Amateur Fighters Vs Trained Boxers

March 17th 2017.

When people find out that I like boxing sometimes the topic gets into the idea that amateurs can somehow compete against a trained boxer.

At which point I have to either stifle a laugh or burst out laughing.

The problem lies with the public misconception / myth that boxers are just brawlers and that boxing doesn't require any skill or training. After all, any idiot can throw a punch right?

Yes, any idiot can throw a punch. But are they actually good at throwing a punch? Do their punches connect? How hard do the punches connect? Do they know how to dodge or take a punch?

People who don't know what they are doing typically:

• Regularly miss the target.
• If they do hit, it is often a glancing blow which deals no real damage.
• Don't know anything about footwork.
• Don't know anything about how to fade, block, deflect, etc.
• Don't know how to take a hit.
• Unable to control their emotions, they leave their defenses down.

Trained boxers however:

• Consistently hit the target.
• Rarely deal a glancing blow and hit quite hard in comparison to someone who lacks training.
• Understand how to use footwork to both execute hits and avoid getting hit.
• Knows how to fade, block, deflect, etc.
• Can take their share of hits.
• Very much in control of their emotions, handles themselves with experience.

In the video below you will see an Irish bouncer (who apparently got his job because he is a trained boxer) vs two idiots who think that they have the advantage because of youth. Two young men with no boxing training vs one middle-aged man who knows what he is doing.




Take note of the following:

• The footwork of the bouncer.
• How he avoids confrontation. He plays it safe, and he is also patient.
• How he only punches when he needs to and only when he knows he will connect.
• When he hits, he hits hard. The one idiot gets knocked out cold.

Bonus Boxing Myth Busting Tip

Boxing gloves aren't just to protect the hands of the boxer. They also allow the boxer to hit even harder. Similar to wearing brass knuckles. Get hit by someone using their knuckles and get hit by someone wearing a boxing glove, and you will realize the glove actually hurts more. Unfortunately most people think that boxing gloves hit softer, because they think it is fairly soft. This myth is perpetuated due to ignorance.

In other news, Happy St Patrick's Day!

I am going to spend a chunk of today binge watching the new Netflix show "Iron Fist". I am looking forward to it. (Do you think it is a coincidence they released it on St Patrick's Day?)

The Benefits of Hiking Staffs Vs Trekking Poles

Decades ago my Aunt Carol got some special hiking sticks, which looked like ski poles, for Christmas and at the time I was a teenager and thought they were silly and unnecessary. My mother later tried using them and also liked them and got something similar for when she goes on walks.

However as I have gotten older and done my share of hiking, I have determined having a walking stick of some kind is handy for really steep hill climbs (to help with balance, to hook onto trees to help pull myself upwards, etc) and have long since determined them to be very useful.

When I purchased snowshoes a few years back they came with 'snowshoe poles', which ended up being very useful for snowshoeing and staying upright - it is surprisingly easy to fall over when you lose your footing in snow.

Last year I even went snowshoeing in April after a Freak Snowstorm, and did a post about it. See photo below for my snowshoes and poles in action.

So yes, I have definitely changed my opinion about walking sticks.

Hiking Staffs and Trekking Poles are a whole different topic however. There is the classic wooden walking stick, obviously, but there are subtle differences when you get to the more unusual varieties...

• The Classic Walking Stick - A stick you pick up and just use - perhaps even carved so it is more interesting to look at. Usually about the length of a cane or a bit longer.
• Hiking Staff - Typically made of wood, carved, often a lot taller than your normal walking stick, closer in size to a quarterstaff used by "Little John". Might even be decorated with feathers and/or paint. The "Gandalf" of walking staffs.
• Trekking Poles - Ergonomic handled poles similar to ski poles, designed using lightweight but durable materials, spikes on the bottom for better grip.

Pros and Cons of Each

Source: How to Choose Trekking Poles and Hiking Staffs
https://montemlife.com/trekking-poles-hiking-sticks/buyers-guide/

• Hiking sticks and trekking poles help take the load off your feet, legs, and back. By employing one or two additional points of contact with the ground, your upper body can help offset the strain on your lower body and core.
• Hiking sticks and trekking poles help improve your balance. Even experienced hikers occasionally find it difficult to keep their balance while carrying a heavy pack. By giving yourself an additional point of contact (or two), you’ll benefit from much better stability and balance.
• Hiking sticks and trekking poles make it possible to cross more difficult terrain when necessary. If you are forced to cross a stream, climb a steep hill or negotiate a sandy dune, you’ll have much better success if you use a hiking stick or pair of trekking poles.
• Hiking sticks and trekking poles provide a small measure of increased safety vs predators. While they certainly aren’t designed for the purpose, hiking sticks can help increase your apparent size should you encounter a coyote, bear or stray dog that gets too close for comfort.

And I can think of a few more things to add to the list.

