Bad habits are a great thing

Habits. Everyone as one or a million or so. There are just as many websites that try to show one the path from engaging in a bad habit to being habit-free.  There are also also all those psychologically-bent websites (such as Psychology Today) that claim to have strategies both mental and action-oriented that break one from habits or keep one from forming a habit to begin with.  I ask, what is the fun in that?

Every since I was a young girl, I have had one bad habit after another. And I delight in that fact. I bite my nails. I have done so since the age of 6 or thereabouts. As a result of my mom putting Tabasco sauce on my fingers trying to discourage my nail biting, I like spicy food.So take that Psychology Today!  I find it quite glorious to not only tolerate spicy food but to also delight in its consumption.  Bring it, I say!  I really have to wonder what is so bad about nail biting? Yah, yah, I have heard it all before.Let me also say that there is nothing more annoying that some well-meaning colleague trying to get you to break from a habit at a stupid work meeting. Really? If you are not biting your nails by the end of the 5th hour of a ridiculous meeting to set up future meetings, I say something is wrong with you. Me and my biting are perfectly normal.

I also have my caffeine habit, that I was actually able to give up during pregnancy quite readily.  But I love my Coke Zero and my lattes. I am not giving those up anytime soon. Here is why. My caffeine habit cleans out my colon quite nicely. As a matter of fact a certain amount of caffeine is healthy for one. Many research studies back me up on that.

Here is a late night habit that I have that for some might be quite embarrassing. I watch the movie Dirty Dancing quite often and I laughingly admit to it. It makes me happy to watch a movie that I know the words to and yet I still always catch something new.  Ever since I was a kid I have watched movies at home at midnight. It is how I learned about the world from my little room in the South Bronx. Those late-night movies helped me be a dreamer with set plans.  I am not too sure what I quite gain from Dirty Dancing, but I am convinced there is something there.

Perhaps my one true bad habit (if I had to say I have a bad one) is that I work out everyday early in the morning even on vacation. While I was in Hawaii, I still made it down to the gym by 6am every day. If I don’t work out I get a gnawing feeling of guilt that I can’t shake off despite how many times I listen to Taylor Swift’s Shake it Off song. I actually have never listened to it fully. But you get my drift.  I mean, I do have perfect blood pressure. Something I am doing is working.

Perhaps I rightly feel that I have to work out everyday because of my major sweet tooth. Every woman in my family has this bad habit. We just love, love sweets. I can eat gummy worms, followed by Frosted Flakes and followed by lemon heads.  I when I hear the song by Abba of “gimme a man after midnight“, I often switch in “gimme, gimme some sweets after midnight”. Seriously.  Then I often follow all that with some bread. I could never go on a diet that would require me to stop eating carbs. Oh, on top of that all, I love shoes, I have a major shoe habit. Don’t know how that is related to my sugar habit but I do own hundreds of pairs of shoes and don’t see the need to stop buying them. But you know what? They come in handy. I always carry an extra pair of shoes to change into. I am super ready for any occasion. This habit truly pays off; especially when you are in New York city.

So, those are my bad habits. I am sure I have many more. To me, they make me special and a bit quirky at times. When they say love yourself, do it. Embrace your bad habits as long as they are not hurting you or those around you.

Below are some of my indulgences from my travels; from coffee in Florence to bread pudding in New Orleans.