2014 Official Guidelines

The Survivor Diet – Official Rules and Guidelines for 2014

By Doug Peterson

The duration of the challenge is 40 days.  The rules are quite simple.  You must survive on the food that you can find, forage, fish, pick, grow or hunt outdoors.

 

You can have as much water as you want.  You can cook with your own stove, microwave, grill or even a campfire in your backyard.  Use whatever pots, pans, dishes, refrigerator, etc. that you need.  You may also use whatever resources you have in order to obtain your food.  For example, if you are trying to catch fish you can use whatever fishing equipment you have – or you may purchase any fishing equipment or tackle necessary – including bait (but you can’t eat the bait!).

***Humane Small Animal Clause*** By choice, if you decide to trap a small animal in a way that is not harmful, you may set the animal free and earn the right to purchase an equivallent  type and size of small animal from the market.  You may not count the exact same animal more than once.  This rule was put into effect becuase of the two women that I live with: my wife and my daughter.  In some ways this takes away from the actual survival experience of dispatching and butchering your catch.  There is a lot to be learned from this type of experience.  However, becaue we live in a suburban neighborhood, the humane approach to capturing small animals is acceptable for the Survivor Diet Challenge.  Pets do not count and either do small children.
 

Begin by providing yourself with a gallon container of brown rice at the start.  You will be responsible to ration this appropriately throughout the 40 days.  Eat too much at the start and you will be left with very little at the end.

As a bonus, you will be eligible for periodic “rewards” after each week of survival.  In order to qualify for a weekly reward you must demonstrate proficiency in some type of primative survival skill before the week is up.  You can either come up with your own reward list or choose to follow mine.  It can be viewed here: 2014 SDC Rewards.

Examples of primative survival skills: Fire Making, Primitive Trapping and Fishing Techniques, Tool Making, Cordage, Water Collection and Purification, etc.  Skills may be repeated.

Keep a log of your experiences during this challenge.  It gets interesting.

That’s it.  Are you ready for the Survivor diet?  Good luck.