1. You can use the pole as a hook on trees to help pull yourself upwards while climbing steep areas.
2. You can lean on the pole when tired.
3. If it is a really good wooden stick and you have a carving knife handy, you could begin the process of carving a longbow while you are walking - you know, for fun. Then you just need to braid or twist some plant fibre together to make a bowstring.
4. You can have swordfights with friends while hiking, for fun.
5. For thwacking it against rocks or trees to make noise - because music is fun, even in its crudest forms. Also handy for scaring away predators with the noise.
6. To keep your arms busy, trekking poles keep your arms in motion which gives you a better upper-body workout while you are walking so you burn more calories.
7. Increased safety while making your way across something precarious, such as a log that bridges a small stream. Not everyone would walk across that, but I would do so easily with a walking stick for extra balance.

Spring is here early, time to get outside and do Archery

March 1st 2017

This year global warming seems to be in Toronto's favour. I just checked the forecast for the next two weeks and there is only one snowy day (March 3rd) coming up for the city of Toronto. There is supposed to be a little bit of rain next week, but the average temperature will be getting very warm in a hurry.

Historical averages are also handy for predicting how warm the weather will be, but with global warming we can expect it to be warmer than average.

In the photo below you see a homemade moving target I made two years ago for Easter weekend (April 2015). See the amount of snow on the ground? Very little. But that was April during a very long winter we had back in 2015.

In contrast if you go outside today, March 1st, and there is no snow at all. None. We are clearly having a very short and mild winter this year.

On Friday, March 3rd the forecast is calling for 5 mm of snow. Just a tiny bit. Probably will melt by Saturday.

And judging by Toronto's extended forecast for the rest of March, that will probably be all the snow we get in March. (I am starting to really love global warming...)

So how can we take advantage of this lovely weather?

Start booking Archery Lessons right now. Because if you wait too long all the warm weather days will be booked up for the rest of the year.

What do Competitive Archers eat before a Competition?

What Fuels Archery Professionals?

Guest Post by Robert Gate - February 2017.

When preparing for a tournament each archery professional has a different way to train and to prepare for the contest. This extends to the meal they eat before the match to prepare their bodies for the strain ahead. Each member of Team USA champion has a different way to use nutrition to feed their body and to calm their mind, and the following gives insight into the food groups and dining choices these archery athletes choose and why they choose them.

Notes

• To gain extra energy many athletes will consume sugar, salt and electrolytes moments before a competition. This isn't limited to archery, but is found across many sports.
• With archery what they eat can be tricky, as they don't want to consume anything that might make them jittery (like caffeine), which could spoil a shot by ruining their ability to remain calm and focused.
• Archers also want to stay well hydrated. Dehydration (and over-hydration) can cause an archer to lose focus, become forgetful, and consequently ruin shots.

Photo: World Archery

Sarah Lance

• Breakfast: fruit, bowl of cereal or bagel
• Snacks: Crackers and carrots
• Drinks: Gatorade or water

Sarah Lance prefers to maintain a similar diet on a shooting day as she does on a normal average day. Making large changes in her diet alters her ability to be able to control her movement and to steady her aim. Most often she chooses the healthy option of fruit for breakfast, or sometimes the more filling option of cereal or a bagel. She likes to snack throughout the day to maintain her strength and stamina and to keep hydrated she drinks water, Gatorade and sips some soda.

Photo: World Archery

Braden Gellenthien

• Breakfast: Salad
• Lunch: Steak or grilled chicken
• Snacks: Almonds, dried fruit, and Clif Bars

Braden Gellenthien likes to prepare for a tournament a week in advance. This includes making healthier food choices that will give his body the edge that it needs. During this period, he prepares all of his meals at home and grills his meat instead of frying it. This way his body is adjusted to his healthier life choices when the time comes for the archery contest. He makes sure all his nutrition is covered by including meats, fruits, and greens in his daily diet. The snacks are also natural, healthy and allow his body to feel light and agile.

Photo: World Archery

Erika Jones

• Snacks: Subway, Pringles, and Oreos

Erika Jones prefers to take a more casual approach to meals at a tournament and eats what she wishes. This can be a healthy option or give in to her cravings and bring a snack higher in sugar and salt content.

Photo: World Archery

Lee Ford-Faherty

• Snacks: Veggies and Carbs
• Drinks: Powerade Zero

Lee Ford-Faherty bases her diet on the components that will give her the most energy. This includes a diet high in carbohydrates and protein which as an athlete she needs. She believes that it is possible to eat healthily wherever you are for the same cost as it would purchase a nutritionally deficient meal. She makes sure she gives her body the fuel it needs to perform and to give it the right balance of nutrients to maintain her endurance. She also gives her body a lot of fluid because it is quickly lost when standing in the heat of the sun. For this, she drinks Powerade Zero, which as well as hydrating her replaces vital electrolytes.

Photo: World Archery

Crystal Gauvin

• Drink: Water

Crystal Gauvin’s main focus is to drink a lot of water to keep herself hydrated over long periods of standing. Nuun tablets can be placed in the water to replace electrolytes sweated out while shooting and also provides a sweeter taste to the drink. It is healthier than other sports drink options and still provides the hydration and energy that an athlete needs. She brings her cool water to a tournament to ensure she has a constant supply and as much as she feels she needs.

