Hello James:

I stumbled across some excellent advice for foot care.  The advice targeted diabetics.  Diabetics need to be especially mindful of their feet are more susceptible to circulation difficulties.  Foot problems can rapidly escalate. 

This advice is also very sound advice for after the Schumer hits the fan.  It is likely that we will all be putting more miles of pounding on our feet. - Joe H.

JWR-
Dr. Ted is incorrect. "Dropping below 15% protein risks Kwashiorkor – it’s the reason why those starving kids in the television commercials have fat bellies – lack of protein actually causes more fat to be deposited!"

More fat is not deposited. [A swollen belly in these cases is a symptom of] edema (fluid) that collects in the abdomen or feet. It comes from the capillaries when there is a lack of protein in the diet and the liver cannot produce enough albumin. Thus the blood is hypo-osmotic and fluid is lost into the peritoneum, also called third-spacing. - J.W.M.

JWR,
 
I found this article interesting: Protesters Coming Down With the "Zuccotti Lung". Park conditions put demonstrators at risk for variety of sicknesses, officials say.

The weather and conditions at the "Occupy" protests are likely a microcosm of a post-Crunch refugee camp, along with the attendant diseases and problems associated with lots of people living close together in raw weather.
 
I think this should give pause to those who believe they can simply pack up and head out into the local woodlot and survive a Crunch-type event. You may leave home healthy, but inevitable contact with other folks will introduce the bugs that can end up killing you. A clean, warm, dry shelter at a fixed retreat goes a long way toward preventing or limiting communicable disease.
 
Blessings, - G.R. in Texas

Sir:
I would like to follow up on my recent article, Some Thoughts of How to Live in Times of Hunger, with a few actionable implications that might make a difference to my fellow preppers. As always, I eagerly look forward to the contributions of the worldwide prepper community to add to or correct my conclusions.
           
If I ever have to bug-out on foot it will be under dangerous circumstances, and I will need to move quickly and cover at least several miles. This on-foot bugout is my truly worst-case scenario: minimum supplies, emergency escape. If I can plan for this scenario then all other scenarios should be simpler. It is my fail-safe.

However, right now I’m having a terrible time keeping my Bug Out Bag weight low. I can carry it out to my truck. I might even be able to wear my pack and hike a mile. But I sure won’t be moving fast and I won’t get much beyond a mile, if that, in rough terrain. I’m not particularly young, I’m not athletic, I have a sedentary job – I might even represent the “average” American prepper.

Some of the weight in my pack is food, several pounds worth. I’ve researched ideal foods that combine calories, nutrients, and protein in a robust ready-to-eat package for meals on the move. But I’ve been thinking about the whole hunger thing in a different light.

If I escape by the “skin of my teeth” into the wilderness and have enough food to sustain me for two or three days it will only prolong my death if I do not also have the equipment to obtain food once I am in the field. Just as I cannot carry enough water to last me through even two days, I may not be able to both carry enough food and have the equipment to obtain enough food long term by hunting, trapping, or fishing

Based on my hunger research, I know I can perform at near-peak levels for a couple of days with a minimum of food, after which point my performance will begin to taper off as hunger sets in. I won’t be happy about it, but I will survive the experience of “going hungry.”

If I’m not mistaken, the name of the food game, at least for the first several days of a bugout, is sheer calories. But what if I only carry (1) quick-energy carbohydrates to fire my muscles during hunts and escape, and (2) slow-energy calorie-dense foods like fat (or mostly-fat foods) for the sheer caloric-content of it?

Here’s my logic:

Glucose is my body’s primary energy source that it stores in my liver for emergency energy. Sports gels contain mostly glucose/dextrose (or maltodextrose) because it hits the bloodstream quickly and doesn’t require much digestion. These might very well be the best quick-energy option because some gels also contain electrolytes (mentioned in the Hunger article) and caffeine. What’s not to like?

The caloric content of gels is around three calories per gram, while solid glucose/dextrose candy should come in closer to four. Candy made from sucrose (table sugar) has the same caloric content. Werther's Original Creamy Caramel Filled hard candies candy (which I happen to have on hand), for example, is mostly glucose (and you really have to love that caramel filling!). If you can’t afford the more than $1 per pack for the energy gels you could still do pretty well with hard candy for a shot of energy once it dissolved in your mouth.

Yes, there is an energy crash following the “sugar high” (less with sports gels) but the important thing to note is that the sugar (or sugar and caffeine) does indeed provide the energy burst to hunt or escape, and do it with an effectiveness and with a speed unmatched by any other food source. That’s important.

High-sugar foods like hard candies and energy gels aren't the highest calorie content foods, though. The highest concentrated calories come from fat. Pure, solid glucose is something like four calories per gram (the same as protein). Fat contains around nine calories [per gram], that’s 225% more energy per gram! However, fat takes longer to metabolize. For a quick burst of energy during a hunt or escape you certainly would not eat fats. It’s no substitute for sugar.

Imagine that you can barely carry your BOB even with NO food in it. You have the equipment you must have to hunt/fish/trap, but NO food. Zero food.

You work out at the gym and finally have the additional strength to add a bit of food to your pack. What do you add? Sugar. Why? Because it will at least give you the short-term bursts of energy to do the two most essential things you must do: hunt/fish/trap and escape should that be an issue. It won't fill you up, it won't stop you from feeling hunger, but it will work for what you need it for.
 
Back at the gym you’ve been hard at work and you finally can add a little more weight to your BOB, in addition to the sugars you figure you’ll need.

You know your body isn't going to need a lot of vitamin and protein replacement right away (electrolytes maybe, yes). You know you won't starve for nearly a month. You know that you can function on “empty,” if you have to. You know if you leave on foot you could end up in an unfamiliar location and it could take you days, or even weeks, to begin hunting/fishing/trapping well enough to begin meeting your daily caloric needs [and then transition to gardening and raising livestock once your reach your retreat, where you presumably will have a deep larder]. You may not be able to carry all of the calories you would like, but you would like to minimize the depletion of your body’s energy reserves (fat, sugar, muscles).

If you packed sesame snaps (one of my personal favorites with sugar, fat, protein, and fiber, 186 calories/35 gr package) you’d need 21.5 packages (1.7 pounds) of snaps per day for 4,000 calories. In two week’s time you would need nearly 24 pounds of snaps!

But what food has more caloric energy than any other food on earth? Fat. What food, coincidentally, burns reasonably slowly? Pure fat. Nine calories per gram. It doesn't get any better than that. You need calories, it has calories. (Hey, it's good enough for the Inuit! Can you say muktuk!)

