potential) impacts of unfolding activities, Environmental Awareness is looking at the threats and impacts of the physical space we are occupying.

Living in an extreme environment, as I do, is one of the reasons I address this area in detail. Understanding copious quantities of ice being present on the ground for 1/3rd + of the year has a significant impact on being able to ‘stay standing’ during any type of altercation.

Also noting temperatures can drop to -40c have a profound impact not only on managing bleeding and other injuries, but even being ‘knocked out’ and left for a short time unattended takes on far more serious connotations.

Being without sunlight for up to 22hrs a day, greatly lengthens the preferable time for criminal activity AND means EDC items such as flashlights need to be used with much greater frequency, but also can be more susceptible to damage (A result of such cold temperatures)

Dealing with the cold also means dressing for the weather, having profound impacts on where, what and how you carry items on or around your person.

While I look into cold weather impacts, any other climate will yield it’s environmental specifics that need to be addressed (As I was VERY clearly reminded on a recent trip to Delhi, India)

I will be addressing this subject in much more detail, along with other ‘sub sets’ of Situational Awareness in future articles, but for today, wanted to introduce the basic concept to you.

What are some of the deeper ‘layers’ of Situational Awareness you give consideration to? If you have ideas be sure to share them in our Facebook discussions here

 

Autumn Attitude Adjustment – Toby Cowern

As I write this article in the third week of august, Autumn has already arrived here in the Far North of Sweden. The first frost thankfully brings an end to mosquito’s season, the birch leaves yield from green to fiery reds and yellows, and the berries ripen to allow the pre-hibernation feasts to begin.

We often joke here in these latitudes, that you ‘need two of everything’ to deal with the annual extremes. Two wardrobes, two sets of wheels for the car, two completely different set of tools etc, such is the contrast between summer and winter. 24hr daylight gives way to 22hrs of darkness and temperatures drop by 60 degrees Celsius (108 degrees Farenheit)

Autumn is definitely seen as the time to adequately and thoroughly prepare and transition from summer to winter. Along with the physical changes, it is also a powerful shift in mindset. In winter you will dress differently, drive differently, even walk differently and items you routinely carry or ensure you will have with you also change and typically grow in size and number.

With such a significant annual transition and ‘mental switch’, people here will routinely review how the previous year’s plans worked and if any changes need to be made. Yes, somethings will be routinely the same, but more often than not things that get lost, broken, damaged over the summer in storage will get replaced or upgraded and technology will also continue to press new solutions into the market (albeit with mixed results)

One of the things I routinely reinforce to students in training is to ‘continuously interrogate your equipment’ meaning, understand the purpose, limits and versatility of any and all things you carry, combined with is it ACHIEVING what you want it to?

As I have previously written I am not a fan of generic Every day carry (EDC) lists, and equally do not believe in carrying an item just because ‘somebody else does’. You need to ensure your EDC items work for you and are carried in a way that are conducive with their anticipated use.

In the spring I encouraged you all to complete a routine maintenance check of your EDC, for the autumn I’ll ask you to sit down and review your EDC and honestly ask what changes and improvements can be made?

I had the privilege of hanging out with an exceptional group at the Violence Dynamics Seminar in California early this year and received an overwhelming input and discussion on carry items, which I am still processing 4 months later. What I can say, is I have been modifying things since then, that have worked well for over the last 10 years, but now work better or more effectively than ever before. Some changes were minor; I now carry certain clothing items draped over a shoulder instead of tied around my waist. Other have been major, one example being a total change in carry style and blade orientation of edged tools.

The summer has given us a number of stark examples of how quickly everyday situations can turn extremely bad, most notable of which have been incidents in various major airports around the world (Although many other significant incidents have occurred, all with essential lessons) It is worth noting in all of these situations persons involved have been reliant on themselves and their own equipment for prolonged periods of time to ‘manage as best as they can’ before any additional support was available.

Now is the time to ensure you are not carrying ‘Tacticool Talisman Tools’ but genuine items that will help boost your everyday resilience.

So, expose yourself to some new and different ideas, do some research, listen to the excellent advice coming from the authors here in CRGI and Conflict Manager Magazine. Get involved in the facebook discussions, most importantly see how you can adapt and improve your current habits

 

When it doesn’t go as planned Clint Overland

Self-defense starts with hand washing. In that simple
statement lies one of the basic truths of life. If you are not willing
to wash your hands often then you are not really worried or prepared
for life to take a turn for the worse. I am taking a turn from my
normal rants and raves to try and help you be ready for things that
can happen to you in an instant, and sadly most people are not ready
for it. How is this pertinent to Conflict Management you may ask?
Simply put, conflict isn’t always about people at odds with one
another, it can often be about doing what you can to control your
circumstances.

In today’s world there are situations that arise
whether it is political, social or environmental that can cause a
major disruption in day to day existence. From coupe attempts to
hurricanes our system is so dependent on convenience and the
government that the majority of us are not ready to manage our lives
for a few short days without an almost total breakdown of society.
Look at New Orleans after Katrina or the effects of major snow storms
in the Northeast U.S. Power outages, fuel, food, water shortages, are
you ready if something occurs that you have no control over?

If you are not then please read on, is you are then
this may just be a way to see something that you have forgotten or did
not think about. Please feel free to take notes or add to the list of
things that I miss.

