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Bad Habit!

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I’ve picked up a very bad habit over the past several months. Like way too many other folks I have succumbed to apps on my phone, three in particular: two games and one “paint by number” program.   It wasn’t too worrisome until a few weeks back I realized that I’m reading less, mostly in the first hour after I get up in the morning and at the gym, both prime times in my reading schedule.   It’s showed up on my reading log that I have read less at this point in the year than I have in the last five years.  This is a horrifying revelation to me.  In fact, it took me two weeks to decide to divulge this on the trail.  Just embarrassing.

So I’ve made the decision to try to give up all three apps for the month of October. At first I thought I would just do a week, but I’m thinking to get them out of my system, I need to delete the apps and give it a solid month.  I can always re-install the games if I think I can be more circumspect in my usage.  They do say you have to do something for at least 21 days to have the habit sink in.  We’ll see.

When have you quit something cold turkey? How did you do?

43 thoughts on “Bad Habit!”

  1. The day I found out the s&h was onboard, I stopped drinking coffee. Stayed off it for 2+ years, no problem.

    Then toddler motherhood hit and I needed my cuppa joe.

    But when it was that important? No problem at all.

    For me, it’s all about the reward/penalty.

    Self-discipline for its own sake? Not so much. I need a payoff, or have a better new habit that I set up to be easier than the one I am trying to replace.

    Good luck and may you be victorious!

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  2. I tried cutting out added and refined sugars cold turkey once. Once. Oh, it did not go well. For starters, the added sugars are sneaky. Also, I really like sweets. I wound up stepping it back to “fewer sugars” – which is easier. Some have crept back in (I really like my chocolate… and ice cream…) – but for a solid three days I was really good. 🙂

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  3. Rise and Shine Baboons,

    In 2007 I was diagnosed with stress fractures in my spine, between my shoulder blades. This is a long term effect of cancer treatment and estrogen deprivation (part of cancer treatment). Of course, in 1990 when I had cancer there were not long term survivors like me, so there was no Internal Medicine sub-specialty of long term cancer survivors and long term benefits—being alive as well as documentation of long term side effects—osteoporosis due to the absence of estrogen. Therefore, no one could tell me to modify diet to compensate for these longer term prospects.

    One thing that interferes with absorbing calcium into bones is carbonated beverages. In 2007 I had a Diet Coke habit that was escalating. I gave it up cold turkey upon getting this information. The pain of the stress fractures made it simple to give it up. There was that constant achy, painy feeling that increased my feeling of urgency and no short term caffeine infusion could override it. Every other thing I have tried to give up, such as sugar, did not have that immediate reminder so I can always override it with an excuse of some kind. Like Anna, I do better modifying and reducing the sugar habit, then just living with my need for chocolate.

    Good Luck with the apps, VS. They are sneaky little buzzards.

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        1. i find brussel sprouts in a dutch oven
          sauerkraut in a proper presentation
          eggplant in a good casserole or bbq and artichokes in mass quantities in almost any form

          Liked by 1 person

  6. Not to sound snobbish, but I pride myself on avoiding developing bad habits before I feel the need to quit them cold turkey.

    I never smoked or did recreational drugs, but I drink almost alcohol daily, AND responsibly. I like to think if I needed to quit that cold turkey I could.

    The closest thing to bad habits I can think of that I’ve quit is ice cream for dessert every night when my wife and I were in our 20s and 30s, and deciding that drinking 2-3 cans of pop per day was a waste of money and probably not contributing to either our good health or wellbeing.

    The two habits I have that I’d most likely not be able to quit, cold turkey or otherwise, are chewing my fingernails and cuticles, and drumming and tapping my fingers on my body, desk, chair, steering wheel, whatever is handy.

    **Starts to sing: “I got rhythm, I got music, I got . . .”

    Chris in O-town

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  7. I, too, am a nail biter. I have never tried to quit. I know I could never stop. I don’t drink sodas. I never smoked. A friend of mine was successful at stopping nail biting after she got braces on her teeth in adulthood.

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  8. I used to eat one or two English muffins for breakfast every day. I would eat them with butter and cinnamon sugar. My bad cholesterol skyrocketed, so I changed my diet and only ate skyr for breakfast. After a year of that my cholesterol dropped 70 points to the normal range, as did my blood sugar. I also lost 5 pounds. Those muffins were a bad habit I am glad I could stop.

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    3. From your descriptions of the meals you regularly prepare, I’ve often wondered why you both aren’t 600 pounds. Now I know the answer—you cut out English muffins.

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      1. Back when I was working for the law firm, I drank coffee all day long; probably ten to twelve cups a day. It didn’t really taste good to me, but it was there, so I drank it. Seemed like the sociable thing to do. One day, out of the blue, I thought this can’t be good for me, and it doesn’t really taste good, why I am I doing this to myself; so I quit cold turkey. After a couple of days I developed a dull headache that I just couldn’t shake. After three weeks of that I asked my chiropractor about it. He asked have you made any changes to your lifestyle lately? That’s when the light bulb went on; I was having withdrawal from cafeine symptoms. I stuck it out, and didn’t drink coffee for several years. Eventually, I began drinking coffee again, but not in the quantities I had previously. I now drink exactly two cups of coffee in the morning when Hans is home, otherwise I drink tea. It tastes good, but it’s not something that I crave.

