If you want to lose weight, fad diets doesn’t work.  Sure you will lose weight, but you will gain it all back.  Or you’ll start losing weight and then gain some of it back; and get bored with that diet plan within a month time.

I’ve tried my share of diets out there; so I know what I’m talking about.  Even Kirsty Alley who had lost weight through Jenny Craig.  Remember, she lost through the program and then when she was off the program, she gained it all back.  There was a big stink about it.

I’ve tried the grapefruit diet.  I would take a grapefruit pill, half an hour before each meal.  The pill was to curb my appetite; so I would eat less.  I even have tried Slim Fast, by eating their bars and drinking their shakes.

I found that the best diet out there is eating healthy. I started a year ago.  I have been losing weight.  Not as fast as I would like but I feel better.  If you lose the weight slowly, you are less likely to gain it all back.  If you eat good healthy food, you wouldn’t want to eat the stuff you normally had eaten before.

When I cook, I cook with Extra Virgin Olive Oil.  Even when the recipe calls for veg. oil or margarine; I would use olive oil instead.  When I do eat good healthy food, my stomach doesn’t feel blah and I would have to take Rolaids.  I would also try to eat more vegetables.  I would even steam my vegetables; rather than boil them.  I would even steam my potatoes.  Since I been on this healthy diet, my body had told me to cut back on coffee.  I don’t drink much coffee in first place, though.  I’m not talking about cappicino or flappe.  I find myself cutting back on fry food; which I love.  When I go to a buffet, I would eat less.  This past Christmas, I didn’t baked as much as I used to.  I even gave away more cookies.  Last week, I ate Spam and eggs for supper, and I couldn’t eat the Spam because it was too salty for me.  Now that’s something for me to cut back on.  Instead of drinking coffee, I would either drink green tea or juice.  The green tea is unsweeten too.  My next thing to cut back is the seasoning I use; and use more herbal seasoning.

I don’t drink diet pop, because the artificial sweetener in diet pop is worst for you.  The saccrarine can cause stroke/heart attack.  The doctor won’t tell you that though.  There are things that the doctors won’t tell you; because they want to keep you unhealthy.  That way you are spending money seeing them or on the medications they offered.  They want to pump you full for medicine that you may not even need.

For examples:  my mother was on a blood thinner that a doctor from Sanford prescribed her.  If she wasn’t on that medicine, she wouldn’t had the stroke she had because her blood became too thin.  Another example:  doctors would recommend a person to have chemotherapy when they have cancer.  That is the worse thing you can do to your body.

Kids are normally active and may get rambunctious.  Well teachers and school counselors wants to prescribe them with drugs thinking they have Attention deficit Disorder.  Really not all kids have that.  Kids will be kids.  They need to burn off some of their energy.

They wonder why kids and even us adults are overweight.  No one exercise.  They eat and sit in front of the computer or video games or tv and eat.

When I was a kid, living in West Fargo, we would ride our bikes around the neighborhood.  We would pretend we were motorcycle gang.

When the Michelle Obama talked about eating healthy.  We must exercise also.  Instead of going after these fast food restaurant, let get our kids away from the computers, video games and tv, and get them outside.

By the way, I even cut back on bread.  Oprah Winfrey said, “I love bread.”  Bread is the worst thing to eat to lose weight.  I’m learning I can’t eat too much at Subway now.

There is cure out there for diseases like cancer and diabetes but the government and Pharmecutical company doesn’t wants you to know about it.

Until then change your eating habits.  Start eating healthier.  Start slow like I’m doing and eventually you will cut out things that you normally love to eat.  I’m not saying I don’t cheat.  I’m just saying I’m slowly cutting out the junk and eating healthier.  I feel better.  I wish I was losing the weight faster, but that will come in time.

If Eddie Lambert was smart he would cut his losses with Sears.  Sears is bringing Kmart down with them.  It was a big mistake for Kmart to bail out Sears in the first place.  I wouldn’t done it.

Sears is a dinosaur.  Sears and JC Penny are the 2 oldest retail stores.  They both started around the early 1900, along with Montgomery Wards and Woolsworth.  Sears and JC Penny are still around.  The only reason Sears is still around is because of Kmart.

Don’t get me wrong, at one time Sears had good stuff.  My folks bought appliances from them and even Craftsman tools.  They just have been going downhill for awhile now.

The original owner of Kmart is rolling over in his grave at how Kmart is being run into the ground.  He took care of his employees.  Kmart was store where the common working man would shop.

Then again Sam Walton, the owner of Walmart took better care of his employees than his kids does.

It’s almost like greed sets in running a business.

Eddie Lambert is so rich that he doesn’t care Kmart close or not.  He just going to run the company until he can’t get anymore out of it and then shut down.  He don’t care about the employees.

If I owned Kmart, I would drop Sears like a “hot potato”.  I would look for ways save Kmart.  Kmart may not be able to compete against Walmart; but they can still survived without Sears bringing them down.  I would start selling American made stuff at Kmart.  I wouldn’t sell the same things as Walmart.

