Even though I am not a super religious person I still participate in Lent every year. I always give up something that is hard for me to give up because it reminds me what I can live without.
In high school I used to eat a chocolate bar every day for lunch. For Lent in 2012 I gave up chocolate. For a whole 40 days I could not eat chocolate. At first It felt like torture, then I was filled with sadness, and soon after it just became something I got used to. Now, I eat chocolate every now and then, it is a treat or a desert. I no longer finish a whole chocolate bar by myself. Instead, I break off a piece and feel satisfied. I now only eat enough to satisfy my craving.
In 2013 I gave up soda. It was the best decision I have ever made. I did not drink soda for a whole two years. When I drank my first soda two years later out of curiosity, the soda tasted disgusting. I could not believe that I used to put that in my body. I have learned that drinking soda is an acquired taste. I did eventually pick up the habit of drinking soda again but I only drink it on special occasions or the occasional craving. I no longer drink a soda every chance that I get.
This year, I decided to give up coffee. I never used to drink coffee before 2016 because I did not like how it tastes. I like coffee that is sweet with like 10 spoonfuls of sugar (not really 10 spoonfuls but sure seems like it). I picked up the habit because at my old job my supervisor would ask me to pick up coffee for us on my way to work. So yes, I would get a coffee here and there, but it wasn’t enough for me to get addicted. I left that company in May 2019. Two days later I started my new job, where I work now.
This is my first desk job and it can get very cold in the building. To be fair to the company I work for I’d like to point out that I am a very cold natured person and I get very cold easily. In this job I have picked up the habit of getting a coffee at each one of my 15 minute breaks. I started drinking about 3 coffees a day on my work days and one to two coffees at home on my days off. Around December 2019, I realized that I had developed this horrible habit so I started drinking some of my coffee with decaf. Even so, I still couldn’t shake the bad habit.
Therefore, this year I decided to give up coffee for lent altogether. The first week I was miserable. Caffeine withdrawals are no joke. I had a headache for a week, I was exhausted and I was extremely cranky. I had to remind my husband that when I was mean to him it was because I was not feeling well and was taking it out on him.
About a week and a half after Ash Wednesday I started feeling better. I was starting to feel like life was fuzzy and I was in a dream but the headaches were gone. I started falling asleep faster at the end of the day, almost as soon as my head hit the pillow. I would get about 7 to 8 hours of sleep and my body would start waking up automatically; there were days I would wake up before the alarm went off. I don’t feel the need to press snooze on my alarms like I used to. I wake up, drink water, get ready, get my daughter ready, I even eat breakfast with her most days, and I am in a better mood.
I realized that drinking water in the mornings instead of coffee really gets my metabolism working. I also learned that I have clearer skin than I used to. I don’t get as much acne, I am happier and am no longer always tired and groggy. Giving up coffee this year has been the best decision I have made. I also learned that coffee doesn’t actually wake me up, it makes me tired and sleepy. I always felt too tired to play with my daughter on my days off unless I had coffee, but now I know that I was so tired BECAUSE I drank coffee. My daughter is the greatest gift I could have received from the universe. In these past few days I have learned that I feel like I now have more hours in the day to spend with her because I am no longer feeling like I have to rely on coffee to function.
In my life Lent has been a period of my year when I get to give up something that I rely too much on and helps me see that nothing is terrible if consumed in moderation. It is okay to treat yourself once in a while and consume with moderation.
It is not okay to feel like you cannot live without soda, chocolate or coffee or whatever it is that you feel like you are addicted to. It does not matter whether you are religious or not, I do believe we should all take some time to reflect on the things we put in our bodies and the things we bring into our lives and make sure that the people and things that we bring in our lives are there to help us be the best version of ourselves.
Thank you for reading 🙂
GExtraordinaire 