Photo: Sarah Bernstein

Ariel Gibilaro

• Breakfast: Bagel with cream cheese or egg
• Snacks: Chewy Bars and Crackers
• Drink: Water

Ariel Gibilaro finds it difficult to keep to her usual eating routine when attending a tournament due to the traveling and the extended training involved. Long days at the tournament means most of her meals are snack sized and easy to carry. Chewy Bars and crackers can easily be carried with her and quickly eaten when she has a spare moment. One meal she tries to take regularly is her breakfast, which is a bagel spread with cream cheese or served with eggs for protein. To keep hydrated, she chooses water as the healthiest and most natural option.

Photo: archery.tv

Christie Colin

• Dinner: Restaurant food

Christie Colin believes she deserves to have some fun after a hard day at a tournament. She likes to take her friends to The Olive Garden and restaurants and binge on carbohydrates.

Mackenzie Brown
Photo: Mackenzie Brown

• Snacks: Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
• Dinner: Italian

Mackenzie Brown brings pre-prepared snacks to tournaments with her, so she doesn’t have to worry while busy with the competition. These snacks on an international trip remind her of home and include the traditional American peanut butter and jelly sandwich. She treats herself before a ranking match to dinner at an Italian restaurant with pasta as the main course.

Photo: Dean Alberga

Reo Wilde

• Dinner: McDonalds

Some less professional and unconventional athletes prefer a quick and easy alternative. Reo Wilde prefers to grab fast food before the tournament and he always relies on McDonalds to be there, wherever he is in the world.

---

Robert Gate is the founder of Archerytopic.com. He was enthusiastic about hunting from the first shot, from then he decided to become a pro hunter. If you find something helpful in his blog, he would be proud to hear from you.

How to Date a Traditional Bear Bow

In the world of archery, "Bear Archery" is a brand manufacturer from the USA which was started by Fred Bear. The company has been around for decades - since 1939.

And as such there are quite a few antique / vintage Bear bows kicking around. I have one in my collection, a Bear Grizzly Static, from 1949.

The problem with these old antique bows is that collectors sometimes have difficulty dating them. Thus you end up with websites like:

Bear Bow Models, Older Models sorted by Year

You know, as a way to try and differentiate and figure out how to date a particular bow. Find the particular model from the list of bows, and then check the following to narrow down what year a Bear bow was made:

• The Serial Number
• The Coin Medallion
• The Patent Mark
• The Decal stamped on the bow.
• Whether there are wood laminations or not.
• Does it say "Bear Archery" or "Bear Products"
• The location, eg. Grayling, Michigan or Gainesville, Florida

There is another way to do it too, but it involves going through old Bear Archery Catalogs - assuming you can find them - and trying to find your bow using old colour / greyscale photographs that have dulled with age. This method isn't particularly recommended because:

#1. You probably won't even see your bow model in the catalog, as it pretty random what was in a catalog from a particular year.
#2. Even if you did manage to find the catalog from roughly the same year, you could still be guessing as to whether the year is a match or not.

There is another way to date old Bear bows too. If you are willing to spend approx. $39 to add it to your collection...

Jorge Coppen with Arnold Schwarzenegger, 1979

Jorge Coppen, a federal wildlife biologist for 25+ years, lifelong bow hunter, Bear Archery enthusiast, and author, has written a book  on the topic:

"Bear Archery Traditional Bows: A Chronological History"

$38.95 on Indigo.

The book is essentially an informative, illustrated guide book and handy to people who like to collect Bear Archery bows (I only have two myself, I prefer to collect antique bows from many different companies, not just one company).

Here is what the publisher has to say about the book:

" To the Bear Archery traditional bow enthusiast and to the archery community at large, this book "Bear Archery Traditional Bows: A Chronological History (1949–2015)" represents a singular compilation of the chronological history of Bear Archery traditional bow production through the Bear Archery Company’s full timeline. This illustrated reference manual not only preserves the history and heritage of Bear Archery traditional bow production since 1949, it serves as a helpful reference to any and all archers interested in collecting and dating their vintage Bear Archery traditional bows. Each chapter covers a detailed chronology of factory production specifications for each specific bow model or group of related models. It includes photos of bow models for almost every year. The best part is this: at the end of each chapter, there is a table that allows readers to search out the characteristics of their bow by year, AMO length, riser material, medallion, limb glass colors, overlay colors, limb tip colors and where applicable, the two-digit serial number prefix. "

Yada yada. Basically the book is for people who are "Bear Archery Collectors" - the same type of person who would get a portrait of Fred Bear tattooed on themselves.

Photo on the Right: No offense to Fred Bear, but that is a damn ugly tattoo.

Who gets that tattooed on their back? Seriously. Only the true Bear Archery fanatic would do that.

And while I do like Bear bows and consider myself a fan of their bows (and antique bows in general), I don't see myself shelling out $39 for a book when there is a website (the one mentioned further above) which does a very good job of dating the bows. I guess I am just not a super fan.

The South Beach Diet and Four Other Fad Diets

Below is a list of Fad Diets, starting with the South Beach Diet - for which I keep seeing these annoying commercials for on cable TV.