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  9. I have tried to quit caffeine, ended up with headaches, so cut down to half by switching to from coffee to black tea. I was successful at quitting smoking only after several tries, and my roommate joining me, but it was ultimately cold turkey. There were gimmicks, like stickers you could use that said, i.e., “43 days without smoking” in a little kit from Easter Seals, if I recall. These seemed to help!

    To break the ice cream at bedtime habit, I stopped buying ice cream for a few months, and how it’s in the basement freezer.

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    2. The ice cream- yeah, I would have a bowl every night. But the next gallon ended up in the basement deep freeze. And it’s just too much work to scoop out a dish (because it’s frozen so hard). And, yeah, it’s downstairs… I haven’t had a dish of ice cream (at home) for a few months now. But I’ll go downstairs and get a banana Popsicle out of the same freezer.
      So hmmm…. going down there must not be the issue, knowing how hard it will be to scoop it out is the deal breaker.
      So we just stop at DQ more often. 🙂

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  10. cigarettes
    booze
    first wife

    cigarettes were hard
    addiction is a challenge

    cigarettes had me
    i always shared mark twain’s feelings
    “quitting smoking is easy
    i’ve done it a thousand times”

    you don’t quit
    you make the choice not to do it now
    not for a day or even an hour, just for right now and the next 1 second
    then choose it again when it sneaks up to try to suck you in

    booze was sneaky
    not an addiction but an inability to make intelligent decisions
    so avoidance is the deal there

    first wife
    felt so good almost at once it was obvious

    now all i have left is drugs and farmville

    i think i need to give up farmville

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  11. Somehow this story related in my head. I think to tims line “first wife
    felt so good almost at once it was obvious”
    =====
    I was at the foot doctor and had shown the intern my shoe orthotics. I put them back in the shoes.
    When the MD came in I showed him as well. He said, “You know you have them on the wrong foot.”
    I was indignant; “I DO NOT!” (I mean that would just be dumb! How could you wear an arch support on the wrong foot?? It’s just not possible!)

    And he showed me the marks on the bottom of the insert matching the marks inside the shoe and it’s entirely possible I did have them on the wrong feet.

    I just said how good it would feel to put them on the right feet.

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        2. I really don’t like them—I get so scrambled and foggy. Then the day is gone sleeping.

          I had PT this morning. She says I am making really excellent progress. Learning how to walk properly again is just really wierd. And then there is the painful stretch move. OWIEE.

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  12. OT – Our friend, Jon, who was diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus on April 14th, passed away Wednesday in the hours between midnight and 4 AM. We saw him the day before, and it was clear he wasn’t going to last much longer. His sense of humor was intact to the very end. I was sitting at his bedside holding his hand, and he was trying to tell me something. I could understand “it was about a quarter to eight” following with something that I couldn’t understand. I told him so, and he repeated it, but I still didn’t understand, but I could tell how he struggled to talk, so I nodded and pretended I had understood. He said, “did you get it?” and I nodded. He then said “What did I say?” He knew I hadn’t understood, and let me know it. Then he smiled and said, “I was telling you a joke.” Jon would have turned 77 on October 13th. I’ll miss him.

    Today I got a message that my uncle Leo passed away yesterday at the age of 87. He had had dementia for twenty years. The last time I saw him he was in a nursing home and didn’t recognize me or anyone else for that matter. Two souls that I hold dear have departed, and I’m reminded that I have entered an age where deaths within my circle of friends are happening with increasing frequency. Take no new day for granted.

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      1. sorry pj.
        nice that you could be with you friend and that he tried to joke with you even though he was having such difficulty. i wonder if id have the character to joke through that much discomfort.
        alzheimer is such a thief. i wonder how you measure the price paid when you are not there to be aware of it. breathing is not living. its a hard hard situation to have a loved one in.
        peace

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    3. Days like you are having are just rotten. For your friend and your uncle, I am glad the days of uncertainty and waiting are over. But it leaves you in the grieving chair. I am sending you comfort vibes.

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  14. Letter Burning

    She torn a piece of me:
    The holocaust war
    Most all flee
    Hate shakes up each ambiguous autographed
    Sheet, lyrics & apologies not letter worthy,
    A role I’ll play letter burning –
    Even sick it was
    One angle indifference
    Ungreatful near the other side
    Your not gay, insane
    I hear them…
    Just want a touch
    Books published – never enough
    Mistake is take, letter burning
    A year full of snow: ice box chilling
    Jealousy & plains freeze
    Cold black hearts: overreact
    How one page or fans laughter evil letter burning
    Dedicated with your mind
    Sex chapters take advantage &
    Bravery this much tears no longer haunt
    Your editors notes gone – Help
    A friend for no reason
    Spread the word: power Activist
    Private Jews list;
    Bloody damn hell
    Cheating-your brain says bipolar fun…
    Jokes hit on pause if I’d only known you before & never another I love you word
    But stealing all time high, wrong
    Get over my side – journalistic before times end
    While it’s not very good
    How does it all make you gay?
    Classes understood
    Discriminating
    I liked you- played no revenge game
    Talks never again

    Letter Burning

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