Though I’m not Catholic, or particularly observant of religion of any stripe, I still often give things up for Lent. I like the idea of challenging yourself to go without something that you normally enjoy, challenging yourself to be more mindful. I usually give up either candy or soda, both things which I too often find myself mindlessly consuming. Giving it up for 40 days is tough, and even though the reasons I do it aren’t particularly faith-based, Lent forces my hand and keeps me from saying I’ll do it “later” by providing a pre-determined length of time, start and end date, etc.
This year I gave up candy. This nearly effing killed me on Saturday when we went to Bird and Bama’s house for their Easter party, featuring approximately 65 varieties of pastel Easter candies. Bird kindly sent me home with a treat bag, and I’m not at all ashamed to say that I ate Easter Reese’s Pieces for breakfast yesterday.
I wish I could tell you that this act of going without candy for 40 days has broken me of the sweet tooth, and that I’m less likely to eat as much candy going forward. If I’m totally honest, though, I’ve spent a fair amount of time this weekend thinking of the bag of leftover Valentine’s candy sitting in my desk drawer at work (oh delicious TenderHearts, how I regret forgetting to eat the last of you before Ash Wednesday!), wondering if it would be gross for me to eat the rest of it, starting today.
If it makes you feel better, I’ve slightly modified my no sweets rule for the month of April. No sweets during the week. I’m giving myself a bit of a break on the weekends (though I’ve still managed to say NO a couple times – crazy, I know!). At least you made it through a full month!
Wow 40 days with no sweets, it is very hard. Are you on the sugar rush?
I like the idea of Lent too. Without the religious connotation.
Good work. I inevitable fail at any Lenten observations. Every. Time.
I survived the entire Lenten period without sweets.
I had some of a (small) bag of Mini Eggs yesterday – I didn’t even eat the entire bag – and about an hour later, my stomach hurt a little.
There was a huge (leftover) birthday cake at school today and I didn’t lunge for a slice the way I would’ve previously.
I believe I discovered that I didn’t need sugar in my diet as much as I’d originally thought and plan to only partake when absolutely necessary (read: when I’m PMS’ing).