Challenging Lent already
This Lent is really testing my Lenten promises. I decided to give up cookies and chocolate (I technically said chocolates, but I decided to just to do all things with chocolate now). And of course, on Ash Wednesday and Fridays I can’t eat meat. Well on Wednesday, I had a big meal with all the people of the year I came in with. It’s their mid-degree meal, marking half-way through their degrees. It’s not my halfway, but it wasn’t my halfway last year either. So I got invited to two mid-degree meals, and went to both, neither of which marked my mid-degree. But anyway, I decided I would fast on Wednesday (which I don’t normally do) because I wasn’t sure what would be at the restaurant in terms of vegetarian options. So I thought if I had to eat meat, at least I would have fasted all day. Apparently, what I thought was fasting is not the Catholic definition of fasting, which allows you to eat one normal-sized meal and two small meals. I just didn’t eat anything until dinner. And not eating always gives me a headache. So I endured that, and then I had salmon instead of the steak I wanted for dinner. And I had some sort of cake instead of the chocolate mousse I wanted.
So that was Wednesday. Then yesterday, formal hall was Chinese food, which the meat option looked really good. Strips of beef in a black bean sauce (sort of reminded me of beef and broccoli without the broccoli) and fried rice. But I had the vegetarian, which was quorn in a black bean sauce. Quorn turned out to be something like tofu, so it was actually pretty good. But before I got my meal, I really wanted some of that meat. Then tonight, we’re having a girls movie night, and they’re spending all their money on buying chocolates to eat. Which of course means I’ll be tempted but can’t have any. I guess I’ll bring something of my own to eat.
So I’ve had to resist temptation when it comes to food quite a bit, considering I’ve only had three days of Lent so far. But I guess it’s good for me. On Wednesday, I also went to Confession, the first I’ve gone in a few years, and I finally confessed my stealing of candy when I was 6. I assume most of you who read this know that story, so I won’t tell it. But I finally told a priest, and I think he chuckled a bit and he said something like, “well it’s good to tell those things we did as children, sometimes they affect us quite a bit.” So yay, I overcame a fear too.