Are you looking for ideas for Lent 2024 and wondering: What can you fast? With a fasting plan, you usually give up sweets, alcohol, coffee or meat. Good for your health, yes. But there are even more options: With these creative fasting ideas, you can save your nerves, your wallet and the environment. So you can better focus on your performance at the slots.
Even the ancient Greeks practiced asceticism and almost every religion has a period of fasting. In the Christian tradition, Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, which is February 14 this year. It ends on Easter (Easter Sunday is on March 31, 2024).
Today, however, it is often no longer about renunciation or strict abstinence; many people would rather get rid of the extra kilos from the Christmas period. And yet Lent can also be used to give up things that we have far too much of: Stress, garbage, plastic, constant digital noise.
Fasting ideas that help you and the environment
Don’t fast to lose weight. Fast to do good, to learn something about your consumption habits, to live more consciously.
How long do you fast for? This year, the fasting period lasts from February 14 to March 31, 2024. That’s 40 days or about six weeks in which you can give up something – packaging, soft drinks, plastic, cell phones, meat – you’ll see that our fasting ideas can also be fun!
media-free Lent 2024
Germans watch an average of 182 minutes of TV per day – over 3 hours every evening staring mesmerized at the glowing rectangle! According to a Postbank survey, we even spend an average of 71 hours a week online, some of which is spent on (social) media.
Television Flips Beer Couch Sofa Canapé Lazy snacks
TV is often accompanied by unhealthy snacks and alcohol. You can try TV fasting during Lent 2024. For this year’s Lent, why not prescribe yourself a media fast and try to go a few weeks without watching TV (or Netflix, Instagram and co.). Radio plays are also nice – and you can read on the couch too.
Other ideas for Lent: Spend the evening without business emails. Don’t store (on the web) for six weeks.
smartphone fasting plan
An even tougher challenge: six weeks of smartphone fasting! Does that sound bad to you, downright impossible? Then maybe it’s high (fasting) time in 2024! Because we’ve long been reaching for our cell phones every few minutes – and should ask ourselves from time to time whether it’s really worth it. Why not give it up for a few weeks? Or strictly limit its use?
water fasting: drink only water for a change
A coffee in the morning, a Spezi at lunchtime and a beer after work in the evening – why not fast from drinks for a change? To do this, you only drink water during your personal fasting period, but otherwise eat normally. Of course, you take water from the tap, as this is usually of the best quality in Germany – nobody needs expensive designer bottled water. Sparkling water is still allowed, of course – just sparkle tap water.
Does that get boring in the long run? Definitely. All the more reason to experience a beer, a glass of wine or a delicious lemonade in a completely new way after your water fast. Guaranteed!
to-go packaging fasting
Order a coffee to go or have food delivered: It’s practical. But disposable packaging made of aluminum, polystyrene or coated cardboard is a huge burden on the environment.
Overfilled garbage can during the corona pandemic. During the coronavirus pandemic, many garbage cans overflowed with paper cups and food packaging. That’s why we are proposing for Lent 2024: Give up to-go packaging. But that doesn’t mean you can’t still have food delivered or pick it up. Simply use reusable boxes with a deposit system, which is not that difficult thanks to the reusable packaging obligation that has been in force since the start of 2023. Or ask if you can bring your own lunch box or coffee-to-go cup. With the Too Good To Go app, you can also often bring your own boxes – and also save food from the garbage can.
