*40 Days

Lent started yesterday. I’ve decided to give up meat. I hear the laughter already. “You, forsaking a food group?!”

The idea came up last week between a coworker and me. We’re both not particularly religious, but as meat eaters—she, German; me, Nigerian—we wondered what doing without for a period of time would be like, though I don’t hope to or want to turn vegetarian as a result. (Only medical necessity would send me down that path....)

(Posted on Lola's fridge in London: an alternative—no food involved!—approach to Lent.)

Being a 21st century American, I have my loopholes ready:

*Lent starts today because yesterday I was still "on vacation"; I returned home last night to an empty fridge, was too tired to go hunting for a salad at Tesco and had to eat two pieces of sausage rolls.

*Meat is beef, chicken, pork, lamb, bison, etc. Fish is NOT meat. Screw anyone who wants to tell me otherwise—“Fish is a living thing, so it’s technically ‘meat’, blah, blah, blah….” I live in Prague. Do you know how crappy vegetarian food is here?

*I’ll allow myself fish/seafood once or twice a week. (Anabela and Davina are coming over mid-March and they deserve not to have me be a miserable protein-deficient hostess.)

I went to Tesco this evening and my shopping cart would have made a vegan proud: tomatoes, carrots, leek, potatoes, broccoli, red & yellow pepper, mushrooms, nuts…. To be honest, I’m already irritated—I see days of salads and soups ahead of me—and hungry.

But yours truly is abandoning more than meat for Lent.

I’ve also decided to give up Pch.