If you packed fat instead of sesame snacks you would only need to carry 14 pounds, SEVEN fewer pounds than sesame snaps. Or, to look at it another way, if you were able to add an extra 24 pounds of weight, the snaps would last two weeks (@4K cal/day), but the fat (453.6gr/lb x 9 cal/gr x 24 / 4000) would last ten more days. (Turkey chili, one of my favorite all-around-nutritional foods, contains 460 calories in a 15 ounce (420 gram) can, works out to 1.1 calories per gram - 800% fewer calories-per-gram than fat. Bad choice as your second tier food!)
           
Your stomach does flips at the thought of just eating Crisco plain but you realize that coconut oil has a lot of other benefits besides its incredible caloric density. It’s solid at room temperature (liquid in desert temps!), doesn’t burn at high temperatures (like cooking over a campfire), and is very easily digested by the body. And if you get the really good virgin coconut oil from a health food/supplements store it will even smell great!

Coconut oil has antimicrobial, antioxidant, antifungal, antiviral and antibacterial properties – all things we’d like to have in an emergency situation. And its medium-chain triglycerides require less work from your liver to convert it into usable energy (which is why it’s used in sports nutrition, hospital feeding formulas, and foods for people with digestive disorders). Have a look at the amazing properties of coconut oil and its digestibility.

With the weight savings of not having to carry as much food weight (only energy gel for quick bursts) and carrying food with the maximum energy density (fat), I can afford to carry more of what I will need in the long run: equipment to help me hunt, fish, and trap. (Equipment first!)

It does me no good to have a lot of food if my BOB is too heavy to make a quick getaway – the getaway is the thing. And it also does me no good to have a lot of food in my pack if I can't subsequently secure an adequate supply once in the field. The most important reason for carrying the BOB is to get out with the tools and supplies I need to survive long-term.

Eating just sugar and fat while you orient yourself to your surroundings and start to put wild foods on the table is not the final word! There are a lot of variables. You will be able to add the occasional fish, handful of berries, bird, or edible tuber and give yourself some variety while extending your food reserves. You may want to add to your BOB a little of the tastier foods (MREs, freeze-dried meal, canned turkey chili, or sesame snaps) just to keep your sanity...

But do it with the realization that any food that is not pure fat is trading off taste for calories (i.e., raw “body fuel”). You can stretch your body’s energy reserves further with foods that have a high caloric density, and the very highest of these is fat.  Then make an educated choice about the foods you pack!

And if you can’t carry as much food as you’d like, at least be sure you have the equipment you need to obtain food once you’re in the wild! You don't need to be full of food each and every day – you know that can safely survive on “empty” for quite a while!

I’m going to continue to work on my walking and climbing fitness so that I can carry the maximum amount of gear during a critical escape situation. But in the mean time, this weight tradeoff based on an understanding of how hunger actually works might help make my long-term survival a more sure thing. And that’s what it’s all about.

Be Prepared. Trust God. We can do both. - ShepherdFarmerGeek, in Spokane

JWR Replies: My general advice for anyone that cannot live at their intended retreat year-round is to cache nutritious food at several places along your intended route, in buried plastic cache containers. (Like the four liter containers made by Nalgene, triple-bagged in heavy plastic bags.) It is best to cache in rocky soil, to reduce the chance of burrowing rodents finding it. Check your caches annually.

Hiking long distances at a deep caloric deficit is dangerous. If nothing else, hunger is distracting, so your personal security awareness and sleep will both suffer. Hunger can also encourage you to make bad decisions. Longer-term hunger can also degrade your night vision. (See Nick Rowe's POW narrative, Five Years to Freedom.) Further, dependence on refined sugars for your primary source of energy is inadvisable. First, it causes sugar rush-then-crash cycles that are debilitating. Second, depending on your particular physiology, sugar crashes might even cause fainting. Lastly, overloading on sweets can even trigger a diabetic reaction. (Wouldn't that be ironic, to survive on mostly sugar for a week and make it to your retreat, only discover that you've become an insulin-dependent diabetic?)

For ultra-compact food for a lightweight bugout bag, I would advise making powdered blue-green algae (also known as Spirulina) your core food. Ounce-for-ounce it is the ultimate trekking food for humans. The freeze-dried algae powder could be supplemented by whey-based protein powder (like those used by bodybuilders), powdered milk, jerky, peanut butter, ghee (storable clarified butter), coconut oil and perhaps a few sweets like Clif bars and Larabars. This approach has been discussed at length in backpacking magazines, backpacking discussion forums, and blogs. By the way, I've read that you can even make your own energy bars with blue-green algae. (Although I haven't tried this myself, so no guarantees.)

Be advised that for anything more than a four day trek, constipation might become an issue with a protein dense diet like I've described. The importance of storing gentle bulk laxatives (such as Metamucil) has been discussed previously in the blog. Even after you have arrived at your retreat, keeping regular will become very important if you have a diet with a preponderance of meat from wild game. So don't overlook getting a supply of bulk laxatives. Even if you don't end up needing them personally, they will be useful for barter or charity.

Lastly, be cautious about packing too much caffeine (as found in coffee, tea, and sports gels) or other stimulants like chocolate in your bugout bag. Odds are that you will already be feeling very tense in a true Get Out of Dodge situation, so don't add the risk of a panic attack.

Dear JWR:
Well, hallelujah for Dr. Bob's practical attitude toward fitness! 

I've been working our homestead for almost 20 years, now, and I've been amazed at what the workout crowd can't do, hurting because they had to shovel manure and those particular muscles weren't on the look lovely list.  I've worked many a man into exhaustion, although I do pay when it's time to try to buy a dress that fits - women aren't supposed to have biceps.  For years I've wondered about spending big bucks to go to the gym when the push lawnmower and a few other practical things would probably do it, but people want the glitz. 

Recently my husband has been able to spend more time on the homestead.  Until then his main exercise was running or training his lower body and he hated tilling and shovel work and had trouble doing it.  By switching to a rowing machine he's been able to do far more - now he tells me to get out of the way so he can move the pens or other work I would have been doing myself.  Can I get an Amen?

