WHAT!!!!! Nothing but Meat??

It’s 1:30pm on a regular Thursday afternoon, home from work, snacked on a handful of pretzels and wallah, it’s nap time! What the hell is happening to me? This isn’t right. I should not be tired and napping at 1:30pm and I need to get out of this horrible habit!!!

It’s been almost four weeks since that day and my most current attempt, at transforming my life into something better.

Lets go back a month, when I, while trolling YouTube for political videos, found Jordan Petersen. Jordan Petersen is a pod caster/ You Tuber and whatever else you may call him, who opines on a variety of topics, and on this day he was talking about his experience with the Carnivore lifestyle. Petersen found the Carnivore way of life because of his daughter who had been struggling with devastating arthritis. At a young age she needed, I believe, hip and knee replacement and doctors had no idea how to slow down or stop the progression of her arthritis. Desperate to save her body, she took one last leap of faith and chose to change her way of eating. She researched the Carnivore lifestyle and figured what had she to lose since nothing else was curing her.

It turns out that she found the healing properties she was seeking in an all meat based diet., which put her arthritis in remission. Now I know that this sounds crazy and also against everything we have been told about eating meat and how bad it is for us, but it intrigued me enough to start researching this on my own to see what it was about.

But first, a little background on myself and my nutritional lifestyle. I am a 63 year old male who has been fighting my weight with dieting, almost my entire adult life. I thought that I finally found some success when 20+ years ago I discovered P90X and breakfast. Those two things were the main reasons I remain today some 25 lbs lighter than I was prior to that last diet and exercise regimen. Although I have been very happy that I never gained back my weight that was lost, I still continued to fight weight gain, sometimes fluctuating 10 lbs more then finding my way back to my “normal” weight. So where am I going with this you ask? Well after falling asleep on that chair, I finally had a moment of clarity. I realized that the past 20 years I have never felt healthy and found myself almost always in a fog with low energy. I had been wasting so much time in a chair instead of taking advantage of working less and having more free time then in my youth. I had enough!

On Sunday, four weeks ago, I changed my eating habits and took the dive into Carnivore. After watching an endless amount of people swear how their lives were changed by giving up processed foods, sugar and pesticide filled vegetables and fruits, I was all in. This is my journey:

Day one: I began slowly by cutting out what I could the first day even though I went to breakfast with a friend. The idea is to eat nothing but beef, eggs, butter and bacon. Some carnivores also include some dairy, hard cheeses, fish and all other meats. The real key though is to get a pretty balanced amount of protein and fat with every meal. Basically the protein heals and nourishes and the fat satisfies you so you are never hungry. Fat as it is, is very important in maintaining and having success with this lifestyle.

When I began this journey I started documenting everything that I have noticed about my body and the changes, good and bad. I have to say that in the first two weeks, the worst thing is the diarrhea that you will experience due to the changes in diet and how your body doesn’t have any fiber to absorb all the extra fat. The good news is your body rejects more fat than it can absorb. Since you only produce so much bile, the body will not store the extra fat but it will expel it. It takes some getting used to and some have a worse time of it than others but everyone I watched on video stated they got through it pretty easily. Other than that I had experienced dizziness and feeling lightheaded especially while playing tennis and perspiring. This I would find out was due to the decrease in electrolytes in my diet, so I made adjustments based on what others recommended and it soon passed. The good though, far outweighed the bad. Here’s a LIST of what changed for the positive in as little as three days, and thru the first two weeks.

  1. Weight loss of 10 pounds
  2. Eczema condition on my elbows began to regress and heal
  3. Sleeping better with less or no tossing and waking up
  4. No more inflammation of my legs, hands and joints
  5. Blood pressure back to normal numbers
  6. Craving more water
  7. No more cloudiness or brain fog but complete clarity
  8. Energy that makes me feel like I can run through a wall
  9. No more mood swings but generally always happy
  10. Skin feels nourished and never dry
  11. NO CRAVINGS FOR ANYTHING SWEET( this one is paramount!!!)
  12. No body odors
  13. No more tight hamstrings( which I ALWAYS had)
  14. My bicep tendinitis that had plagued me on and off for two years is gone.
  15. Probably more that I can’t remember without checking my journal.
  16. and finally, less expensive shopping list and easy menu..lol

That was just the first two weeks… I am in my fourth week as I write this and I can’t say enough how incredible I feel. The biggest thing about this lifestyle is you are hardly ever hungry and never crave anything. After just a few days, the sugar craving goes away and the fat in your diet keeps you so satiated that you hardly ever look for your next meal. I have gone periods of between 12 -18 hours of not eating because I had no desire or hunger to do so. This is not done purposely but only out of lack of being hungry.

From what I am led to believe, you go into a state of Ketosis whereas it burns fat off your body in between meals which in turn keeps you satisfied and thins your waistline in the process. Whatever it is it works. All those videos I watched for two weeks prior to trying this Carnivore lifestyle proved true. My past dieting and lifestyle never produced such great affect on my life. I am feeling healthier than ever and have so much energy that sometimes I don’t know what to do with myself.

