My Lenten Resolution

I am not typically a New Year's Resolution kind of girl. But I do sometimes give up or take on something for Lent. It just seems like a good opportunity to experiment with a change or challenge myself to try something new.

Last year I gave up sweets. That was hard. I didn't make it all the way through Lent, but I did make it about three weeks, I think. It was good for me to get out of the habit of eating crap all the time, and interesting to see how I felt with less sugar in my system. And I probably eat fewer sweets now in my normal course of life than I did before my little experiment.

Today is the first day of Lent, so I am making public my resolution so you can all hold me accountable.

The thing that has been driving me nuts about myself lately is the amount of television I watch. With a lighter work load, less active social life, and fabulous cable subscription, I find myself watching way too much TV. Between Netflix DVDs, syndicated reruns of my favorite shows, and regular old primetime, I'd say I average about 4-5 hours of TV per day. Which is WAY TOO MUCH!

Now, I know I can't just go cold turkey. I wouldn't make it. Plus, I don't think it's necessary. There's nothing inherently wrong with enjoying a little television now and then. So I've decided to limit myself to 8 hours of TV per week. Why 8? Well, an hour a day would be 7, but 8 seemed like a nicer, rounder number. And by 8 hours, I mean 8 hours with the TV on - including DVDs, videos, reruns, news, Gilmore Girls, the whole shebang.

One of the things I like about this plan is that I think it will force me to spend my time in better ways. While I haven't set any specific goals for these things, I'm hoping to spend more time exercising, reading, singing, cleaning my house, and doing other productive things. Here's hoping.

This morning, instead of watching the Today show while I ate my cereal, I read a book. That was nice. I don't really like Matt and Katie that much anyway.

I'll keep you posted on how this goes. I'm very excited.