July 5, 2012

Independence and Game On!

We just celebrated our independence by traveling to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and camped for the three days preceding July 4th.  Yesterday, we celebrated by traveling home, showering and unpacking "The Beast" as we like to call our Suburban.  It was wonderful and I will be posting on that soon.


Independence Day:  Yesterday was the day we celebrated our Founding Father's decision to break with England by formally writing up their reasons for doing so in the Declaration of Independence.  I am including a small portion of it below.  After the war for independence was won, the country tried for a few, short miserable years of trying to govern as a confederacy, a mistake the South repeated when they tried to secede from the Union 100 years later.  After realizing that a confederacy didn't work, our Founding Fathers decided to create a representative republic, based on a form of government that Rome established for a brief time.  A republic is a form of government where people operate under a rule of law.  Democracy is a form of government where the majority rules. Democratic mechanisms such as voting for senators and representatives and presidents were implemented to make sure the government would be under the authority of the people and would not devolve into a dictatorship.  Unfortunately, many people are being told we live in a democracy by senators and people in the media.  So next time you hear someone talk about this country being a democracy, please be one of those "Actually" people and tell them that our country is actually a republic and, if you need to and their eyes aren't already rolling around in their head, explain the difference.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."


Game On!:  June was not a good month for Game On!  Competing against myself is pretty boring and it wasn't the same showing my husband my daily score.  So after the first week, I stopped playing and decided to live by the Game On! principles as much as possible.  I did not gain weight and I even lost a teeny tiny bit.   I kept exercising, though I dropped it to three or four days a week rather than six and I allowed myself to eat brown sugar in my oatmeal and sweets.  Sweets are still my nemesis.  I think that, just like recovering alcoholics will always be recovering alcoholics, I will always be a recovering sugar junkie and need to think like a recovering alcoholic.  So I now know how to maintain my weight.  Great!  The problem is that I am not at my ideal weight and really need to find a way to motivate myself to lose more.  Help is on the way!  I now have two people in my Bible study who want to try the Game On! diet.  It is starting on July 6th.  I hope to lose 7 pounds during the game. Thank you, God!

No comments: