Lent started around the same time as my Final Design Project at uni. This a huge project, where me and my team of 4, have 6 weeks to design an antibiotics factory.

I had this bright idea that seeing as (what with the design project before being so stressful, nasty etcetc) I'd been eating an awful lots of sweet, cakey, chocolatey yummy-but-unhealthy things, it was about time I stopped it for a while. Lent is a good excuse (and provides some extra motivation).

Except... now I've realised, I actually can't work without chocolate.


Had anyone else decided to give something up? Any particularly interesting examples?

A couple of years ago I persuaded my boyfriend to give up SlashDot (a rather geeky news forum) for Lent. He wasted so much time on it every day... (Let not mention my usage of these forums, huh? )

I call fake on this one. Everyone knows that any guy who was an avid SlashDot reader would never have a girlfriend!

I've given up playing computer games for Lent!

If you can't work without chocolate (and I understand completely, as I can't either) you can take advantage of the lesser-known fact that as Sundays are Feast days, you are allowed to eat chocolate then. I actually got through (almost!) the whole of Lent one year doing this. Might work for you?

One year OH gave up alcohol for Lent, but didn't quite last out. When he did go out drinking again, his body wasn't used to it and he ended up absolutely plastered.

(He's not allowed to give up alcohol any more!)

I tend always to give up things made from flour, eggs and milk because those are the things that we are supposed to give up. Remember why we have pancake day? To use up all the "staple" ingredients before the start of Lent. I also try to take up some good practices. One of my my favourite books is by Charles Fillmore.

Extract from "Keep a true Lent" by Charles Fillmore:

"Whether or not you follow the ecclesiastical observance of Lent, consider its metaphysical application. Turn from the simple act of giving up things to a more positive commitment to take up the practice of higher thinking.

For instance, Lent is often a discipline to give up certain foods. This is somewhat like dieting where people want to give up putting on weight. Unfortunately, if one holds onto a self-image of ?too fat?, this practice is self-defeating. Try a new approach. Don?t give up anything. Instead take up a new image of yourself. ?Think thin? and you will find yourself eating less and more wisely. And your weight will balance itself more effectively than when you tried so hard to give up things. This is just one example.

Take up the practice of speaking the positive word, ?Let something good be said!? Commit yourself to a diet of words that are positive and loving. Whether you are talking to or about people, events or ideas, let something good be said!

Lent can be a spiritual experience, not by what you give up as much as by what you take up. More than just trying to lose weight, you will be working to shift the weight of your consciousness from the negative to the positive and creative. It can be a time of great believing leading to great overcoming and great living. It can be a wonderful season of spiritual growth."

I have given up alcohol for Lent, but will be sorely tested as I have two stressful business trips to Munich (all that beer!) with Japanese clients in the next month, and I shall certainly feel like something strong by the time I get home.

Daughter has decided to be vegan for Lent - just to be awkward as she is an extremely fussy eater at the best of times, and doesn't like vegetables. My son has given up anything with added sugar - which means he is bound to fail. He could have made it easier for himself if he'd just said no cakes, biscuits, sweets or chocolate.

Anyway, this does mean I can eat up all the ice cream in the freezer and feel like I'm doing them both a good turn!

I have to admit, I had a moment of feeling pretty rubbish when I found myself in Co-Op on Monday, buying eggs, flour, butter and lemon juice... It does rather defeat the whole point of Lent, when we land up buying such ingredients in, just so we can have our silly studenty celebration of mess-making in the kitchen.




Its okay. He doesn't have too low a number.

Some good sense here, porilo. I shall try to take this on board as Lent proceeds. Thanks for posting!

(BTW, I am giving up chocolate too. Can't say I have missed it thus far, but it's very early days! )

Who says it's limited to students?!

I gave up chocolate. I lasted one whole day. Life is just too stressful at the moment.
I think porilo has a good point and I would probably do better to take up something and discipline myself to do it - so I'm now going to try a few minutes quiet meditation every day throughout Lent.

OH has given up alcohol, so therefore I shall as well, otherwise a bottle of wine will last forever.

Haven't done anything about it so far, but as from now, am having only 1 square of chocolate a day (instead of 2, or, *looks over shoulder* occasionally 3). There, I've written it, so I'll have to do it now.

I agree with porilo too, so I'll try to do something like that, but am under a bit of stress atm, so I'll just have to concentrate on the tangible things at present.

