The Everything Guide to Living Off the Grid (44 page)

Resistance/strength training can also improve circulation, coordination, balance, bone, and ligament strength. These exercises include any exercise during which muscles expand and contract against an external resistance. The idea behind resistance is to increase the strength, endurance, and tone of the muscle. The external resistance can come from a number of things—dumbbells, weight machines, elastic tubing or bands, cinder blocks, cans of soup, even your own body weight. What you are looking for is something that causes your muscles to work as you expand and contract them. The best results in resistance training come with increases in repetition and weight.

Diet

You should begin to live with a diet that will match the restrictions you will have when you move off-grid. If you want to eventually use freshly ground whole-wheat flour to make your breads and baked goods, start adding a little
whole wheat to the things you make now, so your body can adapt. When you are off-grid, most of your foods will have less processing, and will be much better for you than chips and frozen pizza. But if you are used to high-carb, high-fat, and high-sodium foods, you are going to want to wean your body off those and move toward a more basic diet.

One of the principles of a basic diet is to simply eat a wide variety of foods. A variety is essential because different foods make different nutritional contributions. The foods that should make up the bulk of your healthy diet are fruits, vegetables, grains, and legumes. These are all foods that are high in complex carbohydrates, fiber, vitamins, and minerals, low in fat, and free of cholesterol. The rest of your diet should come from dairy products, meat and poultry, and fish.

The following basic guidelines will help you construct a healthy diet.

• Eat plenty of high-fiber foods.
  Concentrate on fruits, vegetables, beans, and whole grains. There are good carbohydrates and bad carbohydrates, and these are the good ones. These foods are nutritious, low in calories, and they fill you up. Your body needs 20 to 30 grams of fiber per day; eating these foods will help you meet that fiber goal.
  
• Include green, orange, and yellow fruits and vegetables in your diet.
  The color palette is actually important. Different colors represent some of the varied antioxidants and other nutrients in these foods that can help to protect you against developing certain types of cancer and other diseases. You should eat five or more servings a day of fruits and vegetables.
  
• Avoid “bad” carbohydrates, like sugar. Sugar actually encourages you to eat more than you should.
  Your body burns carbs before it burns fat. When you eat sugar you get a “sugar rush” and you feel energized. But as the sugar is burned for fuel, your body reacts and wants more sugar for another quick rush. The body doesn’t turn to its own fat, as it should, because it’s been trained to consume the sugar. When you begin a low-carb diet it takes several weeks before your body starts to efficiently burn fat. But once you take sugar out of your diet, you will be amazed at how much energy you have.
  
• Cut the trans fats out of your diet.
  These are supplied by hydrogenated vegetable oils used in most processed foods found in the supermarket, and in many fast foods.
  
• Eat more fish and nuts, which contain healthy unsaturated fats.
  Substitute olive or canola oil for butter or stick margarine.
  
• Don’t let your food get boring.
  Eating a wide assortment of foods helps to ensure that you will get all the necessary nutrients.
  
• Maintain an adequate calcium intake.
  This is especially true for women and children. Calcium is essential for strong bones and teeth. Get your calcium from low-fat sources, such as skim milk and low-fat yogurt. If you can’t get the optimal amount from foods, take supplements.
  
• If you drink alcohol, do so in moderation.
  That is, one drink a day for women, two a day for men. A drink is defined as 12 ounces of beer, 4 ounces of wine, or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof spirits. Excess alcohol consumption leads to a variety of health problems. And alcoholic beverages can add many calories to your diet without supplying nutrients.
  

Addictions

The alarm clock goes off. You reach over and shut it off and stumble to the kitchen. The automatic coffee pot is set to a timer, so your first cup is already waiting for you. You sip it tentatively, feeling the caffeine course through your body. Now you can face the day. What happens if the coffee isn’t there?

It’s 10:30 in the morning. You walk down the hall to the break room, the change jingling in your hand. You reach the machine, drop the quarters in, and push the button for the diet caffeinated soda. Now you can make it to lunch. What happens if the soda isn’t there?

If you smoke cigarettes, you’ve already been told over and over again that it’s bad for your health. But, if you smoke and you are going off-grid, you need to think about the cost of making sure you can always satisfy your nicotine cravings.

If there is anything in your life that you have to have in order to be a pleasant, functioning human being, whether it’s caffeine, tobacco, alcohol,
chocolate, or something else entirely, you need to get rid of the habit before you go completely off-grid.

The idea of being off-grid is being self-sufficient. If you are chained to an addiction, you’re not free. And going through withdrawal from any addiction when people are relying on you for their welfare is never a good idea. The sooner you stop using it, the better.

A Trial Run

As you prepare for your off-grid lifestyle, it’s a good idea for you and your family to experience off-grid living in a controlled situation. You want to hope your off-grid home will have all of the conveniences of your current home, but when you decide to plan a trial run, you should make the situation a little more challenging to ensure you are up to the change.

Select a weekend for your trial run. For your first one, select a weekend when the temperatures will be moderate. Make sure everyone in your family understands what is going on, so they can be prepared. Then, turn off your electricity and keep it off throughout the entire weekend. This means you will have no access to computers, television, radio, refrigeration, heat, electric lights, your washer and dryer—anything that runs on electricity. Now, your challenge is to put the skills you have been reading about and, hopefully, practicing, to good use.

You can cook on your camp stove outside and heat water on it too. If your water comes from your own well, you will have to use your stored water for drinking, cooking, and personal needs. During this experiment you cannot run to the store because you forgot to get something. The only way you are going to learn what you need to live in an off-grid manner is to try it out.

