No, I have not given up on life. Neither have I given up on someone or something important to me. The title is sketchy, but I will stick with it. 🙂
I realized that today is Holy Monday. I have never been a devout Catholic despite growing up in a traditional Catholic family, but throughout my adult life I have always given up something I enjoy for Lent. Except this year. Yes, I dropped the ball there. Ash Wednesday just snuck up on me. I ate a mouthful of the something I enjoy that I was supposed to give up, junk food in the form of squid-flavored snack, on Ash Wednesday. So I decided to lessen my daily food intake instead of giving a particular item up this Lent.
In order to make me feel better (yes, I am a tad vain), I recalled the things I have given up, some for Lent, some for decades.
- Soft Drinks
I gave soft drinks up for Lent last year. After 40 days of not having a taste of cola in my mouth, my body quickly adjusted to its absence. I consciously decided to bid adieu to carbonated drinks and I have succeeded for the most part of 390 days. I wrote consciously because I had an accidental sip in Mindanao. I looked at the drink served for lunch and I asked the server what it was. She said it was juice. I thought it was a vivid orange or dalandan juice (I did not notice the tiny air pocket because my eyes were too tired looking at numbers!) but when I tasted it, it turned out to be Royal Tru Orange. It was a teeny weeny bit of liquid that was absorbed by my system but I am counting it as a slip.
Coke had been present in birthday, Christmas, and New Year celebrations, and I have not had it for one cycle. It is a poignant realization. Maybe I will have one ice cold glass of Coke tomorrow, for the heck of it!
- Meat
I am 80% carnivore. If you were to slice open my stomach (five months ago), you would discover the contents to be in 4:1 ratio of meat and chocolates. In 2014, I gave meat up for Lent. A diet with a dearth of pork, chicken, and beef was a sobering one, but that was the time I started to enjoy eating seafood, especially bangus, shrimps, tuna, and salmon. By Easter, I was back to my carnivore ways.
- Rice
Rice is life for most Filipinos and any meal without rice is incomplete. Rice serves as the delectable white canvas for ulam like lechon, crispy pata, dinuguan, kare-kare, and other viands that make life expectancy relatively shorter. In 2013, I had a bright idea to give rice up for Lent. For the first two weeks, it was awful and I wanted to give up giving rice up, but I knew I could not face myself in the mirror had I reneged on something I believe in. I was always hungry because fruits were not fun partners of lechon, crispy pata, dinuguan, kare-kare, and other viands that make life expectancy relatively shorter. As my body adapted to the rice deprivation, it became satisfied with apples and grapes and a lot of vegetables. I was surprised that I survived the entire Lent and beyond without the white gold the land gave us. 🙂 I lasted 115 days without eating rice.
- Alcohol
I was never a heavy drinker but I enjoyed a couple bottles of beer (or four) on those rare school weekends (I was in college!) when I had no class (Saturday classes are the worst), important exams (a Philosophy or Theology oral exam on a Saturday is a killer) or paper presentations (remember going to school on a Saturday in business attire?). I have had my share of alcoholic drinks and I vomited only once (I skipped dinner). I thought I could hold my alcohol until I met a ginormous bottle of Red Horse Beer. I was on vacation in Iloilo and I was with my cousins whose livers were possibly made of concrete for all the alcohol they consumed. It was my first time to taste Red Horse and it lived up to its name being an extra strong beer with a kick (of a horse!). I gave up before I could finish the contents of the entire bottle, which might or might not have been a liter. I did not faint. I did not vomit either. I was just shocked. Haha. The following day, I swore off alcohol. It has been 16 years since I had a drop of alcohol in my system, and I do not miss any of it.
- Coffee
I was in high school when I had my first taste of coffee. It was mainly due to passive peer pressure (is there such a thing?) because all my batchmates were drinking coffee to stay awake and study a plethora of subject matter. We all lived in dormitories, so it was hard to ignore the smell of coffee. As a budding scientist at that time, I had to investigate the phenomenon of drinking coffee. I bought different flavored coffee mixes (I did not see myself drinking black coffee), and I basked in the aroma and savor the complexity of each. As much as I reveled in the experience, I realized that I did not need coffee to stay awake. My stint as a budding scientist investigating the effect of coffee on me ended after three weeks. With the exception of coffee tasting activities when I travel, I have not had a cup of coffee. To this day, the tantalizing fragrance of coffee makes my mouth water, but I do not crave the taste.
For 2019 Lent, maybe I will give chocolates up. 😛