Giant Leaps

Good Morning, all.

I hope your week is going well.

Well, my last post was about the baby steps I am taking on the road to getting healthy. I've been "off" Diet Cokes (my drug of choice) for a little over a month.

It has NOT been easy, but so far, so good.

Today I have embarked on a new quest (road to insanity): I am giving up meat for Lent.

Today is Ash Wednesday, and begins the 40 days of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving in the Christian tradition. These days are meant to represent the 40 days Jesus was tempted in the desert by the devil. But the current time frame excludes Sundays, and goes into a bunch of other explanations I really don't understand.

In recent years, or at least in our old church, we typically gave up something difficult: cokes, coffee, chocolate, fasting for a day, etc.

This year I faced a problem. I'd already given up cokes, so what else could I do?

Chocolate?

I love my family far too much to subject them to the ghastly beast I would become if chocolate were ever taken away from me. I'm not saying I couldn't give up chocolate, I'm just saying I couldn't give it up and still be a decent human being to those around me.

So what else could I do?

I read through an article on Lent yesterday, and saw one of the things people used to give up was meat.

Well, that was a thought. Could I really give up meat? Steak? Chicken? Turkey? Ham?

Now, carnivore that I am, this decision was really hard to make. Could I really not eat meat for 6 weeks?

I decided to give it a try and see how it goes. I'm not going totally vegan. I'll still eat eggs and cheese, drink milk, and other foods that are cooked with meat. I just won't eat the meat itself.

Or fish.

My mom and I discussed it, and we both decided if it has a face (even beady little eyes like shrimp) and breaths oxygen (even through gills) then it counts as meat.

We'll see how long I last before I slip up and go devour a cow in a field somewhere.

Hopefully I'll make it longer than one of my former pastors. He gave up sweets for Lent one year, and that afternoon, we saw him walking down the hallway, slurping a Frosty from Wendy's.

Soooo, I guess I'll update you on my progress on Friday.

Later!