What To Give Up For Lent?

For those of you who don't know, tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent. So, as is custom, I needed to figure out what to give up for the next 40 days (apparently it is something like 46 days, since Sundays don't count). So I thought about it for a while. Most of you know, I am just ending on month without eating any meat, which was for no reason at all. My wife kind of wanted to make that retroactive, but there are no grandfather rules in Lent, so we need to find something else to give up.

Before I started this blog, I did a little reading on Lent and found that the fasting during Lent is intended to be about self-discipline. You don't just fast (and by fast, in modern terms that is giving something up) for the sake of fasting, it has to be something that requires you to use some self discipline, self control, and be something that you will miss so that you think about it and make a conscience effort to ensure that you stay disciplined. That way, you are always keeping in mind the purpose of Lent (I will leave the purpose of Lent up to each of you individually, because that is how I roll).

So with that said, I thought about a variety of things, but nothing really seemed that hard. I then read something that said that fasting wasn't just for self discipline, but also to better one's self. It is not just about fasting, but fasting to cleanse yourself and to better yourself. In modern terms, I took that to be something that would make me healthier or a better person. So I thought about what I use and do everyday (for the self discipline part) and something that isn't necessarily the healthiest thing in the world for me (the cleansing part).

Well, I settled on caffeine. I did soda last year, but that really wasn't' that hard because I still had tea and coffee. This year I am going cold turkey. As I finish up this blog, I am drinking my last cup of coffee till April 11th. I probably drink about a total of 4 or 5 cups of coffee a day and three or four sodas/energy drinks a week, so this is going to be hard. Since I was in the mood to take this seriously, I decided to add chocolate to the list since it is high in caffeine. I will see what else I use that is also high in caffeine and nix those as well (goodbye Excedrin).

So when you see me over Lent, be careful for the first few days, as I will likely have a pretty strong headache. But also make sure that I am following my promise here. I hope that each of you who celebrate Lent have put some thought into your decision and I hope maybe I have provided you with some insight into a way to make your decision. Post your decision here, or hit me up on Facebook and let me know what you decided. Good luck.