I will not buy clothes at Walmart.  I will either buy clothes at Kmart or JC Penny.  I don’t buy shoes at Kmart or Walmart though.

I will somehow make a incentive for the employees to work at Kmart.  By giving incentives, the employees will make Kmart a better place to shop.  They will care about the employees because they will care about the store.  Kmart do not need to be open on Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve.  The employees should be able to spend that time with their family.

As of last week, Sears closed their store at West Acre; and I say good riddance.  It doesn’t hurt my feelings any.

By closing Sears, Kmart can sell Craftsman tool themselves.

They say the reason why Sears closed at West Acre is because times are a changing.  These anchor stores are a thing of the past.  People don’t shop at the mall anymore.  They would rather shop on-line or at strip mall.  That is a crying shame!  Especially up in North Dakota where it can get very cold.

If you want to save Kmart, do us all a favor and drop Sears.  Don’t let Sears bring down Kmart.  Sears used to have the Sears tower in Chicago.  Not anymore!

The year 2016 was a very interesting one.  For once in a long time the political race was very interesting.  The people had spoken loud and clear to our Government officials.  They were and are very upset with the direction that the Government had taken us.  They weren’t just not upset with the Democrats.  They were also upset with the Established Republicans as well.

Donald Trump drew the biggest crowd of all the candidates. He spoke what the people were saying.

The Established Republicans fought hard to get Jeb Bush nominated but the people told them fat out, “No!”  They had enough of the Bushes; especially after Pres. George W. Bush.

I’m sure Hillary Clinton would had preferred Bush over Trump.  She would had won the election.

Throughout the election, the non-establishment candidate was fairing very well and wiping out the Established Republicans candidates.  I’m what you call a Reagan Republican, and I was so excited to see this happen.  It needed to be done.  Let us hope that they learned their lesson this time.

The top 4 Republicans candidate wasn’t part of the Establishment.  Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio were part of the tea party, and Trump and Ben Carson wasn’t a career politician.  This was what the people wanted.

The tea party was formed under Pres. George W. Bush and really took off under Pres. Obama.

Even the Democrats had their problems.  The race was between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.  Even though Sanders was a Socialist, he still drew more people that Hillary.  Since the Democrats have the Super Delegates, it made hard for Sanders to get the nomination over Hillary.  This is why Trump ran as Republican, rather than a Democrat.  He is not your tradition Republican.

The last time a non-establishment Republican was elected President was with Ronald Reagan in 1980.  Somehow they still had some power and was able to regain the White House.  Hopefully Trump will really clean house in Washington.  It will make the established Republicans stop and take a look at their mistakes.  I hope this will also bring about the idea of term limits for our Congress and Senate.  According to Ben Carson, who said, “According to the Constitution, they are not to make a career out of being in office.  They are to serve their terms and go back home.”

Enough politics for now!  We also lost a lot of celebrities in 2016.  There are too many to name; so I will just mention a few.

They lost rocker, David Bowie, and the Artist known as Prince.  They lost Country music legend, Merle Haggard.  In Hollywood, we lost, Patty Duke, The all-time TV mothers, Florence Henderson, ZaZa Gabor, Carrie Fisher and about 2 days later, her mother, Debbie Reynalds.  They lost the TV dad from Growing Pains, Alan Thicke.  They lost another rocker, George Michael from Wham.  Days of our Lives lost the star who played Stefano, Joseph Masconnel.  There are others but too many to named and remembered.

On a good note, Actor, Kirk Douglas made it to a 100 years old.  That’s pretty good for someone who had came back from a stroke years later.

What will 2017 brings us?  Will President Trump does what he says he will do?  Will he clean house in Washington DC?  Will both the Republicans and Democrats take a good hard look at their party platform?

President Trump is on the way already of doing some great things.  His choice for his cabinet is pretty much non career politician.

Christmas isn’t the same anymore.  I don’t just mean Christmas had loss it’s true meaning either.  That’s another blog for another time.  This one is more personal to me.

Growing up Christmas meant getting together with your family, stuffing yourself, and opening lots of presents.  My mother was big with the family getting together, no matter how mad we may get at each other.

We would celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve.  My mother would gets up early that day and worked preparing a feast for us all.  She would have 2 kinds meat.  Usually ham and turkey, but one time we even had either duck or goose.  She would have mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, a mock crab salad, baked beans and not the kind from a can either.  There was always so much food, that if you went hungry, it was your own fault.  The tables were so full with food that we had to eat it buffet style and take a seat wherever.  Since our family had 7 kids, mom and dad, and then in-laws, and even grandkids.

I remember one Christmas, our family got together with my Uncle John’s family and he had 6 kids.  That one time there were 2 families getting together in one house.  There was also a time in our house in North Fargo, my grandparents from my step-dad were there for Christmas as well.