Five Gallon buckets are a life saver! What the hell
are you talking about, you may be asking and if you give me a moment I
will explain. You can purchase five gallon buckets at almost any
Walmart or home supply store. They are cheap, versatile and store
easily. I like to buy one or two at a time and the fill them with
necessities. Take the bucket, place in the center a 1 lbs. can of
coffee or box of tea. Around it you can then put a 5 lbs. bag of
beans, rice, cornbread mix, and salt/pepper. beef jerky, peanut
butter, etc. List on the outside of the bucket what is inside and you
now have a readily transportable supply of basic food. Do this with
whatever you think that you will need for seven days without basic
services. Medicine, first aid supplies, cooking implements, water
purifiers, blankets, you will be amazed at what you can store into
five gallon buckets. Just be sure that you can load and unload them in
a vehicle quickly, you don’t want to be trying to evacuate an area
quickly and find out that you can’t load your supplies because they
are too heavy. Don’t forget cleaning and sanitation supplies as well.
Most people in an emergency don’t have time to grab them but to
prevent contamination and disease this is a must. I like simple
bleach, clean rags, hand sanitizer and wet wipes. Don’t forget that
depending on your area you may need to also put bug repellant and
insecticide into the kit as well. I have been using pine sol as a bug
repellent in the back yard this summer and it has been working great,
plus it’s a dual purpose product, so that is a plus.

Remember you are only trying to maintain and control
as much of the situation as possible. It’s not about luxury but
mobility and survival. Have a tool kit already in place in your
vehicle, plus depending on your area and the weather conditions of
your local area place a few heavy work tools in your trunk. A snow
shovel in South Texas may not be the best choice but in Ohio it would.
I carry a shovel, small hand axe, crow bar and a couple of large
hammers in my Suburban just in case I need them for some reason. Plus
several cans of tire inflator and a portable air compressor for flats.
If you take time to set your vehicle up beforehand, then you have
already cut your evacuation rate time down and when every minute
counts seconds matter.

Remember folks this is not by any means a survival
guide, there are hundreds of people teaching survival and emergency
response if you are really interested. If asked my advice about whose
work I would use as my go to source I would recommend fellow
contributor Toby Cowern at Tread Lightly, Dave Canterbury at
Pathfinder Survival, and the Military Field Manuals available online
and at most good gun/survival stores. Also please as a part of you
Conflict training go and get your CPR and basic first aid training at
your local Red Cross, and practice them on a regular basis. Again when
every minute counts, seconds matter.

 

Conscious Carry -Toby Cowern

One of the unexpected benefits of travelling so much to teach and train, is seeing the variety, vehemence and impact of various laws in various countries focusing on the carry (or not) of weapons and associated objects.

From the overwhelmingly strict control of firearms, knives and ‘objects that may be used as a weapon’ that are now entrenched in UK law, all the way through to ‘open carry’ of medium caliber rifles in parts of the USA and onwards to ‘special dispensations’ used in conflict regions, the application and enforcement of the law has a far reaching impact on all who are interested in their personal safety.

As you know from previous articles I have written, I am a huge believer in the concept of Every Day Carry (EDC) Namely, having a number of essential items constantly to hand as you navigate the modern day concrete jungle.

Very much tied in with this EDC ideal, is carrying the means to defend yourself. Simply put, we are currently so far up the food chain, largely because we are tool using primates. Remove the tools and we would be significantly further down the list. Acknowledging this, but respecting the local laws isn’t necessarily a mutually exclusive idea. Simply put, there will always be SOMETHING that we can carry with us to act as a ‘force multiplier’ and increase our effectiveness in an altercation.

It is down to us all to aggressively address the laws we are bound by and find the areas/items of the what and how we can carry things. Even more so for Instructors who should be ensuring they are able to accurately and comprehensively deliver this information to their students.

Simply put, the tired conversation of bemoaning what we ‘are not allowed to carry’ needs to give way to focusing on ‘what we can’ carry instead.

It is highly unlikely, in the near future, we will see reversal of any of the ‘weapons’ laws currently in place. In fact, if anything, established precedent says we will see a further ‘tightening’ of existing laws and introduction of new laws to further curtail carriage and use of various items.

That said, for clarity I’ll repeat, we need to focus on ‘what we can carry’. We have access to unprecedented amounts of information nowadays, so investigating and establishing what can be legally carried (and how) is far easier now than almost any time in our history. Once you have established what you can carry, there are some other considerations that MUST be addressed, these are:

1) Where will you carry the item?
2) How will you carry the item?
3) How much time will you commit to training with the use of the item?

Let’s expand on each of these briefly:

1) Where will you carry the item?
An item that is going to enhance our defensibility needs to be easily and quickly accessed when needed. Floating around the bottom of a bag or being in a constrictive pocket is no good. So due consideration to where on your person you are carrying needs to be given.

2) How will you carry the item?
Will it be secured (like in a pouch or holster)? Does it have fastenings or clips that need to be used? When you are accessing it will it come out facing the ‘right direction’? Does what you wear affect if and how you carry the item?

Points 1 and 2 are essential considerations to overcome the ‘Talisman Thinking’. The idea that somehow this item will protect you JUST by being carried.

3) How much time will you commit to training with the use of the item?
Once you’ve established where and how you will carry the item, you need to learn and then practice accessing, retention and use. As a rough rule of thumb, the less lethal the item the more you will need to practice use and technique, the more lethal the item the more you need to focus on articulation (WHY you carry, and why you decided to use it in an altercation) along with the other training aspects.

Finally, I would stress the importance of once you have decided to carry an item, then carry it always. Establish the routine early that as much as you pick up your keys and phone’ this item(s) are next on the list.

Individual Every Day Carry is a deeply personal decision, but as I mention in this article, regardless of laws there is always SOMETHING you can carry to help you defend yourself. If you aren’t already doing so, I recommend you start looking at your available options today…

Spring Cleaning – Toby Cowern

As the snow melts, light draws out for longer each day and Winter gives way to Spring I now begin the process of packing away all my ‘extreme winter gear’ and breaking out the boxes of ‘summer stuff’.

