The difference is, if you don’t get to complete your habit, you might not even notice or miss doing it. When it’s an addiction, you’re not going to be able to get it off your mind. Have you ever seen “My Strange Addiction”? It’s a show all about the weird stuff people do in order to remain calm. One girl eats toilet paper. Another girl dresses up like an adult baby. My strange addiction? Going thru a drive thru window.

It started about a year ago when I lived in the Avalon Park area. Anyone familiar with this area knows there is an unavoidable stretch of fast food restaurants on the way to any of the town homes. As we didn’t keep soda in the house, every few days I would get the craving for coke. The only way to control my soda intake was to get a small coke from McDonalds on the way home.  Every few days turned into everyday. My average coke cost for the week shot up to $7.49. That’s $29.96 a month, or $360 a year. I probably spent about $250 on small cokes from 2010-2011.

The best part about a drive-thru: you don’t have to get out of your car! No pants, no problem. No shoes, who cares? And even if you just rolled out of bed and look like crap, nobody is going to see you. I love the drive-thru so much I don’t even mind when fries get stuck in between my seats.

My addiction isn’t limited to small sodas. Once or twice a month I make the 200 mile drive home to Miami. Whenever I see a drive thru on the highway I somehow trick myself into thinking that may be my last chance for food. Needless to say, I provide a lot of business for the Ft. Pierce truck stop.

Moving downtown obviously had me worried that I wouldn’t be able to fulfill my drive-thru needs. I can walk mostly anywhere, and if I drive there isn’t anywhere to park. About two weeks after I moved in, I discovered Colonial drive was the solution to my problem. Now, not only can I drive thru McDonalds, but I can drive thru the bank, the pharmacy, and most importantly Starbucks. Upon researching, I discovered that the creators of In-N-Out Burger also invented the drive-thru window. If these guys were alive today, I would give them big hugs. I would also strangle them for making my fat habit so accessible.