40 Days and 40 Nights....

It’s actually 46 days and 46 nights but the six Sundays in-between are not counted… but who’s being pedantic?

The period I am of course writing about is the days between Shrove Tuesday and Easter Sunday…. The period known as “Lent”. Traditionally, the Church imposed a strict fast where people gave up all rich food to remember the time Jesus spent alone in the desert without food whilst enduring temptation from the devil. Are you with me so far?

First of all, let’s get one thing straight… I am not religious in the slightest. I’m not going to go into detail but basically my brain cannot comprehend the teachings of the bible. I’m not saying I’m excluding the possibility that something created everything… I’m just not a believer that it was created in 6 days by some bloke sitting on a cloud… (Remember boys and girls he used the Sunday for some chill time… also known as the Sabbath… which is why those six Sundays during Lent do not count… because they are a day of celebration… still with me?)

I’ve actually seen first hand what the effects of fasting can do to your body. I had a Muslim friend at college who fasted during Ramadan. It meant she had to abstain from food all day and was only allowed one meal after sunset for an entire month. For the first 3-4 days she felt and looked awful and it wasn’t until the 5^th day she started to “get used to it”. Now I know that the Church doesn’t impose strict fasting these days and that there are different variations of fasting but why on earth did humanity think suffering made them feel closer to God? Apparently it is believed to “concentrate the mind on holy thoughts”… For me it would “concentrate my mind on thoughts of FOOD” and how hungry I am!

This wasn’t supposed to be part of my blog BUT I come across this when I was researching Lent and would just like to say a few words. The number 40 has quite some significance in the bible. It rained for 40 days and 40 nights when God flooded the earth after Noah built the Ark… Moses spent 40 days on a mountain with God… The Hebrew people spent 40 years wondering the desert travelling to the Promised Land (Yes… I’m sure they did) and it goes on…. Couldn’t the Monks who made these stories up think of something a bit more original than 40 every single time?

To be honest I’m not overly sure on where this blog is going but I do want to write a little bit about why I think Lent is important for all of us. And yes that does includes people like me who don’t necessarily believe in its origins. Most people try to give up a luxury, usually something that they love which isn’t particularly good for them. Yesterday, Ash Wednesday, (when Lent began) Facebook was awash with girls saying they were giving up chocolate or crisps… no one pledged to give up alcohol mind you. Someone did however pledge to give up Facebook in its entirety if he got 20 “likes” on his status which told his friends exactly that. He got 23 likes and updated his status cursing everyone saying he’d be back online in 6 and a half weeks time!

I give him 6 and a half days.

To give up something that worsens your health or diverts your attention away from the important things in life encourages self-discipline and self control. I also believe however, that alongside giving something up, we should add something to our lives in its place… being that replacing chocolate with fruit… replacing Facebook with spending more real time with your friends or family… and so on. And if it works you never know you might actually enjoy it and change for the better J Or like most people, you will probably fail and carry on eating chocolate and sitting in front of Facebook every night.

I gave up chocolate during Lent when I was about 16/17… Now this wasn’t easy for me… you’re reading about someone who went to Cadbury World for their 21^st…. no, not 10^th birthday… 21^st! But anyway, after about a week I was fine; cutting out all that sugar from my body for 6 weeks really helped lower my cravings.

This year I am going to cut out fizzy drinks (not that I drink them much anyway) but mainly because I’m also going to attempt to drink at least 2 litres of water per day (excluding tea). This is motivated by an experience from last weekend…

I had a few “friends” grow on my chin… not just one but five of them. Now these friends don’t visit that often anymore. My favourite was the massive under the skin one called “Bob”. He f**ked me off because he made my face really sore and unattractive… then it got past the point of being cute of calling it Bob and I do believe the C word left my mouth a few times…I think it was a delayed reaction from the stress of last weeks blog.

Anyway the point is that drinking 2 litres of water per day is meant to promote a clearer complexion. So fingers crossed I’ll get used to drinking this recommended amount of water and there will be a very very low chance that Bob will come back to visit.