One last idea:  if you know the water is going to be a distance away, Dr. Bob, why not plan now to bring it a little closer?  Our water went out a few years back because of a failure in the water tank.  We have a well but we couldn't access it, so until the plumber could get out we dragged water for flushing from the irrigation wells.  It was late winter/early spring, so it could have been worse, but I got to thinking what it would be like to haul all the water in bad weather in a grid down event.  Decided to get a Bison pump.  It does everything they say it does, and it's in the back yard, not in the woods.  Nice during Hurricane Irene.  So if Dr. Bob can find a way to get that water to move even half the distance to his house now (ram pump?  gravity feed?) he'd be doing himself a favor, because if you are living that old-fashioned lifestyle, you have a zillion other things to do beside the water chore.

And when I'm doing that kind of work, I don't worry about my weight, either, and I don't fuss over the eggs or other supposed bad foods because I'm burning them off.  An old pamphlet I found in my grandmother's kitchen actually extolled a national brand of fat for its high caloric content.  Bit different lifestyle then, wouldn't you say? - Linda S.

First, I must state that I am not a licensed physical therapist or personal trainer.  You may be expecting some type of disclaimer of "consult a physician before starting an exercise program" fame.  Nope.  The way I look at it is, I am that physician giving out helpful, free medical advice for prepping--so take it or leave it.  Much of this article references my life and personal experience, and for that you will either be impressed by the thoughtful, personal example; or you will be disgusted and bored by my shameless self-talk.  For this I am sorry; but I try very hard to do as I tell others to do as an example rather than a hypocrite.  WTSHTF, everyone's lives will be very different except for those few amazing and blessed humans out there like this blog's editor.  (Their lives are already very different!)  This article is written for the rest of us.  The overweight family practice doctor from the Ozarks that thinks he's too busy to exercise (ouch, that one hits close).  The housewife jogger that puts in her 2.5 miles every weekday on the treadmill.  The responsible mom with the most awesome pantry--but also 30 extra pounds of "softness" to carry.  The 60 year old guy that is an awesome shot, but also an awesome beer drinker that can't walk up a hill carrying a load without nearly dying.  The list of my friends and family could go on for a long time; but we all know who we are:  American preppers.  We are just like most Americans--eating too much junk food, fast food, and having the best intentions to improve our fitness after everything else on the list has been checked off.  The list you have isn't going away and if you count yourself among this group of American preppers---the time is now.

My time as a Cross Country runner, wrestler, 5K road racer, Air Force Officer, and physician has certainly been enough training and education in fitness.  I was buff in the past--with 8-pack abs and definition.  I could run 10 miles in less than a hour without difficulty.  I could squat and bench my weight.  But, it all came at a price.  Time mostly, pain too.  I spent hours and hours a week away from my family working out.  Something else always is sacrificed.  I was injured often by overuse and over-training.  Sore shoulders, knees, ankles and hips became fairly normal in my day to day life.  Finally, I had a psoas muscle tear in 2005 that gave us quite a scare as they thought I might have a tumor instead of just a simple overuse injury.  (Little did they know how hard I was training).  After the blood was reabsorbed and I could walk again after my brief stay in a wheelchair, my wife banned me from running.  At that time, I was quite sure that she could be persuaded or ignored in the future, so I wasn't too worried.  Time and age have softened me to my current pudgy standing, but the knowledge and will is still there to get buff again.  I would often sneak in running trials and then my wife would catch me and lecture until I submitted to her will.  Then, over time, I began to think a lot about what the point of being fit was.  Did I really want to be cut again?  Was it worth the pain and time?  No, it was not.  There were much more pressing concerns that continued to niggle at my brain.  Suddenly, TEOTWAWKI fitness planning seemed so obvious to me.  Train for what you expect in the future, and don't worry about anything else...genius!
 
Where to start?  Start at the beginning.  (Real original, eh?)  Seriously though, sit down and make a plan for TEOTWAWKI fitness.  THIS IS DIFFERENT THAN OTHER FITNESS PLANNING!  Everyone can lose weight and get in better shape, but this is not the point of TEOTWAWKI fitness.  The point will be survival.  Plain and simple--survival.  No one cares how fast you can run or how much you can bench when we are all hungry, dirty, smelly and worried about our futures.  So, my suggestion is to sit down with the members of your group or family and actually have a discussion about the "grid down" situation first.  Where would you likely be?  Where would you need to get to?  What if there was NO transportation?  Where is your nearest water supply?  What will you eat?  What will you do if it is the height of summer's heat, or the depths of winter's cold?  Do you have clothing for both extremes with you in your BOB or vehicle--and will you be able to get to it?  Perhaps you can start to appreciate where I am going with this.  Jogging and eating protein bars is not adequate preparation.  Make a plan for your fitness based on your individual responsibilities WTSHTF.  When I sat down with my wife and talked about this issue, I realized that I could facing a 220 mile hike to get back to her and the family.  My first fitness priority became:  getting in shape for hiking home.  What is your challenge when the grid goes down?
 
Look at your biggest fitness challenge in a post-grid world and make your fitness plan to fit that challenge.  For me, walking and jogging is easy.  I have no major health problems or joint issues.  I am overweight, but not to the point of health concerns.  But, putting on my BOB and hiking up and down the hills is a much bigger challenge than a simple 4 mile walk.  Having to do that hike 54 times in a row is a sobering thought.  And, more importantly, you learn a lot about the problems with your plan and your gear.  I found out that I need a little towel at the small of my back or my pants will fill with sweat.  I learned that if I continue my typical slouchy posture while wearing my BOB my neck really starts to hurt, but by focusing on a more "military stance" and tightening my waist belt and loosening my chest belt, my neck is much better on a longer hike.  I discovered that getting a good filter straw was a far superior idea compared to carrying 2 gallons of water at a time.  I now know that carrying larger volumes of dehydrated and freeze-dried foods beats MREs in my BOB.  The short socks I usually favor did not adequately cover my legs and caused chaffing from my boots, prompting me to buy some of the calf-length ones for my BOB.  I probably could have gained enlightenment about all these issues by thinking, reading, and theorizing--but nothing beats real-life application.  With some of these simple changes to my BOB, it is much lighter and I can hike much farther now on the same energy; and as I continue to "practice" hiking with my gear on and my BOB loaded I expect that the 54 4-mile hikes will seem more doable.
 
