Aside from my weight, there has been one bad habit that has been bothering me for years. I have been biting my nails ever since I was young.

My nails in August 2011

I was never one of those really bad biters who chewed down their nails until they bled, but it had been bothering me for a long time how my short nails automatically made my hands look unkempt. I like my hands, so I hated this habit of mine.

Like with losing weight, I had been trying to stop biting my nails for a long time. The first time was in 2004, when I managed to grow out my nails and didn’t bite my nails for a few months. Four months or so later, I was biting them again. I don’t remember what exactly triggered it, but most likely it was a stressful situation of some sort.

Biting nails is a bad habit that I wish I had never started. I also think in a lot of ways, it is similar to overeating. Both are behaviors we use to cope with stress and other emotions. Both are unhealthy ways of coping though, and what this is all about is to find new, healthy ways of coping to replace the bad habits that are holding me back.

A few weeks ago, I came to the realization, that if I can change my life style to become a fit and healthy person, I can also stop biting my nails. Normally, I would have told myself to do it one thing at a time, but you know what? Why wait? I am in a good place right now emotionally so why not use that opportunity to kick this bad habit as well? If I can say no to the snacks at work, I can say no to biting my nails. It just made sense.

I know that when my nails are painted, I have a harder time biting them. So that’s what I did. I painted my nails and redid them as soon as the polish would chip. I haven’t bitten my nails since. I know that a month and a half does not mean I have made it. I have lasted this long before. But I have the urge to bite less and less frequently. And when I do, I just chew gum.

My nails in October 2011

I love the way my nails look now. I simply love my hands, period. Does that make me sound conceited? Well, so be it. I spend a lot of time on my nails, painting them regularly and keeping them nice-looking, and to me that is an important part of keeping myself from biting them again. The nicer my nails look, the harder it will be to bite them and make them look ugly again.

Are you or were you a nail biter? What are your tricks to kick this nasty habit?