Habits are hard to break

After ten years with the same email password, I changed it a week ago.

Now, every time I go to sign up to my email, I always type in the wrong email. Sometimes I do it 3 or 4 times before I remember that I changed it.

I suppose its 65% muscle memory and 35% memory memory.

Now, breaking a habit that involvese food can take much longer than a week. That's because there are additional factors - such as hunger pains, or at least, "remembered" hunger pains to deal with.

As I've posted before, when I was young, I drank a lot of Pepsi. I had a fast metabolism - I biked a lot during the summer months so I never gained weight then, and any weight I gained over the winter, I would lose very quickly once spring came around and I could go out biking agian.

Then I hit 40, my metabolism changed, and even with me biking the same amount (I have an odometer on my bike and like to keep track of time and distance), the weight wasn't coming off.

I used to drink 6 pepsis a day, I've cut it down to 2. That's a lot of calories!

How did I do it?

Well, it was all about breaking the habit. It used to be that whenever I'd return from a bike ride (I was, and am, a freelance writer who works from home, so I could go out for a bike ride, or a walk, whenever I wanted) I would have a Pepsi. Indeed, it got to be a habit - anytime I got up from my desk, I'd return to it with a nice ice cold Pepsi.

And I had to break that habit.

And I did it slowly. First substituting a glass of water for one of the 6 pepsis, then after a week or so, for 2, and so on.

I had to fight against hte feelnig that it wasn't fair... for 40 years I'd been able to drink Pepsi with impunity - a drink I loved (for I'm not a coffee drinker - and now because of damn biology I had to give it up.

I was not happy.

but it had to be done.

So now, I drink two pepsis a day. One when I get up in the morning, the other at noon.

And that's it.

And my weight remains steady, at exactly the weight I like.