But, this is just my fitness plan for TEOTWAWKI, it is not yours.  Go back to the list and the "grid down discussion".  Perhaps you have not really made a good water harvesting plan.  Mine involves rain water collection, but if there is a prolonged drought the back-up plan is the half-mile hike through some pretty rough woods downhill and then back uphill with a heavy load of water.  My current BOB hiking training will prepare me for that mile round-trip well.  Maybe your water harvest could be improved by building a pulley system and so you need to climb some trees and get the lines hung.  That's a good workout, so get it done instead of going to the gym to work on your definition.  Maybe you need more reliable equipment for water hauling, but you won't know that until you put your new "fitness thinking" into a plan.  Water being the first step to survival, someone in your group or family needs to take on this fitness challenge.  Water is heavy and usually a hill is involved, sometimes a cliff or drop.  Maybe you need to have a simple "bucket rope" suspended over the 15 foot drop at your local water source instead of the slippery adventure at the shoreline.  Building it may prevent an injury later and if nothing else would make your job much less difficult.
 
Food should be another focus of fitness planning.  Gardening without power tools and gas is hard.  Takes a lot of prep work and can cause lots of blisters and sore spots.  Someone can be in charge of this part of your groups' planning and again--practice.  Real life raking of leaves in the fall can build hand strength and calluses.  Turning the soil in the winter (latitude dependent) or the compost pile can keep your hands, arms and shoulders in shape.  Digging holes for fruit trees in the fall is excellent training.  Spring tilling can be grueling if you haven't been able to (due to snow and/or ice) or you just haven't.  Prepare accordingly doing the activities during the "off" season that you will need to do in the "on" season.  Gardening in one thing, hunting is another.  As every good hunter will tell you:  the kill is the easy part.  Field dressing and hauling a large animal out of the woods is a real test of your fitness.  Practice makes perfect, or at least practice helps prepare you for the haul out with meat for the group.  If you are unable to hunt regularly enough to build fitness, perhaps drag a large and heavy pack through the property for a hour weekly.  Whatever seems to be the most realistic substitute for the real thing you should try to do now.
 
Maybe your fitness concern is the need for security.  You have "plans" for patrolling the perimeter of your property.  Time to do instead of plan.  Don't just patrol, wear real-life gear and if at all possible carry real-life security measures.  Not always possible and not always a good idea (as you may look like the kind of nut your locals don't approve of), but my plan if the local law enforcement decides to stop and question the nut in camo walking in the dark with a big pack on through the town is to use the "practicing for hunting season" line.  Usually there is something coming up that makes sense, currently deer season.  Closer to Spring it will be turkey season.  Camping trip coming up with the family is always a good one.  My personal approach is keeping a low profile, but perhaps you live in a more "prepper-friendly" area and you could just tell the truth.  Practicing your combat position drops with your gear on is a great way to condition too, the more real-world practice the more muscle memory you will retain.
 
Another thing to consider when doing your fitness planning is wood harvesting.  If you are going to use wood for heating or cooking, someone has to get it.  At first, most wood will be in the woodpile or close to the house.  The next wood gathered will be deadfall that is in an ever increasing radius from you.  Not much of a challenge really so far.  But, after using much more wood than you are used to, it will quickly disappear and your will be forced to gather wood from standing trees in short order.  Cutting down a dead tree with a chainsaw is one thing, cutting a live tree down with a handsaw is another completely.  Now that's a fitness challenge if you have ever attempted to do so.  Again, practice makes perfect.  I recommend cutting some live trees down now to age on the ground to make cutting a splitting in the future easier while giving you the necessary muscle challenge that you will face more regularly in the future.  Leaving deadwood standing while thinning out live trees may seem nuts now, but if you need them later you will be very thankful.  Splitting is a completely different fitness challenge, and the more regularly you can split smaller amounts, the better trained you will be.  Don't take a weekend and split a cord, take 1/4 cord on weekly.  When swinging an axe, you want to make sure you have not only some strength but also good control, for obvious reasons.  If you are lucky enough to have all the gas and hydraulics you need to help with you splitting, make sure you have enough to last many years, or convert to some work by hand now so you can build the strength and skill necessary to get the job done.
 
You may notice two glaring omissions from these fitness recommendations:  diet and workouts.  Dieting is unnecessary in TEOTWAWKI fitness planning.  Seriously.  If you are adequately fit to accomplish this schedule:  weekend hunting trip with recovery of mid-sized deer, Monday hauling 200 gallons of water 1/2 mile, Tuesday gather 1 cord of deadwood, Wed split 1/4 cord of that gathered wood, Thursday help with raking leaves most of the day for the garden, Friday haul another 200 gallons of water 1/2 mile; you don't need to worry about being fat.  I doubt that you will be for one, but even if you are then you still have nothing to worry about from a "fitness for survival" standpoint.  And you certainly don't need to worry about working out to make yourself more fit.  That schedule is tough, and will be much more of a reality than you may have really pondered prior to this article.  If so, you have work to do.  Start doing it.  Simple, shorter "workouts" of practice sessions until fatigued or until slight muscle soreness occurs are best for beginners, then advance as tolerated until you are really building up your tolerance to this type of work.  I will mention a few things about diet changes in prepping for TEOTWAWKI in terms of practice.  Start to eat more like you will after losing the grid and your favorite naughty food source (for me, it is Taco Bell).  Go an entire week without using electricity to fix your meals.  Definitely cut out fast food, junk food and eating out as much as possible now to miss those things less in the leaner future.  Eat some of your prep foods together as a group or family so that you can start to appreciate some of the tastes, textures and spicing that you may not be used to.  Some of these things may seem silly now, but will pay off exponentially WTSHTF.  As always, stay strong.

JWR Adds: Dr. Bob is is one of the few consulting physicians in the U.S. who dispenses antibiotics for disaster preparedness as part of his normal scope of practice. His web site is: SurvivingHealthy.com.

Jim:
I recently completed my third 10 water only fast.  The previous one I did was 13 years ago.  Here are some observations.

1) While the first two times I did a 10 day water fast the hunger disappeared in 3 days, this time, it took 8 days for the hunger pangs to stop.

2) I was much more sensitive to cold temperatures.  Bear that in mind and take appropriate measures.

3) Adding a little salt to the water I was drinking helped significantly with the lightheadedness and tendency to get faint when rising.

4)  A colonic cleansing on day 3 (you could simply do a few enemas) helped a great deal as I was no longer walking around with 4 pounds of fecal matter in my large intestine, held there due to lack off peristalsis for 10 days.

4) Unlike the first two water fasts I have done, this time, instead of breaking my fast eating either fruit or yogurt for my first meal, I had homemade chicken broth.  Later the same day I had slow cooked chicken.  I had no stomach aches and I think it was the optimal meal to restart my digestive tract.  After meat, I went to cooked vegetables, then to fruits and finally to grains three days later.

