Give It Up for Lent
It would probably be fair to say that the majority of the population are familiar with the notion of Pancake Day, but how many people actually think of it as Shrove Tuesday, the final day of reckoning before Lent is upon us?
Giving up an indulgence for the 40 days between Shrove Tuesday and Easter Day can be thought of as a personal challenge as well as religious tradition, and a quick whip around the EthicalSuperstore HQ has revealed that there are a fair number of people stepping up to the test.
The most popular item that staff here are giving up is chocolate, followed closely by coffee, crisps, alcohol and fried takeaway breakfasts. Excluding such junk food items from our daily diets is sure to make us healthier, and the achievement of completing a challenge is always a nice buzz too. And if you don’t want to cut certain food items out completely, changing your habits and only buying Fairtrade and organic as Helen has described in her Fairtrade Fortnight Challenge blog is a great idea.
We’d love to know whether the rest of you are giving anything up for Lent – are you joining us in cutting out the unhealthy foodstuffs, or do you have other inspiration and challenges for us?
Instead of giving something up, (I’m not one for depriving myself of life’s little luxuries – don’t think I could cope without tea, coffee, chocolate, or the odd tipple!!) how about taking something up instead? Introduce a Fairtrade snack to your day, walk or cycle to work rather than take the car (or even take the bus!), participate in a team sport once a week, do anything that can make you more active, more healthy, or just generally make you feel more alive and well!
Last year I gave up speeding. It was really difficult at first and my husband hated it but it broke me out of bad habits and I’ve mostly stuck to it since!
I’m giving up texting and trying to stay in touch with friends by actually speaking to them 🙂