#1.  Prepackaged Meal Plans

The South Beach Diet is a popular fad diet developed by Arthur Agatston and promoted in his 2003 book. These days the South Beach Diet has also expanded to the business of selling meals, just like Jenny Craig / Nutrisystem.

Like many meal-selling diets they sell the consumer / dieter prepackaged meals typically composed of lean protein, lots of vegetables and full grains.

In theory, the diets do work on the principle that the person only consumes the prepackaged food that is sold to them from the company - and cuts the total number of calories a person is eating while still providing all the nutrition an individual needs.

And the food is shipped to you via FedEx - at which point you have to ask, how good is the food if it is sent via a courier and not stored in a freezer en route???

$460 + shipping for four weeks of food - when people could just go buy healthy food at the grocery store for less and take cooking classes on how to make healthy food.

Price Comparisons

Jenny Craig - $15 Monthly fee + $25 Enrollment fee + the cost of food. Cost of food is $420 to $644 for 4 weeks. So it can be slightly less or possibly more than the South Beach Diet.

Nutrisystem - $275 to $577 for 4 weeks, depending upon promo deals and the menu chosen.

Conclusion - All these companies really want to do is sell you food for an outrageous price. What they really should all be doing is selling their food in grocery stores like other food manufacturers, but at a more reasonable price. That way everyone has the option to buy their food items, and at a reasonable price.

#2. Calorie Watching Point System

Weight Watchers has a number of similarities to Jenny Craig, but they don't actually sell you food. Instead they rely on meetings and hanging out with other people who are also going through the Weight Watchers program, and it involves a Point System for how much food you are allowed to eat.

Each day a dieter gets X number of points and they spend those points eating whatever they want, but they only have so many points to spend. Unhealthy foods cost more points. Healthier foods cost less points. Sounds easy, right?

Weight Watchers - $35 Signup fee + weekly fees of $3.45 to $8.67 per week, depending on whether you do online or in-person meetings.

So the meetings work a bit like Alcoholics Anonymous, except it is focused on people who have problems controlling their eating habits. Using the Point System, participants limit their daily intake of calories and use the online support system / meetings to gain positive reinforcement so that gain the mental courage and determination to stick with the diet.

Conclusion - The support system is really what the person is paying for. In theory people could get a lot of the same support from Weight Loss Facebook groups, Meetup Groups for people into dieting/exercising, and similar websites / organizations that operate for free and non-profit.

#3. The Glycemic Index Diet

In the G.I. Diet foods are assigned numbers according to their glycemic index (GI). The higher the GI number, the greater the blood-sugar response. Promoters of the diet claim that low GI foods, such as lentils, can help control your appetite because they're digested and absorbed more slowly - however there is a lack of research on this topic and no real proof that their a connection between lower glycemic levels in food and appetite suppression.

Part of the theory behind this diet is that some low GI foods are nutrient rich, high in fibre and contain unrefined sugars - however that isn't true for all foods. Some low GI foods are still really unhealthy for you. For example French Fries has a lower GI than a baked potato, but that doesn't mean they are good for you.

Conclusion - In theory this diet works some of the time, but it needs to be taken with a mental grain of salt and the wisdom to say no to foods a person knows to be unhealthy, which means it really comes down to moderation and willpower to make this diet successful.

#4. The Zero Carbs or Low Carbs Diet

Various low carb and zero carb diets include notables likes The Atkins Diet, however they all follow the same principle of pointing the blame at carbohydrates - which are frankly in almost everything. If it has carbon and water in the food, then it contains carbs.

It is basically just another way of steering people away from calories, as foods that contain lots of carbs tend to be high in calories - such as bread, pasta and rice.

Similar diets like the Paleo Diet (aka, the Caveman Diet) follows the principle of only eating foods that a caveman would eat, such as vegetables, berries, fruits and meat. Nothing processed and nothing baked (so no bread).

And then there is the Raw Food Diet - which takes the Paleo Diet one step further, but also cuts only a lot of meat that would normally be cooked. So instead a person is reduced to only eating any fruit or vegetable (and possibly raw sushi) that is uncooked and heated no more than 48 degrees Celsius.

However all three of these diets say it is okay to eat avocados - a very fatty fruit - and various other foods that are not healthy either.

The principle of all three diets, Atkins, Paleo and Raw Food is to steer people away from high carb foods like bread, pasta, rice, etc. However the body still needs carbs for energy. You cannot get rid of them completely, plus carbs expand in your belly and make a person "feel full", which in turn reduces a person's appetite.

Conclusion - So eating carbs is technically okay, but it comes back to the moderation and willpower issue again. People can potentially get weight loss success with these diets, but they have to do it smart and the question then becomes, what now after they lose the weight?

#5. Reverse Dieting

Okay, so technically this is not a Fad Diet. I snuck this one in year because almost no one ever does this. Reverse Dieting is what you SHOULD be doing after you successfully lose weight.

You have lost the weight already, but how do you keep it off instead of yo-yo-ing back to your previous weight?

That is where Reverse Dieting comes in, and sadly almost nobody does this - which is why many people end up regaining weight and seeing weight fluctuations over the course of years.

