These days it’s not about what you have but about what you give up. The novelty of Dry January may be over, but now we have reached the big daddy of abstinence… lent. Forget Dry January, lent is the real OG when it comes to kicking annoying habits.
Even Theresa May knows. She’s given up her famous favourite salt and vinegar crisps for the 40 days and 40 nights, something we aren’t sure we could do. But someone who’s definitely on the road to success? Piers Morgan, who says that he is giving up being 'meek and mild' in favour of speaking his mind. If he's been biting his tounge up until now then we're worried for what is to come.
But why are we backing lent as winner of Best Giving Things Up Holiday? Well for starters, March is a much kinder month than Jan. Being that person who necks their drink at 11:59 on December 31 and then retires home for a month of pre-planned misery is just not the one. After the festive period it can be hell to go full cold turkey on the alcohol situation, especially when you’ve been given 23 bottle of Prosecco from friends who think you’re too difficult to buy for/are aware of your obsession with bubbly. Lent never starts before the middle of February, so you have a while to wean yourself off the left-over bottles
In fact, Dry January is actually proved to be bad for us. Restrictive diets are well known to end the same way: with a binge. And we all know binge drinking is bad for us. At least if we end up scoffing all the chocolate we were meant to have given up for Lent we can keep some pride intact. Unlike your housemate after a red wine spree on January 12.
Plus, the longer you give something up the less likely you are to go back to the old habit. A poxy 31 day stretch without a tipple might make you slightly less inclined to hit the pub at every given chance, but 40 days without social media could mean you give up scrolling for good.
Here are some non-boring but good for you (and the people around you) things to give up this lent:
**Telling people you’re giving up **
How about going the whole of lent without telling people that you’re giving stuff up for lent? Your co-workers and Twitter followers will thank you.
**Being witchy AF **
Isn't it time we just supported each other? Leave the cattyness at home
Using contactless
We all know it’s just too easy to spend with a tap. Use the extra seven seconds it takes to enter your pin to consider whether you really need that marshmallow phone case
**Giving up **
Yep. Give up quitting on the gym, your deadline, and your friend for coffee. It’s good to actually do some things without giving up on them. Sometimes
Or, if you need more ideas as to what to give up, Twitter is as full of inspiration as ever:
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.