My First Lent

So I come from a very secular background. My parents were both raised in households where Religion was present, but not with an Old Testament clenched fist. When raising my sister and me, they left us to discover what we wanted to believe, with any questions and beliefs we had always open to discussion, if we saw fit to talk about such things. So most of the religious holidays we celebrated were celebrated on their cultural basis (i.e. commercial). Chocolate bunnies and Santa Claus took precedence over Jesus’ birthday and his (correct me if I’m understanding this incorrectly) zombified reanimation.
 
Needless to say, 40 days and 40 nights meant absolutely nothing to me. The idea of giving one thing up for said period of time seemed silly unless you planned on giving it up permanently. So I never really saw it fit to give up anything. It wasn’t until I was driving over to my parents house for our Easter dinner that I realized that I had in fact participated in Lent this year. What did I give up you may ask.

Giving a shit about my health.

Now this is not the typical way of going about giving up something for Jesus’ sacrifices, but it happened nonetheless. Where I once tried at least slightly above the average person to maintain a certain level of activity and limiting gorging my face to once or maybe twice a week, I failed miserably since the aptly named Fat Tuesday.

So I am here to recommit myself to rediscovering my fitness and nutrition. Will it be easy given my financial situation? Hell no, produce is expensive. But I’m going to try, come hell or filtered mineral water. I am no longer aloud to eat food from work, unless it is soup, rice, veggies or stolen fruit. More fruits and veggies to the extent my wallet can stand it. Eating out will be limited to vacations, special occasions, and dates with the potential for sex. Sorry platonic friends. I need to get back to my routine of running in the morning, no more going back to sleep like a tired ass baby, when I get up I get up. As far as alcohol, well I will try to cut back on the beer a little, but come on I’m still 20-something, can’t retire having fun yet.

So there are my current goals for the next 40 days and beyond. Come June will I look like D’Angelo in the “How Does it Feel” video, doubtful. But will I look like D’Angelo after living with Angie Stone for several years? No, even if it is maybe a bit more likely.

Here is to never celebrating Lent again.