Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Losing weight during Lent

Have any of you ever used Lent as motivation to go on a diet? It could be argued that you lose out on the spiritual merit of a fast if you're doing it to look good, because you have received your reward in full in this life.

But you know, that's still better than my method, which is to gain weight before Lent (three pounds this year) by telling myself I can eat whatever I please because the fast is around the corner!

Update: Rachel pointed me to this t-shirt. Obviously I'm not the only one to have had the idea!

3 comments:

R.A. said...

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_05vt6DrVuUg/S3pAt8EodHI/AAAAAAAABqY/8sZComNrM-k/s1600-h/i_lost_15_pounds_during_lent_tshirt-p235148981877938059yw4l_400.jpg

Pam H. said...

What if you don't have enough motivation to try to lose weight unless you're offering the suffering during Lent? I'd thought maybe I could do it, during Lent, but if I don't get any spiritual benefits, I don't think I'll bother.

Rachel said...

I find Lent so helpful for just that reason-- I don't have quite enough motivation on my own to make certain changes, but I can do it for Lent. I think it'd be very hard to have *completely* pure motives for Lenten sacrifices. I do stuff partly for God and partly for myself, but hopefully more and more for Him as I grow...