So where do I go from here? I don’t believe I can go my whole life without eating ice cream, sweets or bread, which I love, but I do believe that I can sustain this lifestyle even with the occasional cheat day in there once in awhile. Honestly my goal was to try this for a week and see how I felt but now that I am in full blown Carnivore mode I have no desire to go back. The last thing I need to do is get my blood work done to see if my vitals are still in line or better than what they were prior to Carnivore.

One last thought. If you are suffering from chronic anything, whether it be tiredness, skin condition, IBS or something else, you owe it to your self to look into this lifestyle. You will be amazed at how many people have hopped on board that have benefited with better health and a more productive life from just changing what they put in their bodies.

Just one man’s opinion

The Regular Guy

  • disclaimer.- I am in no way endorsing or promoting this Carnivore lifestyle to anyone but merely stating how this change has affected my life and how it may perhaps, affect yours. Do your homework and always consult professional advice and guidance when making life changes.
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LEGACY

I have forever felt the need to do something with my life that would leave a mark. I think about people like Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, MLK etc. and how they will be remembered forever for what they accomplished in their short time here on earth. It has always been a wonder for me about why we are all here. Would I waste my time here? Who would know that I was here after I am gone?

Those people I mentioned did things that didn’t take the money of a Bill Gates or Elon Musk. They were great on their merits and their beliefs, their passion to do what was right. There was no twitter or Facebook with a “million “followers or enough money to influence people’s opinions or beliefs.

What do normal everyday people leave behind? How will we be remembered when we are gone?

My mother lived a somewhat normal life as she never invented anything or created a niche for people to follow her but she did do one thing extraordinarily well. She devoted her life to her family. My mom may not have done everything perfectly right raising us but the one important thing she did do, was make us know love. There has never been a moment in my life, that I did not know my mom’s love for me.

I remember my mom telling us how being a mom was the one thing she wanted in her life. In fact, she gave up a promising career as a singer to marry my dad and raise a family. Not much of that going around these days, I can tell you that. It showed up every day in the box score, just how much that was true.

When I was a young boy playing little league ball, my mom would be there every game to cheer me on even though I was terrible. I could hear her yell “confidence “from the stands. Although I tried to hide in embarrassment then, later in life I realized just how much that inspired me to take chances and not fear the outcome.

I believe my mom became who she was despite having the relationship she did with her mother. I believe my fathers family gave her all the love she craved and didn’t get from her mother or siblings and in turn she gave it back tenfold to her family. I don’t mean her immediate family but her ENTIRE family. I can remember vividly how she was always there for my Uncle Shookie during his worst and most embarrassing moments of his life. While most families would have turned him away for his horrible behavior, she would just love him and try to make him understand that he was loved. I know why she was always my Uncle’s favorite person and why he loved her so much, even though he never quite found his way until shortly before his death.

My mom had the unique ability to attract hurting or dysfunctional young people in need of love and friendship. It was amazing to me that despite our chiding her for the way these people found their way to her she just continued her way of comforting them. She would say she was doing Gods work but I believe she truly enjoyed her time spent with each and every one of them knowing that she was giving them something they couldn’t find anywhere else, love.

Over the last three weeks, prior to, during and after her passing, I have done a lot of thinking about her legacy. My family and I have been going through and clearing out her “items” she had collected over her lifetime. “Collected “may actually be the wrong word as “hoarding” might be more appropriate. My mom never threw anything away if she felt she had a connection to it or that she might someday need it in the distant future. When I say “distant future” its no joke. We found everyday junk mail, greeting cards, acorns, clipped hairs, wish bones and newspaper clippings form the 40’s and 50’s.  Thousands of pictures, some of people we have no idea who they were. And journals, personal journals of her life, that we have yet to peruse, more so out of fear of what we will read then lack of time to do so.

But through all our discoveries, I learned about a person’s legacy. I realize now that it isn’t important if the whole world knew you existed. Or if you leave behind a fortune or some invention no one thought of. It doesn’t matter if you traveled the world or just your neighborhood. What matters is if you affected just one person’s life in a way that made it better. In a way that they would remember how you imprinted something in them that changed the course of their life. Made them feel loved when they never knew what that meant. Took time to listen to their stories over and over and smiled like you heard them for the first time. Was a friend because you cared about their soul not just because they drove you to the mall on Thursdays.

This was my mom’s legacy. She touched the lives of so many people we didn’t know and left lifelong impressions on them. We learned this from all the cards and letters she received in her life that she never discarded. Letters from children, some of which, now adults, came from miles away to show their respect and share their stories of my mom with my family. We learned this from the phone calls we received from those too far away but still thought enough to reach out to us and let us know what my mom meant to them. My mom left lasting impressions on almost everyone she spent time with. I believe that my mom, although a hoarder in her own way, left behind all these boxes of memories, not so much for her, but for us. For us to discover and later celebrate her life and all the things that were important to her. Even though we would laugh at how she would save some of the things we discovered, I began to realize that the laughter was a good thing. That even though I am sad from her leaving us, she still had one last way to make us feel loved and happy. She put us in a place where we could learn the things about her that we never knew. Learn of a part of the person she was that we somehow never understood the magnitude of.

When I raised my glass to toast my mom, I asked everyone to not just remember my mom but to never stop telling her stories or teaching their kids and their grand kids about her. In reality, we keep those who passed alive by talking about and sharing their stories and as long as we continue to do so they are never really gone.

