Lent 2014

Anyone else out there observe lent?

I've been fasting things during the left period for years. 

This is there first time that my husband and I decided to practice lent together. 

We are fasting from evening snacking (including after dinner dessert!) and only allowing ourselves fruit in the evenings.

For those of you who don't know, Lent is the Christian tradition of fasting from Ash Wednesday until Easter (40 days not including Sundays). 

The purpose of lent is to set aside time to reflect on Jesus Christ - his sacrifice, life, death, and resurrection - in the days before Easter.

So we chose to give up snacking. The only thing we are allowed after dinner is fruit and tea. 

Why did we chose this?

Simple - it would be difficult!

In this house, we developed a bad habit of snacking at night.

Crackers and cheese, popcorn, desserts. You name it! 

Since we've been in this bad habit, it's been very hard to break it. 

Our bodies adjusted to wanting more food and craved foods that are bad for us. 

Breaking the habit is good for our health and our diets (& my weight loss!).

It's also something that we need to start now if we want to be training our kids to have good eating habits in the future. 

Lent was the perfect time to kick this bad habit. 

To focus on something bigger. 

Remind ourselves that our bodies are temples for God and that we should be treating them right. 

I'll be honest, most of the time when I sit down to watch a show with my husband at night, I'm not thinking about God's sacrifice… I'm just thinking, "Wow, I could really go for some popcorn right now".

But sometimes when I think about how hard it is to avoid the snacks, the reminder of real reason for lent puts my insignificant troubles into perspective. 

Progress?

We have a bit over a month left to go and so far we've done very well. Better than I thought I would! 

It's getting easier and easier to say no to nighttime snacks. 

It helps that there are two of us doing this together. 

That way, if one of us slips (e.g. "maybe just a cookie tonight?") the other one can usually stay strong (e.g. "No! We're no suppose to! You're dragging me down!"), lol. 

Did you give up anything for lent?

{xoxo}