*This article does not represent the views of Her Campus FSU
Hello there, beautiful reader. My name is Zoë Estevez, and I have decided to do something extremely difficult (for myself) during this year’s Lent. For those of you who don’t come from a religious background like myself, Lent is a 40-day period in which Catholics are meant to abstain, pray and fast in order to prepare for the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ at Easter. During these 40 days, I believe we are meant to abstain or “sacrifice” something or somewhere that we love, just as Jesus Christ “sacrificed” his own life for us.
In past years, I would give up something that I was a relative frequent of, but I have never dared to give up something to the degree in which I have chosen this year. Unless you personally know me, when I tell you what it is, you’ll probably laugh. But bear with me – it’ll make more sense once I explain. It’s frozen yogurt. There. I said it. Frozen yogurt. FroYo. I am giving it up. I am giving up frozen yogurt for 40 days – now let me explain why.
Courtesy: Zoë Estevez
Frozen yogurt is my all time favorite food. Ever. Although, technically speaking, it really isn’t a food at all. But you get my point. This is embarrassing to admit, but I eat frozen yogurt more than I do anything else. If you follow me on Snapchat and view my Snapchat stories, you would probably know that, as a photo of my frozen yogurt makes a cameo at least twice a week. For my Tallahassee residents, have you ever heard of Yogurt Mountain, or YoMo? Yeah, I go there atleast five times a week. Every single employee knows who I am and about how much I generally spend every time I go (apparently I average about $2.50).
I decided to give up frozen yogurt for Lent for two main reasons, with one having much more presidency over the other. My lesser of value reason is for health reasons. I am a health-nut, constantly working out and eating as healthy as I possibly can. I do this for myself, as I love how great I feel when I eat healthy. Also, I can attest to the fact that working out truly is a stress reliever. But just because I love working out and eating healthy doesn’t mean I don’t indulge—I mean, frozen yogurt five times a week seems like an unhealthy obsession. Once I’ve eaten dinner and the clock strikes 7 or 8 p.m., I find myself craving something sugary; something like YoMo. And I always give in to this temptation (which is completely OK to do, by the way). But I began to notice that I sometimes found myself getting headaches from the lack of sugar when I chose not to go to YoMo. I didn’t like this feeling. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I recently decided that I feel it is best for my personal happiness to cut back a little bit.
My other and main reason stems from how I was raised. Having only previously attended Catholic schools, religion has always played a big part of my life. Upon coming to college, I found myself losing sight of how important my religion was to myself. I find myself so incredibly busy during the days that I hardly ever find time for Church—somewhere I used to go every single weekend. I feel like giving up something I love so much will help me rekindle my faith, and I couldn’t be more excited.
It has been a couple of days into Lent already, and I haven’t had an intense craving yet, but I know it’s coming. So wish me luck, fellow readers. I will report back at the end of Lent (maybe sooner—depending how crazy I get from withdrawl) with the results.
Oh, and don’t worry YoMo, I’ll be back soon.