In the past week, giving up soda, snacks, and sugary treats has proven quite the challenge already. The most difficult part so far, though, hasn’t been what you’d expect. It hasn’t been choosing something else to drink or putting aside dessert or anything like that; no, the trickiest part of my Lent so far has been trying to figure out how to stop cheating on the self-imposed “no snacks” rule.

You see, it’s pretty easy to loophole a rule when you make it yourself, so there’s been plenty of “these chips are part of my lunch” or “well, I woke up late, so I can call this my breakfast even though it’s lunch, and still eat 2 ‘meals’ later.” Clearly, I need to define my terms a bit better.

So that’s what I’m doing today. and really, what I should have done about a week ago when Lent started: I’m defining dinner (and also those other two meals that don’t fit as alliteratively well with “defining.”) From here on out, my meals are going to look like the picture that accompanies this. Okay, so maybe they won’t all look quite like that (I wish!), but what I mean is they’re going to be able to break down pretty clearly into essentially an entree and a side– no more just adding stuff together and calling it dinner. Also, no more made up meals; if I miss breakfast, that’s it. Hopefully, being clearer with myself about the limitations of my Lenten sacrifice will help me to better adhere to the goal I set at the beginning of the season.

What rules do you have for yourself this Lent? Do they need some extra defining like mine, or were you more forthright at the outset of Lent? Let us know in the comments!