Your goal during Reverse Dieting is to stabilize your eating habits and your weight so that they become a constant. This process takes months to achieve.

After completing a diet a person typically returns to older eating habits, but their stomach is still roughly the same size as it used to be. Unless they somehow lost weight slowly and gradually, their stomach is probably still the same size. They need to continue eating lesser amounts of food until their stomach shrinks down to a size that matches their new body.

One way to do this is to count calories and incrementally increase the amount of food a person eats only their body-weight stabilizes.

Example

If a person was eating 1400 calories per day and losing 1 lb of fat per week and then they reach their desired weight. Their old diet was 2500 to 2800 calories per day, which was clearly way too much. If they just went back to their old diet, they would end up regaining the weight in a hurry.

Instead, knowing how much they were consuming during the diet they should now incrementally increase their diet until their weight stabilizes, such as increases it to 1500 calories per day for 1 month and keeping a record of their weight fluctuations during that month.

At the end of the month they see that they have still lost a few pounds of fat, which means they need to incrementally increase their diet again, this time to 1600 calories per day.

The goal then is to keep doing this each month until their weight stops fluctuating and remains a constant.

Once the constant has been reached a person should keep track of their calories for 6 months or more so that their stomach and eating habits permanently adjust to their new diet. Thus their diet becomes complete.

Conclusion - A key component of Reverse Dieting is maintenance and vigilance. All other diets are basically useless unless a person also learns how to keep the weight off and maintain their ideal weight.

The No Added Sugar and No Alcohol Diet

Part of the problem is that sugar / alcohol are commonplace.

A few days ago I came across a video from Denmark about a Danish guy in his 20s who went on a No Added Sugar and No Alcohol Diet for 30 days. You can see the video at the bottom.

Please note that the diet doesn't mean cutting out sugar entirely. It just means "no added sugar".

eg. Ketchup has a lot of added sugar. Corn syrup is basically pure sugar, so anything with added sugar, glucose or fructose should be avoided. The sugars naturally found inside whole grains, fruits and veggies, perfectly normal to have.

Initially I thought it would be an interesting experiment to do - to see how much difference it would make, and compare it to my previous 30 Days as a Vegetarian. However the realities of the diet and my busy lifestyle later convinced me that now was not the time to be doing such an experiment. From Spring to Autumn I have a fairly busy schedule and am heading to work, working, coming home from work, going to social events, attending social events, coming home from social events, plus all the other menial tasks. You know, like sleeping, cooking, cleaning and doing laundry.

Cutting out alcohol completely is a doable task. And perhaps I will do that eventually - just as soon as we run out of leftover wine from my wedding in 2016. We have started giving bottles away...

But the No Added Sugar part is really tricky.

• It means no buying anything from Tim Hortons/etc on the way to work.
• It means no buying a burger or pizza on the way to social events.
• It means no bread - because it is basically impossible to find sugarless bread unless you bake it yourself.
• It means I will need to make and pack lunches all the time, because any food purchased in restaurants likely has at least some added sugar. (Even a salad will have sugar in the salad dressing.)
• It means very careful grocery shopping.
• It means extra time requirements for food preparation both for food at home and food packed for lunches.

And right now with a pregnant wife in the house, if I value my life and my marriage, now is not the time to be experimenting with the menu.

So instead I have adopted a different approach. I am working on my cooking skills instead, as fatherhood is in my future and I should brush up on my skills. A diet that isn't practical for me right now doesn't really make sense.

But what about other people who have more spare time to try out this diet?

The Danish guy in the video looks like he is already pretty athletic and probably already eats reasonably healthy food. He even has abs. So it seems like an unfair test in some ways.

I am very curious about how the diet would help someone who isn't in their 20s and already fit.  I want to see how this diet would work on someone who is in their 40s or 50s, and is overweight due to eating comparatively unhealthy foods.

That to me would be the true "acid test" to see how well this diet really works.

The No Added Sugar / No Alcohol Diet has been compared to various detox diets - the kind that follow the logic that if you aren't eating certain foods over a longer time period that your body will detoxify itself from various toxins in your system.

However your body already does this, primarily through your liver. What an useful organ the liver is. The problem really is when people get too many toxins in their system and their liver cannot handle it all. Hence liver cancer and similar ailments.

Still, less sugar in the body is still healthier regardless. The trick here is that our bodies can make its own sugar. We don't actually need to eat sugar to live. Our body can make sugar itself.

Can you guess which of our body parts makes sugar?

Scroll below the video to see which one it is!




The Liver!

What an amazing organ.

In addition to filtering out toxins like alcohol, the liver both stores and produces sugar. The liver acts as the body's glucose (or fuel) reservoir, and helps to keep your circulating blood sugar levels and other body fuels steady and constant. The liver both stores and manufactures glucose depending upon the body's need.

So really the above diet should be called The Healthy Liver Diet, as that is clearly what it is designed to do.

I would be curious to see what the diet would do to help people who are the early stages of liver disease. Help it, certainly. But by how much? Is it a viable treatment or just part of a range of things a person should be doing when they are in the early stages?