This, in the end, is how we keep our loved ones alive, share in and continue their legacy….

I love you mom..

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“Why Blog”??

There are infinite blogging sites on the web and access to just about any topic is just a search away. Everyone who blogs has their reason for doing so. Here is mine…..

I started my blog to just give myself a place that I could release all my thoughts without having to speak directly to someone but also to have the ability to speak to anyone interested in listening.

But years later, after giving this some thought, I realized I do this to leave something behind after I am gone. I believe, we are all here for a reason and that we all leave a mark on someone. An imprint, good or bad but something that will live on long after we leave this life.

Our lives are so busy. Friends and family rarely spend time together like in the old days, when weekends were for visiting grandmas house and having dinner with half the family! Those days are long gone and now, trying to just see your family can be difficult when so many of us live a great distance from where we all grew up.

I guess with the point I am trying to make, I should be more specific and talk about my life and experience.

I am a divorced dad, albeit its been decades from when I was married to my daughters mom, but being a divorced dad usually leads to more separation from your child then that of a mom. Most moms get residential custody so they spend time with their child as if nothing changed. They wake each day in the same house, watch television, do homework and eat together. They talk daily about everything that happens in each others life. But as a dad, we often miss all the little things when a child gets to know a parent. This is a major reason why dads often become outsiders or don’t always know what their children want. The early stages in a child’s life is when they learn what type of parents they have. How much can they get away with from one? Who should they go to for help with math homework? Who do they feel safe confiding in? When you are the one always present you become the go to for everything.

The years that my daughter and I spent apart were difficult. There was so much I wanted to share but with limited time, being involved in a business and living an hour apart hindered a lot of the opportunity to bond. Problems arose with communication between us and times were difficult for both my daughter and myself. As a child I would imagine it was hard to say how she felt in fear of hurting my feelings or just not knowing how to express herself. As a dad I didn’t want to hurt her emotionally anymore than I already did by divorcing her mom and moving out. So backing away became the option I chose, in hopes that one day as she grew to an adult, our relationship could become something more than weekend visits.

I started my blog sometime when she was in her twenties and began writing about my life and how different things affected me as a man. Some of my posts were aimed at parenting and relationships. Most were about just being a man and how men look at the world and the people in their lives. Being that I have always had a love of food, the blog also became a way of expressing it. But all those years I never realized the thing that I was creating wasn’t just a blog for others to comment on but a part of my legacy.

Just recently, I sat and thought about the words I have written over the past 13 years and what it all meant. I was having trouble getting back into blogging since my life moved in a different direction and I kind of put writing on hold. But as I sat and thought about if I should continue the blog, I began reading my older posts and it was then that I knew this was for my daughter and my family. I know now that I should keep writing and blogging until the time in my life that I can no longer write.

Legacy….what would I leave behind? What will I leave my daughter when I am gone? We are taught early in life about wills and what tangible items we can pass on but never did I think about leaving my thoughts of what made me who I am, for my family to read and remember me by, long after I am gone. Maybe the granddaughter I may not have a lot of time with now, while she is young will someday want to know who her grandfather was.

The things that I have written over the years have allowed people to get to know me on a different more personal level. What better way for my family to have something of me to pass on to my grand kids and then later, their children.

I wish I had stories I to read that my grandpa could have written. How much more would I know about him if I could have read his thoughts? How much more could I have learned from him?

So after sitting and contemplating ending my blog, I have found a new reason to continue writing and sharing my stories and opinions, not just for those who find me interesting but more so for my daughter and her children.

As a side note, my relationship with my daughter has been wonderful. I am blessed that after the rocky road we traveled separately, came to a fork where we both met and continued on together. I love you Sammi….

Just one man’s opinion

The Regular Guy

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Bring God back in style

I know its not fashionable to talk about God let alone believe in such a being, but isn’t it about time we do?

I have never considered myself a devoted Catholic and as my parents can tell you, they had to force me to attend church when I was young. Even so, whose parents didn’t have to force their child to attend church? Kids don’t have any interest in God except that we are told we HAVE to believe in him. Parents actually “put the fear of God ” in you all the time. Think of all the things you did or thought of doing as a kid that you didn’t at some point think about the consequences before carrying out that deed.

So as children we don’t take God or our religion seriously. After all we are too busy just trying to hang with our friends and have fun. Sure, in the back of our minds we think of God and what we are taught and I am sure many of us have not done things we could have if not for our conscience and the thought of God looking down on us and remembering this ill advised move, on judgement day.

So where does that bring me in today’s world. I can tell you that in the last few years, I have recognized what is going on in our culture and that I am totally disgusted and quite frankly scared stiff about the direction we are headed.

America was founded on religious principals. People fled religious persecution to be in America where our Constitution and Bill of Rights demanded freedom of religion to all Americans. So what happened? Our government has been systematically removing religion from our culture. What was once the backbone of our civilization has now become the target for removal by our leadership, from government buildings and interior walls to textbooks and schools.

Where we have turned our backs most notably is in our entertainment media of television and film. It often disgusts me at most and makes me shake my head at minimum, in disbelief, the things we now accept as normal in film but more so in television.