All well and good Toby, you say, but what does this have to do with Conflict?

Well, one of the routines I have through the year is periodic inspection and maintenance of my equipment. A lot of my professional equipment I am literally entrusting my life to, so keeping it in good condition and working order is essential.

One of the things I find consistently when running (Survival) courses is a lot of people’s fundamental lack of knowledge or understanding when it comes to equipment maintenance, ESPECIALLY with regards to edged tools, although this sadly, very often extends to firearms and other items as well. A staggering number of people will own multiple knives etc but have very little idea on how to effectively sharpen and otherwise maintain them….!

With this short article I would encourage you all, instructors and students alike to make this month one where you focus on:

  • a) Inspecting the equipment you routinely carry to make sure it is in good order.
  • b) Thoroughly clean and maintain your equipment.
  • c) Encourage someone else to also do so…!

School owners, consider ending a class this week by encouraging or inspecting your student’s knives etc they may be carrying and make sure they are in good order and condition… You *may* be surprised at the results…

Clint Overland mentioned in the March issue of Conflict Manager that ‘Complacency Is a Killer’. I agree wholeheartedly with this sentiment and firmly extend that to the realm of failing to maintain your equipment correctly…

Marc MacYoung tells a story from when he was in high school where someone slashed him hard across the forearm, but their knife was so blunt it had no effect!

This gives a stark example of the very real consequences of not maintaining your equipment. So make a little time this month for a ‘Spring Clean’ of your essential gear!

For any questions or advice on ways to best maintain equipment, just post a thread on our Conflict Manager FB page, and our team of experts will be happy to help you.

The Killer – Clint Overland

I want to talk to you today about a quite killer, one so stealthy and smooth it could teach tricks to a ninja on sneaky ways to slip up on the target and take them out. It is called complacency and it kills more people every year than car crashes. Where does this killer come from? Is it a virus that spreads through contact? Is it a STD that you catch from a mat rat that doesn’t bathe properly? No, what it is a lifestyle choice that is transmitted through being too damn comfortable in your lifestyle.

You have become a victim of your own safety and security. The everyday sameness of your life have become so humdrum you have let your guard down and the patterns and rhythms have become your cracked glass walls of normalcy. One of the great things about make your living by pissing people off is that you grow accustomed to people trying to get back at you. Not taking the same route home, watching everything around you and staying on edge every time you walk out the door. The few times I have been hurt are the times I let my guard down. They all stemmed from altercations that occurred in a different location and I in my grand stupidity let complacency lead me into taking an ass whipping. So don’t go getting all butt hurt and mad because I am throwing rocks at you while living in a glass house. I am writing to you from experience and trying to impart some wisdom. My goal is to shake you up a bit and make you look at what you are doing and examine it to find the flaws and correct them, and hopefully find mine as well.

We all fall into habits and patterns, it’s a simple truth, and one that honestly no one can be blamed for. It’s easy to do. Get up at the same time every day, go to work, come home, day in day out. Patterns become habits and good or bad they become the norm. I know that since I retired from the violence trades and went to work in a normal job, (if working in a county jail is normal) I found how easy that kind of lifestyle can become. You do the same thing at the gym, train with the same guys at the dojo, eating the same thing day in day out and next thing you know you are in a situation that surprises you. You expect a person to act or respond in one way and they do something so completely off the wall that your mind can’t comprehend whats happening and you are up to your eyeballs in a cluster-fuck.

I see this a lot of times with police officers and security people. They become complacent in their on duty time. They respond to the same families home time and time again and they get so used to the script that they never see the 12 year old kid with the shotgun till it is too late. There have been several incidents earlier this year where an officer was shot sitting in his patrol car doing reports. They may have been sitting in the same spot time and time again to do this and it came back to haunt them. I am not condemning these officers but the truth is they became complacent behind the authority of the badge and it added to their deaths. The world has changed dramatically folks and it will never be the same.

Look at your life with a magnifying glass. Where have you let yourself become a self-victim of your own patterns and habits? Is it in the places that you feel most secure and safe? Is it at the dojo or training studio? Is it at work with nothing really exciting has happened for the past few months and it is all hum drum and day to day? These are the places that you need to try and break that patterns that you have fallen into. Get with your training partners, training officers, and your family time and throw monkey wrenches into your day to day machine.

My ex-wife would get madder than a baptized cat when I would run fire drills in the middle of the night. Till we smelled smoke one night while we were asleep. We got the kids and ourselves out of the house in less than a minute. It was a grass fire across the road thank God, but she then saw the benefits of not staying complacent. If you’re a police officer what are you doing to keep from becoming complacent in your day to day procedures, are you just going through the motions and falling in the same trap that leads to you no going home. Have you security personal slipped into the pattern of walking the fence or patrolling your property the same way every night. Going through the motions of checking everything at the same time and same pattern, making yourself into an easy target. This is the kind of complacency that become the killer in your life.

Look at your training at the dojo or hall that you attend. What can you do to break up the monotony of your training? Do you run the same drills the same way every time you? Are you doing any outside work in different climates and on different ground surfaces? Are you using ambush tactics as part of your work training program? These are simple fixes and just take a small effort and dark since of humor to change the entire pattern. See how many of your fellow coworkers can and would be willing to play a game of pepper ball tag? Follow off duty personal to the houses and tag their cars with modeling clay and if they don’t find it by the time they get to work they owe you a beer. Its things like this that help you change your perspective and make you realize just how dangerous living the same way every day is dangerous.

