Lent

Well, today is Good Friday in the Christian faith, basically the saddest and holiest day of the entire religious year.  Today is the day, according to scripture, that Jesus Christ was crucified on a hill and died for our sins.  As a (very badly practicing) Catholic, it is the home stretch for Lent, with Easter Sunday just two sleeps away.  As a kid, it was on for Easter candy. 

As an adult, I look forward to my Lenten resolutions finishing up.  Because this year, I haven't done so great at them.  To review:

1. No meat (except fish)
2. No commercial sweets
3. 30 minutes of exercise a day
4. Reduce intake of french fries

I have done very good on two of the four.  Maybe I picked too many resolutions this year, spreading my will power thin you may say.  I haven't had a bit of meat since Ash Wednesday.  I've even eaten at McDonald's and chose the Filet O'Fish (which I had never had before actually).  For some reason, it's not been that hard to give up meat.  No burgers, no turkey, no bacon.  I think the fish had something to do with it.

Commercial sweets has been an unmitigated disaster honestly.  I just haven't been able to stick to it.  The first couple of weeks were great.  No sweets.  Did well.  And when we made our own cookies one week, I was fine, but the last couple of weeks?  Ugh.  Not so much.  It's just not been going well.  I've given up sweets in previous years and been fine.  I have NO idea why this year has been so hard.  I will say, I have reduced the amount of sweets, but I didn't eliminate them altogether.  :-(

And that 30 minutes of exercise a day?  Pshaw!  That went even worse than the commercial sweets.  Maybe I should have aimed for fewer days per week for longer because I have done that.  With the bike training for the duathlon, I've done a better job of getting out there several days a week to ride the bike and the time has increased each time as my mileage has increased.  Overall, I might have been ok overall on the time of exercise, just not doing it every day.  But, I will be honest, exercise has always been my downfall.  I'm just not one who revels in getting out there and sweating.  It's something I need to work on.

And the fries.  This was an eh resolution.  It wasn't a full-on resolution, it was just a "try to cut back" resolution and honestly, I think it went really well.  This year's Lenten french fry consumption is drastically down in comparison to my average fry consumption.  I believe it may have been once a week or once every other week.  That's amazing when looking at my average fry intake.  I am pretty proud of this one because fries are one of my biggest weaknesses.  But, without completely eliminating it from my diet, but by just trying to reduce the amount I consume, I did a great job of actually following through.  It made me realize that not every meal out needs to include fries.  There are other (tasty) options out there.  And hopefully I can ride this past Lent and into my every day life from here on out.

So, I suppose if I were grading my Lent, I would give myself a C.  I did well on two of my resolutions, but two I just did awful.  Maybe a good try for sweets and exercise, but that's about the best I can say.  It's something to learn from and to realize they are areas I need to concentrate on, not just during Lent, but beyond.