A low sugar diet is still a good thing obviously. As is cutting out alcohol, but sometimes people have to make personal health choices that are practical and make sense for YOU, not just because the latest fad diet says so.

Chocolate Dipped Strawberries for Valentines

Valentines is fast approaching and it is a time when many people gift chocolate to their sweethearts. And while the sentiment is sweet, store-bought chocolate candy that’s made with refined sugar tebds to cause weight gain and an energy crash.

So why not eat something healthier that has less sugar and still shows your affection?

There are many ways to make your own chocolate treats at home using unsweetened chocolate and a touch of wholesome sweeteners. Below is a recipe for Chocolate Dipped Strawberries that does not contain any refined sugar. Give it a try and see how delicious this healthier chocolate treat is...

Here’s what you need to make 4 Chocolate Dipped Strawberries:

• 1 oz unsweetened chocolate pieces or bar
• ¼ teaspoon coconut oil
• ½ teaspoon raw honey
• liquid stevia or other equivalent sweetener (eg. maple syrup)
• 4 large, ripe strawberries, chilled

Combine the chocolate, coconut oil and honey in a pan over low heat. Stir until fully melted. Add sweetener (stevia, maple syrup, etc) in a small amount for sweetness. You will have to decide how much or how little you want to use. Since this is your first time making this, I recommend a tiny amount for now and in the future you can adjust the recipe.

Line a small plate with parchment paper. Dip the strawberries 75% of the way into the chocolate, withdraw and place on the prepared plate. If you have extra chocolate left over drizzle it over the strawberries so that none is wasted.

Chill until serving. Enjoy!

Nutritional Analysis: One serving (two chocolate dipped strawberries) equals: 89 calories, 8g fat, 7g carbohydrate, 3g sugar, 4mg sodium, 3g fiber, and 2g protein.

Notes

If you multiply the above recipe you can make 8, 12, 16 or more strawberries so you can share with family and friends. In which case you can even arrange them on a platter or in a bowl.

If you use white chocolate instead you can also create white chocolate dipped strawberries, and using the leftover chocolate in the pan you can drizzle white chocolate on the brown, and brown chocolate on the white, to create strawberries with stripes on them.

Happy and Healthy Valentines!

Submitted to CardioTrek.ca courtesy of RealHealthyRecipes.com. Edited by Charles.

Five Styles of Arrow Rests

Investing in a good arrow rest is one of the best things you can do, equipment wise, to improve the accuracy of your bow. Today we are look at five common styles of arrow rests, their pros and cons, and give you a look at why having a good quality arrow rest can go a long way towards improving accuracy.

#1. The Cheap Plastic Arrow Rest

You get what you pay for with this arrow rest. Do not expect any great accuracy and it will eventually wear down and need to be replaced.

The proper way to install it is horizontally. However some people don't know this and install it vertically... Which results in lots more inaccuracy as the arrow fletching ends up rubbing against the arrow rest way more.

There is also a particular style of cheap plastic arrow rest that is meant for either left-handed or right-handed bows, and you are supposed to rip off the section of the arrow rest you are not using - see image below. Again, people don't know that they are supposed to cut off / rip off that section, and thus suffer from unnecessary inaccuracy simply because they don't know any better.

#2. The Wire Arrow Rest aka Flipper

There are many different designs of arrow rests like this (see the image on the right and the two images below) - and in theory people could make their own using nothing more than a paper clip and tape, and it would work practically the same way.

The principle is simple. The arrow rests on top of a tiny bit of wire and it flips out of the way as the arrow passed by, causing comparatively little contact with the arrow - and thus improving accuracy.

Compared to a plastic arrow rest, a wire arrow rest lasts a lot longer. It will eventually wear down however. The wire will become bent, the plastic on the side of the arrow rest can wear down, and so forth.

#3. The Spring Weighted Arrow Rest

NAP and similar companies make a variety of spring-loaded arrow rests wherein the archer can adjust the spring to the weight of the arrow. When used the force of the arrow passing by brushes the arrow rest out of the way, creating very little friction.

For best results the archer should try to adjust the spring so it matches the weight of the arrows perfectly - and then always use the same weight of arrows when shooting with that bow.

This style of arrow rest is commonly used on compound bows, but it can also be used on recurve bows that are compatible.

#4. The Hair Arrow Rest, Traditional Fur or Whisker Biscuit

Traditional archers tend to favour a very traditional way of doing things - in this case an arrow rest that resembles fur. The arrow rests upon the fur, brushes over gently and the fur barely touches it.

Whether an archer uses faux fur, felt, hair, carpet or similar materials, the principle is the same - a furry carpet that brushes gently against the arrow, thus minimizing contact and increasing accuracy. (Personal Note - Years ago I made a similar arrow rest using sheepskin - it was very furry and I had to trim it down quite a bit. It looks like the bow has a moustache.)

The Whisker Biscuit Arrow Rest (shown below) follows the same principle, but is usually used for compound bows. The arrow brushes against plastic whisker that surround and entrap the arrow. Some archers trip the whiskers back where the vane fletching rubs against the whiskers in order to minimize it further.