One game I play with the few guys I teach is called knock out. We put on pads, headgear and boxing gloves. It’s an action/reaction game or drill. I stand within arm’s reach of the student and if I can punch them in the face before they can block me they owe me 25 pushups or burpees. No, I do not try and knock them out for real but I am trying to teach them that distance equals time and time equals safety. We also train a version of tag. We each get small post it notes with the word stab on them. At any time if you can ghost up on a partner and tag him with the post it note without him stopping you, they owe you a beer. These are again just simple thing to do to help and break the habits you may have developed over a period of time.

Remember there are graveyards full of people who weren’t paranoid enough.

Post Disaster Violence Lessons From Recent History – ‘Selco’ Begovic and Toby Cowern

Let me tell you briefly about me. My name is Selco and I am from the Balkans region, and as some of you may know it was hell here during a civil war from 1992-95. For One whole year I lived and survived in a city WITHOUT: electricity, fuel, running water, real food distribution, or distribution of any goods, or any kind of organized law or government.

The city was surrounded for One year and in that city actually it was a true ‘Shit Hit The Fan’ situation. We were all thrown into this with no preparation, and found often our allies were our enemies from one day to the next…

Violence is something that people like to talk about, give theories and opinions, but at the same time few of us experience the real ‘deep’ face of violence, being trapped in a prolonged a deteriorating situation.

You may have experienced bar fights, or home invasions maybe, shooting somewhere and similar, and those events can be life changing situations for sure (or life taking) but I am talking here about violence so large scale and long lasting that it brings something like a ‘new way of living’, overwhelming violence that demands a complete change of mindset.

I often hear, and I often agree, that violence cannot solve anything, and that violence only brings more violence, but when you are faced with a man who wants to kill you, you are going to have to probably kill him in order to survive.
I hope that, in this moment, you will not care for philosophy, humanity or ethics, and that you just going do what you have to do, and survive. Later you will cope with other things, it is how things work.

As I get older I realize more and more that violence is wrong thing, but in the same time I also realize that I have to be more and more ready and capable to do violence when the time comes.

It is paradox maybe, but again it is how things works, I do not like that, but it is what it is.

Violence and you
It is way too big topic even to try to explain it in one article, but some things I must try to show you here.

There is a man, let’s say we are talking about you here. An average citizen, a law abiding person, and suddenly you are going to be thrown into a (prolonged) situation where you are going be forced to watch and use exceptional levels of violence.

Do you think that you are going to be able to „operate“ in those conditions with the mindset you had from the time where you were average law abiding citizen?
No of course not, you will have to jump into the another mindset in order to survive.

Let’s call it survival mode.
In survival mode you’ll have to not to forget what it was like for you in ‘normal’ times, but you will have to push those memories aside, in order to operate in different mode – survival mode.

In real life situation that means for example that you ll maybe have to ignore panic, fear, smell, noises in the middle of an attack and do your steps in order to survive.

Maybe you’ll have to ignore the screaming dying kid next to you, maybe you’ll have to ignore your pride and run, or simply maybe you’ll have to ignore your „normal“ mindset and you going to have to kill the attacker from behind.
There is list of priorities in normal life, and there is list of priorities in survival mode.

Let just say that you using your different faces and „small“ mindset during your normal life and everyday business with different people around you.
Just like that, when faced with violence you’ll have to use different mindset, different face. Or another you.

Violence and experience
There is a strange way of thinking here for me, but since I have live through the time when huge number of people did not die from old age, rather from violence, I have experience in this subject. So here are few thoughts.

Experiencing violence over a prolonged period of time does not make you superman, actually in some way make you crippled man, man with many problems, psychological and physical.

But if I put myself in way of thinking that I am in better position now then people who died next to me, or in front of me. You may call me a winner or survivor but many days that ‘title’ sounds very hollow.

Am I lucky man-yes, am I happy man – no.
But we are not talking in terms of quality of life, we are talking in terms of surviving or not.

Ethics, psychology and everything else here are matter for couple of books to be written, and even then you are not going say anything new, it is like that from beginning of the mankind. What is more important about having experience in violence is that you simply KNOW how things are working there. In lot of things you simply know what you can expect. You know what chaos is, best way of dealing with it, you know what it takes to do things.

Preparing for violence
Again nothing like real life experience, when you experience something like real violence you keep that in yourself for the rest of your life. What is best next to that? – other people’s real life experience.
So is it make sense to read about other folks real life experience?
Of course, read a lot about that.

Training (physical) yourself is great thing. You’ll train to get yourself into the state that you are (physically) ready for hard tasks. So of course it makes sense to do that.

But training yourself mentally can be a hard thing.
You actually can only guess how it is going to be, how it is going to affect you.
I can tell you that it is hard, chaotic, I can describe you a situation, but can I bring you the feeling of terror in your gut when you feel that you are going to shit yourself? Can I give you smell of fear, smell of decaying body? Can I give you feeling when you realize that „they“ are coming for you?

No of course I cannot. You can read stories and real life experiences and based on that you are going to „build“ your possible mindset for violence situation.
You are going to build your „survival mindset“.

But there is a catch there. If you build it too firm, too strong, and then there is SHTF and everything that you imagined doesn’t fit the given situation or scenario and you are still pursuing and acting in the way that you imagine dealing with it you are going to have serious problems.

The situation will not adapt to your mindset; the situation will kill you if you are sticking too firm to your plan when it is not working.
You simply have to adapt.

It goes for many situation, if your plan and mindset says you are defending your home until you die, you are going to die probably.
Whenever I heard people saying „I’ll do that when SHTF „ or „I’ll do this when SHTF“ I feel sorry for them.
When SHTF you will adapt, and change your given plan accordingly to situation.
It is same with violence.
Violence is a tool that you going to use according to the situation. It is a tool, not a toy.