As a side benefit, now that I am in the habit of making stocks my family and I find that meals cooked with stock not only have much more flavor, but also greater satiability.  A grain cooked with stock instead of water gives me a much greater sense of being well fed and it lets me go a few more hours before I feel the need to eat than otherwise.

Simple stock making instructions

Chicken stock- Take a whole butchered chicken and put the breast in one container with brine and refrigerate, put the wings, legs, thighs, fat and skin in another container with brine and refrigerate and put the remaining carcass into a crock pot with cold water and apple cider vinegar.  The breasts, legs, thighs and wings can be cooked in any manner within 1-6 days of being in the brine.
(I prefer to stir fry or sauté the breasts and slow cook the legs, wings and thighs so as to get the nutrition from the bones.)

The cold water and vinegar will begin to draw out the albumin and dissolve the bones and cartilage increasing the nutritive value.  

Next, put in mirepoix (2 chopped carrots, 3 stalks chopped celery and 1 large chopped onion).

Add enough water to covert the meat.

Slow cook at around 190 F for 6 to 24 hours.  You will need at least 159F to get the gelatin out of the bones.

After 1st hour you can skim off the material that floats to the top.

When done, strain and put the stock (the liquid) into the fridge.  It may or may not turn to a Jello-like consistency depending on the health of the animal and number of bones you use.

Use this stock in the place of water when you are cooking grains or making soups.

For Beef Stock-
Put chopped bones into the stock.  You can pre brown them in the oven if you prefer that flavor  Look up Brown Stock...

Repeat with the same directions )temperature, cooking time, mirepoix and skimming) as the chicken stock.  

When complete, the strained liquid will be very heavy and oily and when refrigerated will turn to gelatin.  You will find a yellow layer that solidifies on the top.  This is the beef fat or tallow.  You can use this for cooking and frying or just add it in with the stock when you use the stock.

Stocks that won't be used in 3-5 days should be put in the freezer.

Advantages of making stocks and brines:

Meat kept in brine will last far longer in the fridge than otherwise and will be far more tender when cooked.

Food cooked with stocks will be both tastier and more nutritious. - SF in Hawaii

I have experienced two different times in my life of going hungry. The first time I went with very little food for three months. I went from 145 lbs to 115 lbs. I am 5'8 and my weight should be around 140-160 according to the Body Mass Index (BMI). The second time wasn't as bad because I knew what to expect. I went from 175 lbs to about 135 lbs. I now weigh a comfortable 190 lbs. I purposely gained weight above the recommended 160 but I try to keep my weight maintained just under the obese level. I do exercise and I eat healthy.

I have learned several things from going hungry, at least for my experience:
1. Candy bars are not good for trying to ease hunger pains. Yes they can help give a very short term boost in energy, but they leave you feeling hungrier within an hour, some starch or protein is better.
2. Starving leaves you feeling lethargic. Going without food leaves your body without energy to perform necessary functions for survival. You have to be mentally prepared to go hungry. If you do not have the willpower to continue to push through your weakness you will give up and die, literally.
3. Having some stored fat helps you to continue going hungry for longer. Having too much fat will just make you a target when everyone else is hungry too. Yes you can live off of stored energy but do not endanger yourself by becoming obese. You will increase your risk of diabetes and heart problems, as well as decrease your ability to survive in TEOTWAWKI. I purposely am a bit overweight because I have found that when I go hungry it is easier to go down to 135 lbs and function than it is to go down to 115 lbs and function, however I do not ever gain weight above 190 lbs because then I cannot run or do heavy work as well. TEOTWAWKI may not come for another 20 years and there is no sense in putting yourself in risk of a heart attack.
4. You can survive on beans alone. For over thirty days I had no food at all and then I was given a box containing nothing but cans of kidney beans. For the next twelve days I had a can of beans a day and I felt much better and gained a little energy.
Both times I have gone hungry was because I had no or very little money to buy food, it was not a choice and if I can prevent it from happening again I will. I now make sure to have plenty of canned food from my garden in storage, but if I have to go hungry again I know that I can go at least three months on very little food and still work and function.

We prep in large part to keep ourselves (and those we love) from going hungry in the event of a disaster or crisis.  Yet there’s no way of knowing in advance what kind of crisis we will face, nor how long our supplies will last. Even the most prepared among us could find their supplies wiped out in a fire, in a raid or natural disaster. And our plans for gardening or hunting could be completely disrupted by any number of things.
What this means is that at least some of us are going to go hungry, and its possible that many of us will experience hunger off and on – and we need to face that possibility.

Given that we might go hungry occasionally just how do we handle hunger?
I don’t pretend to be an expert and this isn’t a research paper though I did do some research on the related issues of fasting and starvation. There are things we can do and things we can be prepared with that will help us through the experience of hunger. And the beauty of sharing these thoughts with the prepper community is that there are brothers and sisters out there who know first-hand about hunger and who will either add to or correct my thoughts below. I thank you in advance for your help, because hunger might be in my future as well.
Be Prepared. Trust God. We can do both.

