I try really hard to eat as healthy as I can. I do my best to eat fruit for every meal and vegetables for lunch and dinner. I make sure I consume enough protein. I drink lots of milk and and snack on Greek yogurt throughout the day. Even though I don’t like whole grains as much, if I do eat bread I try my best to pick, say, whole grain bread over white bread. I don’t drink a lot of juice and I rarely drink soda. But I do have one weakness that prevents me from consuming a “perfect diet.”

Ice cream. I love ice cream so much. When I went to Spain two years ago, I ate so much ice cream it was pathetic. I also love brownies. And chocolate chip cookies. And cheesecake. And, oh, my gosh, donuts! What I’m trying to say is that I love dessert, perhaps a little too much.

Not being Catholic, I tend not to give up anything for Lent. However, two years ago I decided to challenge myself to give up desserts for 40 days. I thought it wouldn’t be that hard, and it would be good for me. I eat following the “always save one-fourth for dessert” principle and now that I wouldn’t be eating dessert I could fill up on healthier foods like broccoli. Not really a fair trade off, but whatever.

The first week of giving up desserts went relatively smooth. I felt really ambitious and healthy. I was still in the stage of excitement of trying something new though. The second week on the other hand was torture. I would finish my dinner, for instance, and out of habit crave something sweet. In order to curve this desire I started to eat a ton of yogurt, normally around six a day. However, substituting ice cream with yogurt typically didn’t help my cravings.

What also didn’t help my cravings were all of the desserts that surrounded me every day. In high school my friends and I would take turns bringing a dessert for everyone at our table to share. Every Wednesday I had to turn down brownies, cookies, bars, and whatever else people brought. It was no fun to hear my friends say how good the dessert was to say the least.

When lent came to a close I was so incredibly happy to be able to eat desserts again. I was hoping to feel healthier and happier after giving up desserts; maybe I felt healthier, but defiantly not happier. Though I never gave up desserts for lent again, the experience did teach me to eat desserts in moderation…perhaps my temporary parting from desserts wasn’t a total fail all along!