Lent

I'm going to try and give up my Gluten free corn Chex cereal. It will be hard, though. As this is my favorite thing to snack on when I'm hungry in between meals.

I might go pescetarian but it feels like a cheat to me because I love fish so much. It might work as a compromise between my workout schedule and current diet and going veggie, though.

I do lent. I have not though about what it'll be this year. Perhaps spree candy, as my husband keeps bring them home and is trying to get me addicted....

Ooh maybe I'll give up getting on my scale...

I've never really observed Lent but if I were to try I would probably give up something not diet-related. Daytime television, for example, or maybe my computer lol (but then how would I log)

I did no downloading music and no amazon one year. It was killer. (Yes, that's pathetic.)

Growing up, we always gave up baked goods. Once I grew up & went out on my own, I stopped. I think it'd be an even bigger sacrifice now to give up cookies or brownies for Lent now than back then. Or maybe Netflix.

Whipping cream on my Friday night piece of pie.

I am going to try for beer and potato chips.For people that know me,it's about the same as to quit breathing!

lemurcat12 wrote: »

Yes, but since I do do it for religious reasons I try not to do something that will be confused with something I do for dieting purposes (not saying one shouldn't, that's just me).

Traditionally I give up meat and sweets, but last year (when I'd just started my weight loss efforts in late January), I didn't do any food related thing (other than the standard Friday ones). This year I'm not sure--I'm seriously thinking about trying to do vegetarian again, but that will be challenging for my current way of eating (and I'll be traveling for part of it). I also might give up coffee.

Oh my, giving up coffee would be so hard for me! But I guess the coffee industry isn't exactly well managed... so it might be something I should consider....

Ahhh... lent well I think I need to quit smoking so I better get some patches. Makes no sense to loose all this weight to get lung cancer and die anyway

lesteidel wrote: »

I try to follow the traditional orthodox rules of fasting during lent. No animal products, no meat, no oils etc and there are a few days in there that are complete fasts. To us, the point of lent is a fast so you can concentrate on spiritual matters, not simply giving up one item that we enjoy. Since it is a religious fast, I follow the guidelines (as best I can) that are given by my religion

My best friend grew up Greek Orthodox, but doesn't follow it entirely now (only during Holy Week, she does a modified version before). She doesn't understand why I kind of envy how they go all out, which is more similar to what used to be done in the West in the past too. (But on the other hand she mocks our current version of a fast, as do I sometimes, and it is encouraged to do more than is required on actual fast days.)

I went vegan one year to kind of get in the spirit, but haven't tried doing that plus no oil. (Although I'm pretty sure there's a weird loophole for shrimp.)

Anyway, good for you!

I have struggled with this in the past few years. The purpose of the lenten fast is to draw one closer to God by giving abstaining from those things, even good things, which get in the way of that relationship.

In the past I've used the lenten fast as a way to aid my fitness goals, so in a way they didn't really serve as they were supposed to -- instead of drawing me closer to God they aided my vanity instead.

This year I'm thinking of giving up eating between dinner and bedtime. I've become almost dependent on my evening snacks. I'll still allow some beer in there -- if it's good enough for the monks it's good enough for me. I may add a daily rosary into that time period as well as a way to fill that "gap" in my evening.

lesteidel wrote: »

Maybe try something completely non food related to keep in the spirit of the fast. I think setting the time aside every day to pray the rosary (or just to pray) would still be in the spirit of lent, and help you focus on the point of it instead of it being a food based thing, which might kind of be whats bothering me about this whole discussion. Lent is a deeply religious thing for a lot of people, its kind of weird to see it used as just an opportunity to give something random up.

Okay, I am going to be too long-winded like always, but I don't think you should assume that people are giving something random up or that it's not religious. That seems really presumptuous. I help with our RCIA program (conversion program for adults) and was just participating in a panel about it on Monday, so have been thinking about it, so here's a summary of my thoughts (from a Catholic perspective).

The requirement is fasting, alms giving, and prayer. You should do all three (I always add some kind of prayer routine, although often the intend is to try and work it in more permanently, and this is separate from the fast or "giving something up"), but often they can fit together. The classic example is give up meat and contribute the savings to charity (when I gave up buying books and music that was part of it). Last year I couldn't do a food-related one (too tied up in dieting) so I did daily mass, which is prayer but also a kind of fast in that I used time I otherwise would have had for other things.

For food-related fasts, I think it's easy in the US to think of fasting as not having a spiritual element and as a result it tends to be a little countercultural and I like it for that reason, but you have to kind of focus to find it. For me that's about remembering why you are doing it.

The modern tendency is "oh, giving something up is silly, I gave up giving things up, ha, ha" or "why not add something instead," but I think there's something to be said for giving things up. When I pick something otherwise good like coffee to give up (obviously we have a Friday requirement in addition to that and a couple of fast days), the idea isn't that it's something random. It's something that will be challenging and, more to the point, something I'm going to miss regularly. When I miss it I have to think about why I am doing it and if it's something of a crutch I have to fill the need with something else (ideally prayer).

Giving up meat has less of that kind of effect for me (I can go without meat pretty easily, apart from protein goals), but I still like doing it because it's traditional, because I can combine it eating more sparsely, it being a simpler time of year, not celebratory, and because anything that you have to think about every time you eat is significant and can easily make your day more spiritual, even if it's not particularly challenging to actually carry out (its more of a discipline than a sacrifice, like the Fridays requirement are as currently carried out).

In theory, I think someone could say that an association with dieting can work because treating your body more like a gift from God and living in a way more consistent with that, prioritizing health, etc., can be, but like I said before that doesn't really work for me, so I can't have a "fast" that is primarily intended to serve a weight loss goal. It's why I'm not giving up sweets even though I've done that in the past when not trying to lose weight (and I generally think traditionally speaking it's best not to think of Lent as a time for sweets anyway, and certainly avoid them during Holy Week).

I have given up Facebook, chocolate and coffee in the past for Lent. Coffee was by far the most difficult one!!! I felt like I may lose my life the first 3 days!!
My son and I were discussing this the other day, and I mentioned maybe giving up my cell phone, he said he didn't think I could do that....I guess we'll see!

Pretty sure I've heard that one before. ;-)