Now to finish with a final thought. It can sound, from what I have written, that a SHTF situation is like a Mad Max movie. Everyone running around killing, hurting doing things with no consequences. In fact, this fantasy of a world ‘Without Rule of Law’ (WROL) is a big discussion in some circles.

For sure regular ‘law’ has gone. There are no ‘authorities’ or courts as we know them to deter or punish, BUT, during a SHTF situation you will find….
It is (especially in the beginning) like everything is possible, law is gone, you could go outside and see people looting stores, groups organizing (by street, or other facts like same job in company for example) trying to either defend part of the town, or bring more chaos just for fun, sometimes you could not say what, both could bring violence and death to you. Over time the ‘violence’ becomes more organized and ‘structured’ to start to achieve certain specific goals (although there is always ‘chaos’ as well).

After some time you look at violence you encounter in two ways. Violence happening outside your group, or inside your group (It is quite certain you will need to be in some sort of ‘group’ to stand any chance of surviving).

Outside your Group, you just wish to be very ‘small’, invisible after some time, not pay attention to anyone doing violence to others, because, quite simply you are still alive, and want to stay that way. In terms of “I am still alive, I do not care what they doing to that person, and how bad it is (your will and judging of good and bad is broken, you just care for your own life) it is like you care only for yourself while you are watching how others get killed, no matter that you feel that it is going to come to you in the end (violence) you just care for yourself.
Leaders of the “bad” group (gang) have best chances to stay leader if members fear him, so in fact he is most dangerous, vicious, sick bastard, nothing like a “reasonable” man. (Competition is huge in SHTF) Instilling discipline (through fear) and enforcing ‘your’ rules are paramount to holding your position as leader.
Various groups were interacting with the outside world and each other through fighting, exchange information, trading goods etc, but every group were more or less closed world, with trust only for those inside the group.

Forming of a group was quick mostly, because nobody expected this situation was going to happen, and so were not prepared, but very quickly were literally ‘fighting for survival’. Any problems were solved “on the way” (bad members, not skilled, not obeying etc.) Sometimes through discussion and agreement, but always with the threat of violence as an option.

To finish, and to educate, as opposed to shock you. Many folks cannot think to clear about the level of violence I am describing being involved in. Maybe you think SHTF is just like ‘Black Friday Shopping’ but every day. So let me just give examples of the how far the world I lived in descended from ‘normal’. Remember this was a regular city, in a nice country, in Europe, less than 25 years ago…
-People who never used violence before, doing some ‘hard’ violence: normal people, dads and mums, killing folks in order to save their families.
-Certain groups of people who looks like they are just waited for the SHTF so they can go out (“crawl beneath some rock”) so they can fulfill their own fantasies about being kings of the town, imprisoning people, raping women, torturing folks in the weirdest ways…

-Strange groups organizing in whatever the cause they choose name it, again only to gain power in order to have more resources (sometimes simply “gangs” of 50 people, sometimes whole militias of thousands people) through terror over other people or group of people.

-Irrational hate towards “other” (whoever “other” could (or might) be (other religion, group, street, town, nation) because it is very easy to manipulate groups of people through hate and fear (from and towards “others”), if someone manipulate you that your kid is hungry because “others”, he can do a lot with you.

Real life examples I saw:
-People being burned alive inside their homes (And people ‘enjoying’ watching this)
-Private prisons were made where you could go and torture other folks for fun, or rape women as a “reward”
-Kids over 13 or 14 years of age were simply “counted” as grown up people, and killed as enemy
-Humiliation of people on all different ways in order to break their will, for example forcing prisoners to have sex between same family (like father and daughter and similar)
-Violence was everyday thing, you could go outside and get shot not because you were ‘enemy’, but only because sniper on other side want to test his rifle

Never Go Anywhere Without Your Kitten – Teja Van Wicklen

I saw a clip on Facebook a few months back called Kitten Therapy. Self-proclaimed stressed-out people were invited to remove their shoes and experience a guided meditation in a large transparent room in the middle of a busy square. These unsuspecting victims donned headphones, closed their eyes and listened to the sounds of purring kittens…. When asked to open their eyes they found, one by one, a slew of rowdy grey and white kittens squeezing into the meditation space through a series of kitten-sized panels. Sudden relaxation and joy ensued like a chemical experiment gone right–take stressed humans, add kittens, stir.

Too bad the thought of conflict management techniques, self defense knowledge and intrapersonal skills don’t have the same effect. Self defense just isn’t fuzzy enough.

But, there just might be another kind of stress-relieving kitten that doesn’t require emptying cat litter.

Ten or so years ago when I had my son I found I was often foggy and forgetful from sleep deprivation. I began carrying a small assortment of necessary items to help me offset and placate my anxious mommy-brain. More recently I began calling this assortment of approximately ten things a Ten-Kit or KitTen (I’m pushing the metaphor, I know).

My KitTen is about the size of a woman’s make up kit or a pencil case and it holds what I consider to be my most urgent daily items. Which is to say, mostly first aid stuff (says the EMT and Mom) with a few other helpful nuggets thrown in for good measure.

As a Conflict Manager Magazine reader (or contributor) the concept of preparation is already an integral part of your lexicon. So what is your EDC (Every Day Carry)? How much time did you spend figuring it out? How many websites did you consult? How often do you check your supplies? Every conflict manager needs an EDC. If you haven’t thought about this yet, some suggestions follow.