When I was a young child and even so today, I found it very uncomfortable to hear or see something objectionable on television while in the company of my parents. Today I feel the same way when in the company of my daughter, even that she is in her thirties. How is it that every new show or film has graphic language and sexual content? How has this become something that appears in everything we watch today? When I was young we tried so hard just to see an R rated movie in hopes we would see a naked woman. Today you can sit in your living room, turn on network television and see a woman’s ( or man’s) naked body walk past the screen on almost every show. Graphically depicted sexual scenes are common place now and no longer in need of an R rating. Language, cursing and words we wouldn’t dream of saying in the presence of an adult are now part of our everyday life.

So how have we become a nation that accepts this change? How has this move away from what we were taught as children, to be respectful, watch your language and that sexual relationships were private, become the complete opposite. Who decided this is okay?

For me, I believe it goes hand in hand with the removal of God and religion from our lives. I have been reflecting on this and how I may also, have played a part in this turning away from God.

A few years back I read a book, the Harbinger, and in this book it showed the similarities between Israel in the years before Christ and America today. The author points out the path we are on and how as with Israel, we are turned away from God. There are some that believe that Israel was blessed and protected by God until they turned away from God and in doing so may have suffered their demise. What we are doing today mirrors what Israel did centuries ago. We have taken God out of our lives and replaced our beliefs with false idols, wealth and ego.

As I said earlier, I never gave much thought to religion, but now as I age out, I can see how truly important religion is to preserve the goodness of a civilization. The things we are witnessing today with the plague, the riots, the increasing killing of unborn babies, the government and the peoples willingness to remove God from America, all point to a horrible ending. We can’t go on down this path and expect that bad things will not continue to happen to our country.

There is a movement that started this past week to ” return to God”. You probably didn’t even know about it since our press doesn’t find such things important to report on. This movement is just to reawaken people to let God back into their lives. To look at what is happening around us and question why. To get back to how and why people came to America because of religious freedom and the right to believe and practice your faith. To voice how it isn’t alright to remove God from our countries past and present.

I don’t know what moved me to write this but I felt compelled to do so. I felt that it was time I got it off my chest how disgusted I am with how television and film have become so pornographic and how it is widely accepted. How I am no longer going to be part of a silent majority that is afraid to voice how horrible things have become. Maybe for me this is my little way of fighting back. Maybe I get just one person to pick op the baton and pass it to someone else. Maybe one person will read this and think that he/she isn’t alone in feeling this way. I hope that I reach that one person who will in turn do the same for someone in their family or circle.

I used to think I was just old fashioned and that’s why these things bother me but today I realize its not me who’s at fault. Things don’t always change for the better and if this is what we believe is better, there’s something definitely out of whack. Bring back Robert Young and the Beaver. Bring back the time a parent could sit and watch television with their child and feel good about what they see. Bring prayer back to the classroom. Bring America back to its roots and what made it blessed by God.

Bring God back in style..

Just one man’s opinion..the Regular Guy

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Mid Life Crisis…Revisited

Read this one from 2009 and just had to repost..

Posted on May 26, 2009 by slip60

Mid life crisis in men does not exist. That’s right, and I am not afraid to shout it out. The so called “mid life crisis” was made up by some pissed off woman who probably worked or wrote for Cosmopolitan magazine. So for those of you Regular guys who don’t know what the term pertains to here is a quick synopsis.

As we age, probably somewhere between 40 and 55, (hence the “mid life”),we “supposedly” go through a depressed state in our lives where we begin to search our selves in hopes of regaining a portion of our youth (remember this part because it will come up again later). In that search we almost always find a younger woman, a sports car or motorcycle, and some times one or more tattoos . Yes, we all know someone like this. The “crisis” part of this happens when we find the younger woman. The “crisis”, as I see it, is a result of an affair with this younger woman or an ensuing divorce that is the result of the affair with this younger woman. Okay, so that’s the short and to the point, quick overview.

My take on this is very different. Yes I do agree that we begin to search ourselves somewhere at this age level, but that is where my agreeing ends. It is my belief, that most men have basically the same wants, urges, desires, and needs that we somehow all acquire at a very young age. This “thing” that we are born with is why women tend to think of us as boys, dirty old men, pigs, immature, and maybe even a little selfish. This isn’t something we ask for but is inherently passed along from generation to generation.

This gene we have that none of us know how or why it’s there, keeps us searching for our youth. It is the gene that makes us desire things like women, big screen televisions, fast cars, sports,etc. It’s partly those desires that we are taught to control from our earliest days and all through life, because as we are told, we will never get a good woman to marry us if we don’t. In our childhood we fight the good fight to be who we are but usually in the end we give in and conform to what women think we should be. We give up the things that make us who we are to marry, support a wife, help raise the children, put them through college, and see them off into their own lives. But all along as we do what we are supposed to do, we continue to fight the urges to be who we are.

