{"id":205,"date":"2010-02-16T09:00:17","date_gmt":"2010-02-16T14:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/?p=205"},"modified":"2014-09-28T09:19:13","modified_gmt":"2014-09-28T13:19:13","slug":"day-1-splurging-diets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/day-1-splurging-diets\/","title":{"rendered":"Day -1: Getting Ready-Splurging &#038; Diets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Days-365+24a-Mousse.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-2002 size-thumbnail\" src=\"http:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Days-365+24a-Mousse-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"Days 365+24a Mousse\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>Today is Mardi Gras (French for &#8220;Fat Tuesday&#8221;). Traditionally it is the last splurge for Christians before Lent. This brings up the question of splurging. Is it OK? Is it weakness? Should it be avoided? My own experience with splurging is that it\u2019s a lot like keeping a good diet. Occasional splurges are good for the psyche and soul. By splurge I don\u2019t mean binge eating, drinking, or buying, but rather allowing myself occasional treats so I don\u2019t feel deprived. If I make a private agreement with myself that two cookies at lunch is OK then I don\u2019t feel deprived and tempted to eat more. As you can tell, I\u2019m a pretty frugal person (our kids have a less positive term for it) so sending flowers to someone is a stretch for me when I see what I consider to be exorbitant prices. But I\u2019m training myself to let go of my stingy impulses because sometimes it\u2019s good to splurge on someone out of love \u2013 or even splurge on myself, lest I become a dour, bah humbug, self-righteous, stick in the mud. (For those with a spendthrift personality, ignore the above.)<\/p>\n<p>Conveniently, the Lenten calendar provides us with automatic splurge (or respite) days, known as Sundays. Sundays are not counted as the 40 days of Lent so I will not choose anything to give away on Sundays. I may, however, still write a blog reflection.<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s your favorite splurge?<\/p>\n<p><input id=\"gwProxy\" type=\"hidden\" \/> <input id=\"jsProxy\" type=\"hidden\" \/> <input id=\"gwProxy\" type=\"hidden\" \/> <input id=\"jsProxy\" type=\"hidden\" \/> <input id=\"gwProxy\" type=\"hidden\" \/> <input id=\"jsProxy\" type=\"hidden\" \/><\/p>\n<p><input id=\"gwProxy\" type=\"hidden\" \/><input id=\"jsProxy\" type=\"hidden\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today is Mardi Gras (French for &#8220;Fat Tuesday&#8221;). Traditionally it is the last splurge for Christians before Lent. This brings up the question of splurging. Is it OK? Is it weakness? Should it be avoided? My own experience with splurging is that it\u2019s a lot like keeping a good diet. Occasional splurges are good for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-days-365"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3638,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205\/revisions\/3638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}