One of my smart-Alec pupils said he was giving up piano practise for Lent, but I did say to him you're supposed to give up something you normally DO

Have you tried Nakd Cocoa Delight bars - they're sugar-free! Even Willy Wonka never managed that.

A story is told about an Irishman who goes in to a Dublin pub, orders three pints of Guinness and sits in a corner of the room, taking a sip out of each glass in turn. When all three pint glasses are empty, he returns to the bar and orders three more. The bartender advises him: "You know, a pint goes flat after it's poured. It would taste better if you bought one at a time."

The Irishman replies: "Well, you see, I have two brothers, one in America, the other in Australia and I'm here in Dublin. When we all left home we promised to always drink this way, to remember the days when we drank together, so the other two pints are for my brothers."

The bartender admits that it's a very touching custom and leaves it at that. Over the next few weeks the Irishman becomes a regular at the pub, always drinking the same way: ordering three pints of Guinness at a time and drinking them in turn.

One day he comes in, orders only two pints and drinks them in his usual way. The other regulars notice this and fall silent. When he returns to the bar for the second round, the bartender says: "I don't want to intrude on your grief, but I wanted to offer my condolences and those of our regulars on the sad loss of one of your brothers."

The Irishman looks confused for a moment, before the light dawns and he laughs. "Oh, no", he says, everyone's fine, but I've given up drinking alcohol for Lent!"

I gave up thinking about what to give up!

That's the sort of riposte I always think of 5 minutes too late!

I wanted to give up school... unfortunately I'd be arrested.

I have not 'given up' anything as such, but have decided to try to be healthy and procrastinate less about getting work done. Although one of my friends suggested 'Learn the trumpet for Lent!'!!

I normally give up chocolate but I went off it when I was pregnant (over a year ago) and I still don't fancy it. I did briefly think about giving up cappuccinos but decided I couldn't manage that at the moment - too much of my social life is at the local coffee bar...

My cat has been obliged to give up prawns - at least for the first week of Lent. The fish monger's delivery didn't arrive! When I explained this to Sasha she looked at me with her beautiful green/amber feline eyes and said she had never heard of Lent and that it was, as usual, entirely my fault.

She's obviously not a CATholic cat then !

Am most tempted to give up hope....but instead am ditching the chocolate. It was either that or alcohol. I enjoy wine more but CRAVE choccy.

So far so good.

Cold-Turkey-Bag x

I haven't given anything up this year. Instead I'm writing a blog about being a 'down to earth' Christian... think what you will, but it's making me think a lot and appreciate things I'd perhaps been overlooking.

I think that sounds like a very worthwhile and thought provoking idea... I hope you get a lot out of writing it.

Reminds me of a something I read in the Sindie last summer about how an Anglo-Pakistani family were keeping Ramadan: here

Is it a private blog or can we read it?

Here you go!

But I thought you were vegetarian!!!

Wow! That's quite a read. And good on you for posting it on here. Generally whenever religion gets brought up on this board the thread gets closed! You're completely the other side of the spectrum to my beliefs but I absolutely appreciate your articulateness.

I'm giving up giving up.

Giving up is for quitters.

The topic of religion is fairly safe, so long as no-one starts being too vehement on the actual thread itself. I'd appreciate this one staying open. Its interesting to hear how other people approach Lent, whether they take it very seriously, or have a lighter approach, or just consider it a good excuse for a diet!!

I've stopped craving chocolate for now, but eaten so many clementines, bananas, apples etc over the last few days (chocolate and cakey substitutes) that I've eaten 10 days supply in 3 days. I can see this getting expensive. Guess this does mean I'm still comfort eating though, which I was really out to reduce... May need to reconsider my procrastination methods. And why reports induce hunger!

On the plus side, work is still getting done, despite a day of serious procrastination, so maybe there is hope for this project after all.

Thanks...

But PLEASE don't anyone start arguing about it on here - enough interesting threads get closed as it is! If you really want to have a go at me, send me a PM.

Thanks - I shall be taking a look!

Haha no no, I really don't feel the need to have a go at you!

Thank you for posting the link - it makes very interesting reading and I appreciate your bravery and honesty for sharing your beliefs online.

As a Reformed Evangelical, I don't do the whole Lent thing myself but I will keep an eye on your thought provoking blog.

Lovely to have a 'Religious' thread running on the forums without any ill feeling being generated. Well done us.

