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Show Vernal Express Public Forum Letters to the Editor What is your opinion? The Vernal Express welcomes letters from its readers concerning any subject pertinent to the Uintah Basin. There are no restrictions on contents, if not libelous, vindictive vin-dictive and in good taste. The letters need to be a reasonable length, two typewritten double spaced pages. Letters must be submitted exclusively to the Vernal Express and bear the writer's writ-er's full name, signature, phone number and address. Letters for the sole purpose of expressing express-ing thanks to individuals or groups will not be printed in the forum. Letters may be mailed to P.O. Box 1000, Vernal, Utah 84078, faxed at 789-8690 or through email at editorvernal.com. The name or names of the persons submitting letters must appear on all published letters. All letters let-ters are subject to condensation. Letters express the opinion of the writer and are not necessarily necessar-ily the opinion of the Vernal Express Editor. tHhadift Howrtw 2 ZGS6 1 vs JLtft 'mm M ip?pfi Pumpkin pies on my thighs By Janine Shannon Food is one of the best parts about celebrating the holidays, or at least it is for me. I can say no to desserts and treats throughout the year, but not to egg nog, pumpkin pie, and those frosted sugar cookies. Consequently, I always end up overeating and undoing all the hard work I put in over the summer. I make excuses that I can eat what I want because, after all, isn't this the holiday season? Those excuses add up to pounds that I could do without. with-out. Dieting has never worked for me, simply because it is an oppressive set of rules that I try to force myself to follow. No one makes me, so why would I deny myself that delicious bowl of ice cream topped with hot fudge and nuts and a cherry on top? However, I have learned several things lately that have helped me stick to eating better and exercising regularly. These tips may help you get through this holiday season. First, I had to realize that food is energy, not just something some-thing to eat for fun. We should eat so that our bodies have the nutrition and fuel to do what we need to do and nothing more. Most of my life I made the mistake mis-take of eating because it tastes good, not because I was hungry and needed energy. This love for food is precisely the trouble trou-ble I have with Thanksgiving or Christmas Eve dinner. I enjoy eating too much and so Indigo Child Dear Editor, Recently I was out running errands with my 5 year old when someone I had never met before approached me and asked if the little girl with the huge eyes was my daughter. I was a little stunned at the bizarre question but like any other parent I like the opportunity to boast about how fabulous my children are, so I found myself responding "yes, why?' This lady went on to ask if I had heard of the Indigo Child phenomena. I said that I had not, and I again asked "why?" She said that this phenomena phenom-ena is something she had been studying for the. last several years, and she believed that my daughter manifested some of the signature signs of being an "Indigo Child." At this point I became a little concerned, this could be a disease dis-ease we were talking about for all I knew. She explained that, so far as she understood, Indigo Children are very gifted, emotionally, spiritually, and if encouraged, psychically as well. She started to describe the characteristics of one of these children, and even though I felt beyond bizarre having this unreal conversation with someone some-one I had never met before, I realized she was describing my daughters personality almost to the tee. Eventually I politely excused myself and my daughter and I went about our business. Later that evening, out of curiousity, I googled Indigo Children. I was amazed at the wealth of information offered on this "phenomena." I'm still not sure if I believe that my daughter is one of these "Indigo Children," but I found the information offered interesting, inter-esting, you might too. A good jumping off point is- www.indi-gochild.com. www.indi-gochild.com. Heather Crosby Wells Continued from A1 area. He stated that anything less than 80 acres would not allow for efficient and adequate extraction of the gas. Lara Azar, spokeswoman for Freudental, said Friday that I eat and eat and eat until I'm stuffed. Then I feel gross. This wouldn't happen if I would just limit my portions and stop eating eat-ing when I'm full or even a bit before I'm full. Now when faced with delicious holiday eating opportunities, I eat a little bit of everything but try to pass on the seconds. Once I understood that food is energy it was easy to see why I should watch the calories, or energy, that I am putting into my body. The number of calories calo-ries my body needs depends on my daily physical activity. According to calorie-need calculators cal-culators on the internet that take into account height, age, current weight, and level of activity, I need fewer calories if I sit at a computer all day, but more calories if I exercise regularly. regu-larly. Put simply, if I eat more calories than I need, I gain weight, if I eat fewer calories than I need, I lose weight. You still have to make sure, however, that you are eating enough. The reality of this concept con-cept became clear to me one day when I was running on my treadmill. I hadn't eaten much that day, and all of a sudden I became very light-headed and had to stop before I passed out. I realized that I couldn't expect my body to work that hard without feeding it. Clearly, it is all a balance between eating enough, but not too much. Now, at the end of the day, I just try to break even by eating only as many calories as I will burn. If I were trying to lose weight I would eat just a couple hundred hun-dred calories fewer each day and continue to exercise. In trying to achieve a Charity: It's The Right Thing to Do By Bill O'Reilly So what are we to make of the fact that conservative conserva-tive