Thinking back, we all wanted or for some of us, owned, a car that defined who we thought we were. Maybe it was a 1970 Chevelle Super Sport or one of those “screaming chicken on the hood” Trans Ams from the seventies, but now we have to drive a mini van or if we get lucky we get an SUV. But down deep we all look at those two door BMW’s or that new Corvette and dream about what we would feel like if we were driving that car instead. We remember how those cars made us feel when we were young and miss those days past. Or the better example I like to give is the one I like to call my “convertible wife”. Think back to when you would pick up your girl friend for a date and have the top down or the t-tops off, windows open and cassette tape blasting and she would jump into the car singing and laughing and ready for the night of her life. Now lets take a ride in our time machine and fast forward to today. You and your wife have a Saturday afternoon to yourself and you just finished washing and waxing that new convertible that you finally, after all these years, found a way to make your own.You make plans with her to go to a friends house for a beer and some laughs. You hop in the car and turn up the tunes and anxiously await her arrival. She approaches the car and screams for you to “lower the damn radio will ya’ ” and proceeds to get in. Upon take off, she reminds you to put the top up because she “just did her hair” and the “wind will be too much”. POP!!! HISSSSSS!!! That is the sound of a feel good moment being sucked away from a middle aged  Regular guy. The excitement that once was is now gone because we can not be who we really are.

The thing is, middle age shouldn’t be a “crisis” for men, but should be a celebration. Middle age is an opportunity for us to get back the things in our past life that made us who we are today. By middle age hopefully our kids have grown and so has our disposable income. It is our chance to return to our youth and celebrate what was so good in our lives when it was just that, OUR life. This does not imply that we do not appreciate all the good that has come from our marriage and family but that at this point in our life we can have a little of our own space back. This is one reason why classic cars from the sixties and seventies are so popular today. It is guys like you and me, in mid life, who are trying to get back a piece of our youth that we cherished so much. It reminds us of how simple things were then. When we didn’t have so much responsibility and everything was about what made US happy.

Hooking up with that younger woman isn’t really so much about her age as it is about her attitude. Go back to the story about the “convertible wife” That same woman was probably  that young girl at one time in her life, carefree then, but since changed. Women will argue with me about this all the time. They try to use the excuse that they “grew up” and so should we.

I say is that “grow up” or “grow old”? There is an old saying that I once heard that makes me understand more and more why relationships sometimes don’t work out. It goes like this. “Men marry women hoping they won’t change, and women marry men hoping they will”. This is probably truer than any other single thing in a marriage between a man and a woman. This is especially true when a child is brought into the fold. Something about a woman changes almost overnight when she gives birth and becomes a mom. It is almost like a woman has two different personalities during her life. Somehow motherhood robs them of the carefree approach to life that they had before giving birth.

I ride a motorcycle with a great group of guys I call my friends. There are five of us that ride once a week, every week. We spend one night a week together and sometimes the subject of relationships come up.  The one thing that remains constant through all the talk, jokes and sarcasm, is that we love our wives. The other common thread we share is that our wives don’t understand or appreciate who we are. Especially when it pertains to sex but mostly when it comes to just listening to what we want from our relationships and our life. The story of the “convertible wife” always rings true to the group of men I am part of. They all agree that women change more than men do. They all feel that one of the main reasons a man would cheat is because his wife stopped being who she was when they met. That “younger girl” who they are looking for, should really be their wife. They still want to experience that carefree attitude they shared when they first met and they want to share it with the person they love. Married life has become too complicated and we all just want to make it simple again. You know, just get up and go!

To say that men are experience a “mid life crisis” is totally absurd. We are just looking to get back a part of our life that we gave up to be the responsible husbands and /or fathers that we are today. It’s just men trying to be who we really are. Trying to express ourselves in a way that seems stupid or irresponsible to women but just ordinary to us. This isn’t a “crisis” that we are experiencing just a rebirth of a part of the person we used to be. There isn’t anything wrong with this other than some women not accepting that we are who we are and we will never change. This should be embraced by women because those of you who married us, fell in love with us back when we were who we were. Maybe it’s time to try to understand why we are this way, rather than try to change us into something that we don’t want to be. We are different and there is nothing wrong with that. We can not be like women and it’s really not a bad thing. After all, you have enough girlfriends already…..

Just one mans opinion..

The Regular Guy

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When the Sex goes away

Heterosexual relationships, in my opinion of course, go through stages. My idea of such and how I have come to see it…

Dating sex – That first time your both together is very exciting. You both call each other a lot and can’t wait to see each other again and get naked. You wanna try mine???You leave little notes for each other in emails and hidden places.

Move in together sex– the next stage can sometimes be the deal breaker but if it works, it can be both funny and a learning experience. Sex gets better because your around each other more and can find other ways to engage in it and get creative. If you make it past here the next stage is obvious.Lets get it on!

Marriage sex – They say the first year is the hardest. That’s only because of money and not being used to each others habits, and I can’t say for sure especially if you lived together first. But the sex is great. There’s also a saying. “Put one jelly bean in a jar for every time you have sex and at the end of the first year take one out for every time you have sex” In the end the jar never gets emptied. That’s gotta tell you something. Side note: You kiss everywhere and all the time. People tell you to get a room. Sound familiar?

Friends with Benefits sex –  After you realize the jar is still more than half full and your 5 or 10 years into your marriage, you know something isn’t quite right. Your sex life turns into weekends, birthdays and anniversaries and maybe on vacations. The time between becomes longer and longer, so much that you can’t remember the last time. You don’t kiss like you used to. Just pecks hello and good bye.