As an instructor of Protective Offense and an EMT, but especially as the mother of a nine-year-old, there are some contingencies that are really more like eventualities – cuts, stomach aches, headaches, hunger fits, splinters, etc. It’s amazing how quickly the fun of a vacation or even a movie ends when a kid is uncomfortable! But what about being locked out of your car or house? What happens when you forget your wallet or get lost?

These kits can become overwhelming, so we need to keep them paired down to the bare minimum. To each her own, so modify where needed.

Begin by making a list of the people in your family and especially any unusual or critical medications they take. Now add any other special items you already consider a necessity (besides wallet and keys). Finally, think about the kinds of situations you have encountered over the last few years and the things you wished you’d had.

If you live in the country, on a boat or in the Australian Outback, your list will be different than someone who lives in the desert or the city.

What follows is a list of the top ten average-day items I (almost) never (let’s be really honest here) leave the house without, and a few extra things I sometimes bring along or substitute or that you might like to have for your family.

Start with a makeup or pencil-sized bag you can fit in your purse or everyday carry bag. My “purse” is a small backpack, my KitTen is a small square-ish Le Sports Sac thingy (no I don’t get a kickback). If you can find a fuzzy makeup case you’ve really maximized the kitten metaphor. Now you can get down to business.

Here’s what I carry:

Pointy tweezers are good for many things besides splinters. Ticks and beestings are one example. Flat household tweezers are not what you want. A fine point makes your KitTen tweezers useful for more things like ticks and beestings.

Miscellaneous-sized Bandages – Water-proof ones are good to have around as well, especially if you’re at the pool or beach! These are the things you will need to refill most often if you have kids. Throw in one or two gauze pads for good measure.

A Small role of first aid adhesive tape and/or duct tape can be used for many things, including fixing shoes. Tape is indispensable for creating make-shift splints for small body parts like fingers. You can remove the cardboard holder and wrap the tape tightly around something smaller, like your finger, so it takes up less space.

Safety-pins are great for making a sling for a broken arm out of just about any kind of material. They are also great for keeping important things attached to you in case you need your hands free and for fixing clothes among other things. Bring a few of different sizes. You can save space in your KitTen by attaching them to the zipper.

Alcohol pads and/or alcohol gel sanitizer (avoid Triclosan, which is an Endocrine disruptor and generally nasty chemical. There is some evidence that effects children’s learning and enhances allergies). What you want is the ability to disinfect almost anything, wherever you are. There has been a kickback of late against hand sanitizers. At home use simple soap, but sometimes you don’t have that luxury.

A mini multi-tool is absolutely indispensable. Get one preferably with scissors and pliers, and both a flat head and phillips screwdriver. Victorinox or Leatherman-type tools are available everywhere, including Amazon. Cheap ones can’t always be counted on, the joints and screws can break when you need them most. Get something with some sort of reliable guarantee.

Medications. Pack 1 or 2 of each pill or individual packet, more of what your family uses most. Try to find small packs and mini size ointment and cream containers or buy small containers, clean them well and fill them. You might also want to have a medicine cup or spoon if necessary.

Aspirin and non-aspirin pain relievers (you may not want to give children and teens aspirin. There may also be issues for young children with Tylenol)
Antibiotic ointment
1% Hydrocortisone Cream
Over-the-counter oral antihistamine, such as diphenhydramine (still the gold-standard for allergy emergencies)
Anti-diarrhea medication
2 antacid tablets
Activated charcoal (only if instructed by your poison control center 1-800-222-1222)
any prescribed medications that don’t need refrigeration, including drugs to treat known allergies, such as an Albuterol inhaler or epinephrine auto-injector, insulin, etc.

Petroleum Jelly (Vaseline) – It’s not organic and it’s not good for your skin, but it can keep the bad things out in a pinch and it lasts forever. PJ protects skin from sun and cold weather chapping, lubricates just about anything and is flammable – so it will help you start a fire if you’re freezing to death. It can even act as a makeshift bandage to slow minor bleeding. You can buy tiny jars or tins, and fill them yourself.

LED Flashlight, a small headlamp, or both. Flashlights are indispensable. Until you need one, you have no idea how important they are. If you have room, bring a few extra batteries for whatever flashlight you have. If it’s a small disposable one, check it often or carry an extra. Extras don’t have to go in your KitTen, they can attach to keys and zippers.

Secret Stash of Cash, an extra credit card or both. $20 should do.

Here are some suggestions of extra or substitute items I have found helpful:

I like to have an extra car and/or house key either in my KitTen, bag or stashed in a (really smart) hiding place (not in the plant by the door!).

Feminine pads and/or Tampons. If you are a woman between 11 and 55 you never know when having an emergency supply of these might come in handy. It’s also nice if you are with friends and are able to come to the rescue. As it turns out pads and tampons also work for heavily bleeding wounds, liquid spills and as tinder for making a fire! But that’s another post.

Medical consent forms are helpful if anyone in your family has specific medical
needs. These forms can be loaded on to a flash drive, labeled and kept in your kit or printed in a small font, folded and enclosed tightly in a zip-lock bag and taped shut to keep it safe from water.

Medical history cards for each family member, with blood type (you can print these very small and laminate them so they don’t have to be folded and bagged), are a very good idea. Keep them in your kit or your wallet. Or you can have your blood type and allergies tattooed on your body like one person I know.

Emergency phone numbers, including contact information for your family doctor and pediatrician, local emergency services, emergency road service providers and the regional poison control center can also be laminated and kept in your KitTen or wallet.

Simple First-aid instruction manual – you can also have a first aid app on your phone.

Quick Clot is an emergency clotting agent for major bleeding (including arterial) that needs attention sooner than traffic may allow. Some CPR training facilities and gun ranges offer classes on how to use it though it’s pretty cut and dried. Pun intended.

