I got 13 days to go!

Sorry for not posting as regularly as usual, Been fasting well and working hard.

Still on the go.  Clothes that haven't fitted me before are now doing so and that means I have a bit of a new wardrobe as a result!  Well, a new wardrobe as in I can wear things I already own but haven't been seen in for quite a while.

Last night was hard.  In fact, all weekend I wanted things I couldn't have.  I really craved some beer on Saturday and then Sunday all I wanted was a cheeky Burger from somewhere.  So I ended up watching Fast Food Nation on DVD and then Super size Me on Google Video just to appease myself that Fast food is not a good idea.

But as is usually noted when watching Super Size Me, it just made me want bad food even more! especially a Big Mac.

It's crazy really when you think about it all for a minute.  Most of us (not all) enjoy junk food to some extent.  You pass any McDonalds and you you will see people inside eating and chatting and if like me, you enjoy the odd one now and again, you know that those people are feeling happy, relaxed and good about everything.  Well, until the sugar low hits them an hour later and they just want more.

It's like we have been enslaved to like this crap en masse and have to try ultra hard to resist it.  I was thinking there now how hard it would be to give up something other than food for lent.  I mean let's say I decided to give up driving.  There goes the ability to do a lot of work as I generally travel with equipment to jobs.  If I wanted to give up talking, well, you can imagine how hard that would be!.

But in the society we have today, you either have a car, use public transport or don't go anywhere unless you can walk it.  We almost have to communicate verbally all the time or be limited to what we can achieve.

What I'm trying to say is that we rarely have a chance to do what we want in life.  And I mean 'Truly' do what we want without being limited in some way.

I always remember my History teacher in Secondary school teaching us about the history of Medicine.  He told us that at certain points along the timeline, Humans took a path at a junction and continued along it, came to another junction and continued along that one until we are where we are today.  Today we have hospitals, certain methods of making people well, surgery, Kaemotherapy, brain scans and so on.

Who is to say that is the right way?  why shouldn't spiritual healing or some other form of healing be in place of what we do today?.  He said just because this is where were at with medical skill doesn't necessarily mean it's the right place to be.  We could have taken the wrong path somewhere back in time.

And it's true for todays status on pretty much everything.  Who is to say a money based society is correct? who is to say Internal Combustion Engines are correct? why should we still depend so much on animal instinct? Why do we all wear clothes?

I know this might sound funny or even pointless, but it is just something I have been thinking about a lot recently and how Lent is a good chance to shed all the things we have been 'given' by society and think for ourselves.  Just because it's there doesn't mean we have to take it.

Just like I am on lent and have given up eating a lot of different types of food.  Just because the general populous stuffs their face 2 times a week in McDonalds doesn't mean I have to.  Yet, showing one of those families that I prepare fresh food and eat little each day might be as bizarre to them as it is to me going to McDonalds for my Food twice a week.

Jesus was in the desert for 40 days and 40 nights (for arguments sake, lets say that is how it was) and he ate Locusts and Wild Honey.  No clothes (spare what he had on him) stones for a pillow at night and his faith.  Nothing else.  I always imagine how focused and unattached from society he must have felt.  But better still, how 'free' he must have felt also.

We are never truly 'free' from our society, and I doubt we ever will be.  Don't get me wrong, clothes, cars, computers, the internet are all great, but is that just my thoughts because I have never given anything else a chance?

Hmmmmm.

Oh well, back to work I go.

2 Weeks down, 4.5 to go!

Ah. Two weeks into lent and not doing badly might I say. Well, to me it's either happening or not, I have either given up food or broke lent on some of them. I haven't. It's all good.

I guess I mean it's all going good by the fact I'm not even tempted by anything I have given up. I mean, I do salivate at the smell of other foods, but I don't give in, and this year it seems easier for some reason.

I think the only thing I wouldn't mind having a gulp of is Coffee. Good coffee with full fat dairy milk and a heaped spoonful of brown sugar. MMmmmm.

Anyway,

Here is this weeks shopping, again, I have no idea why i do this, but it seems to be a habit now so might as well keep it up...

(There's a dinosaur egg in there this week)

So, on Monday I had a fantastic meal. I say fantastic. It was originally going to consist of a cooked piece of mackerel but it turned into this in a few minutes!...

And I was pretty pleased with the result. Plain cous-cous with cooked mackerel and a tomato - mushroom - onion and garlic sauce! freakin' awsome and so tasty.

Oh yes, I have lost a little bit of weight in the second week also, only a little, but all the same.

Right, onto week three!

Still going...

It's the eve of 2 weeks on lent and all is going well.

Been eating really good this week and I am so feeling the difference! My body seems to be getting used to the change in diet and I am feeling mentally fresh and alert. I seem to be chewing through work a lot quicker due to this.

One thing which has come up among various people who are doing lent this year is the length of it. Everyone is expecting it to be 40 days and 40 nights as told in the bible.

And it isn't this long, it's longer.

This is primarily due to the church calendar which has to stretch and squeeze each year to make sure religious events happen at the right time during the year and for one reason and another, lent takes the bashing with Easter Sunday changing every year.

This year it's on the 12th April which is quite late, but also makes it longer than usual at 46 days long.

Those doing lent, who I have talked to, feel upset or scared that their fast has to last for 6 days extra. There are some options if you don't want to do the 'full' church calendar lent.

1) Start 6 days later than everyone else and finish on Easter Sunday

2) Take 6 days off on St. Patrick's day and end on Easter Sunday

3) Finish the Monday before Easter Sunday

4) Do the whole thing, 6 days extra and all

I am obviously opting for option 4 as I just do that. It feels more definite then as I can say 'I did Lent this year' and mean it. No excuses.

I never got the whole thing of stopping for St. Patrick's day anyway, what a load of toss. Did he show up in the desert when Jesus was there and go "Ah! 'tis Jesus himself! Here, oive been gettin' rid of the old snakes there, sure have a drink and a big old feed with me, an then get back to the starvin' the marra. So it is now so it is."

If he did, I'm missing something.

Then again, a clergy man didn't come rolling into the desert and go "Mr. Jesus, we decided lent will be a few days longer this year, so, erm, stock up on them there locusts and wild Honey...Bye!"

Ah well, lent is what you make of it, so make it a good, honest one. One you feel happy doing.