Room-mates ( no) sex-  when the sex finally stops you become not much more than room mates who on occasion have dinner together and watch television. You can tell when this starts to happen because the kissing will come to an end. Oh yeah a side note about television. Television is perhaps the worst thing for a marriage. Couples not only get complacent because all they do is watch sitcom and reality show night after night but its also a curse because there is more sex and nudity happening on prime time than in their own bedroom. Depressing to say the least. Life passes by without notice because the biggest thing you look froward to at night is the next episode of your favorite show.

Cheating Spouse ( sex anew) – At some point someone will cheat. At the very least someone will think about it and start finding ways to stay away from home. Usually someone at work catches your attention and you begin to like the way that person is with you. The sad part about this stage is your looking for those same feelings you had with your spouse. That spark,that makes everything in your life seems unimportant except being together.

How it feels when it gets bad

Divorce – in the end you will wonder how you ever loved that person. You’ll either be very happy to get your freedom or sad because you failed at something that could have been saved. Either way its over.

“I am only a man. I can not read your mind. I can only make you “happier” but only if you are happy already. I can love only one woman but only if you let it be you. I can fix whats broken but I can’t fix what you don’t want repaired.”

Just one man’s opinion…
The Regular Guy

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The Great Divide

This morning I woke early and had some extra time to kill before going off to work, so I opened Facebook to see if anything interesting was posted. Maybe I should have looked at Instagram instead!

A long time friend of mine posted what I have copied below:

“I think I have figured out this whole #DH Thing*. Seriously he simply tapped into the less intelligent among us and has held their attention through sheer ignorance.” * (I believe DH means D@#k Head)

Well, being that I did not vote for Hillary, I am led to assume that I am one off the “less intelligent” among you all. I have to say that I thought about this all day as it played out in my mind and just needed to address how I feel about his comment.

The first thing I felt was “is this how he thinks about me?” We have been friends for some 30 years and although I rarely agree with his political views I have never crossed that line where my opinion made me think of him as less a person than myself. I can understand now, how you can lose friends over political views and why many avoid talking about the subject in mixed company let alone on a public platform like Facebook.

The second thing that crossed my mind was how divided we have all become over our beliefs as to what kind of country we should be living in. Or more so, who runs our country. I have learned one valuable lesson if any, that nothing, absolutely nothing, that our past Presidents from Carter to Trump has done, has affected my life enough that I now need to attack others because of their position. I have in the past and still do today, wake up everyday in the greatest country on Earth, in a home with people I love, with hard earned money in my bank account and at least one nice car in my driveway. My family and friends can say the same thing if they just take the time to think about life since they were old enough to vote.

I am however, not naive enough to think that some families weren’t affected by the loss of a child due to unnecessary wars that were because of things beyond the normal persons control. Yes some Presidents have made horrible decisions and we really have no way to undo what was done , but we can try by voting them out the next chance we get. But honestly, I spent eight years living under the Presidency of Obama and I was so stressed out about how I felt the country was changing. But when I sat back, took a breath and really thought about my life, nothing had changed except I chose to stress over something I had little control over.

I am what I believe to be a conservative, constitutional minded, independent voter. I no longer consider myself a Republican, as I did in the past. What I do know is both parties are useless and if Trump was right about just one thing, our government needs to change. The “swamp” needs to be drained as he said many times. I have come to realize that it isn’t which party will do the most for the country because they could all care less about us. What has Congress done for our country that works. Social Security? Medicare? Vet benefits? Have they balanced the budget? What about healthcare? That’s the best example yet. They shove something down our throats and they don’t have to be part of it. They continue to enjoy their “Cadillac Plan” on us while we all worry over how we are going to afford our insurance this year.

I guess the point of all this is that when I read what my friend wrote I wonder how he doesn’t see the corruption that I see. How he doesn’t believe its both parties using our tax dollars to grow our government larger than ever to keep them in their cushy jobs. Does he not see how they all have career jobs and they don’t have to solve one problem? They aren’t accountable to anyone anymore. How is he not as angry at them as he is towards me and those who voted differently than he did.

I really don’t see how anyone, democrat or republican, can honestly think their party is better enabled to fix this mess. They all created it. And that is what take me to my last point.

I voted for Trump. Unfortunately I voted for the idea and got Trump. Do I believe he is the be all and end all? No, absolutely not. In fact I wrote a letter to him prior to the election expressing my feelings about how he speaks to others and carries himself. No I am not proud of how our President presents himself. But I didn’t vote for Trump as much as I voted to end the bullshit that goes on in Washington. I voted for a person who did not spend his entire life living off tax payer dollars. I voted for a man who like it or not grew a business and through that business gave others the opportunity to earn a living. I voted for the Constitution. I voted for what America was supposed to be and what our forefathers meant for it to be. You see, I can talk politics with anyone who respects my right to an opinion and doesn’t call me names because of it. I don’t have to agree with you but I do have to respect how you feel, that is if I expect to be your friend.

My friend says hes a proud Liberal. What exactly is that? I am guessing that Robert Deniro is a proud Liberal too! How does anyone in this country respect that man after what he said about the President of his country? If this was done to Obama it would have been on every network and Deniro would be blackballed from Hollywood. Just check out Roseanne if you don’t believe it. Is this what we have come to. When I speak to Liberals about Obama’s vision of America and why I didn’t agree with it, I am called a racist. When I vote for Trump I am called ” less intelligent”. So to be a Liberal I guess I would need to turn cheek to others who don’t agree with my views then insult them as I walk away. I sure hope Liberals enjoy each others company because soon enough they will be the only ones that will hang with them.