A Mini Sewing Kit with 2 needles a small amount of thread and fishing line can be helpful for fixing clothing, suturing emergencies, fishing and making traps – although you’d have to learn how to do these things. But I love every day tools that cover more than just the one most likely scenario.

Water-proof Matches, a torch-lighter (works in wind) or a flint and steel. Seems silly but fire is such a crucial thing to have access to. If you’re trapped in a snow drift over night in your car, the ability to make a fire could save your life. And the spare tampon and Vaseline you have in your KitTen will serve perfectly as tinder. Toby Cowern taught me that!

2 Non-lubricated Condoms – Not what you’re thinking (although you never know). For carrying water in an emergency, because they take up no space. Even just to flush a wound. I’ve heard you can even boil water in them if you have to. I haven’t tried this, but apparently the water keeps the rubber from melting. Get confirmation before counting on it. The details are pretty specific.

A couple of rain poncho packets. They take up no space and keeps you and your kids dry in a downpour.

Heat blanket packet. You never know when you or your kids might get really cold. I’m told these work, though I have never had the occasion to use one. They come in a tight, flat pack. You may have seen them or been the recipient of one after a Marathon.

Mini Sharpie and/or Pencil for taking and leaving notes and making directional signs on trees and rocks if necessary.

Snack/Water: Whether in your purse, bag, car or KitTen, you should always have some sort of snack with you–a bar, some nuts and raisins. Never get caught without food or water, especially if you have kids, or low blood sugar. Waiting on line for a movie can become a crisis without this stuff. If you are off the beaten path or plan to be, I highly recommend having a few water purification tablets. They take up no space wrapped in a small amount of aluminum foil. You have to have a container and you must wait around a half hour before drinking. A water purification straw like the LifeStraw, filters dirty water from a puddle in an emergency and takes up a fraction of the space of other water filters. It is still too large for your KitTen though and is more likely to live in your car.

(Picture: Notice the mini pill case. This works for me because I get to choose what I put in it. Or you may prefer the tiny one-use packets you can buy in bulk.)

Give Your Kit a Regular Checkup and Other Suggestions

This is your everyday kit. Take care of it. Replace items, check expirations on prescriptions at least. I’m not so worried about expirations on OTC stuff. They tend to work fine decades after they expire, or so says my Father-In-Law, the Professor of Biochemistry and Immunology, and a few articles I’ve read. But make sure crucial drugs like nitroglycerine or epi-pens are up to date. Don’t take my word for it. Always do your own research, but you probably don’t need to throw away your five-year-old aspirin. Donate the extra five bucks to charity or put it in a jar.

Consider taking a first-aid course through the American Red Cross. Contact your local chapter for classes. Find a buddy and make it an event.

Prepare children for medical emergencies in age-appropriate ways. The American Red Cross offers a number of helpful resources, including classes designed to help children understand and use first-aid techniques.

I’ll Never Get Around To It:

If you need someone to build you a KitTen, contact us at Teja@ConflictResearchGroup.com. We can collaborate on it. It will cost about $150 to $200 for quality products, depending on the items you select (we’ll send you a PayPal invoice). We agree on the price before any work gets done.

If you DIY it, expect to spend about $75 at the very least, depending on the quality of products, especially the MultiTool and Headlamp if you include them, and you should.
Make one for yourself and others in your family. They make cool, thoughtful, personal gifts.

I’m actually more of a dog person myself, but who can resist a KitTen.

The Zombie-Hunter’s Diet Guide, Part II – Teja VanWicklen

Supplements

“Be the kind of person who takes supplements, then save your money.”

Michael Pollan

Many studies show most supplements are not well-absorbed, and people who take them already tend to eat well. If you do take supplements, try the food-based version. You will have to take three or four pills to get the same amount of the vitamin, but your body will actually recognize it as food. As we age, supplements can help since we lose the ability to absorb nutrients. Read up and consult the true experts. I recommend PrecisionNutrition.com for pragmatic, well-researched and entertaining articles.

If you are female, you probably need more of the following nutrients than you are consuming, look them up: Omega 3, vitamin D, Calcium, Magnesium, B complex. If you have anxiety related issues, depression, PMS or PTSD, there are a number of other well-documented supplements to look into like Rhodiola, Phosphetidal Serine (PS) and L-theanine.

When we don’t get enough magnesium, vitamin D, or omega 3s, we are more likely to get pissed off, lost, yell at our kids, start arguments and forget important things. Of course if you eat a lot of high quality veggies, you won’t need very many supplements, if any.

Here are some specifics:

Omega 3 and beneficial Fatty Acids

Omega 3 is the queen bee of mental and cognitive health, especially if you have anxiety, PTSD or sleep issues. Find a good, clean Omega 3 supplement. Add small, wild caught fish, flax, hemp and chia seeds to your diet. You can sprinkle hemp hearts or chia seeds on almost anything, even icecream, they are nature’s sprinkles. Eat grass-fed butter and meats, nuts and cold pressed oils.

Beneficial fats reduce anxiety by calming your sympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for your fight or flight response. When this system becomes overactive, no amount of therapy will help you feel better. Lack of important fatty acids causes depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, memory malfunctions and a number of other issues we often erroneously consider solely emotional or psychological.

There are many studies on Omega 3s and there doesn’t seem to be much of a downside. There has been evidence of people affected by bipolar disorder cutting medications drastically and experiencing improved lifestyles through high doses of Omega 3s. Which begs the question, are we emotionally ill or malnourished. Another study found violent outbreaks among inmates were reduced by up to thirty percent when the inmates took high doses of Omega 3s. Perhaps if everyone took Omega 3’s, we wouldn’t need this magazine.

