One Step at a Time

1. Diet Coke.  I never thought I’d really stick with it, but I have indeed given up Diet Coke.  I no longer buy it, and when I’m out and happen to order one, I actually have trouble getting through it and end up regretting it.  It tastes “tin-ny” and wierd somehow.  If you knew how much I LOVED Diet Coke … truly rejoicing at the sound of that can opening … it is amazing that I can say I’ve kicked it.  I’m mostly a water gal now.  My favourite, which you have to try, is cutting up 10 – 12 slices of cucumber and “brewing them” in the fridge overnight in a big pitcher of water.  It’s heavenly, I tell you, and you won’t believe it until you try it.  I had it at a lovely Vancouver spa a few years ago, and it’s just divine.  Try it and tell me if you don’t feel like a guy named Robert just gave you the best 2-hour massage ever.  Or your not aching for a new toenail colour.  Or both.

2.Reaching for something sweet and creamy (that reads:  ice cream / chocoloate) whenever my children all go to sleep.  I didn’t even know that I was doing this until I kept a food journal a few months ago.  You know, your typical “what-are-you-eating-and-how-did-you-feel” schtick.  Sometimes there are great revelations in simple things.  “8:45:  Ice cream.  I feel relieved.”  or “8:35.  2 handfuls of chocolate chips.  I feel like celebrating, but am now sure why.”  Bingo.  I feel like I need some kind of reward for getting the troops tucked in and cozy.  Ridiculous.  Now my reward is a bath, a cup of tea on the phone with my long-distance friend, time to write on the couch.  It’s all in the way we frame things, isn’t it?

3.Screening calls.  I used to think that this was this big timesaver in my life — take calls when I want to take them — but then I found myself strangely screening calls as a way to procrastinate.  Now I take the call, and if I can’t deal with the problem right then, I say so.  Seems like I should know that, being in my mid-thirties, and all.  Procrastination just creates more work at some point, somehow.

4.Saving way too much paper.  Fact is, I love paper.  Paper = memories to me.  I have kept a journal since I knew how to write — not an everyday diary — but a regular journal.  I have trouble throwing out things like letters, cards, and stuff.  I’ve started to really go through things, and save only the extra-special.  The journals, I’ll keep, of course.  My kids and their families will need something to giggle at after my funeral one day.  Or perhaps to take to therapy.

5.Grocery shopping without a list.  Ooooh, you know I love a list.  But I went  through a crazy-spell of grocery shopping in the most compulsive of ways.  A few years back, our financial situation improved greatly, and we didn’t need to budget as much for everyday things.  I would easily stop at the store, and spend $100 on a new pasta sauce … and look at these olives … and they have a sushi bar now!  You get the idea.   Silly, and a lot of food went bad in my fridge because I had no plan.  I’m back to menu planning (supper menus only — I love a list, but I’m not that anal) and grocery shopping accordingly.  It just goes better.

So, have you kicked any not-so-great habits recently?