The house would gets so hot because of the oven being on.  After we would eat, mom and sisters, and sometimes sister-in-law would help with dishes in our small kitchen.  Dad would gets the cards ready with money in it from him, since mom usually bought the gifts.

When we were little, my step-dad would hands out all the presents.  They were all under the tree that my step-dad got just a few days before Christmas.  When he got the tree, we would then decorate it from top to bottom.  I still got the Santa Claus that lights up in the corner of the house.  Matter of fact, I now got my mother’s decorations.

As Shirley and I got a little older, we got the job of handing out the gifts.  No one would open the gifts until everyone got theirs.  After we open the gifts, dad would get a big garbage bag for all the wrapping papers to be thrown away or burned once we moved down on the farm.  Afterwards, we would have pie for dessert.  The older kids would leave shortly after, to spend Christmas with their in-laws on Christmas Day.  Those who didn’t have any in-laws would spend Christmas Day at home.

I remember one time around Christmas, my mother would gets us dress up to go Christmas Eve mass at the St.Mary’s Catholic church.  That happen only one time though.  I think they felt it was too much of a chore to get all of us kids ready for church on Christmas Eve.

As we got older, there became more grandkids.  We had one sister who was always late for Christmas.  It was because of her husband.  We would have to wait until they got there to eat and opened gifts. The kids who smoke would go outside to smoke after we ate.  I hate to say but some of the older kids would come there drinking.  They were no fun to be around.  We tried and tried to have mom and dad put their foot down; but mom just loved her family around that she couldn’t put her foot down.

One year, I got the idea of getting my folks a microwave oven for Christmas from all of us kids.  I got that idea, when I heard that my Aunt Rosella’s kids got her a microwave for Christmas.  The microwaves still works but my folks are not around anymore.

As us kids got older, we even drew names just among us kids.  That became a chore and put upon one kid to organize it.  Your guess is as good as mine who organize it.

Christmas started going downhill after my older sister, Barb died of cancer in 2001.  Ronny started drinking heavily and started a fight with dad.  It gotten to the point we didn’t  want him or Bob home for Christmas because they couldn’t behave themselves.

When my nephew, Mickey brought his girlfriend, now wife home for Christmas, that both Bob and Ronny made an ass of themselves around her.

When my mother passed away almost 5 now, the family didn’t get together like we use when she was alive.  I did take on the responsibility of making mom’s baked beans for dad  and brought it down for him on Christmas.

Now that is done as well, since he had joined mom up in heaven, this pass year.  Only certain members of the family gets together and the rest is on their own.

When we were kids, I would say the family was like the Brady Bunch.  As we gotten older, we became like a redneck family.  As the song from Montgomery Gentry, “Merry Christmas from the Family”, if you listen to the words, that song became our song that would describe our family.

I hope that this wasn’t too disturbing for you.  This was what Christmas meant to me as a child and how it changed growing up.  Now you why I said earlier, Christmas isn’t the same anymore since the folks are gone.

People been wondering if we will ever get a woman President.  I mean, we came close a few times.  This last time was the closes. I want to say, we will with the right one.  I mean I voted for a wom…

Source: Too Much Baggage for Hillary Clinton

The reason why Trump won the election and became President is very simple.

The American people were very upset with Washington.  The people were up upset with the Established Republicans and the Democrats.  Pres. Obama promised change back in 2008 and we the people got none.  We just wonder where the change?

Donald Trump isn’t your traditional politician.  He doesn’t owe the Lobbyist anything.  He is a Nationalist.  He tell it like it is and he lets the Established Republicans, the Democrats, and the press have it full barrow.

The last time a non-establishment was elected President was in 1980, when Ronald Reagan was elected.  He was also the last Nationalist.

It was like in the ’90’s when Jesse Ventura was elected Governor of Minnesota.  No one expected him to win either.  The press was thinking that Humphry would win on his name alone; and he ended up taking third place.  Ventura beats Norm Coleman by 1 vote.

The American people are fed with our career politician, who in office way too long.  They wants term limits for our Congressman and Senators.  As Ben Carson said, “They are not to make a career in being in Washington, according to the Constitution.  They are to serve their terms and go back home.”  They had made a career in being in Washington and they had forgotten about the people.

I just hope that Trump keeps his words and that he is not just blowing hot air by saying what the people want to hear.  That was what Obama did in 2008.

I hope Trump do not give Romney the Secretary of State job.  That would be a mistake.  If anyone should gets it, it should be either Rudy or Newt.

I’m also glad that Trump won in Paul Ryan’s home state of Wisconsin, because Ryan deserve that slam.  He may had voted for Trump but he fought against him the whole time like Romney did.  Because of that, I lost respect for Ryan.  I think Paul Ryan should step down as Speaker of the House or President Trump makes his life a living nightmare.

There is another reason why Hillary Clinton lost; but I will talk about it another time.