#5. The Drop Away Arrow Rest

This last type of arrow rest drops down out of the way midshot, in theory allowing the arrow to pass by with zero contact with the arrow rest. It is spring loaded to make the process very fast. It is tuned and attached (usually) to a compound bow cable. When the shot is released, the cable moves, triggering the arrow rest to drop away. This creates an extremely accurate shot, but the arrow rest needs to be tuned properly to achieve this desired result.

Archery Proverbs

While similar to quotes, proverbs are old sayings that cannot be applied to any one person. They are often cultural in their origin, and while likely started with one unknown person, they have since become a saying used by many people.

Proverbs often have a deeper meaning for those wise enough to think about what the deeper meaning might be. Typically a proverb is a metaphor, comparing one thing to another. Sometimes the proverb is also meant to be funny, but not always.

An example of a funny proverb is:

"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana."

- English Proverb

The implied pun is fruit flies. It is corny, and you would think that this proverb is pretty much useless - unless you consider that old things tend to go bad, sour, rot, etc - and that time goes faster than you think. Thus a wise person should respect time and take a moment to use things before they go bad and remember to throw them out before they reach the point where they start to have bad consequences (such as old bananas attracting fruit flies).

The primary goal of a proverb is to impart some speck of wisdom. However small.

Lets take for example the Sudanese Proverb: "Let rats shoot arrows at each other." The implied wisdom here is that untrustworthy people (rats) will end up killing each other. The implied wisdom is that a person should: 1) Not associate themselves with untrustworthy rats. 2) They should not be rats themselves.

Many of the proverbs on this page are cultural proverbs that are not necessarily about archery, but using archery as a metaphor to talk about something else.

Below are some examples of Archery Proverbs that are actually about Archery:

"Aim small, miss small."

"When in doubt, aim lower."

"It never hurts to be closer to the target."

"Don't rub your fletching the wrong way."

Some proverbs are also found across multiple cultures but with different wordings. So you may spot a number of proverbs below which are identical or very similar to proverbs to other cultures. This is often because the two cultures were close to each other geographically or perhaps have a historical connection.

For example:

"A man without money is a bow without an arrow."

- Romanian Proverb

"A man without money is like a bow without arrows."

- Indian Proverb

Now you might think India is pretty far from Romania, but if you know your history then you should also know that Romani Gypsies are originally from India. Thus the Romanian Proverb likely has its origin in India and traveled there with wandering gypsies.

Other times it is pretty clear that similarities in proverbs is due to a shared language.

"The archer that shoots badly has a lie ready."

- Spanish Proverb

"The bowman who is a bad marksman has a lie ready."

- Mexican Proverb

And of course sometimes there are proverbs that don't have a known particular culture.

"A wise woman knows her husband like an archer knows their target."

- Traditional Proverb

Note - The list of archery proverbs below are in no way comprehensive or complete. There are doubtlessly more. If you know of any I am missing, please add them in the comments.

Listed Alphabetically, by Culture

"Words are like arrows throw them only when you know where they will fall."
- African Proverb

"A cutting word is worse than a bowstring, a cut may heal, but the cut of the tongue does not."
- African Proverb

"A hunter with one arrow doesn't shoot with a careless aim."
- African Proverb

"The arrow that missed the head of its target will never hit the tail."
- African Proverb

"The last partridge will take the most arrows."
- African Proverb

"A bow too much bent will break."
- Albanian Proverb

"Faster than an arrow."
- Arab Proverb

"I taught him archery everyday, and when he got good at it he throw an arrow at me."
- Arab Proverb

"The ropeman got mixed with the archer."
- Arab Proverb

"When you shoot an arrow of truth, dip its point in honey."
- Arab Proverb

"Four things come not back -- the spoken word, the sped arrow, the past life, and the neglected opportunity."
- Arab Proverb

"The eagle was killed by an arrow made from its own feathers."
- Armenian Proverb

"If you shoot your arrows at stones, you will damage them."
- Austrian Proverb

"A trick is not an arrow."
- Bajan Proverb

"A son as cunning as his father knows the arrows like father."
- Bajan Proverb

"There is no bow without its meat."
- Bajan Proverb

"For a jest one should not take the arrow out of the quiver."
- Bajan Proverb

"The place to use the club and the above arrow are not the same."
- Bajan Proverb

"Don't use up your arrows before you go to battle."
- Burmese Proverb

"If one archer guards a narrow pass, ten thousand cannot get through."
- Chinese Proverb

"It is easy to dodge the arrow of an enemy, but difficult to avoid the spear of a friend."
- Chinese Proverb

"Deer-hunter, waste not your arrow on the hare."
- Chinese Proverb

"Kill two vultures with one arrow."
- Chinese Proverb

"Mistaking the reflection of a bow in a cup for a snake."
- Chinese Proverb

"Draw the bow but don't shoot - it is a bigger threat to be intimidated than to be hit."
- Chinese Proverb

"A bow long bent at length waxeth weak."
- Danish Proverb

"The bow may be bent until it breaks."
- Danish Proverb

"Don't overstrain your bow -- it may break."
- Dutch Proverb

"Strain not your bow beyond its bent, lest it break."
- Dutch Proverb

"Good hunters track narrowly."
- Dutch Proverb

"The bow must not be always bent."
- Dutch Proverb

"It is too late to cry "Hold hard!" when the arrow has left the bow."
- Dutch Proverb

