VICE

Or stop being a junkie.

Vices are all of the diverse addictions that make us human beings suffer so much. Slowly, but surely like a deadly disease they chip away at our health bar. They make the real us wither away, as they take over a bigger part of our life. They’re a form of cancer, that is hard to diagnose.

Vices can be small and inconspicuous. They are annoying, are often not obviously threatening. In the short term they bring joy, distraction and relief. In the long run they harm.

Why should one get rid of vices? This is easy to answer for people who want to live a simpler and easier life. Dependencies are the opposite of freedom. It is impossible to live carefree, if you have to consider your addiction, when planing your day. They rob you of your freedom of choice. Small and medium sized vices may not limit you like a straitjacket, but they have a unpleasant grip on your choices like a too tight belt.

You might not even notice what you are doing, as the urge and impulse is so ingrained in your life. But let’s be serious: Everybody who has to stop in his tracks and run out every few hours to smoke a cigarette or secretly suck on a flask during their break, has a problem. You may argue that it is not a big deal, that you can handle it. But it gets worse with each year, soon your environment will be affected.

Not only the recognized addiction such as smoking and drinking should be dropped like they’re hot. Junk food is also a big deal. Anybody who cries when he has to eat vegetables, who gets a fit of rage, when the chocolate bars are all gone is in a similarly bad spot as the alcoholic who becomes aggressive, when all the booze is gone or the smoker who’s shaking, when the pack is gone. Smoking, overeating and drinking are the vices we’re gonna fight here. If there are other habits and substances you need to get out of your life, just look at those three as proxy. Vices and addictions are unnecessary and unhealthy. In a moment of clarity they leave you with a bad conscience. Nobody needs unnecessary grief!

A vice is a short-term satisfaction that you know will harm you in the long run. Otherwise, it would simply be a habit. Anything but to stop is stupid. The earlier you actively stop, the sooner you are free. Others have already stopped. You are not weaker than nonsmokers or healthy eaters. You can do what they did.

How do you get rid of a vice? First of all, you should think carefully of the reasons why you want to or need to get rid of the vice. You should write down your arguments. Have an intervention with your addiction. There are so many good reasons to quit I can think of, I’m sure you can add more.

• What does it really do? Stimulation for a short period of time? You live the bigger (and better) part of your life non-intoxicated. Therefore in reality you do not need it. What you do is not alter your state of mind, you poison your body.

• It gets more expensive each year. The effect gets reduced the more and more you use your addictive substance. Over time, it has to be more and more often. You have to spend more money and harm yourself even more, otherwise your fix is as dull as a butter knife.
• What does it do to your body? You give all those nasty diseases way more opportunities to conquer your body than need be. All for a little rush. The downside is greater than the benefit.

• How are you starting to look? How does it affect your skin, teeth, fingernails and hair? Do you start to look like those nasty old people in horror movies?

• What about your psyche. Is there hatred rising because you want to get rid of the crap? You haven’t really made an effort, so you lost your battles again and again.

Alright, now we know why you need to stop.

There are certain moments and triggers cause you to flee to your vice. It is certainly easier said than done, but at the core it is only a few seconds you have to be strong. No, I won’t drink/smoke/overeat now. We have to be aware of the situations, that trigger us. Triggers are usually stress, bad news, pressure or even bad influence. You’re nervous, unsure of yourself, dissatisfied, want to fit in.

All of this can make you light a cigarette, eat sweets, or crack open a beer. You have to realize: The bad situation is neither solved nor has your position improved. You only bought yourself a few moments to be distracted.

These vices don’t make life better. They prolong the suffering, as you feel bad for the drugs and still have to handle situation, that caused you to grab your addictive substance. Alcohol, nicotine and sugar give you the opposite of an advantage. Your life circumstances do not change a bit, just because you inhale poisoned air. It’s just a short distraction that has no effect on the solution. A bar of chocolate never replaces the call you have to make. You only postpone the call for the few seconds your mouth is stuffed.

