Today is Ash Wednesday, the Christian holiday that marks the first day of Lent. For those of you unfamiliar with the tradition, Christians who observe Lent traditionally choose a behavior or vice to give up for roughly 40 days and focus on finding positive ways to replace those habits in their lives. In the past Lent was often accompanied by long periods of prayer and fasting, but these days a lot of folks settle for things like "I won't eat at Taco Bell for lunch."

Seems to be a bit less in the old commitment area to me, but hey…we lead busy lives, right?

While I'm not a Christian man any more the idea of making a timed commitment to positive change is a good one so I thought I'd throw that out here as the Daily Quest today. You don't have to be religious to recognize the fact that you may have something in your life that you could do without.

It may seem like a silly thing, but I'm giving up frozen waffles for this ShrinkGeek inspired Lent-y goodness. Frozen waffles are pretty popular in our household, and having two with some peanut butter between them is a really easy morning breakfast. Unfortunately, it's also almost pure carbs and generally tends to be less than fulfilling as far as long term hunger satisfaction. For the same amount of Weight Watchers POINTS and a bit more effort I can have a significantly more filling and healthier breakfast that will start my day off on a much better footing. For the next 40 days I'm going to commit to doing so.

So that's what I'm giving up. How about you?