no cookies for 6+ weeks

We always seem to have something sweet in the kitchen--usually cookies, but sometimes cake and brownies, too. We almost always spend at least one weekday evening baking in the kitchen. Lately, to maximize our time, we've taken to making triple and quadruple batches of cookies, meaning that since we don't start baking until after the girls are in bed around 8:30 pm, we are up half the night trying to use up all the dough.

Well, not anymore, or, at least, not for six weeks--I have given up desserts for Lent.

I didn't come by the decision lightly. I remember the last time I gave up chocolate for Lent, in 2006, and had to pass on some wonderful ice cream cake that my mother-in-law had gotten for Valentine's Day dessert. I still remember how hard it was to say no that day, when my pregnant self only wanted sugar and chocolate. But, as my husband pointed out, since we seem to have gone through two (three?) tubs of Crisco (the all-important fat component in our favorite cookie recipe) in as many months, it was probably time to cut back, if only for health reasons. (I just have to say in our defense that a lot of baking was given away around Christmas time, so it’s not like we really consumed all that lard. At least that’s what I’m telling myself.)

And I hope I’m not seeming disrespectful towards Lent with my sweets ban. Since it’s something I need to cut back on anyway, I figured I might as well use this as a major push towards cutting back permanently. I once read something about Lent that said how the whole idea of fasting for Lent is that you give up something you shouldn’t be doing anyway, and that after Lent you should keep abstaining from it. To give something up for Lent just to pick it back up on Easter Sunday is completely pointless. So while I do plan on eating dessert again, I really want this to be a line in the sand that I won’t be doing it every day, that it will be in moderation (something I’ve been lacking for awhile).

In order for me to be successful, I roped my husband into this as well, which he was totally up for, because I knew if he kept baking cookies, I would keep eating them. I also laid some ground rules for myself, so that I could still have a little sugar and not go crazy. For instance, I can still have breakfast sweets like cinnamon rolls and waffles, and I can still drink chocolate milk and hot chocolate, things which I don’t have every day. But I cannot eat cookies of any kind, or any desserts in general.

For the first few days, I was really hungry at night. I had a bowl of cereal one night and some toast another to help me through. At work, I’ve just had to turn from the homemade cheesecake and cookies that my coworkers have brought in. But after the first couple of days, it has been getting better. I’ve been drinking tons of water (a holdover from being sick last week) and am coming to enjoy the hungry feeling at night, knowing that I’m not going to give in.