There are vices for which you can easily find a replacement. Instead of fingernails you can chew bubble gum, instead of watching TV you can read and educate yourself. This is not really the case with our deadly sins of smoking, drinking and junk food. Quitting is the way to go.

Immediate help: breathe deeply. If you feel the urge, count to 90. Then remind yourself of all the disadvantages your addiction has. Overweight, illness, cost, bad conscience, embarrassing behavior, bad smell and shame. Talk to the voice in your head, about the arguments you wrote down. Let the little human in your head romp and jump. I’m sure you can make a good argument to skip the vice this time.

If you manage to win one time, you sure as hell can be clean for a whole day. Tackle each day individually. Before you open the beer, rip the chip bag, light the cigarette, tell yourself, maybe tomorrow, but not today. You are so smart, you could sell cats to mice. You will find an answer to the nagging questions the voice inside your head asks.

If you’re a weekend junkie, then only Friday and Saturday are your individual days. Remember: You only have to win a few arguments with the voice in your head, that urges you on. Believe me, on Sunday you will be able to tear up trees instead of hating the day. To never drink again from now on is almost unthinkable. Not drinking (or smoke, or eat junk food, or consume your vice) today isn’t easy, but manageable. Of course, each day is today when the time arrives.

When you are struggling and looking forward doesn’t work, then view backwards. Do not think about the whole day you have to be sober, but the ones you are already dry. How many days have you been clean now? And you want to ruin your winning streak today on this insignificant day?

Quitting is tricky. Your body has gotten used to the substance over the years. Just as you have become accustomed to certain things, you can get rid of them. It takes time and perseverance. But the good news is: You only have to be strong until enough time has passed.

Do not fool yourself, vices are weaknesses. They chip away at your health. They do not give you interesting or an extraordinary personality. Thankfully they are just bad habits. To quit and to make your life easier, is a question of determination. Are you stronger than a substance? Use both hands, make fists. Now put the thumbs up, and point them at you. Who’s the best?

You may not be a smoker, drinker or junkie. Whatever your vices are, the principle does not change. If you can convince that demon inside you to keep your hands off today, you can do it. Go to hell, demon.

Do you still need some convincing?

Let’s stub the last cigarette out.

Let me start with some positives about smoking. Asking someone for a lighter can be an icebreaker. That’s pretty much it. But: Would you really want to date a smoker?

Smoking is so 1950. If you think it looks cool, you probably wear tennis socks in your sandals and style your hair with oil. Smoking being addictive, is a known fact. You being addicted will be fiction.

That tiny rush of nicotine is not worth it. Things sold in vending machines on the street are disgusting. Ever seen a gumball machine? YIKES! Or condom machines? Who knows what kind of venereal diseases you’ll find in there? And the condom machines are probably dirty too.

The smell doesn’t just graze your home, clothes, fingers and breath … you stink. No, dear smoker, it is not enough to eat a piece of candy after your smoke break. There is so much downside. Not only the bad breath and waste of hard earned money. You make a fool out of yourself if you need to take breaks all the time. You have to visit the balcony every 30 minutes, because I’m sure you’re not as inconsiderate to smoke out of a window.

Luckily, smoking is expensive. We non-smokers are not only annoyed because you blow poison in the air, we do not want to finance your future cancer treatment. If even the packaging says that a product is harmful, leave your yellow fingers off of it! If you’re addicted to nicotine, start chewing gum and phase yourself out.

Become one of us. On our side the grass is greener, on their side the lungs are blacker.

Let’s pour the last sip of alcohol down the drain.

Alcohol is the one mortal sin that at least makes sense. You get drunk, your consciousness changes.

Drunk you are very strong, very funny and totally open minded. That is, until you drink too much. Then you stumble around, babble on and embarrass yourself. If you do that too often, you get a pretty bad reputation. Then you are the booze hound in your circle of friends. People will get nervous, when you start drinking as it rarely ends well.

Unlike smoking, drinking in moderation is socially accepted. Obviously there is a difference between having a glass of wine during dinner, getting wasted on the 4th of July and having a problem. You know, whether you drink from time to time and it is not a big deal or whether it is a vice that you need to get rid of.