Americans donate 30 more to charity than liberal liber-al Americans? A new book called "Who Really Cares" by Syracuse University professor Arthur Brooks is not going to please the Howard Dean crowd. The book states flat-out that religious Americans who vote Republican are far more likely to be generous to the downtrodden downtrod-den than secular-progressives. The big question, of course, is why? Liberal philosophy is all about "nurturing" people peo-ple who need help. The "tax the rich" crew can't yell loud enough that more money needs to go the Americans iin need. Just not their money. That may be unfair, but probably prob-ably is not. The cornerstone of liberal economic thought is "income redistribution;" that is, big government taking ass-ests ass-ests from the affluent through taxation and giving said assets to the less well-off through entitlements enti-tlements like subsidized health care, housing, educational scholarships and the like. The left is also big on imposed "economic justice," things like guaranteed wages and lifetime job security. But a funny thing happened hap-pened on the way to socialism. social-ism. Americans who believe in "income redistribution" give 75 less to charity than Americans who do not, according accord-ing to Dr. Brooks. That is a funny differential. I believe this is a religious thing. Secular-progressives believe in individual gratification, gratifi-cation, and that often takes money. Buying that jazzy new SUV and that vacation home can deplete desposable cash the governor's office hadn't yet reviewed the new environmental environmen-tal study. The public has until Jan. 4, 2007, to comment on the BLM study. healthy balance between calorie calo-rie intake and exercise, I have learned that every treat I indulge in, comes with a cost. I can eat a whole pumpkin pie if I want, but to keep it from packing onto my thighs, I have to exercise to burn the excess calories. It's hard work, believe me. Weight loss for me doesn't happen unless I sweat a lot. Sometimes I might decide it's worth it. Sometimes I might not. I just have to remember that if I eat a couple of cookies at 90 calories each, I will have to jog for about half an hour to burn that many calories. A few seconds of pleasure for half an hour of pain? That's the question ques-tion I have to ask myself. Understanding the balance between calories and physical activity is a great start, but a healthy lifestyle also incorporates incorpo-rates eating good calories as opposed to bad calories. Soda pop, for example, is full of empty calories, which means it has no nutritional value. If I plan to eat only as many calories calo-ries as I need for the day, then I can't afford to eat foods that aren't part of the basic food groups. I don't pretend to believe that these principles work for everybody, but they sure work for me. I guess if you think about it, most weight-loss programs pro-grams involve the same ideas just in different words. The point is that weight-loss doesn't just happen. You have to work for it. This holiday season I'm sure I'll be working hard because I don't plan to pass up any holiday food, especially the pumpkin pie. I might even have seconds on that one. Bill O'Reilly fast. If it's all about you, then you are thinking ablut you, not about poor Dave down the street. But devout Christians, Jews, and Muslims are compessed to help the poor by their beliefs. Personal gratification is not a big theme in scripture. Jesus was a huge "help your neighbor" neigh-bor" guy. For J.C., it is all about Dave down the street, not the latest material possession. The statistics say that religious reli-gious Americans give four times as much money to charity each year that secualar people, and are 23 times more likely to volunteer to help people than folks who never attend church. And here's another crushing stat: If liberals donated blood at the rate conservatives do, the nation's blood supply would rise 45. So in the season of giving, Christmas, a work some liberals liber-als don't like to say, it might be worth pondering just who is really looking out for the have-nots. have-nots. The leftist media often portrays conservatives as mean, cruel and insensitive to the plight of the downtrodden. But, as the tax returns of millionaires mil-lionaires Dick Cheney and Al Gore prove, the media image is false. The Vice President gives millions to charity, Mr. Gore very little. So next time you hear a big government liberal bloviate about helping the poor, please trot out the statistics mentioned men-tioned in this column. And then tell that person that in America today, giving money to charity char-ity seems to be the right thing. What's left is not even close. m o w f f"PJ I , v" waww A I State president visits Vernal Elks lodge Special guests Utah Elks Association President and First Lady Jack and Karen Ryan (r) joined Vernal Elks lodge Exalted Ruler Phil Jackson and wife Lisa (I) and other Elks members at the annual Christmas Charity Ball, which raises funds to provide gifts and food to help brighten the holiday season for Basin families. President Ryan thanked the Lodge for the hospitality extended to him and congratulated the Vernal Elk family on its community contributions and work. Felony filings in Uintah County Nov. 29 Dec. 5 FORAKER, Dustin A.: Assault As-sault by prisoner, 3rd degree felony (2 counts); Assault on correctional officer, class A misdemeanor; Interfering with legal arrest, class B misdemean 17RH riAirTAAi 9he jazz moved to salt lake city wtah from new orleans in 1?7?an0 dec am e the utah jazz. or; Threat against lifeproperty, class B misdemeanor; Intoxication, Intoxica-tion, class C misdemeanor MARTINEZ, Shylo U.: Distributeofferarrange Dis-tributeofferarrange to distribute distrib-ute controlled substance, 2nd degree felony (2 counts); Use or MeyTG SCARECROJ f possession of drug paraphernalia, parapherna-lia, class A misdemeanor MURDOCK, Jason Kim: Driving Driv-ing under the influence of alcoholdrugs, alco-holdrugs, 3rd degree felony V4 U |