Lent coming up

Mardi Gras is one week away.

Meaning I need to start thinking about what to give up.

I'm thinking maybe I'll make a list of 5-10 foods to give up, or I could just go all out and say, "No sugar!" or "No desserts, and maybe I will.

And also, it's not that Lent has to be about giving up foods or anything, I'm just trying to see what I can do to help Lent also be about helping me reach my goals, not just about reflection on Christ.

1 option for giving up is...

1. Giving up my favorite 'bad' foods:

- Pizza

- Macaroni and Cheese

- Ice Cream

- Cookies

- Burgers and French Fries

Some things I have done for Lent in the past...

Gave up meat, exercised more often, gave up desserts (this just led to eating more Poptarts and dessert 'alternatives' instead), read the bible every day.

I think giving up these things could help? I have a week to think about it, and see if there's a better solution. Like maybe I really should just give up sugary foods in general (things like cake, cookies, ice cream, etc.) I think I put ice cream and cookies in the suggested list, because those are the most common things to get. I mean, if one buys dessert at the store, it will probably be cookies and ice cream, right? I really probably should just go all out and give up desserts just to be safe. I feel like it'd be really hard, and that i'd just find some other alternative just as bad! My friend and I gave up dessert a couple years ago together, and we'd talk about how instead we had more peanut butter and stuff just to get around it :P Maybe that IS better though. But where is the line drawn?

If I gave up dessert, here are the things I would question...

- Do things like graham crackers or Poptarts count? Technically, they wouldn't be found on a dessert menu, but they might as well be desserts, right? Or what about muffins and breads? Is a lemon-poppyseed muffin dessert? I would say yes, because really it's just the same thing as say, a lemon-poppyseed pound cake or something.

Maybe there should be rules like this...

If the food is found in the

- Bakery section of the store

- Same aisle as cookies and treats

- found on a dessert menu

Then the answer is no.

I don't know, just thinking about it sounds like it could be really hard, but also really beneficial too. And my birthday falls during Lent. I do think that maybe there would be an exception for a birthday celebration, but that's it.

But then people have said that people can have what they gave up on Sundays during Lent. Maybe that's true? Who knows, maybe that's the best thing to do. After all, one small dessert a week is better than 3 or so times a week. Obviously, this post has evolved from just giving up comfort foods to giving up all sugar. And maybe after thinking about it, I'll decide to do both or something. Like give up desserts, and my favorite comfort foods (mac n cheese, pizza, burgers and fries). I actually think that might be what I do!

It all sounds so easy and fun now, but it would quite honestly be tough to give that up for 40 days. I'd have to brush out the kinks of it. Like saying that fettucini alfredo counts as mac n cheese, because let's face it- it's totally the same thing. But a grilled chicken sandwich from Dutch's doesn't count. (I think that's fair. Chicken is healthier than beef.) I'll think it over and see what I think in a week.