Lent

LENT -  period before Easter in Christian calendar: the period of 40 weekdays before Easter observed in some Christian churches as a period of prayer, penance, fasting, and self-denial. This period, starting on Ash Wednesday in Western churches, commemorates the 40 days that Jesus Christ spent fasting in the wilderness.

 
I've never denied my love for coffee or diet pop.  LOVE THEM BOTH. But coffee...oh my word. Need it every day, sometimes twice, three times a day.
 
Not only do I love the taste, but quite honestly I use it as an appetite suppressor. In the morning I wake up around 6:30 starving so I drink a cup of coffee and that holds me over until I get to work around 8am when I eat my "real" breakfast.  There are afternoons when I'm hungrier than usual, so I sip on a cup of joe and it helps get me through.
 
I've not researched one thing about it, but I don't think me drinking a cup of coffee a day is a big deal, what bothers me the most is the amount of sweetener I use.  Say I have 2 cups of coffee a day, that's 28 packets of Equal I use each week. INSANE. Not only is it un-clean, but it's expensive too!
 
And this doesn't include the diet pop I drink every now and then (Cherry coke zero. LOVE IT)  I actually do think I can go without pop. #1 It's expensive so I don't buy it hardly. #2 I usually only have it when I eat out and again, expensive and I hardly eat out anymore. So I think I'm ok there.
 
I've been knowing for a long time I need to kick my Equal addiction. Though it doesn't have calories, I don't want the health risks associated with it. Again, I'm going to try and eat as clean as I possibly can and give up those things I know I can live w/o. 
 
This morning I was going to go w/o my cup of coffee, but my stomach was GROWLING (I guess I could've ate some fruit though huh?) I made a cup of coffee and added one teaspoon of regular sugar.  I guess my justification is my body recognizes and understands what to do with sugar more than it does with this man-made chemical called Equal.  I'll sacrifice and have the extra 16 calories in the white stuff.
 
Another thing I was afraid of is my reaction to the sugar. Would it make me start craving more sugar? I guess I will see what happens, but it's not like I've completely cut out sugar from my diet anyway. What's one teaspoon? 
 
Man it was such a different taste. I don't think I would even want more than one cup of that stuff but again, it did its job. I was good until my real breakfast time.
 
So that's my sacrifice during Lent.  More of a wordly reason than I spiritual one I suppose.