Hey, here's a bit of news that might only be of interest to my parents :) (hi Mom and Dad!). I stopped biting my nails. Yup. Been just about 2 weeks now. I can honestly say (and Kerry can confirm) that my hands both look and feel different.

What was the secret? I'll tell ya.

Start by throwing out all of the tools of the trade you may have collected. Nail clippers and files, gone. Cuticle softener? Nail hardener? Forget it. That stinky stuff that tastes horrible that you paint your fingers with? Useless. Get rid of all of it. It all suffers from one very simple thing -- you will eventually run into a situation where you don't have it, and you will then have an invitation to pick away. Maybe it'll be while driving, or showering, or lying in bed before you go to sleep. Eventually you'll forget or not have your tools with you, and before you know it you'll break the habit of having them with you at all, and then you're back to where you started from.

Now, wrap a rubber band around your wrist. Yes, it's that old trick. Apparently this is an oldie but a goodie, but I'd never heard of it. In theory the way it works is that when you catch yourself picking, snap the elastic instead.

Is it a redirection of nervous energy? Or a negative reinforcement thing? Don't know. Here's why I think it works for me:

• It goes with me everywhere. I can never forget it or run out of it. (Technically I suppose it could break or something, but that hasn't happened yet.)
• It takes no effort to have with me. If I carried around nail clippers or something I would have to take them out of pants pocket each night and get them again in the morning. I can even have it while driving or in the shower.
• It gives a choice. I catch myself looking at my hands and contemplating whether to bite my nails. My awareness is drawn to the elastic that is right there. Even if I'm not looking at the elastic I can feel it. Now, I have a choice. I can pick. Or I can snap the elastic. Or, just knowing that I have a choice, I can also choose simply to not do anything and go about my business.

Nailbiting sucks. It's not just a bad habit, it's the sort of thing that can define how you live your life. Like the time my karate instructor said in horror, "My god what happened to your hands?" That pretty much has stuck with me and translated into "If I ever start up something that requires physical activity again I could get into a similar humiliating situation."

Or when my coworker (last job) interrupted a technical hallway discussion of my team to ask, "What did you do to your fingers? They're all red." I was so flustered that I just stared at him for like 30 seconds with nothing to say while my team tried to figure out what just happened.

I could go on. I've got 30 years of such memories.

As of this moment I can honestly say "I did it. It wasn't impossible. What else can I do that I thought I couldn't?"

Visions of dropping 30 pounds have already crossed my mind.

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