Lent: It also means that baseball season is near

On My Coffee is Fat:

rrgirl writes: I take every-day coffee trucker-style. strong, black, no sweetener, venti, large, or the biggest mug in the cupboard. I prefer a dark roast concentrated enough to pass through my body with the aroma rising from my urine hours later. by midday, the craving has passed, and I sip jasmine tea or ice water until wine with dinner. caffeine late in the day will trigger insomnia. on weekends, I pick up an americano with equal water (or ice in the summer), artificial sweetener and cinnamon while I run errands, decaf after lunch. I love coffee, and I love dairy. combined, they don’t get better, though they do each other no harm. I’d rather have a cookie than a latte and I can’t have both very often.
switching from full fat to skim or low fat yogurt was hard but fresh berries help. it’s been so long since I gave up whole milk for skim, I don’t remember any more. I did it with the bargain that I would moderate but never compromise on cheese and ice cream. I’ll cut back on the quantity but not the fat content. no low fat brie or nasty butter substitute. I’d rather have a squeeze of lime and dash of cayenne if it comes to that.
the last year was stressful and it took a toll on my body. I’m well, but the wear and tear shows. I feel like I’m on a threshold where my good habits and healthy impulses won’t be enough to maintain good health without some adjustments. I need more exercise. doing without some indulgences won’t keep me healthy without more of the right things.

Barb comments: I love Starbucks but $4 for a cup of coffee is steep. Nice for a once in awhile treat. Like what rrgirl says about trade-offs, going for the skim milk but keeping cheese and ice cream. Some low-fat foods are alright, but some have a taste that screams “artificial.” I need more exercice, too. So hard in the winter, though.

Jace adds: Trade-offs, yes, especially when you get older. And once you have kids there’s less time to go to the gym. Cutting down on sweets hurts sometimes but is good because you set a good example for your kids. Even thought it’s killing you that you want another scoop of ice cream or another piece of pie!

I have a low Starbuck’s IQ. I don’t know what a latte is. I know it’s some coffee drink but that’s about it. Like Barb I can’t see paying $4 for a cup of coffee, except when I am travelling and feel like I deserve a treat when I am stuck in an airport. Besides, I make a great cup of coffee (geez — you grind the beans, put water in the machine — it’s not rocket science), brewing it as strong as rrgirl likes it except I add sugar and half-and-half.

As the years go by it’s getting harder and harder to find or make time to exercise. I used to be very active in a couple of different sports several years ago. Now I am only moderately active. It’s important to make physical activity a part of your life when you’re young; that makes it easier to maintain the habit as you age. I feel like I’m on the cusp of turning into a couch potato and need very badly to become the active person I used to be.

Lent is coming up which for me is a good time to try something new. I wrote about this last year (here and here.) I’m not Christian, but I like some of the tenets and practices of the religion. For the past several years I’ve chosen a task for Lent in order to try to become a better person. I had always thought that Lent was a time when people gave up a bad habit, and that is what some do. But a few people I knew chose instead to incorporate a positive activity in their lives — as opposed to taking away a negative activity. It sounded like a good idea to me.

Lent is pretty handy because it’s a set time period (40 days) with a nice ending (Easter) and comes in the dead of winter when it helps to have a goal — something to reach for and distract you from how freaking cold it is. (I thought it was supposed to warm up today. It was 18F and sunny yesterday and almost felt like suntan weather. But today the high reached 12F, it was cloudy all day, and it snowed. It’s going to be below zero again tonight.) New Year’s resolutions are OK, but they can be so vague as to be useless. The forty days of Lent are like the little baby steps you can take toward your ultimate goal.

Last year I read AmericanCatholic.org’s daily scripture passage. It was interesting and while I enjoyed it there were a lot of readings that I simply could not buy into. Another thing I tried last year was to add a minute to my daily exercise routine. The results were mixed, but I did add about 30 minutes. But it didn’t last, dang it.

So back to the drawing board.

I guess I’ll try the exercise thing again. In the beginning adding a minute a day seemed ridiculous. But towards the end it became a good chunk of time. I just have to try harder to make the longer exercise period stick once Lent is over.

On the spiritual side, I read something about the Koran a few weeks ago and thought it would be interesting to read it someday. Reading the Koran for Lent might seem kind of weird, but — hey — how many non-Christians celebrate Lent anyway? I could stand to read some Buddhist scripture as well. One of my goals for the off-season was to learn more about Buddhism, and all I’ve really done is read Mets blogs and message boards and fret over whether or not we’ll get Johan Santana.

Lent begins on 6 February, Ash Wednesday. So there’s still time for me to decide on what I want to do.