An now, a tale of nail biting....

I don't remember a day in my life when I haven't bitten my nails.  For 32 (almost 33 years) I have lived my life with practically none existent nails and I have never been proud of them.  The few moments I am proud are when I put on fake ones for a short time.  Some people tell me I'm an anxious person, others tell me I must be bored, and still others say it's because I'm a perfectionist.  Whatever the reason, two to three months ago, I made the decision that it was time to stop.  There was no profound moment, I didn't have a religious experience where God came down and said, "Thou Shall Not Bit Thy Nails."  One day I just decided I needed to prove to myself that I had the willpower to stop.

What I didn't realize that day was the time I spent showing I had willpower to not bite my nails would actually translate over to bigger issues in my life.  If a 33 year nail biting trend could be overcome in a few months, what else was I throwing in the towel too soon on just because I didn't think I could do it?!

Lets face it....my health is number 1 on the list.  It's not like I haven't proven before that I can lose weight and be healthier.  But every time I slid back down and gained it back, what is the first thing I said?  "Oh well...guess I can't do it after all."  Ding Ding Ding! Give the woman a smack across her face and tell her to wake up!  I am three months into not biting my nails now.  Time and time again I told myself that I could never do it.  My nails are too brittle, I do it without thinking, I'm just not like those people who have nice nails...insert excuse 1, insert excuse 2....It all boils down to this.  I didn't think I could stop biting my nails and guess what?  Every day it gets easier to not think about biting them and just appreciate that I now have nails that I'm not embarrassed if people see them!  They are even strengthening to a point where even if I wanted to bite them, it's not going to happen!

I think the real reason I quit biting my nails is because I needed something small that I could be successful at to prove to myself that I am capable of doing something big and be successful at it too.

Yisel, I hope you are reading this, because your phone call tonight really touched my heart and touched a nerve at the same time.  I believe you called me because you needed to hear what I said, but also because I needed to hear what you said.  I needed the push to really start thinking about how I was going to get back to making the healthy changes in my life and our conversation really got me thinking.  I told you tonight that I believe God puts people into our lives when there is no other explanation for why they are there.  We eventually see or find the reasons why.  I think you and I have multiple reasons why we are friends across these miles, across our upbringing, and even our personality differences.  So I thank YOU for the push to get serious about my health again and putting me back in a positive frame of mind about it by sharing your story.