1. The really good news is that hunger pangs will pass after the second or third day of not eating, if you have no food at all. Hang in there, the hunger will not continue to increase, in fact it will disappear for weeks.
2. Outlast it – unless already weakened you can go 30 days (or more!) without food. Cody Lundin (98.6 Degrees, p. 204) figures the average person’s fat stores alone contain the caloric equivalent of nearly 500 Snickers bars (if I did the math right) – and that’s not even counting sugar/glycogen stores and muscle protein, both of which can also be burned by your body for energy to keep you alive. The Bottom Line: You’re not going to starve to death anytime soon, but the altitude, water availability, and temperature will affect how quickly your body works through its reserves (lower altitudes and warmer temps are good).
3. The hardest thing about being hungry is thinking about being hungry. And what can you do about that? Stay busy. Read, sew, build, catch up on projects, and of course work on finding food. Schedule your most demanding projects for the first day or two when you will have the most energy.
4. Drink lots of clean water or herbal teas. Contaminated water is a quick way to get really sick. Your body’s systems change and adjust, it might be a little hard to judge how much water your need – two liters per day might be a minimum for relatively inactive persons. Your body’s need for water will reduce somewhat as the hunger continues. You do not want to become dehydrated, even in cold weather, and your body must have water to help detoxify you as your body adapts to the hunger.
5. Oftentimes when food is scarce herbs for brewing tea (to make water more palatable in your condition) are still available or can be found in the wild – you can make tea from many things. Or you can add lemon juice to water to make it more drinkable, if you happen to have that. That said, you do NOT want to try to “fill your stomach” with water – that’s too much water and will create other problems. (If you have no water, but do have food, this would be a good time to fast rather than contribute to dangerous dehydration! Digestion takes water.)
6. Make a food-procurement plan and work that plan every day. If it takes you a day to find game trails or set traps or plan your hunt don’t panic! Keep your head and work steadily – it might feel like you’re starving, but that actually takes quite a while.
7. Small quantities of hard candies (Butterscotch, yum!) can reduce the feeling of hunger and give you calories to keep moving. Save the candy in your stash for if and when hunger starts, but eat them sparingly and only when you need to be most active. Some sugar (or a little bit of simple carbohydrates like bread, cereals, or potatoes) may get you through a tough spot.
8. Make your meals as flavorful and tasty and attractive as you can – savor what food you do have. Spices make bland food better, keep some with your bugout bag (what goes well with squirrel?) and have plenty at home. The military is fond of Tabasco sauce to make food zestier, but I’d like to propose spices that have actual nutritional or healing value such as curry, turmeric, garlic, cilantro, etc to get the most bang for your storage buck.
9. Work on keeping your sense of humor, it is a survival resource. Don’t give in to anger and bitterness, face it, fight it.
10. Don’t gorge when you do get food, you might throw it all up and waste it. If you haven’t eaten in a long time you need to ease into eating again. Eating too much at once can make you feel depressed and lethargic (bad in a survival situation) and could easily lead to nausea or abdominal cramping. Start with some raw fruits and vegetables or oatmeal and then wait until you feel hungry to eat again. Don’t break a fast with fatty or fried foods!
11. Don’t watch other people eat, hang around where you will smell their food, or look at food advertisements. Needless to say, if you don’t have any food stay out of the kitchen – as it has too many food associations.
12. Expect physical changes in your body such as heightened sense of smell, fluctuations in energy and fatigue, and a bad taste in your mouth. If you’ve eaten a lot of junk or medicines your body will detoxify in stages and you could feel pretty bad off and on. You could chew a pinch of mint leaves or perhaps carry a tin of mint chew/snuff to take the bad taste away.
13. Sometimes your will isn’t strong enough to focus on your task and deal with the hunger, so having another person to encourage you and keep you going is invaluable. Raw willpower can only get you so far.
14. When you do have food, don’t fill up on junk if you have any choice in the matter. Instead, stick to wholesome basic foods, raw if possible (cook your meats, though!) If you’re not used to eating like that it will take a little time to adjust. Think of the days when food is plentiful as preparing you for when the food is scarcer. Don’t waste anything: dry/freeze/can your surplus food.
15. Some smells may help with the hunger feeling: mint, citrus peel, etc. Experiment with what you have available.
16. If you know you won’t have food for a few days you might try purging your bowels first with fruit-only meals. Don’t make the last meal before going hungry bread or meat or dairy if possible. If you don’t want to go through detoxification don’t consume a lot of toxics (chemicals in water or food, alcohol or tobacco) beforehand.
17. If hunger is on the horizon consider fasting in advance for longer and longer periods to become familiar with the effects and give you confidence you really can function for a few days while hungry. It will also stretch your food supply a bit before the hunger starts.
18. Expect that you will feel colder than you usually do. Bring warmer clothes with you when outdoors.
19. If you only have a little food, a protein meal toward bedtime helps when your body is trying to repair itself (that’s when it releases Human Growth Hormone and does a lot of muscle repair), and a carbohydrate meal at breakfast is when you want extra energy to get moving.
20. As the hunger continues, do your work/projects as efficiently as possible to conserve your energy. Use tools and levers and wheels to amplify your effort and reduce your exertion, even if you used to be able to do a job by hand. Pace yourself – try to maintain a steady exertion level without huge peak demands for energy. Work smarter, not harder. If you have any choice in the matter, don’t attempt work that requires peak performance or manual dexterity or clear mental focus.

With a difficult decision, write out the pros and cons to clarify things and get wise counsel. From time to time you may have to work at concentrating and thinking clearly and your judgment may be affected. Double-check your work, actually read the instructions, have someone else check your work, watch for critical error points (if something is going to go wrong where is that most likely to happen?), keep it simple, minimize distractions, follow the plan you decided on in better times when your mind was clearer, use equipment only as intended, have a Plan B ready if you do mess up. You may become accident-prone so take extra precautions! [A big thank-you to my brother for his ideas here.]

1. Drinking a lot of chemically purified water (if you use chlorine or iodine) will mess with your digestive system’s beneficial bacteria that you must have to get the most nutrition from your food. Replenish them with raw vegetables (they have small quantities of naturally-occurring bacteria on them, grocery store vegetables are too clean), or commercial probiotics if still available. Aged hard cheeses, yogurt, unpasteurized sauerkraut, home-brewed beer (un-pasteurized) and brined pickles may help.
2. Expect trouble with anger, your own and others. Make a plan: time-outs, forgiveness, refusing revenge, talking it through, etc. Also expect to deal with varying degrees of emotional depression, recognize that it’s a result of hunger and not necessarily a reflection of hopeless circumstances. A lot of the depression will be the result of pent-up anger and that anger can be directed into productive action. Quit asking “Why me?” and start asking “What do I do now?”
3. As you might expect with a situation that triggers anger and depression, hunger will stress all of your relationships, so give them extra attention and cut everyone extra slack. Your loved ones and friends may not be handling it as well as you, they’ll need your help to not give in to hysteria and anxiety about their health and symptoms. They may want to isolate themselves when they should be engaged in solving the problem. Healthy herbs that calm and sedate might be helpful to have on hand if the going gets tough.
4. Supplementing with electrolytes during extended hunger will help compensate for electrolyte loss through urination or perspiration. You normally get those electrolytes from the food you eat. Supplementing will keep you healthier, not necessarily make the hunger less. Salt, potassium, magnesium, calcium in a tablet might help, something like this.
5. Try not to eat protein-only meals during the time of hunger. Even if you have enough protein to fill your stomach do your very best to add some vegetables or fruits. Your digestive system needs fiber – even if the fiber source isn’t particularly nutritious – as well as the carbohydrates and vitamins that many vegetables and grasses contain. (Skip the protein if you don’t have enough water, protein metabolism byproducts must be excreted by the kidneys and that uses water.)
6. Going hungry is the very definition of malnutrition. Supplementing with a good multivitamin will help keep your body healthier. You might not be able to tolerate taking a vitamin on an empty stomach, at least take them when you do have a little bit of food. 
7. Each time you successfully endure a period of hunger will make the next a little easier, if you can fully recover between episodes. You will be more confident, know what to expect, and your body will have less of a toxic load. You could even get an idea how your body handles hunger by undertaking a “fast” now (it’s actually good for you short-term) – and that might cut down on the fear factor later.
8. It’s no good to eat dangerous foods just because you’re hungry. Moldy foods can be deadly, certain berries or plants likewise. Know your native plants! If it’s just going to make things worse don’t eat it! It’s not going to “fill your stomach” it’s going to make you deathly ill first and then maybe make you dead. If in doubt, don’t eat it! (And remember – don’t fill up with water!)
9. If you’re hungry there are probably others who are hungry too. Help them by teaching them to find (local plants!), hunt, or grow their own, but if they’re really desperate share. You don’t know what tomorrow will bring. If you can save someone’s life today, do it. You’re not poor as long as you have enough to share.
10. Pray! Yes, just knowing there is a God changes things, creates new possibilities, and gives us hope. Unburdening our hearts to Him frees us, don’t be surprised if He meets your need in a way you didn’t expect. Seek Him!
11. As you are recovering from hunger you will want to not only address your nutritional needs, but the emotional scars that may have resulted from your ordeal. This can be a pretty significant issue. Talk it through with other survivors, your pastor, or a counselor. Don’t overlook this.

