Here was are at Day 5, 600g lighter than Monday and feeling pretty good.

It’s nearing Friday afternoon, which spells one word for me. Actually two. Sauvignon Blanc. After spending 8 years slaving away as a sales rep in the media industry (and not enjoying a second of it mind you), I became very used to the Friday afternoon tipple. It was the only thing the sales department had to look forward to after a hard, tiring, competitive, emotionally draining week.

What’s funny is that I don’t think about the not-so-healthy-grape-juice at any other time. Mondays, nope. Sundays, nope. Not even after a long, tiring weekday at work. I’d rather have a protein shake. But give me a Friday arvo at 5pm, and I’m crawling the walls for it. And this my friends, is not what we call addiction, it’s what we call habit.

A bad one.

Breaking a habit is harder than it sounds. But as the great Tom Venuto (of Body for Life fame) would say, you can’t break a habit by creating a vacuum. In other words, you can’t stop doing something, without replacing it with something else. Ex-smokers often turn to coffee (another stimulant). Ex-coffee addicts often turn to diet colas (another way to get caffeine). Nothing like replacing a bad habit with a bad habit eh?!

The challenge comes in replacing a bad habit with a good one. So yes, today I will be going without my Savvy B come 5pm. But I’m not just going to go cold turkey here. I need to replace the glass-to-mouth-action with something. So tonight I’m going to try something different, but still enjoyable. Scott is working late and it might be an opportune time to hire a dvd I’ve been hanging out to see (a chick flick of course – usually banned in the house when Mr Macho is at home). And I’m going to chill out on the couch and enjoy. Of course, I’m not implying that I’m going to turn into a socially inept hermit here, but I’m going to start thinking of enjoyable ways to spend a Friday night without the toxicity.

But what I’m really going to enjoy is the lack of headache tomorrow. And the sluggishness that comes after a couple of vinos and a late night. I’ll be gym-ready by 7am tomorrow, ready to give the quads a(nother) thrashing. It’s in the small decisions, these small changes in habit, that we create a better, more fulfilling life.

What are the habits that are holding you back, and how can you change/replace them with something better?