This Great divide isn’t just because of its people, its because of its politicians. They are dividing us and the great many of us are like sheep just following along. This is what they feed on. They divide us, keep us off balance with crap that doesn’t matter while all the time the deceive and lie to us. When will the people of this country wake up and stop being angry with each other and turn their focus to all the people who have been playing us for decades. To hold them accountable and jail the ones deserving of such. The Ryan’s, Pelosi’s, Shummer’s and like all need to go because each time one loses their seat, our great divide gets that much smaller.

Just One Man’s Opinion

The Regular Guy.

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SKOL ! ! !

After 48 years of frustration and agonizing defeats, I sat and watched for what I swore to myself would be the last time, as my Minnesota Vikings were seconds away from yet another heartbreaking loss….

min

There are few great playoff come from behind wins in the NFL. The Minnesota Vikings, MY ( I feel I have the right to stake claim to a small part after this long) Minnesota Vikings, have no such victories during their many playoff appearances. But as of this past Sunday, all the old excruciating losses can now be put in the rear view mirror, because we finally broke the curse.

Image result for diggs touchdown pic

Diggs Minnesota Miracle catch

In a span of ten seconds, my thoughts of leaving behind my Purple Passion for this team vanished almost as quickly as the thought set place in my mind. In those ten seconds, what will forever be called the Minnesota Miracle, made me and millions of fans remember just why we bleed Purple and Gold.

I remember just one other time in my life, when such an event took place and I had similar thoughts of walking away from my favorite baseball team. Down to one strike and a World Series on the line, the New York Mets drew another breath, when all seemed impossible and a series loss looked inevitable. Then too did I swear I would never again put myself through a season of joy only to sit in despair when my team went through one more ugly loss when it mattered most. But just like this past weekend, they pulled it out in “Amazin” fashion and made me a believer once more.

I have been a Viking fan since my dad told me they were called the Purple People Eaters way back in January of 1970, when they appeared in their first of four Super Bowls. Since that memorable first impression I have watched (although almost impossibly back then without streaming) as many games as I could. I listen now to Minnesota sports talk radio on a regular basis ( thanks you IHeartradio) and can’t help but enjoy the always entertaining Paul Allen, who does the Viking broadcasts and like so many of us, is a diehard  rube.

Over the years I have watched some great Viking teams and dozens of Hall of Fame players perform at a high level and set seasonal records but never get that Super Bowl title. There are three very bad losses we sat and watched in the NFC championship round, all of which we were favored to win. This week we finally got one back from the New Orleans Saints who robbed us of a Super Bowl visit back in 2009, when Brett Favre threw up an interception that cost us the game.

This week like last, we’ll be favored to beat the Philadelphia Eagles but like most Viking fans , we don’t believe any game will ever be easy or sure thing. So I’ll sit back in my chair one more time, stress over the chances we won’t have something crazy go against us, and for those last few seconds of the game, pray we finish off the birds. No more drama and last minute Hail Mary passes (which phrase was coined after a loss by us to Dallas in 1975) but maybe a good old fashioned hard played win to get us into a home game Super Bowl. That in itself would help erase years of frustration..GO VIKES!!!

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The End of the World as we know it….or NOT!

Inauguration day is upon us and as some might now believe, so too is the collapse of America.

Eight years ago I began a journey of hopelessness and despair at the thought of Barrack Obama becoming our President. After years of forming a doomsday opinion of the direction in which our country was heading I wake up today in not such bad shape after all. I guess you could say that I learned a very valuable lesson after watching this round of the Presidential process.

As most Americans do during the election years, we stress over the fact that our candidate might lose and with that how our lives will never be the same. Our Constitutional rights will be trampled on. Signs on our public bathrooms will never be quite the same. Tax on the internet. The list goes on and everyone of us takes up issue with something on opposition’s card.

We have grown more and more divided with each passing election and this past years process, has done little to change that. Friends and family members have cut ties  or at the very least argued right and wrong, while standing up for their choice. I can say from experience that a few people “unfriended” me on FaceBook because of my beliefs. It’s quite common, that when two people are expressing different views, that the conversation  gets heated.

There aren’t many things in life that create such fervor as politics. And why do we all feel as if the end of life as we know it is right around the corner each time we elect the opposite party of our choice. Not everyone and probably more people than I care to think, don’t give a second thought to who runs our local government let alone our country. Most people who vote do so because they have strong opinions and feelings about how this country should look, whether that be more liberal or conservative, and fewer and fewer of us find a way to the center.

As I follow more along conservative lines of belief, I find it harder and harder to vote since no one who has recently run, has represented such. So it is has been that which such conservative beliefs, that I stressed so mightily over the past decade or more waiting for my preferred choice for president. That being said, I remain in wait, hoping that someday my wishes will come true. But now as the imaginary darkness that loomed over me all this time, I breathe a sigh of relief, albeit a very small one.

