I like to think that I’m not alone when I say that I’ve had a nail-biting situation (literally) for a long time, a VERY long time, as in, I don’t even remember a time when I didn’t bite my fingernails, in fact (gross story alert) when I was younger I used to bite my toenails too but THANKFULLY grew out of it.     There have been times in the past that I’ve tried to beat the habit through sheer force of will, or when that failed, by painting my nails, that didn’t work either. I’d forget about my force of will in a matter of days (even hours sometimes) and painting them only led me to scrape the nail polish off with my teeth, I imagine that is not very good for my insides…   After a while of wallowing in the futility of it all, I just stopped trying and actually embraced my bad habit, telling everyone who took notice of it that it’s a part of me that’s been here since forever, i would have screamed it from the rooftops if ever there was need to. Besides, no one, from what I could tell, seemed that bothered by it anyway so…what’s the harm?    I really didn’t think it was that big a deal, even when just recently, my boyfriend of almost two years decided to take matters into his own hands (pun intended) and pinch me whenever I brought a fingernail to my teeth. Of course he had warned that matters would turn that way if I chose to continue down my path of nail-destruction. He only did it twice before giving up, and I promise you he is a peace loving huge softy who is mushy to the core and wouldn’t even hurt small insects, not even at my request. An example of this is when a praying mantis decided to move into my room with him and I, at a loss on how to get it out without going near its creepiness, I kept throwing objects at it. He (boyfriend) asked me to leave it alone till either he came to get it out or I found someone else to help me before he got to my place the next day. Found someone to get it out, there's no way I was sharing a room with a mantis, they freak me out, like lizards, rodents, spiders, frogs and snakes.*shudder*   But I digress, matter at hand. This afternoon, Tuesday, September 30, 2014, out of boredom during my lunch break after I had just finished one of my regular afternoon nail-biting sessions, I decided to find out if there is indeed a way to kick the nail-biting habit. I did a search and found a number of results but decided, out of curiosity to try this one http://m.wikihow.com/Stop-Biting-Your-Nails   Bandaging my fingertips up…I laughed at the silliness of it but it makes sense considering I mostly go at them without even being conscious of it and it is a whole lot better than getting pinched or dipping my fingernails in hot chili sauce. I am fortunate enough to not have it as bad as to bleed from from the habit but I do get a case of soreness and/or pain regularly after biting.   I will document my progress on a weekly basis with pictures of my progress (or otherwise). Rumor has it, that it takes 21 days of consistently doing (or not doing) something to form or break a habit. I will take this challenge based on that rule. In the meantime, I last bit my nails approximately 2 hours ago, I am determined to have it so that it was my last time.   Below are a few pictures of the state of my nails as of today.    

The first four pictures were taken first day of e challenge.The last three were taken a week later.