The latter? One likes to say that a drunk mind speaks the sober truth. Anyone who has ever been in a drunken rage knows, that this is only partially true. Alcohol is a serious drug. It numbs you instantly. It changes your consciousness shortly, and in true addiction it changes your entire being over time.

Drinking too much is bad. Because at some point in your life, the fun being drunk gets overshadowed by the hangovers. If you are constantly hungover, not only do you lose several hours a day and therefore many days of the year, your quality of life suffers. Sobering up is exhausting.

• In the office, windows must be opened when you enter, because you evaporate.

• You become a vampire. Keep the blinders down, for the love of god, no sunlight!

• Your children have to make breakfast themselves, because you get sick in the presence of food.

• On Monday, you have to postpone appointments, because you ruined your body on the weekend.

The high during the short period of intoxication is not worth that lousy feeling over the next two days. And by the way, what did your liver do to you to deserve punishment like that?

Drinking doesn’t have to be a part of your life.

You do not have to turn night into day. You are not stronger, funnier or more likable. All of those positive qualities are in you inside. You will be able to show those sides to strangers once you have gotten used to not going out intoxicated.

If you don’t stop now, where will it end? At the end of a working day, cracking open a beer quickly becomes a ritual, then you drink two to get a buzz. Suddenly you open the first one when you get home and finish the day with the sixth can. Here comes the big money question: Does the drinking change something? Probably not. If you do not drink today, you will do exactly the same. But there will be no rude awakening the next morning.

There are so many situations where alcohol slowly becomes a bigger and bigger part of ones life. Make sure that alcohol isn’t just a vice that offers zero upside.

Let’s put on a muzzle.

Oh, the junk food. I’m not going to lie to you, junk food, sweets, snacks and soft drinks taste good. If smoking is the triathlon of sins, junk food qualifies as a half-marathon.

Whether country mouse or big city cat, in order to live longer and get more out of the present, we take our diet back to the roots, back to nature. It is pretty easy to apply the principle of food that is alive. The less processed, the more natural a food is, the better it is for you. Generally speaking and roughly in most cases at least. We don’t want to lose ourselves in details, but your diet should consist almost entirely of living foods. The foods in which there is still life, because they were not processed beyond recognition. Of course, fruits and vegetables are top priority.

Flavor enhancers, acids, food colors, artificial flavors, all that stuff is not needed. Therefore they make life unnecessarily complicated. The less complicated the list of ingredients, the more recommendable is the food.

Your convenience food was not prepared by a sweet mom, but designed by people in white coats. That stuff is monsters from the food lab, Frankenstein sends his greetings. Frozen pizza, ready-made pasta dishes, burgers, chips, fruit gums, candy bars and soft drinks should sooner or later disappear from your nutritional plan.

Cooking is easy. The effort is the hard part. But nowadays you can get the best of both worlds. You can buy cut vegetables and other natural ingredients that are ready to use, all you have to do is season and stir. Even if you’re busy you will be able to eat accordingly. Grab vegetable/fruit, bite into it and there is a healthy snack. Or a healthy meal if you eat enough of it.

Eating is about getting the nutrition we need. Sure, it should taste good. But do we have to have a party on tongue each and every time? If you want to phase out bad food, think of certain meals only as a way to get energy. Fortunately, you can only eat enough once. So when you reach for fruits and vegetables, wholemeal pasta and lentils, you reach the same goal. You are full and have enough energy to get your tasks done.

You can tell who makes bad food choices just by glancing over them. Doughy skin? Check. Overweight? Check. Lethargic? Check. Stupid facial expression? Check. If you want to belong to this group: Check, please.

The easiest way is to phase the junk food out of your life, is to start by finding better alternatives. Instead of your favorite desired junk food you eat a healthier alternative, something that is closer to its natural state.

• Grab an apple instead of candy.

• Potatoes instead of fries.

• a healthy sandwich instead of pizza.

• Water with juice instead of a soft drink

Each week should be healthier than the last. After a few better alternatives your diet will be pretty, pretty, pretty good.