Hurray! Lent is over!

As of yesterday - my Grandad Ben's birthday - Lent is over! My aunt and I have been trying to find the correct date and have both researched on a variety of different websites. The 4 (!) dates that are apparently the end of Lent are: Maundy Thursday (yesterday), Palm Sunday (last Sunday), Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
Basically I decided that Lent had been long enough, so I chose Maundy Thursday. And it's what Google said.
Lent 2015 was tough. I missed chocolate from week one. It got easier after a couple of weeks, but last weekend my aunt, mum and I were in Edinburgh, and every time we went into M & S to stock up we would walk soooooo slooooooooowly past the Easter egg displays. Luckily our resolve didn't break (we'd all given up chocolate so were suffering together).
I promised myself the first thing I'd eat on Maundy Thursday would be a Twirl bar, so on Tuesday I bought two of them and kept them by the side of my bed. I nearly opened one just to sniff it but decided that was too risky...
It. was. worth it. Delicious. Smooth. Sweet. All of the good adjectives.
However, I think I overdid it somewhat - or my ability to gorge on chocolate has decreased after my period of sacrifice. In 24 hours, I ate 2 Twirls, 1 creme egg, 1 Hotel Chocolat caramel bunny, 1 mini pack of Mini Eggs and 1 chocolate sponge pudding. I'm lactose intolerant, so yes, I did have a bad stomach. Again, it was worth it.
Luckily I went for a hack with lots of trotting and did a tough workout, so at least some of my gorging was burnt off!
Happy Easter everyone.

What I'm Giving Up For Lent 2015

Lent: 18th February - 2nd April
Easter Sunday: 5th April

It's that time again when I challenge myself to give up something I love (eating). By 'that time again', I mean I did it last year and want to do it again. I managed to last the whole 40 days and 40 nights without cheese, but did eat chocolate a little before the end.

My mum's decided to give up chocolate, so I've decided to do that too. I really want some already, but the first week of any diet/abstinence is always the toughest. I can't stop thinking about Twirl bars...

In addition, I'm going to try to have a minimum of 5 days a week of clean eating. At the moment I average 3. I'll also try to work out a minimum of 2 days a week. I’ve really lost my workout mojo – a combination of stress and post-teaching-tiredness – so hopefully this will give me a buttkick back into it.

I ride an average of about 3-5 times a week, dependent on how busy I am work-wise.

Lent is OVER!

Lent was sooo easy, I mean, I barely thought about chocolate or cheese at all. I think I could probably never eat it again. 

LIES.

Lent officially finished yesterday, although I will admit I started eating chocolate on Saturday 12th... it was a very stressful time and to be quite honest, I proved I can abstain. I did last the full 6 weeks with cheese, however. 

The first four weeks, I was surprised at how much I missed cheese over chocolate. However, for the last two weeks, I started to really crave chocolate - this was probably because of all the adverts for Easter eggs and Lindt bunnies. After Easter, I will cut my chocolate down again and generally eat less cheese. 

Maxx, Christelle (Maxx's mum) and I went Easter shopping today (we're in France), and I thought my brother would like this poisson instead of an egg:

Maxx bought me this:

Buuuuut funnily enough it doesn't look like that anymore. I am starting to feel a bit sick so I think I may lay off chocolate the rest of today...

In other news, I HAVE A JOB! IN PUBLISHING! I'm the new Publishing Assistant at Health Press Limited and start on 6th May. I was offered the role on Wednesday, which meant Maxx and I could start our break in a celebratory mood. 

Happy Easter - Joyeuses Pâques - everyone!