Lenten Sacrifices and Other things I am not prepared for

Hello bleaders,
    Today I am am going to shpeal about Lent. No no this in not a conversion message, come back! I thought I would share you the hilarity of what I am about to do. Or the seriousness of it all, whichever you glean from it.

(Warning: A brief theology lesson follows for those who don't know what Lent is about. If you want to skip it, go down and skip the next two paragraphs)

Lent is a time of sacrifice that is suppose to gives us human folks a little glimmer of what is like to go without, like Christ who made the big sacrifice of His life for us.Typically, Catholics are asked to abstain from meat on Fridays (hence all the fish sandwiches that pop up at fast food joints). A major misconception is that all sacrifices have to do with food, like giving up sweets, sodas or what not. Not true. You can give up wearing make up, or going out to the movies, or getting your weekly manicure. It only has to been a real sacrifice. Some "bad sacrifice" examples would be like giving up coffee and you don't have it but once a month. Another example of a bad sacrifice would be to give something up for ulterior motives. Like, giving up fried foods for Lent to lose weight. Because that is not for God, it is a bad sacrifice.

Then there is another type of thing that many people don't think about for Lent: doing something extra, like giving of yourself. You can choose to do something extra instead of abstain like pray the Rosary every night, or volunteer 3 days a week at the nursing home, etc. etc.

So me, I have decided to give up meat, everyday for 40 days. Not a half-ass give up either (oops, I guess I should say half-arse since this post has some religious content). No fish (yak!) for me. Strictly fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, and other hunter-gatherer stuff. Oh, and don't get me wrong, I am not going crazy and abstaining from milk, eggs, etc. I think I would die without cheese.

Last year I did this for Lent, too. I was just totally unprepared. I put on like 5 lbs because I ate a lot of cheese pizza and fried cheese sticks. (seeing a trend here, maybe I should give up cheese for Lent). This year, I checked out a book called "The Clueless Vegetarian" to help me get started with recipes and mix-matching healthy meals.

I am doing this as a sacrifice because I LOVE me a good steak, medium rare, but also last Lent I learned a lot about food. I tried foods I would have never tried if I could have had meat. Like hummus, tofu, and bell peppers, and tomatoes. Now, I still eat 75% of those things. It taught me also about being hungry, because several times I was unprepared and hungered. It also taught me to better appreciate God's bounty of natural goodness. I learned how to prepare different meals and how to use different spices etc. I learned many lessens. So we will see how it goes. Hopefully it won't be 40 posts about how I want a steak. :-P