ABOUT WOMEN
Fat Tuesday means getting closer to the right calorie count

By Tanya Bricking Leach
Advertiser Staff Writer

Fat Tuesday.

This should be a near-religious holiday for every woman on a diet.

My favorite thing about today, beside the excuse to overindulge, is that it's like having a New Year's resolution do-over. Whatever sins have resulted in my failure to achieve my resolutions in the last month or so can be wiped clean.

Starting tomorrow, I'll be off the chocolate. I will resolve to be a better person, and I'll exercise more — at least for the next 40 days.

Some people associate Mardi Gras with debauchery and women baring their breasts for beads.

I associate it with food.

It reminds me of things like the time my mom sent a King Cake cross-country. (Not exactly a culinary delight by the time it arrived. My co-workers didn't know what to make of the battered-looking cake with the plastic baby hidden inside. They gave it a rather unflattering nickname that's probably unfit for print here.)

Fat Tuesday reminds me of family traditions, and this was always the feast before the fast.

Whether you celebrate Shrove Tuesday with pancakes or Hawai'i-style malassadas, what's not to love about Mardi Gras?

Growing up, my parents encouraged me to do something charitable for Lent. But it was sort of like a rite of spring that this was the last day for chocolate and carbonated beverages in our house for the next six weeks.

By order of the Catholic Church's canon law, I'm supposed to fast tomorrow and abstain from meat each Friday until Easter.

I mean no disrespect to the church, but to be honest, while good Catholics atone and repent, I have to admit I diet and I cheat. Sometimes I even sneak in some meat on Fridays or completely forget that I was supposed to give it up.

Since I was a kid, my Lenten experience has been pretty lax on the rules. I think my siblings and I made up an exception that allowed us to eat sweets on Sundays even if it was on our list of forbidden things. Sadly, we later learned that wasn't in the fine print of the grown-up directives.

Even though Lent is supposed to be about something more serious, it's a safe bet that if the women of my family are sacrificing anything this year, their lists include counting calories as much as counting themselves closer to God. They know fasting can be as spiritual as you make it.

I like to look at Lent as a second chance on my resolutions. There's still time to reflect on how to make this year better than the last. Everybody gets a do-over.

Plenty of time to think about that later.

First, "laissez les bon temps rouler!" (Let the good times roll!).

I'll make amends tomorrow.

Tanya Bricking Leach writes about relationships for The Advertiser. Reach her at tbricking@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8026.