Carry in your BOB:

• "Hunger is a poor advisor."
• "Hunger is the best cook."
• "Hunger sharpens anger."
• "Hunger teaches many things."
• "A hungry belly listens to no one."
• "A hungry dog does not fear the stick."
• "A hungry man has no conscience."
• "A hungry populace listens to no reason nor cares for justice."
• "Hunger and cold surrenders a man to his enemy."
• "The drums of war are the drums of hunger."
• "Enough is as good as a feast."
• "At the working man’s house hunger looks in but dares not enter."
• "Hunger knows no friend but its feeder."

JWR Adds These Warnings: Be sure to consult your physician before fasting. Obviously, fasting should not be attempted by pregnant or nursing women. It may also dangerously exacerbate any underlying medical conditions--even some that you don't yet know exist. The risk of fainting, especially during manual labor should also be considered. Also, never fast while alone!

Everyone wants to be able to take care of the family When The Schumer Hits The Fan (WTSHTF).  We have all read dozens of articles about how to garden, store food, keep seeds, protect our homes, and generally go about the living of life day-to-day.  We've heard the mantra: Life after the TSHTF is not for the faint of heart, nor the easily-grossed-out.  We've also seen a few that go into detail on how to prepare medically for disaster.  While all of us will be working hard to provide for our families and keep them safe, we also need to be concerned about something less-often talked about:  family planning when there is no hormonal birth control, and prophylactics are scarce.  Heaven knows,  when TSHTF, you and your existing family will be busy adjusting to your new life, and may not be ready to welcome a new bundle of joy before your local area stabilizes. 

The dangers of unexpected or poorly planned pregnancies in a situation where medical facilities and options will be extremely limited cannot be ignored.  Communities may have no real medical expertise, and certainly, without anesthetic, a cesarean section won't be a terribly pleasant or successful affair.  A woman who has had problem pregnancies in the past will most likely continue to have problem pregnancies.  If you suspect your partner will have a problem pregnancy, or if she's had one before, extra care must be taken to consider the time and place of birth: for example, temporarily moving to the area closest to the best medical personnel available.  

Another oh-so-fun factor to consider is the very real possibility of being due mid-winter, when snow might be high, and travel difficult.  Families may want to consider planning the children they want to be born in the fall or in the spring or summer, rather than mid-winter, just so that if there is a semi-competent medical person in the vicinity, they can get there in time without being side-lined by a blizzard.  It's not very likely that the county will be out snow-plowing and salting all the roads, right?  This is not to say, of course, that all pregnancies will end in disaster, of course.  Most of the time, with most women, the pregnancy and birth will probably go just fine.
 Aside from the risk inherent in pregnancy and childbirth itself, however, there are other reasons why planning for pregnancy is important.  There are implications for a woman's health after the baby is born, her family's health, and even to some extent, the health of the community itself. 

Families will probably need to be bigger than the “typical” American size of 2.5 children as a matter of necessity.  Where food is scarce, and farm labor is the mainstay of food production, it will be a blessed family that has four or five children to help out.  More importantly, though, a family needs the children well-spaced, so that there is time for the mother to recuperate in between pregnancies. For the preservation of her health, a mother should probably not have more than one child every two or three years.  This is because of the time it will take to recover from the pregnancy, birth, and the first year or two of infancy.  Remember, when TSHTF the baby will need to be breastfed, like it or not, because home-made formula is not a smart option if there is any alternative.  Babies should be breastfed for a minimum of 1 year, but ideally, it should be closer to two years, especially in areas where food or medical aid is scarce.  Breastfeeding beyond a year may be the difference between life and death for a young child after TSHTF. 

A woman who is worn-out from having a baby every year most likely will have difficulty helping with every-day tasks, let alone trying to manage the hard daily living of farm-work, gardening, and putting food on the table when there is no such thing as convenience food.  She might be fine for three or four years, but just try safely focusing on gardening, housework, and making food-- possibly over a fire or wood-burning stove with five under-five-year-old children running under foot.  Some of those babies aren't going to make it, and you'll end up with tiny graves in your plot.  If that thought isn't appealing to you, you need to start considering your options now.

Beyond your own household, though, there may be other factors to consider.  In a smaller community which depends on its members helping each other out, it would be a pretty uncomfortable state of affairs if most of the women in a community end up pregnant all at once.  It would be very difficult for women to help each other with, say, labor, or childcare if they're all in need of help themselves.  There are some tasks that are just not safe with a baby in tow, and women may need to trade tasks.  In addition, can you imagine if there are only one or two people in a community who are even remotely comfortable attending births, and there are three or four women in labor or about to go into labor?  If even one of them has complications, the others might be out of luck when it comes to having someone experienced on hand to help out. 

