Weekend!
Well, Lent ends this Sunday with Easter.
Christmas is one of those holidays that starts at Midnight. If you can stay up until midnight, congrats. You can open your presents.
Easter, however, does not start until sunrise. So if you did something silly like “give up carbs for Lent”, you don’t get to order a pizza at 11:45PM on Saturday night and start eating it as soon as it gets there.
Nope. You have to go to bed and wake up and *THEN* eat the pizza.
As for my Lenten abstinence, how did I do?
Well, I did awful.
I made it less than a week before I bought a game and, on top of that, I was completely devastated by Daylight Saving Time and so started drinking caffeinated diet sodas again.
But I did not cheat on my diet.
Well, I suppose that that isn’t technically true… I ate more than 20 non-fruit carbs in any given day a number of times. It turns out that they soak meat in brown sugar before turning it into beef jerky, so I ate too many carbs because of that. Additionally, there was this really super annoying breach that happened at Costco: I was looking at the different protein powders and doing comparisons between how this one has 5 carbs per serving, ooh, this one has 5 carbs per but they’re sugar alcohols, this one has 2 carbs per serving but it only comes in weird flavors and making my way through the products and the lady at the end of the aisle had protein shakes she was asking people to test out. I took a little sample cup, drank it, thought “oh, my gosh… this tastes like melted soft-serve vanilla ice cream” and I looked at the shake’s nutritional info and it had 23 carbs.
That irritated the heck out of me.
So, on a physical level, there were days that I ate more carbs than I wanted to… but, on a spiritual level, I held my fast. (I’m also using a different belt notch.)
Lessons learned: Give up one thing for Lent. Don’t give up three things for Lent.
Anyway, come Sunday, I am so very much going to enjoy my cheat day. I want to go to a place for breakfast that has biscuits. I will be going to the sister’s house to watch the nephews complain that they’re too old to search for Easter eggs and I will bring some Cold Stone Ice Cream and mom said that she’d make twice-baked potatoes for us. And then, that night, I will probably order a pizza.
And get donuts on the way to work the next morning.
And, depending on what my weight looked like on Saturday (I still haven’t weighed myself since a week into the diet, you see), we’ll sit down and discuss the diet plan going forward.
And I seriously can’t wait for that.
So… what’s on your docket?
(Photo is “Footrace finish line, 1925” from the Seattle Municipal Archives, used under a creative commons license)
BBQ and Easter Egg hunt for the family with a “sick day” in the works for Monday. Should be a fine weekend.Report
You have to give something up for Lent? I thought it was about eating lentils…
I kid.
I got a call last night, my son saying he is coming by today with the new long term girlfriend. So cleaning this AM. Monday we go on vacation for a week, so we got that going for us, which is nice… Going down south to play in tide pools and look at wild flowers on the central coast. Also see a little family, visit the home town and such. Should be beautiful.Report
You have to give something up, but in a few weeks you get it back. Which is why it;s called “lent”.Report
So, met the girlfriend. Seems very sweet, quite pretty and obviously very attached to the boy. At 21 I am not sure if I am should be happy or really, really scared.Report
I’m just excited that I made it through the week. (Ran through and past my energy reserves when in Paris – walked > 6 miles per day – but it was worth it and I would do it again exactly the same way in a heartbeat.)
Looking forward to not a lot on Saturday and family times on Sunday.Report
I have started dreaming about cheating on my diet.
I dreamed I ate a handful of those crispy m&ms. Even as I did so, I was thinking “I don’t even like m&ms that much and I can’t believe that I’m cheating on my diet for freaking m&ms instead of something that I actually really, really like.”
Then I felt my legs move under the covers and felt so very much relief.
But the cheating dreams have started to show up.Report
Planning on having Babylon 5 bookclub back for the week after next, and consistent on a weekly basis thereafter, if anyone is still interested in continuing. We’re getting to some of the best parts, so it would be a shame to stop now. I think Tuesdays would be nice, if that doesn’t conflict with anything else on Mindless Diversions (I try to spend Sundays offline, so having the bookclub posts go up Mondays doesn’t work well for me if I’ve procrastinated).Report
I always *love* reading your recaps and Tuesdays are fine, scheduling wise. I might not have much to say in response but I always read them, and the comments, avidly.Report
@katherinemw
I’m definitely still keen to participate. I may even eventually get to a point where I can do some recaps myself.Report
I need to start making phone calls, but boy I hate talking on the phone. Need to set up with a doctor, need to call our handy man, and need to get the dog shorn.
Also need to figure out what to do with our little girl. We’re running into some really difficult behavioral issues and need to start reining her in. Preschool is starting to get frustrated with her meltdowns. She’s also approaching 3.5 and the toilet training thing still isn’t happening. We’re turning to reading books. Sigh.
It’s been a really stressful month.Report
Ugh, sounds like it. I’ll be thinking of y’all.Report
Got back from Miami at midnight last night and now today feels like Sunday even though it’s Friday. I got to pickup the boys from daycare and Mayo was so excited to see me he came running and as I stretched out my arms to embrace him he saw the Miami Marlins baseball I picked up for him, proceeded to stop on a dime, grab at the ball, and turn to show it off to his classmates. Ugh. Kids. Now I’m playing catch up on everything I didn’t do last week. But I have next week off as well so that will help.
In case I miss Sunday’s post, I want to recommend “Station Eleven”. Mistakenly (in my opinion and the author’s) classified as sci-fi, the book interweaves various stories surrounding a mass pandemic that wipes out most of humanity and various character’s inherent human urge — before, during, and after the crash of society — to contribute to and/or preserve “culture”. Fascinating book. It wasn’t about the apocalypse — there was very little discussion of the disease itself and no zombies… just lots of dead bodies at times — but rather about what makes us human and all that kinda crap. Very enjoyable read. And I say that as someone not typically drawn to those sorts of books but maybe now I will be. And for the Canadians among us, the author is one of you!Report
Got family stuff all weekend. My dad’s back from the hospital (there almost a week) complete with temporary clot filter (not happy about that, but he’s not on his blood thinners). The prognosis seems to be “drug interaction” with his anti-coagulants. Hes’ got a new “don’t ever take these” class of drugs added to his list. Maybe two. They’re still mulling that.
(I can’t recall the test. INR maybe? Normal is 1. Dad stays between 2 and 3, on purpose, because he’s prone to DVT and blood clots. When he was admitted, it was 11. Not good. Hence all the blood they poured down him).
I’m not real thrilled with the hospital pulmonary guy. He was…real pushy about something, like used-car salesmen. Without consulting my Dad’s actual, on-point specialist of a decade+. We finally got him looped in, thankfully.
Next week Dad gets to swallow a camera to find out what in his small intestine decided to bleed. Whatever it is, it’s not even noticeable unless your blood doesn’t clot at all. Even a little.
Which reminds me, I owe the area blood bank like….5 or 6 pints of whole and at least that many of plasma and platelets. Fair’s fair. 🙂Report
Dungeons and Dragons! Satan’s game!Report
Well, it did turn you gay.Report