Lenten Promises

This is my first Lent season that I'm participating in, ever. You see, I grew up attending "southern Baptist" church. Yes, I definitely learned to be a good christian girl through Sunday school and all those long sermons, but I always knew I didn't "mesh" with that scene. I spent pretty much all of my adult years avoiding church because this was the only scene I knew and I always left church kind of feeling bad about myself and all my sins.

Cut to last summer, when Dave and I were having one of those talks about the future before we got engaged and we both agreed that at least making the attempt to find a church where we felt as if we fit in was a priority for the both of us. Dave grew up attending the Episcopal church, but also yearned for something a little more informal. A friend of a friend recommended an Episcopalian church to us and we started attending in October. I love it because each Sunday that I am lucky enough to attend, I leave there feeling great about myself. I feel like it's an opportunity to reconnect and reset for the week. People wear whatever they want there (the Baptist in me still cannot bring myself to wear pants to church, but it's a goal of mine), and they come from all walks of life. Our church is open to all races, and all forms of sexuality, unlike the Catholic church.

So, when I started thinking about Lent and how this would be my first time participating, I decided I'd better do something BIG. At first I was sure I'd give up all sweets, but as I was noshing on some cheese this weekend, I realized that if I restricted sweets, I'd inevitably overdo it on something else. So, my Lent choice for this year is to avoid gluttony of any kind. In order to track this, I plan to stay completely on track with Weight Watchers for the full 40 days. My focus will be on reclaiming purity in the foods that I choose to eat, and avoiding spending too many points because of convenience. I hope that by the time the 40 days have passed, this will feel like old hat to me and I'll be on a roll. I'll plan on posting some food journals here too. I hope to do a lot more cooking, and my mom and I have vowed to exchange more WW recipes so that we don't get bored eating the same ol' crap!