I've given up hope and I've given up not rewinding VHS tapes when returning to the store. Quite the overachiever, I know.
I considered alcohol, then remembered I'm not catholic and my birthday, St. Patrick's Day and March Madness are between now and Easter. Went with fried food. Lent Diet.
oh i forgot about march madness being during this that is another exception to my no alcohol on weekdays policy
Not really much of a sacrifice IMO. I definitely timed my sober month to start the day after the Super Bowl and end the first full day of the Big Ten tournament. That being said, going out last night completely sober was bizarre. My dart game improved dramatically, my pool game, not so much. I'm best at pool in the 3-6 beer zone.
Jesus fasted for 40 days and 40 nights. The Church decided many years agp that it obviously wasn't healthy for people to do that, so no meat on Friday's was a way for people to remember his sacrifice and honor Him.
I manage a seafood place now. We got destroyed today with everyone coming for their fish. We had a 75% full house 20 minutes before closing. 9 straight hours of beat down. So I'm giving up my sanity for lent.
Lent is a time to repent and return to Christ. There are basically three ways Catholics have traditionally done this during Lent. 1) Prayer is something you can do that naturally will invoke humility which is essentially the antedote for pride. 2) Almsgiving is something that can be done that helps combat any desires of the eyes. How so? Because lets say you come across some material item you desire and you want to purchase it, and instead of purchasing it, you donate the means by which to purchase it to charity instead. The idea here is to detach yourself from the desire for the material item with the intent of refocusing your desire on Christ. Similarly, fasting uses the same principle of self-denial for desire of the flesh. You desire food, you deny yourself. Cleanse the body of natural desires and replace them with supernatural ones. In modern American Catholic culture a specific example of each would be Stations of the Cross for Lenten prayer, the annual Rice Bowl donating for Lenten almsgiving, and the fasting done so famously on Fridays, which of course involves abstaining from meat as a part of it, for Lenten fasting. Lastly, you can read about desires of the flesh, desires of the eyes, and pride in John's first epistle (2:15-17) where John lists the three temptations of the world. Likewise, you can read about Jesus' words on what the remedy for those three temptations are in Matthew 6:1-18, almsgiving, prayer, and fasting.
What people don't seem to realize is that meditation, reflection, and rites of passage aren't restricted to a dogmatic religious view. I routinely attend various religious celebrations, most often Presbyterian, Catholic, or Hindu, though I don't believe in any of those doctrines per se. Lent, to me, is a nice, socially acceptable opportunity to engage in some reflective denial of your favorite things. In accordance with the initial story, I'm fasting during the daylight hours Monday through Saturday. At night, I eat a small meal. I'm not drinking at all. On Sundays, I'll have a veritable feast after my Protestant Biblical reading group, Mass, yoga, and meditation. All I want is an opportunity to think more deeply about going without the things I love-- food, wine, and socializing. Because without the former, the latter is more rare.
Abita strawberry is out now and one of my favorite beers is a straw-gator. 1/2 abita strawberry & 1/2 andygator. It's delicious.
Yeah, I was feeling it last night but resisted the urge. Tomorrow is going to be the toughest though, being on the beach on an 80-degree day. I guess I'll play watersbee or DietCokesbee instead of beersbee.
Our standard Friday is 16-18k in sales. Yesterday, we did 25k. There is a buttload of Catholics here. Today has been much slower thankfully.
Ok, so it's been 2 weeks since lent started. Who's still going strong? Who has given up? I gave up alcohol and haven't had a drink since fat tuesday. My wife also gave up alcohol but she fucked up and had a bloody mary this past sunday when she went out for brunch with some of her friends.
Day 17 of sober month. Gone pretty well thus far -- even still going to the bar on occasion. Been lucky that the weather has been in the upper 60s/low 70s than 10 degrees warmer. That's when my resolve will be really tested.
Remind me again when this is over? (Raised Catholic, but I haven't set foot in a church in years other than weddings and my grandmother's funeral ) Is it Holy Thursday ("Last Supper") -- Good Friday -- or Easter Sundy?? ...could use a drink.
Im not catholic but i think its over after holy thursday maybe? Either way i'm running a 10k next saturday and having some drinks after. So for me lent is done saturday morning.
Had to start eating in daylight when the time changed but still managing. Edit: also took a long weekend off for vacation. No regrets.
No idea about fish. I'm not catholic so i still eat meat on Fridays. But I usually hit the local seafood market if I'm trying to find seafood for my wife.
Used to give up all sweets/desserts and soft drinks when I was a kid. It was hard as fuck. Spoiler Gave up religion when I found out about the kid diddling
Tobacco and sweets. Alcohol way too hard with st paddys and march madness but I may give it up during the week
Long John Silvers --- and simply bc they have cracklins. But I'd just buy some shrimp or fish at the store and make some dank tacos.
A Surf Taco just opened up at Rutgers. I've never tried one that wasn't down the shore, but I'm going to give this one a try this Friday.
Count me among those giving up alcohol. I did it in 2011 when I was married and it was much harder then than it will be now that I live alone.
Also giving up booze. Fasting for the work week. The first couple days of fasting are tough but it's easier after that.