Shredding for Jesus

We're about a week into Lent and many people are probably seriously beginning to regret giving up chocolate.

Not me.  I have never spent a second of my life regretting giving up chocolate.  Mostly because I have never been foolish enough to attempt to live without it.

I've never been apart of the tradition that gives things up for Lent.  I remember being about eight years old and asking my father why we didn't.  "Because we try to remember the teachings of Jesus everyday," he told me.  That did and still does make perfect sense to me.

So when one of my housemates asked what all of us were giving up for Lent, I was prepared to give my usual reply.  Then my other housemate chimed in that, in her family, instead of giving something up for Lent, they added something to their lives.

I liked the sound of that.  One of my friends has always used the Lenten season as a time for disciplined self-improvement and that seemed like a good idea to me, too.  So for Lent this year, I decided to add Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred to my life.

Jillian Michaels, looking shredded after presumably only 30 days.

So far, it's been pretty good.  I've done three workouts.  Jillian tells me I'm doing a great job and I'm not going to believe the results.  She has confidence that I can do it; I've just got to give it my all.  I'm pretty sure that I've made amazing progress and am just about an exact clone of Jillian.

Me, looking like an exact clone of Jillian after 3 days.

Yeah, I'm feeling good enough about this whole workout thing that I'm going to grab myself an extra piece of chocolate tonight.  And maybe a cupcake, too.  And that peanut butter ice cream...