Watch out for Omega 6s and even 9s, we tend to get too many of those and they can counter crucial Omega 3s.

Get the sugar out

Get sugar and synthetic sweeteners out of your diet as much as possible. Sugar feeds fat and cancer cells. Some chemical sweeteners are actually banned in Europe for causing symptoms that mimic multiple sclerosis. Some of them stimulate areas of the brain that increase appetite, so they make you fatter even though there are fewer calories. Try coconut sugar, dates, lucuma, raw honey and maple syrup. There are so many more options than there used to be. If you are often wired and over-reactive, or you are diabetic or close to it, you want a sweetener that doesn’t affect blood sugar and has almost no calories, try Stevia, Erythritol or Monk Fruit. Use one for a week to get use it and move on until you find one you are happy with. Tastebuds can change and regrow in one to two weeks.

Macronutrients

Different body types need different amounts of protein and it can take some trial and error to figure it out for yourself. In my experience as a personal trainer, most women don’t get enough protein. It just isn’t a priority. Both in literature and studies I’ve read, women especially who increased their intake of clean protein gained strength and lost weight with more ease. And they reported sleeping better, feeling sharper and having fewer cravings for sweets.

The science suggests taking in a minimum of 1 gram of clean protein for every 2 pounds of body weight if you are sedentary. So, if you weigh 140 lbs, you need a minimum of 70 grams per day, if you’re 110, you need 55. This is actually low. If you enjoy exercise, especially the weight bearing kind, you need more, all the way up to 1 gram per pound if you run often or engage in sports regularly.

By clean protein I mean protein from the best possible source. Organic, local, grass-fed meats and wild-caught fish aside, you can get your protein from Greek Yogurt (always organic please, since dairy is not to be trifled with), tempeh, eggs and mixed foods that create full chain proteins through combination. Ultimately look for at least 25 to 30 percent of your caloric intake to be protein regardless of grams.

Watch the ratio of carbohydrate to protein. For some people bean and seed carbs don’t affect health (or weight), for others it will. There is more carbohydrate in these foods than protein, so keep track of what you are eating and see what happens over weeks and months. A diet high in carbohydrates seems to adversely affect sleep, mental acuity and general health for many people. The theory is that we did not evolve to eat these things and our digestive systems are still figuring them out.

In general, worry less about calories and more about what is in your calories. A calorie of celery carbohydrate is not equal to a calorie of sugar carbohydrate. And a lean or regularly exercised body uses calories differently.

Caffeine, Alcohol, Grains and Dairy

There is a big difference in how people respond to caffeine, alcohol, grains and dairy, though there are plenty of other low-level allergens. If we have been consuming them most of our lives, we don’t really know which of our common issues may be food related.

Caffeine does wonders for some, and is disastrous for others. It has been documented to augment energy, but it can also have adverse effects on mood and behavior. Caffeine is a powerful and unregulated drug and you should be aware of the effect it has on you.

We often think of alcohol as a relaxant when it is really a stimulant of sorts. The high sugar content revs the system and often causes anxiety. Alcohol is a regular bedtime go-to, but sometimes it makes us toss and turn rather than relax.

Try nixing any of these common foods for at least week or two to see what happens. Detoxing from regular caffeine intake is almost guaranteed to give you a headache until you get it out of your system, so have the aspirin ready just in case. Try going to half decaf and then full and then no coffee at all for a bit. Become British, try some tea for a while – caf, then decaf or herbal.

Reintroduction of any potential allergen makes it pretty obvious whether or not there is an issue. With caffeine you may get a headache when you start up again, or you may just feel wired in a bad way. With other things like gluten and dairy, you may find you have unwanted digestive issues after eating.

The Take Away

Our bodies perform some alchemy every day, but there is a limit. We take in garbage and expect gold medals. We think we are healthy while we are young, but really our bodies are simply better able to mask the results of poor dietary choices. It all catches up with us somewhere between our late thirties and late forties. It’s simple science. If you put garbage in, you get garbage out.

Try keeping a food diary for a week or more. There are lots of apps for this purpose. You might be surprised at what you find out about your eating habits. Keeping track makes it easier to spot both effective and ineffective eating and will help you replicate the effective habits. Log or write down what you eat and how you feel at the end of the days and weeks.

If you observe a few of these rules you are likely to wake up rested on less sleep, have fewer muscle aches and pains, raise your energy level, stop yelling at your kids so much, have better sex, get into fewer arguments, remember names and regulate your menstrual cycle (if you have one).

In my experience, nutrition can make an enormous difference in quality of life, so it is an easy place to start, probably easier to do than say, finding a therapist or even getting into a regular exercise habit. Nutrition is a great place to start de-stressing and getting mentally and physically healthy and ready to combat zombies.

Suggested Reading

Food Rules by Michael Pollan is one of my favorite books. It is very short. You can just read the chapter headings if you like and get lots out of it. It is the most concise, easy to read, book on eating healthy ever written. Just keeping it on your counter will make you healthier. If you have the inclination to delve further into nutrition, read The Omnivore’s dilemma also by Pollan. At one point the author creates an entire meal from foraged resources just to see if he can. Great stuff.

If you are female, look into The Hormone Cure and the Hormone Reset Diet by Dr. Sara Gottfried, a Harvard educated gynecologist who has dedicated herself to helping women overcome, brainfog, anxiety, depression, mood swings and sleep and weight disorders stemming from hormone imbalances. It’s about time.

Murray Carpenter wrote a book called Caffeinated: How Our Daily Habit Helps, Hurts and Hooks Us, if want to learn more about the caffeine in your life.

Check out www.PrecisionNutrition.com for everything nutrition related.