I have an addiction to candy. That’s completely stupid and embarrassing, I know. I’m a grown-ass man and I watch Mad Men; my addictions should be alcohol or hookers, right? But ever since I was a kid, I’ve been a big fan of candy and it hasn’t stopped since then.

This addiction hasn’t been kind to my teeth or my waistline, but I haven’t yet changed. I’ve cut back at various times, but I always end up back where I started.

I’ve recently cut out 80% of all candy, because Sunday through Friday I’m no longer eating refined carbs of any kind (thanks to the 4 Hour Body and Good Calories, Bad Calories). But on Saturdays (and when I cheat), I still eat candy. This makes it harder to not eat it during the week, because I start craving something sweet.

The conclusion I’ve ultimately come to is that I can’t really trust myself to eat candy at all. So why haven’t I tried to cut it out completely?

We often put off changes we know we should make because it’s overwhelming to consider making that change forever. Not eating candy for a week or even a month isn’t terribly difficult. It’s the thought of never having it again that makes it difficult, so we often don’t even start.

So I’m not going to worry about that for now. For the month of February 2011, I’m not going to eat any candy of any kind, including chocolate (which I don’t really even care for much). After that time is over, I’ll evaluate whether I want to continue with that habit, or figure out something else. And if I do decide to eat it again, I won’t view it as a failure. Success will be getting through the 30-day test habit, not building a life-long habit.

If you have a change that you’ve been trying to make, let’s do it together for the month of February. Yours might be more serious than candy, or perhaps it’s just something that you’d like to accomplish. No judgement of any kind either way. Post in the comments or email me and we can keep each other accountable. Don’t worry about whether you need to change your lifestyle forever, let’s just take this first step together and see where it goes.