lent

I am not catholic, but I like the idea of lent. I think it's good to give up an indulgence for a period of time - it develops self-discipline and character - not to mention it can be very healthy.

But since I'm not catholic, Ash Wednesday came and went last week without a second thought to me, and without of first thought of its lent implication. And over the weekend, I found myself very sluggish and unmotivated - I didn't even want to go skiing! So, still not realizing it was lent, yesterday I resolved to eat a little healthier for the day, and as a result I stopped at a fruit stand on the way to a client yesterday and bought $7.52 worth of produce - an orange, a bunch of grapes, two peaches, two nectarines, a green pear, a red pear, and a thing of dates. This was after having a protein shake with blueberries for breakfast - and I was planning on eating a salad for dinner.

So it was yesterday evening, while driving from the client to Costco to buy salad greens, where it occurred to me that we were already nearly a week into lent. And, I had not eaten any dairy, meat, or wheat or other grain-based products yesterday. Could I continue one or more of those for the next 39 days? Since I'm not catholic, the official dates of lent are pretty much irrelevant to me.. so I actually started 5 days after Ash Wednesday, I could just finish 5 days after Holy Thursday. no big deal. (The bigger deal is what if my gastrointestinal system doesn't get used to the massive amounts of raw fruits and vegetables that I'll eat? Yesterday was.. interesting.)

That aside, pressing on me this morning was the following question - which of the three - wheat, dairy, or meat - do I continue to avoid? And that's not the only question - if I give up wheat, do I give up other grains such as rice and barley? If I give up meat, do I give up fish, too? I guess I should have decided this already, but it's such an informal thing to me anyway that I guess I'm not taking it very seriously - as long as I complete the period having given up something, I'll be happy.

At any rate, right now I am leaning towards giving up wheat, because that is something that I intend to overindulge in (yum, pizza.) If I go that route, I probably won't eat meat or dairy for a few more days anyway, just because after my sluggishness over the weekend, I think I need to cleanse and recharge.

I'll also give up alcohol, because - why the hell not?