"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana."
- English Proverb

"An arrow shot upright falls on the shooter's head."
- English Proverb

"The air of a window is as the stroke of a cross-bow."
- English Proverb

"A good archer is not known by his arrows, but his aim."
- English Proverb

"If you sow arrows, you will reap sorrows."
- Filipino Proverb

"Not every sort of wood is fit to make an arrow."
- French Proverb

"Unstringing the bow does not cure the wound."
- French Proverb

"If you have no arrows in your quiver, go not with archers."
- German Proverb

"You will break the bow if you keep it always bent."
- Greek Proverb

"He who wants to shoot at a crow, will not pluck his bow."
- Hungarian Proverb

"A man who shoots his arrows as he makes them does not realize when he has shot a whole sheaf."
- Igbo Proverb

"A man without money is like a bow without arrows."
- Indian Proverb

"Why would a man without a bow look for arrows?"
- Indian Proverb

"It is always good to have two strings to your bow."
- Italian Proverb

"Unbending the bow does not heal the wound."
- Italian Proverb

"A bow that is bent too far will break."
- Italian Proverb

"Have two strings to your bow."
- Italian Proverb

"Time flies like an arrow."
- Japanese Proverb

"A wild goose may be worth a hundred pieces of gold, but you first have to spend three pieces of gold to buy an arrow."
- Japanese Proverb

"A single arrow is easily broken; a quiver of ten is not."
- Japanese Proverb

"The pen wounds deeper than an arrow."
- Jewish Proverb

"Do not throw the arrow which will return against you."
- Kurdish Proverb

"Let but the hours of idleness cease, and the bow of Cupid will become broken and his torch extinguished."
- Latin Proverb

"Don't draw another's bow, don't ride another's horse, don't mind another's business."
- Latin Proverb

"A bow too much bent is broken."
- Latin Proverb

"One little arrow does not kill a serpent."
- Malawian Proverb

"The bowman who is a bad marksman has a lie ready."
- Mexican Proverb

"A man must make his own arrows."
- Native American Proverb

"There are many good moccasin tracks along the trail of a straight arrow.""
- Native American Proverb

"Thoughts are like arrows: once released, they strike their mark. guard them well or one day you may be your own victim."
- Native American Proverb

"A hunter who has only one arrow does not shoot with careless aim."
- Nigerian Proverb

"If a child shoots an arrow that reaches the top of a tall palm tree, then it must be that an elderly person carved the arrow for him."
- Nigerian Proverb

"Even as the archer loves the arrow that flies, so too he loves the bow that remains constant in his hands."
- Nigerian Proverb

"The archer knows his target."
- Nilotic Proverb

"A father without sons is like a bow without arrows."
- Nilotic Proverb

"The archer that speaks too much, goes home empty handed."
- Nilotic Proverb

"Harsh words hurt more than a poisonous arrow."
- Nilotic Proverb

"The bird will not fly into your arrow."
- Ovambo Proverb

"Draw not thy bow before thy arrow be fixed."
- Persian Proverb

"The arrow that has left the bow never returns."
- Persian Proverb

"An arrow can be pulled out of a wound, but a hurtful word stays forever in your heart."
- Persian Proverb

"You have many strings to your bow."
- Portuguese Proverb

"Like wood, like arrow."
- Romanian Proverb

"A bow long bent at last waxes weak."
- Romanian Proverb

"A man without money is a bow without an arrow."
- Romanian Proverb

"You can best shoot an eagle with an arrow made from its own feathers."
- Russian Proverb

"Many speaks of Robin Hood, that never shot in his Bow."
- Scottish Proverb

"I have a good bow, but it is in the Castle."
- Scottish Proverb

"It is the hunter who always beats the lions, because it is the hunter who always tells the stories."
- Senegalese Proverb

"A hunter has no mysterious notions about the forest."
- Shona Proverb

"Better to be shot with a crossbow than rejected by a window slammed shut."
- Sicilian Proverb

"Love kills with golden arrows."
- Spanish Proverb

"The bow that is always bent slackens or breaks."
- Spanish Proverb

"The archer that shoots badly has a lie ready."
- Spanish Proverb

"The pig's tail will never make a good arrow."
- Spanish Proverb

"Let rats shoot arrows at each other."
- Sudanese Proverb

"If an arrow goes into a forest it is not lost."
- Swahili Proverb

"Do not lend your bow or arrows to a man who seeks to do you ill."
- Traditional Proverb

"The enemy's cold heart summons the arrow to it."
- Traditional Proverb

"It is easy to dodge a spear that comes in front of you but hard to keep harms away from an arrow shot from behind."
- Traditional Proverb

"An archer cannot hit the bullseye if he doesnt know where the target is."
- Traditional Proverb

"One arrow does not bring down two birds. But one archer can."
- Turkish Proverb

"The forest provides food to the bowhunter after they are exhaustingly tired."
- Zimbabwean Proverb