I’ve spent the last couple of weeks mulling over what I’m going to do for Lent. I follow a bunch of Catholic accounts on Instagram, and I saw a post where someone asked what people were giving up for Lent, and it got me thinking. The answers that were posted were really great, and got me thinking out of my normal box of giving up fast food, sweets, soda, etc.
The last few years, I’ve tried to pray the rosary every day during Lent. While I’ll try to keep that up, I always want to do something else too. To make another sacrifice the help me prepare for Easter.
One of the answers from that Instagram post suggested giving up your snooze button. As a chronic snoozer, I highly considered this option and will keep it on the back burner for another time. This idea triggered all the thoughts about Lent and what would be a challenge for me.
After reading a snippet of the 40 Day Sugar Fast and also watching a documentary on Amazon about the power of Fat, I debated giving up sugar. But this would mean giving up pretty much all fruits too, and I’m not a huge fan of that. Bananas are a staple in my normal diet and I could eat an entire cantaloupe in one sitting if I really wanted to.
Then I thought of the perfect plan. A couple years ago, I was looking for cookbooks specific to meal planning, because not having a plan leads me down the road of bad decisions with food. I’m busy, I’m not a huge fan of cooking, and I don’t want to make a meal once I finally get home at the end of the day. Fast food was a normal 1 to 3 times a week thing. I needed a solution, and something that would help keep me on track.
I started looking at meal planning cookbooks on Amazon. I finally stumbled upon Nikki Sharp’s Meal Prep Your Way to Weight Loss. My weight is always something I struggle with. I have a big sweet tooth, and I like food. Finding a cookbook that was something I was looking for along with really good reviews, and it would help with losing weight? Count me in.
Once I bought this cookbook, I devoured the reading in a day, and then I made a Whole Foods order through Amazon Prime for all of the ingredients I needed. Some of the ingredients were things I had never heard of, so I wasn’t sure if I could get them at the normal local grocery store I frequent. The cookbook is what I would call more of a paleo diet, and sort of a Whole 30 diet, but not quite. It’s definitely a plant based diet, with not a lot of meat built into it. Perfect for me since I don’t eat a lot of meat.
When I bought the cookbook, I only followed the meal planning for a week or two – then I went on vacation for a week, and fell off the wagon. But I’ve pulled out some of the recipes a few times and made them every now and then. The recipes are good, and I feel good after I’ve eaten them.
I came up with the idea of using this cookbook and following it for Lent. In planning for it, I found that Nikki Sharp has another book that came before this one called The 5 Day Real Food Detox. This also had great reviews on Amazon, so I decided I might as well start with this to detox my body of processed food and sugar, and then move into the meal planning part. So I bought The 5 Day Real Food Detox book. And I devoured reading it one afternoon last week. Nikki Sharp shares some really great tips about what a “diet” should be. But basically, it’s all about putting good foods into your body at the right time to digest properly. It’s pretty insightful. And the recipes sound SO GOOD. I’m excited to make most of them.
Most of the recipes she uses don’t use meat, and that’s okay with me. I could very easily be a vegetarian, and a friend in college actually thought I was a vegetarian for most of a year before he finally realized I was eating a ham sandwich one day and freaked out on me. 😀
I’m excited to give these recipes a try. They’re clean, and full of my favorite foods – peppers, black beans, quinoa, avocado, eggs, spinach. I don’t think it will be a hardship to eat any of these meals – except one which is a portobello mushroom bowl. I’m so not a fan of mushrooms. I haven’t decided if I’m going to make that recipe or not yet. I’ll let you know.
I’m starting with the 5 day real food detox today on Ash Wednesday, and then I’ll meal prep my way through the rest of Lent. I might re-do the detox week after the 28 days of the meal prep recipes are finished, and basically start all over again. Both books have extra recipes in them too, so I can always do those as well.
My goal is to really write down what I’m going to eat each day and follow it. If/when we go out to eat or order out, I’ll need to be conscious of what I’m ordering and pick the clean options. Reading the books and not just the recipes has been educational.
I read all about Intermittent Fasting in the Spring, and I found that SO INTERESTING. The Obesity Code and The Complete Guide to Fasting, both by Dr. Jason Fung, made me think about sugar in a completely different way than I ever have before. It’s partially what got me thinking about giving up sugar for Lent in the first place.
I don’t have the best track record with staying on diets and following them, but if I’m doing it as a Lenten sacrifice, and if people are holding me accountable, I have a good chance of succeeding.
So ask me how it’s going during Lent. This will keep me on the right path.
I’ll try to keep this updated with how it’s going. I think the hardest part of this will be actually meal prepping and cooking everything. I like to cook for people, but I don’t usually like to cook for myself.
I see a lot of audiobook listens in my future as I cook and meal prep. Have any book suggestions?
I’m also probably going to need to buy some extra containers to put food in as I meal prep. I’m sure I’ll be looking up some bento boxes or other containers soon. While mason jar salads look cool, I don’t like eating from them.
Want to join me in the fun?
