With all of the "tornadoes" going on in my life right now, I keep forgetting to blog about what I've given up for Lent. First of all, I should say that in my life I've gone back and forth about giving things up....whether I think it's legalistic or a good discipline to master. I've given things up such as soda, broccoli (a teenage rebellious stage- I hate broccoli), and chocolate (twice). So far, chocolate has been the most difficult to eliminate from my life. Each time, I ended up gorging myself on copious amounts of chocolate Easter morning.
This year, my first inclination was to give up tv. I really don't watch that much during the week because I am not home for very long in the evenings. However, I do spend a fair amount of time watching tv on the weekends. The issue with giving up tv was that I needed to also talk my roommate into giving it up. No such luck. So I moved on to eating out.
Now, eating out is something I do way too frequently. I eat out about once or twice a week for lunch (usually chick-fil-a or some sort of burrito), and about 3 or 4 times a week for dinner. Way too much, I know. As much as I tried to cut back to once a week, when all of my friends were going out, I had a problem eating beforehand instead of eating with them. So, while giving up eating out for Lent is a spiritual discipline and a type of fast for me, it is also an interesting experiment in willpower.
From the beginning of February until now, I have not eaten out once. That includes fast food, and carryout. My one exception would be the night my roommate brought home leftover carryout pizza. That one didn't feel like it broke the rules for me. Not eating chick-fil-a has been the hardest, since it is my most favorite place to eat lunch (or breakfast or dinner, for that matter). The tangible, non-spiritual benefits have been to my pocketbook and my waistline. In 4 weeks, my food budget has essentially been cut in half, and I've lost 3 pounds. I haven't made any other changes in my diet or exercise plan, so it must be from not eating out.
I find that I am much more creative with food at home when I don't eat out. I'm also more likely to finish leftovers. However, I did have a hard time last Sunday when our fridge and freezer were devoid of food. I hadn't been to the grocery yet, and I had to be somewhere in 30 minutes. Normally, I would have just run by and grabbed something from McDonald's, but that is against my Lenten discipline. :) So, I decided to make an egg sandwich. Which would have been great, but our bread was moldy. So, I had an egg for lunch before sitting through a 2.5 hour ballet. By the end, I was starving. Thankfully, Maureen made dinner, so I was able to eat fairly quickly!
What I've learned from the experiment part of this is that I really need to curb my eating out tendencies. It is possible to eat a sandwich at home and still go out with friends while they eat out. It's also fun to be creative with food. So, when Lent is over, I'm going to try and continue to eat out much less- really just 2 times a week- one lunch and one dinner. I think that is fair. That way, I'll hopefully still enjoy the benefits of not eating out while enjoying the pleasures I get from eating out.
1 comment:
It is so challenging not to eat out, but you sure can save a lot of money! We recently made it a priority to only eat at home, and we're being way healthier, more creative...all the stuff you said. Of course, now I have the problem of Evan making fancy desserts that fatten me up. :)
I bet that if you did free-hand embroidery, it would have lots of character! Part of the charm of it is that it's imperfect, ya know.
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