Now, I'm not saying all the families in a community should be drawing lots for the right to get pregnant, of course.  Far from it.  But coordination among women or families isn't at all a fanciful idea, and may be the difference between having adequate help in the first few weeks or days or being completely on your own.  It's a small enough consideration to hold off on a pregnancy for six months to a year to space babies between families so not everyone is dealing with the squalling of an infant at all hours of the night at the same time. 
For families without the knowledge or supplies for family planning, purposeful spacing most likely won't be possible.  I firmly believe that children are gifts from God, and that He is the one that engenders new life.  On the other hand, I also believe that God expects us to be reasonable and moderate, and use all the (morally acceptable) tools at our disposal to prepare and take care of our families.  In contemporary society, many God-fearing families still depend on hormonal birth control (“the pill”) or IUDs, condoms, diaphragms, cervical cups, et cetera, to help manage child spacing and family size.  While those families can plan ahead a certain extent and stockpile extra supplies, they won't last forever.  Stockpiles containing latex items, like condoms and diaphragms face serious storage issues.  Latex is extremely sensitive to heat, cold, and light.  Without climate control, they won't be nearly effective enough to be reliable in preventing pregnancy past a summer or two   Stores are not even required to notify the purchaser if they've improperly stored them, so even in perfectly storing new condoms in your stockpile, you are not guaranteed a “good” lot that will last for many years.  Hormonal birth control is no joke, either.   Even if you could store more than a year or so worth of pills, just because something works now, doesn't mean it will continue to work-- and there are serious health risks to unmonitored hormone usage.  Or you could get stuck with a stockpile of mis-packaged pills, like the batch that was just recalled.  In the event that manufacturing of these supplies ceases and distribution dwindles, alternatives will need to be explored.

So, then, if “conventional” methods are unavailable, what options are you left with?
I'm sure we've all heard the “sex-ed” talk about different kinds of birth control, and heard how ineffective the “pull-out” and “rhythm” method are in comparison to the standard industrialized hormonal and physical barriers are.  The bad news is that the talk is right:  those methods probably won't help for long, and are pretty unreliable in any case.  The good news is that those are not the only options after TSHTF. 

You may know that in the animal kingdom, God designed most animals so that they come into “season” or “heat”  at most two times a year.  What you may not know is that although human beings are fertile all year round, women actually have been designed with seasons too, though the human fertility cycle runs on a monthly, not yearly, basis. Everyone knows about “that time of the month”.  Not everyone knows that there are other, equally important parts to the human fertility cycle that are predictable, observable, and measurable.   With the aid of something to write on and a writing instrument, you can use these observable and measurable signs on a day to day basis to determine the fertile and infertile portions of a given cycle.   Using the knowledge of which part of the cycle she's in on a given day, a couple can choose to avoid or achieve pregnancy.  This practice is called Natural Family Planning (NFP) or fertility awareness. 

There is over half a century of solid research underpinning the science of understanding, and the art of working with the human fertility cycle instead of against it.  You may have heard someone mention NFP or fertility awareness and dismissed it as a “glorified rhythm method”.  Unfortunately, if they've even ever heard of it, your doctor may have reinforced that notion.   The average American's understanding of NFP is severely flawed,  and influenced heavily by the pharmaceutical industry's consistent downplaying and misinformation campaign aimed squarely at your doctor.  By deciding to either abstain from or engage in sexual activity, on any given day, the method can be used to achieve or avoid/postpone pregnancy.  The best part is that NFP is actually just as effective as any form of hormonal birth control, with an effectiveness rating of 98% to 99%.  Even women with irregular menstrual cycles can reliably use NFP to achieve/avoid pregnancy.  It's more effective than a condom or a diaphragm.  It's free, and perpetual.  Once you know NFP, you can use it for the rest of your reproductive life without any adverse side effects, and you can teach it to your children when they get married.  You can't “run out” of NFP.  It can even help couples who are having difficulty with trying to get pregnant, so it works both ways. 

There are several “flavors” of NFP, ranging from the simple to the fairly complex.  Whichever method you choose to learn, it's important that you do not wait to start learning.  I strongly urge couples to start investigating this most basic of knowledge before TSHTF so that they can be prepared. While anyone can learn NFP (and I do mean anyone), learning it is akin to learning how to ride a bike, swim, or shoot.  You will have to learn about it, do it, and practice some more before you feel fully comfortable.  After TSHTF is not the time to try and figure it out on your own.  You don't learn to swim when you fall out of the boat, and you don't learn to shoot when you're going hunting for the first time.

It's best that, if at all possible, you find a teacher that can help you learn the symptoms and help you learn to reliably interpret your cycles.  It's important to remember that NFP is not something that a woman is solely responsible for.  For NFP to work, the couple must be in agreement, and communicate on a daily basis. Once your understanding is firmly established, the effort that goes into observing, and charting is virtually unnoticed.  It will feel like a natural extension of your relationship with your spouse, and will have some interesting fringe benefits.  A key point to remember is that, although in the beginning it may seem daunting, the process is quite simple. Really, if you can learn to tie your shoes, you can learn NFP.  I promise.

There is nothing you need to stockpile for it other than something to write on and something to write with and perhaps if you are so inclined, a book or two for reference and teaching your children when the time comes for them to learn about the birds and bees.  You might consider getting certified to teach NFP to other couples through an association like the Couple-to-Couple League.  You can use the training to teach the other families in your community in case they didn't prepare.  You might also seriously consider obtaining a supply of glass thermometers (instead of the digital, battery-powered kind) for several reasons.  Some of the NFP methods rely on cross-checking body temperature with the other signs.  Equally, though, if you want to be able to determine someone's temperature to, say, check if they're getting an infection from a wound or childbirth or a viral illness, a thermometer is important.  The old glass-mercury thermometers are generally not available [new] in the US, but alternatives do exist.  Glass thermometers are more accurate than digital, and have several other advantages:  no batteries to run down, no need for re-calibration after just a few years, they can be sterilized, and they might make a good trade-item later. 

Although God is the only real arbiter of new life, and all our plans are subject to Him, the  knowledge  of our fertility cycles gives us the ability to discern our actions.  Our families do not need to be beholden to pharmaceutical companies to “help” us control our God-given fertility.  When TSHTF, you don't have to be afraid of the specter of more children than you can manage, or your wife  getting pregnant when it would seriously endanger her health.  You can learn how to work with a woman's natural cycle to plan your family safely, reliably, effectively, and cheaply.

For more information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fertility_awareness
http://www.creightonmodel.com/
http://www.nfpandmore.org/
http://www.ccli.org/nfp/
http://www.armenianchurchlibrary.com/files/nfpmethods.pdf