Although I'm not Catholic, my husband is, and as a faithful wife and Protestant, I am all for supporting him while he practices his religion by denying myself something for the next FORTY days, too. I figure it's the least I can do to cheer him on as well as to have a perfectly good and acceptable reason to force myself to not partake in something that really, really, REALLY makes me happy all in an attempt to honor Christ's great sacrifice for us. Last year, it was cupcakes. Not CAKE, mind you. Just cupcakes. You see the loophole here, right? I have to admit, that was sort of a lame plan as I simply shunned cake in CUPS and instead imbibed in the less evil cake in SLICES. Pretty fail-proof way to make my first year of observing the Lenten season pretty darn easy.
However, this is my second-go-round with Lent and denial and FORTY days, so the husband and I put in some heavy thought to what would be a bit harder for me than the Great Cupcake Fiasco of Lent 2011. What would be a true sacrifice? What could we give up that would not only be a challenge but also help us insofar as our overall health was concerned. Somewhere between chocolate and beer (both WAY too easy for me) the husband suggested bread. Hmmm. Now, I understand how to deprive myself of bread so I didn't shoot this idea down right off. I'd been here before. I'd done this. Back in my crazy days of obesity I'd been able to shun all things carbohydrate and was a very diligent practicioner of the Atkins diet. To go even farther, I ROCKED the Atkins diet and was one of those rare success-stories as I never gained the weight I lost back. So, the idea of giving up bread was one I was willing to entertain. Pay no attention that CharityOnTheRun devours carbs like she does water. I've been known to, quite recently, put away an entire bag of costinis from Kroger in two days. Not pretty. But true.
In preparation for the Great Bread Shunning of Lent 2012, the husband and I thought that the most appropriate way to celebrate Fat Tuesday would be to visit our favorite pizza place (Mellow Mushroom) and eat ourselves into carbohydrate coma so that our bodies would easily remember what they'd be missing for FORTY days. Game On! As an aside, I also thought that this would be the most appropriate way to drown my sorrows resulting from the ankle issues I've been having. No running? Pig out on pizza...problem solved! And, I'm more than happy to report, that an order of whole wheat pretzels, one White Pizza, and one Mighty Meaty later, my body is now more than prepared to not see bread for at LEAST FORTY days, if not longer. And those sore ankle sorrows? Gone? Not so much. But bring on Lent, baby. I'm going to rock this thing!
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