i finally did it...

i finally did it!

i stopped bitting my nails. after bitting since i was 6 i finally kicked that habit out  the door. it wasn't easy thats for sure.

sure i had stopped here and there. a month with out here and a couple of months there. but i would always go back. i did it when i was stressed, when i was bored and whenever i felt like it. i didn't like bitting my nails but it was something i just couldn't stop.

until now.

a few months back i read this blog about a girl who had the same habit. she finally got over the habit after years of trying. i sat there looking at her and honestly this was my thought....

"well if she can do it so can i"

and so i did.

here is how i did it (and am still doing)

1. pretty nails
i found that when i had my nails freshly painted i wouldn't bite them. i LOVE nail polish. and lately am a sucker for essie. walgreens front display works people! so every time i went in i would pick up a new color and rush home to paint. a new color would get me excited about not biting my nails. the mr. even helped out and really let me buy a new polish whenever i wanted. love him for that!

2. keep em' painted
when i paint my nails i like to file them down and get them all pretty. then, like all people, you have to wait forever to get them to dry. this would sometimes hold me off from painting. i decided this couldn't happen. because i do a lot with my hands, type, harp etc polish doesn't stay long. so i was painting every other day. a lot i know but if i didn't have them painted pretty i would bite. so i did what i had to do.

3. file, file, file
one "excuse" for biting my nails was the hang nail. i have pretty thin nails so i get snags a lot. it's so easy to just rip em off and start over. i decided that if i wanted to really stop the habit i had to find another solution. so bring on the file. i started carrying one around with me everywhere. there is one in every purse. in every room and basically all over our house. i keep two beside me while i work. because it's here where most biting happens (i'm on long calls, i snag a nail while working etc...). i'm sure the mr. got annoyed with it but honesty it worked great. when i was tempted to just bite the snag off i filed instead. kept my nails longer than if i bite them off and healthier to grow.

4. small goals
like breaking any habit it's best to start with small goals. for me smaller was better. at first it was just "get through today" and then it was "have pretty nails for date night". soon it became "when i go back to utah next" and so forth. when we got to christmas and i realized it had been a couple of months with no biting i was in shock (and kinda proud of myself). i still have to do small goals but the larger goal "just stop" is looking pretty good!

5. keep em' short
some might disagree with me but long nails are not my thing. yeah they are fun for a bit but they drive me nuts. seriously...typing with long nails is like the worst thing in the world. so, when i find  my long nails are bugging me i do the file down. it has worked wonders. as you can see from the picture they are pretty short right now...i was getting bugged ;-)

6. be excited
i think being excited for myself has really helped. each day i tell spence how well i did. i give him nice back scratches to remind him how awesome my nails are now. and i treat myself to new nail polish to celebrate. i think i  deserve it.

 (awkward picture i know but here i am being excited)

so finally....after YEARS of this embarrassing habit i'm done. honestly i think blogging about it makes me be done. so now it's all out there. i used to bite my nails now i don't.

have you tried to quit a bad habit? any tricks?