I've given up chocolate, sweets, biscuits and cake. Finding it hard today as I'm revising for an exam tomorrow and normally have something nice to nibble whilst reading through reams of notes!

Try a bowl of coco pops without milk?

I'm investing in some raisins / seeds and similar for working and nibbling purposes.... but cereal without milk works quite well too.

I approach Lent seriously: that means with imposition of ashes and a Eucharistic service on Ash Wednesday, and some sort of discipline during Lent. I mentioned earlier that I was giving up computer games, and this is so I have more time for spiritual and devotional reading. Just now it's Barefoot Disciple by Stephen Cherry - an interesting read. I'm also collecting 50 pence and 20 pence pieces for Self-Help Africa (a collective undertaking by members of our congregation).

I suppose it is a good excuse for a diet, but as I am already on a diet, I can't really use it as a Lenten discipline!

It looks like an interesting read - I'll look out for it in charity shops once the 40 days are up! Plenty of time for considered reading this summer... but my nose is mostly stuck in journal articles for the moment.

One that maybe Celeste could consider mentioning on her blog (dunno if you'll have read it or not, but it came to mind when you were outlining your aims) is C.S. Lewis's 'Mere Christianity'. While a little out of date now, I found it quite an enjoyable read, and helpful for drawing the line between being Christian and obscure theology. I find many agnostics I talk to, get caught up in flaws in the latter, while missing the former. Guess it depends on how much material you already have in mind!

i'm not religious in the slightest but as a relative newcomer to Britain I was somewhat surprised (not in a bad way, just surprised) to find how many people I know (not on the forum) who are giving up something for Lent. In Asia there are similar things so I am used to the idea- Muslims fast the month of Ramadhan (no food or drink between sunrise and sunset) and Chinese Buddhists go vegetarian for a month in the Chinese calendar. I did not realise that it was quite this much in the public consciousness here. Most of the people I know who are "doing Lent" seem to be treating it as a diet or detox.

Personally I like the discipline of either giving something up, or starting something productive, but I can't hold myself to a particular calendar time as that just sets me up for failure. I've tried giving up various things at various times usually for health reasons, I realised after a few years of New Year's diet reform that that just didn't work. I've just started another eat-healthy phase, which happens to coincide with Lent I suppose, but wasn't planned that way.

I think it reflects the cultural aspect of Christianity in the UK. After all, some of the secular organisations / campaign groups have felt it necessary to run a campaign to tell people not to declare themselves Christian on the census, unless they, y'know, 'really are'. As I recall from the news articles, in the last census over 70% of the UK population declared their religion as Christianity.

Lent also benefits from its start and end being easy to remember. After all, we get very excited about 'Pancake Day' (or rather Shrove Tuesday), and celebrations of Easter are hard to miss (chocolate eggs anyone). The festivals are as wide spread as Christmas, and celebrated in a similar secular way.

I wonder if the origins of the Lenten fast are in part secular? Since I got into the habit of having a weekly veggie box delivery, I've become familiar with the "hungry gap", i.e. the time of year when the vegetables from storage are almost running out but the new produce of late spring hasn't arrived yet. Of course the official reason for Lent - to commemorate Jesus' sojourn in the wilderness - is religious, but as far as I can recall the gospels don't say anything about what time of year it took place, other than it wasn't immediately before Passover.

It does state, in the Gospel of Matthew, that the fast took place immediately after the baptism of Jesus. I preached about this in church on Sunday afternoon. If anyone would like a copy of my sermon, please PM me with an email address and I will be happy to send it. It's a metaphysical sermon but not too deep, and also has a touch of good humour (I hope).

Lol, love it!



More than likely. The Christmas and Easter festivals borrow heavily from pagan traditions. Eastre was the ancient name for spring...or so Google tells me.

Etymologically the word Lent comes from "lengthen" because that's what the daylight hours are doing at this time of year. What's it called in other languages?

In French it's called "careme" which apparently comes from a Latin word meaning "40 days" because it starts 40 days before Easter.

It occured to me this morning, that as the end of my design project was coming closer, so must Lent. And it was probably about time I resurrected (oh dear, that's a bad choice of words, no?) this thread, and asked:

So how has everyone been getting on?



I've had a few lapses (mostly when visiting people, and refusing whatever delicious things they'd created would have been quite rude), and seem to have substituted chocolate for increased amounts of coffee Not entirely suprising given my current workload, but not exactly in the spirit of Lent...