A Manageable Goal!

I don't like New Year's Resolutions.  I lose my motivation, I never stick to them, and in the end I feel like a bum for setting such a lofty goal for myself and not being able to follow through.

I do, however, believe in giving things up for Lent.

For me, it's the perfect amount of time.  It's long enough to be a challenge, but short enough to be do-able!

In the past, I've had great success with giving things up.

Several years ago (and by several I mean about 6 or 7) I had a...well...an addiction.  No, it wasn't drugs...it was Milk Duds!  I LOVED them!  I would eat them constantly!  At the time, I had an enabler in my life who kept bringing them to me, so I just kept on eating them.  Finally, I'd had enough, so I gave them up for Lent.  I ended up going about 3 years before I had a Milk Dud again - I'd say that was a success!

Last year, I decided that I needed to cut back on the caffeine.  I've always been sensitive to it, it was affecting my sleep, and I was getting headaches when I hadn't had any.  So, for Lent, I cut myself off.  It's now almost a year later, and I haven't gone back.  Aside from the random sip of Ben's Diet Coke when we're in a restaurant, or when the teenagers at Starbucks give me regular instead of decaf (yes, I can tell), I'm still off caffeine and loving it!

Now, you might be asking yourself "what insane and unhealthy addiction is she going to give up this year?".  Let me say, I had many to choose from.  Thankfully, Ben has agreed to join me in my effort to give something up for Lent, which means we had to agree on what to give up!

I have decided, that this year, I'll be giving up ice cream.  *tear*

I love ice cream.  Mint Chocolate Chip, Chocolate Peanut Butter, Cookie Dough...oh, my mouth is watering even as I type this!  We always have some in the freezer and I've (unfortunately) gotten into the bad habit of having a dish of it almost every night. 

No more...it ends now!

Starting February 22nd, there will be no more ice cream in our house!

(I think it's worth mentioning that before deciding to give up ice cream I had to check the date of Easter to make sure that it falls before my birthday, as it is a tradition to have DQ ice cream birthday cake in my family.  It does!)

I've given up ice cream before, so I know that this is going to be a tough one.  But, I know that I can do it!

The big challenge will be not replacing ice cream with something equally unhealthy (brownies, cookies, M&Ms, etc.).

In the meantime...I'm going to try to cut back on the ice cream, so that in February it won't be quite so painful.

Wish me luck!!!