As I sat and watched history unfold, this time I heard the same doomsday predictions coming from the Trump opposition as I did from the anti Obama camp in the past. Even last night at a party I attended, I was called one of the “idiots” because of the way I voted. Funny I found it to be, because the person who said it wasn’t even American. This person who resides in the great white north, has a very strong opinion of America and it’s political system. She is not alone though, as many Canadians follow very closely the goings on in America, because so much of what happens here affects their own way of life ( the value of the dollar for instance).

So now its my turn to watch as so many get stressed over what may happen in our great country. But if one stops and gives thought to their life, the majority of us will see that with all  that goes on in Washington, not much affects us as we believe it will. That’s not saying that all the little changes will not one day change this country. The have and they will continue to do so. Hopefully we will continue to elect the opposite of status quo every 4-8 years so nothing will ever drastically change the face of this nation.

One thing that should anger most if not all Americans, is the lack of “real “change that every politician promises. Our inner cities are worse than ever, the highest murder rates in history being recorded. Our food we eat is poison and yet our own government continues to allow this to happen. Medicine and health care continues to be an issue as  does Social Security, while all the time politicians are not affected by such. So when then is enough enough already. Is it now? Did we elect someone from the outside who will really blow up DC and rebuild it for and by the people as promised? Or are we just on a different hamster wheel surrounded by smoke and mirrors and filled only with illusions of better days ahead.

I for one, am done with thoughts of the looming doomsday. I will no longer let politicians and DC dictate to me how to live my life. I will slide by quietly and look only for the best of what America has to offer. As I traveled last year with two friends by motorcycle across 9 states, I learned that not all of America is what politicians and the news media proclaim it to be. We are not as divided as we might be led to believe. The average working class American doesn’t care what color or ethnicity you are as long as you treat them with the same respect you would want for yourself. We all just want our little piece of the American dream and to be left alone to enjoy it. The people of this country is the best of what America has to offer.

America was built on the freedom of choice and the rights to express these freedoms. As long as we don’t lose touch with that and learn to respect others rights to such we will never have to face the end of the world as we know it. Things, as some say, are never as bad as they seem at first glance. Given my last decade of experience in waiting for the hammer to drop, I can say that this statement is true. Life after elections go on and as long as that sun comes up every day we all have something to be grateful for.

Here’s to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness!

Just one man’s opinion

The Regular Guy

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Open letter to Donald Trump

I am a 57 year old white male who grew up middle class without a spoon in my mouth, and worked for all I have today, who believed since I was old enough to say my first pledge of allegiance, that this country was special.

I am writing to you today because I am one of the millions of people who you speak of that no longer have a voice in this country. I have been watching since the first Bush was president, how our country was being slowly changed right before our eyes. No longer was it special to be American.  Corporate America and our elected officials have been moving this country away from the working class to form a country run by and for the elite. The worst part of it all is that the press, who were supposed to be the eyes and ears of people, were no longer telling us the truth.

After years of disbelief in what I was seeing politically, especially the last eight years, I believed this country was changing forever. No politician will ever change what has been going on because it suits them not to. This is why McCain, Romney and the rest don’t want any part of what you are saying. It would make no difference to any in Washington, if we lose our Constitutional rights, our borders that are sieves or if racism is ever addressed honestly.

And then you came along. It was like all my thoughts were finally heard. You spoke candidly and honestly about our country and how it is headed away from all it was built on. The open borders, the politicians taking millions and doing what the corporations not the people wanted and last, all the corruption.

I watch you religiously now and I have to say that I am worried about your approach and how you sometimes move off the issues to respond to the press and Hillary Clinton. No one knows better than you that the press will never change how they come after you so why then, do you continue to point this out? Everyone who believes in you already knows this. Everyone who is deciding to vote for you is tired of hearing it. They feel you are thin skinned. It makes no sense to remove yourself from the issues because it’s your strength. You are giving the left and all who doubt you the ammunition they need to defeat you.

I watched you speak at the podium in Mexico and also the last four times when you addressed only the issues and your plans for how you will fix this great country. You spoke like the President we all know you can be. That is the Donald Trump we all need to see day in and day out. You don’t need to convince your faithful, you need to convince your doubters!

Ronald Regan once gave a speech A Time for Choosing. It was and remains today one of the finest speeches about being American and what it means, that was ever written. It reminds me of today and the challenges we are facing not from Communism but from the divide in our own country. This divide is breaking up America from within and to heal it, is a challenge greater than any. Our country has lost its way and our leaders are allowing it. I know they are not stupid people so the only other reason it could be is intentional.

You are our voice. You are America’s last hope at restoring our countries values, safety and pride. This country is on the verge of electing a liar, thief and perhaps the most corrupt representative America has ever known and the press and the people are letting it happen.

So today I ask you for this Mr. Trump. Keep showing us President Trump. Speak of when you are elected, not if.. Stay on point as you are so right about all you speak of about America. Stop fighting the press, Hillary and the Republican Party who we all don’t believe in anyway. It makes no difference now what they say, only what YOU say. You have reached the millions and millions of Americans that have been praying for someone who they can believe in again. Ronald Regan did this without throwing stones, so to can you. This country needs you now. It needs to heal and be one America like never before. The days of old politics can finally be behind us. Thank you, Mr. Trump for doing this for us and for America.

Just One Man’s Opinion

The Regular Guy

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