Lent Update.

It's Day 29 of Lent -- time for an official update to my list of things that I gave up a month ago:

1. Eating "land meat". Happy to say that I've been getting all my protein from water-dwelling animals, and not really missing the meat much -- although a recent trip to L&L Hawaiian Barbecue did an excellent job of testing my will. I gritted my teeth, passed on my usual chicken katsu, and ordered fried mahi-mahi instead which was actually pretty tasty. Success!


2. Drinking carbonated beverages. During a moment of weakness while helping my sister and brother-in-law move into their new house in Kirkland, I broke down and had a bottle of Coke and later, a half-can of Sprite. What can I say -- it was hot and I was in dire need of rehydration. I know I should've resisted the icy cold refreshment and gotten some water though. Fail!


3. Pleasures of the flesh. It's not like I'm in a situation where I can partake in this on a regular basis anyway, so it's been relatively easy to maintain my abstinence. (Still, the mind drifts.) Success!


4. Cursing. I have my good days and bad days. On the good days I sound like some sitcom family from the 50s. On the bad days I could make paint curl and peel from the walls with the sheer force of profanity spewing from my mouth. The important thing to take away from this so far is that I have stopped cursing casually, but I still have major problems with four-letter words when I get irritated or frustrated. Still working on it, but I'd say this particular one is a bust. Fail!

Saw this clever little Venn diagram on the always-entertaining Indexed and thought it was appropriate for the post:

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I consider myself squarely in the A circle, desperately trying to make it to the B area. But not too much longer now. Hopefully I can improve by Easter.

Farewell, Meat. It Was Nice Knowing You.

It's now three full weeks into Lent and I've succeeded in sticking to The List. Among the four items, the most consistently significant sacrifice for me would be giving up meat altogether (instead of only on Fridays) and eating only seafood. It's something I do every year. And I'm happy to report that I've been largely true to my word, annually abstaining from burgers, steaks, chops and wings until a massively gluttonous Easter Sunday lunch.

But somehow it's different this year.

A couple of days ago I mentioned on Twitter that I was considering giving up "land meat" for good. After all, I'd basically been doing so every year for weeks at a time. So I put some serious thought into it, weighed my options, played some more Sushi Cat, and decided to officially become a pescatarian. From eHow:

A pescatarian is a person who refrains from eating land animals and birds, but includes fish, mollusks, and crustaceans in addition to fruits, vegetables, plants, legumes, nuts, and grains. This is a common form of "vegetarianism" and is generally considered a very healthy diet ... Pescatarians can enjoy low-fat protein sources that are high in fish oils, which contain Omega 3 fatty acids -- the "good fats" that reduce inflammation.

People become pescatarians for several different reasons, whether ethical, environmental, political or health-related. I subscribe to a combination of all of them, but I'm doing this mostly to improve my health and physical well-being. Plus, I love love LOVE seafood.

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Don't get me wrong ... I will definitely miss eating certain pork, chicken and beef dishes (Kobe steak?! Say it ain't so!) -- not to mention the multitudes of delicious Filipino meals I've eaten my whole life (adobong manok, we had some good times, didn't we?).

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The good thing about this is that I can almost always substitute seafood for the meat and it'll taste similar, so I won't be missing out entirely on the flavors. That makes me feel better.

So. There you have it: Come Easter Sunday, I won't be carving up any rib eyes or filleting any chicken. Most likely, I'll be digging into some succulent, moist salmon and sautéing some jumbo shrimp. Bon appétit!

Give It Up.

For some reason it seems like it's way too soon for Lent, but I think the year in general has been flying by. So I'm going to go get "ashed" in church today to kick off the Lenten season. Every year I pretty much give up the same stuff, with variations here and there. In 2010, I am abstaining from:

1. Eating "land" meat, namely chicken, turkey, beef and pork. Seafood is okay.
2. Drinking carbonated beverages, including but not limited to soda and Red Bull.
3. Pleasures of the flesh. Those needing clarification need to watch this movie.
4. Cursing. This is gonna be a difficult but necessary challenge for me, as it's become a problem of sorts.

A lot of people give up alcohol for Lent, but I don't really drink much nowadays anyway to make much difference, so it's never officially on the list. Generally I do pretty well on all of these with only a lapse or two and by the time Easter Sunday rolls around, I'm pretty happy with the accomplishments.

Day 01 of 44 starts today. I'll let you know how I did after Easter. Good luck fellow Catholics!