Concealed Carry Instruction: Helping People Stay Safer
Posted: December 31, 2015
I remember the first time I shot a handgun. I didn’t grow up with guns the way some kids do, with families into hunting, sporting clays, targets and such. I was an adult and it was back around ’89 or ’90. I was a martial arts instructor, and still in graduate school when my friend Sergeant Ray Sollars taught me how to shoot a Dan Wesson 3″ .357/.38 special. I was hooked immediately and have been ever since.
Over the last 25 years or so, that interest expanded to practical shooting competitions through the International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC). Another friend and I traveled all over Illinois and Indiana competing in IPSC matches. For me, it wasn’t about the competing as much as learning how to handle my firearm better.
I learned a lot from the different challenges, scenarios, and arrays of targets on the different courses over the years I competed. I also had the chance to get around some top shooters. One year when I was hot and heavy into competition, I fired over 10,000 rounds. Now that was a fun summer! It also really locked in some skills.
Get Started. Stay Started.
Posted: December 30, 2015
With the New Year just around the corner, many people start thinking about some of the changes they’d like to make. It’s a good defining point, with 2015 ending, and 2016 beginning. I’ve already heard some resolutions at the gym, and have been making a few myself.
We’ve all made resolutions in the past that just didn’t last, for some reason or another. It’s disappointing when they don’t. I think many times, we don’t even expect to be successful, but we go through the motions anyway. And if we fail, we kind of accept it, figuring that was going to happen anyway.
The problem with a resolution isn’t usually with the resolution, although sometimes we do bite off more than we can chew. Rather, it’s often the attitude behind the resolution. We often just aren’t resolute enough.
The Best Christmas Gift
Posted: December 24, 2015
Christmas is a time for giving. Sure, it’s fun receiving gifts and seeing family, but Christmas is really about the giving. Most everyone over the age of 6 or 7 knows that. Many people take this time to think back to the first Christmas gift.
It happened more than 2,000 years ago. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son.” Imagine that amazing scene in the pasture! Shepherds were guarding their flock when suddenly, a host of angels appeared around them.
Some of the definitions for the word host include “a large number” and “an army”. The term is now actually associated with a “heavenly host.” That’s a lot of angels!
100% Participation So Far!
Posted: December 16, 2015
We just finished Week Six in Biggest Loser “26” with one week left and something remarkable is happening. We’re still at 100% participation. This is amazing given the fact that over the last ten years or so, and 25 Biggest Losers, we’ve tended to average a 50% finish rate.
I used to get depressed about the fact that half didn’t finish, but over the years I’ve come to understand it’s not me. Even if it was, I could learn to live with it. Much of life is learning how to accept and learn from your failures. I’ve had many more “losses” than “wins.”
Besides, batting .500 would be an amazing percentage in baseball. Venture capitalists expect some new ventures to fail. They just need their successes to be big enough to cover the cost of the failures.
Maintaining Your Weight Over The Holidays (Part 2)
Posted: December 10, 2015
Last week we looked at the importance of keeping up your exercise routine over the holidays. We also looked at some strategies about how to keep those calories burning. This week I’d like to spend a few moments on the other side of the equation and cover how to eat right over the holidays!
The first thing to realize is that we’re probably going to overeat. Many health and fitness experts used to assume the average holiday weight gain was around five pounds. But this was really more anecdotal than anything else. Some new research indicates that it might not be as bad as we originally thought.
According to these studies, the average weight gain for adults now appears to be only one or two pounds during the holiday season. If you’re active and near your ideal weight, that’s pretty easy to deal with. Unfortunately, the research also indicates that if you’re already overweight, you stand a good chance of gaining that five pounds. And those pounds usually don’t come right back off.