ON Ash Wednesday I had the bright idea of announcing to the newsroom that we should all give something up for Lent.

I don't know why I had this sudden desire to prompt the team into this holy act of righteousness when I am never good at giving up anything, particularly things that taste nice.

But I did and surprisingly there were several takers to the challenge, One has stopped consuming diet coke (her incessant guzzling of fizzy pop was becoming a health hazard), the other has stopped eating crisps (he ate at least three bags every single day) and another claims she has stopped eating chocolate (apparently Kinder eggs don't count).

The others have given up things they don’t like anyway so their efforts don’t count.

To be honest, I didn't really know what to give up for 40 days and nights, which left me wondering why I had brought the whole subject up in the first place.

Here are the top ten things people give up for Lent:

  1. Carbs (19 per cent)
  2. Twitter (17 per cent)
  3. Chocolate (16 per cent)
  4. Facebook (12 per cent)
  5. Swearing (10 per cent)
  6. Buying lunches out (nine per cent)
  7. Alcohol (eight per cent)
  8. Coffee (five per cent)
  9. Takeaways (three per cent)
  10. Smoking (one per cent)

 

While cigarettes would be the obvious thing to do, I knew I couldn't do it, I can go without drinking alcohol for months at a time so that was kind of meaningless and my bike is still saddle-less, so no fitness for me.

But as someone who eats with all the gusto of Shakespeare’s Falstaff, I decided to stop eating white flour.

For the first few days I was doing OK - no white bread, no cake, no biscuits, no white pasta, blah blah, boring.

But on day six, when someone brought in carrot cake (clearly in a deliberate effort to sabotage my efforts) I failed. I couldn’t resist.

Just this morning two of the team were banging on about how brilliant they are in their efforts.

“We are hardcore Lenters,” they chorused.

According to a vicar in Somerset, there were feast days during Lent (I am sure he said three, but I am not sure) and these are apparently moveable. Think Mother’s Day.

So technically then, we are able to have three reprieves.

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