Sunday, January 2, 2011

How I Stopped Biting My Nails

I'm a recovering nail biter. I've been a nail biter for as long as I can remember... and I even hold my pen in a way that doesn't work as well when I have actual nails. I've tried to quit a ton of times - when I was in middle school, my dad even offered me $50 to stop. I've actually stopped a few times, only to quickly start again when I have a huge project at work or immediately upon stepping foot on an airplane.

I figured I'd stop when I got engaged. Nope - a few months into getting engaged and I would try to show people my ring with my fingers curled so they wouldn't notice my ugly nails.  Finally, enough was enough. I went to a local nail salon and got fake nails put on. They looked like this:


Just kidding! They did NOT look like that - though I had avoided fake nails for years because I was afraid that this is how they would look.  You can see them if you look closely in our engagement pictures:



Yep - just pretty. I had them filled twice, and really enjoyed them. Overall, I spent about $80, which to me, was money well spent to stop having this nasty habit.  

I went today, and they took off the nails. What you see below is 100% MY nails!! (You get a left hand shot because I am right handed and it's the only way I can take a picture one-handed that is almost in focus).


Why I think this time I was successful:
  1. My nails always looked great. It was a lot easier to leave them alone when they looked pretty.
  2. I couldn't really bite them. They were essentially hard acrylic. That would have been dumb.
  3. I had them on for long enough to break the habit. At the beginning, I found myself still going through the motions of biting/picking my nails, even though I wasn't actually doing it. Now, I just leave them alone.
It seems small, but this is one of my proudest accomplishments! I know fellow nail biters / past nail biters will understand. I have gotten more compliments on my engagement ring ever since my nails have looked nice - which is just icing on the cake!

Have you kicked any bad habits? How did you do it?

6 comments:

  1. Dad said to tell you he still has that $50 tucked away in his wallet for you! Your nails look so pretty. Love you. Mom

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  2. I'm a recovering nail biter, as well! I've been chewing on my nails since I could chew. Something happened this past semester, though. I don't know how I stopped but one day I looked down at my nails... and they were long! And pretty! And healthy looking! I guess I just got too busy to worry about biting them off, which is weird because normally busy/stressful times are what cause me to bite my nails more than usual. But that's my only explanation! There have been a couple of instances in which I broke down and bit them all off, but that's happened maybe three times tops since summer. So I'd say I'm "cured" :)

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  3. I have only just stopped (though I have been through two relapses) biting and I WISH my nails looked like that!!! Still trying to get them to no t break :-(

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  4. Yay for you! I'm a nail-biter too. And I do really well after a bout with fake nails (I started using the drug-store variety because they've come a LONG way from what they used to be), but as soon as I get stressed, I start biting them again. I think if my nails looked that amazing, and if I had that gorgeous of a ring to show off, I might feel more incentive :D

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  5. Congratulations Tara, it's a big accomplishment; you should be proud of yourself!!! They look beautiful and I love your ring! When is your big day?
    oxoxo

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  6. Oooh, way to kick that habit and look great while doing it! Lovely engagement pics, by the way.

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