You will want to be aware of how many times the toilet is flushed. You will want to save your graywater. Remember that your pets need water, too.

Did you remember batteries for your flashlights for when it starts to get dark? Do you have candles? Do they provide enough light for your needs?

Do you have games and puzzles to provide entertainment without the television and computers? Are you able to prepare a meal that everyone enjoys? Are you eating the kind of foods you are storing for off-grid living?

If you can last the entire weekend, congratulate yourself. But take the time to assess the places where you felt less prepared than you should be. If you were lacking in any way, be sure to redouble your efforts in that area.

You might want to try another off-grid weekend in six months, when the weather is slightly different, and see how you do in those circumstances. Remember, the more you can prepare for your off-grid experience, the better.

Creating a Plan

Stephen Covey, a motivational speaker and the author of
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,
has said that you need to set goals with the end in mind. In other words, you need to look at what you want in your life and set goals in that context. If you do this, you will set goals that you really do want to achieve.

Visualize what you want. Do you really want to live off-grid? Do you want to have a more self-sufficient lifestyle? Do you want to escape from the nine-to-five rat race? Do you want a simpler, more environmentally friendly life? Do you really want it?

Here are some steps to help you turn your desire of living off-grid into a reality.

Begin with a Dream

All personal goals begin with a dream and a desire. You want to get out of debt. You want to live a simpler life. You want to be able to spend more time with your family. You want to be sure your children are growing up in a safe environment. You want to be able to see the stars at night. Think about your dream. Visualize your dream. And visualize yourself in the dream.

Implement

Now you have the dream and you can picture yourself living it. Your next step is to figure out how you can implement the idea. Get a notepad and start jotting down all of the ways you can realize the dream. Do you need to get out of debt? Do you need to increase your skill sets? Do you need to become more physically fit?

Once you’ve finished writing down your ideas, prioritize them. What really has to come first before you do anything else? Put that one at the top of the list. Then go through the list and prioritize the rest of the ideas. When you have finished prioritizing, go back to the top of the list and set a goal of when you want to have that first priority completed. You can actually set goals for the first three priorities. Set realistic goals, but goals that will make you work hard to achieve them. Set these goals as long term (six months or more), medium term (three to six months), and short term (in a matter of weeks).

Make Your Goals Personal

It’s important to have family goals and you should have your family come together to discuss their ideas about living off-grid. But to begin with, you need to concentrate on your own personal goals, especially the goals in the areas where you have to make changes. Whether you need to curtail your spending habits, lose weight, or gain control of your finances, you are the only one who can decide whether your goal is important enough to make you want to change your habits. You are the one who will decide to take the first step. You will be your best cheerleader.

Write Your Goals Down

Visualization is a powerful tool. Many athletes say they use visualization when they have to accomplish a difficult task. One Olympics-winning pole-vaulter said he would always visualize himself jumping three feet higher than he needed, and he would always do well. You need to visualize yourself completing your goals. Take the time to write down your goals, but do more than just jot down a sentence. Take the time to describe how you will feel when those goals are accomplished. Take the time to write down how you will feel when you’ve lost the extra 25 pounds or when you’ve received the notice in the mail that lets you know your mortgage is paid and you own your home free and clear. Write about how important the accomplishment of these goals is to you.

Be Specific with Your Goals

When you are specific with your goals, you are letting your mind know that you are serious. “I will get out of debt” is a nice goal, but “I will have no credit card debt and all of my other payments will be up to date in six months” is much more specific and quantified. Think about the details of your goals. Write down exactly what you want and when you want it. Don’t be vague—be as specific as possible.

Time Based

Make sure that each of your goals has a specific deadline for its completion. Mark those dates on your calendar, so you clearly see how many days you have left to accomplish your task. If the goal is a long-term goal, set up some shorter-term benchmark dates to see how you are doing. For example, if your goal is to lose 30 pounds in six months, have short-term goals of 5 pounds a month. This will help keep your goal manageable and will give you opportunities to succeed.

Visualize Your Goals

Have you ever seen a movie or a cartoon where someone is lost in the desert and they think they see an oasis and struggle toward it? Often, it happens when they have just about given up, then it appears on the horizon. It gives them enough renewed hope to access some inner strength when they didn’t think they had any left and to move forward.

You need the same kind of motivation to access your inner strength. You need visual reminders of not only your goals, but your rewards. Use a screen saver on your computer with a picture of the off-grid home of your dreams, or the outfit you want to purchase once you’ve lost the 30 pounds. Have a calendar in your office with photos of gardening. Have something out in the open, whether it’s your computer screen or on your refrigerator door, that reminds you of what you are trying to accomplish and why you are trying to accomplish it.

Have Faith

Decide today that you are going to accomplish your goals, and have faith that you will do it. Don’t allow self-doubt to pull you back. Know that you can do this! You have the knowledge, you have the willpower, and you have the determination. You can and will succeed. Have faith and a positive attitude. The power of positive thinking is amazing! It will help you get to where you want to be.

Strategy

You have your dreams, you have your goals, and now you need to think about your strategy. Strategy encompasses the tactics you will use to achieve your goals. For example, if one of your goals is to lose weight, one strategy might be to make sure there are no snack foods in your house. Another strategy might be to park the car farther away from the office or the store, so you have to exercise a little more each day. When you plan your strategy, think about your goals and ask yourself, “How am I going to accomplish this?”

Just as you did with your goals, write down your strategies and incorporate them into your life. Soon you will have reached your goals and will move on to realize your dreams.