A Tim Hortons Detour (and a Broken Habit Loop)

 Sooo... if you're a regular reader of this blog, you know that I've been trying to ditch my Starbucks addiction. Well, my addiction to Starbucks hot chocolate.

Sooo… if you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know that I’ve been trying to ditch my Starbucks addiction. Well, my addiction to Starbucks hot chocolate.

But Starbucks is my happy place, where I can sit, sip a drink in the early morning, and get some work done without distractions. It’s just that the hot chocolate is having an impact on my waistline.

So, I had this idea that I could walk to McDonald’s (or drive). It’s only a 30-minute walk and… it might be a good substitute.

Yeah. No.

My first visit to McDonald’s was an epic fail.

I decided to drive because some of the reviews said that their hours were a bit erratic. They are open 24 hours for drive-thru but are supposed to open at 5 a.m. for walk-ins. I showed up at a very respectable 5:40 a.m. to find the doors locked. I could have gone through the drive-thru, but I didn’t have the patience. So I got back in the car and drove to another Starbucks… not my regular one. Sigh.

So… if McDonald’s isn’t reliable, then I don’t want to walk all the way there and find them closed. They are not an option, at least not for early morning visits. Back to the drawing board.

Option 1 – Local Aquatic Centre

It’s about a 20–25 minute walk and has a café area with seating in the lobby. Not sure if they have Wi-Fi or electrical outlets either, but it’s an option. Except… reviewers say the café area is frequented by clumps of swearing teenagers. It does open at 6 am, but the little café itself doesn’t open until 9. I guess I could always bring my own tea.

Option 2 – University

Also a 30-minute walk. I used to go there before Covid, when their library building was open 24 hours a day. The library itself only opened at 8 a.m., but the Commons area was open much earlier. Covid threw all of that out the window. I just checked, and now the Commons is locked until 8 a.m. Only students and employees with a key card can access it before then. So that’s not going to work.

Option 3 – Local Coffee Shop

There’s a Serious Coffee about a five-minute walk from us, but it only opens at 8 a.m. I actually tried it for a few visits, but their tea selection is weak. They do have Wi-Fi and electrical outlets, but it just wasn’t my vibe.

Option 4 – Work from Home

This is another option. Just transition away from the idea of getting work done from a coffee shop and work from home instead. I did this during Covid, but I missed my coffee shop time. It’s a place where I can really focus and not be distracted by all the undone items at home. Just me, the laptop, and some focused time to write or work or whatever. So… not sure I want to give that up. I just need to figure out a different schedule or venue that works for me.

Option 5 – Tim Hortons

I’m not exactly sure why I didn’t consider this option sooner. I think there was a point several years ago when I realized Timmies was owned by an American company and… our household was boycotting it. Maybe. Not sure.

Anyhow… get this… I tried Timmies.

It’s across the street from the failed McDonald’s, so within a 30–35 minute walk of home, and an even quicker drive. I went in and ordered a small chai tea with a splash of milk… $1.98 (a full $0.70 cheaper than Starbucks!). I found a seat with an electrical outlet nearby, connected to the Wi-Fi, and it was… not bad.

It’s not the same as Starbucks, which has more of a dark, moody coffee-shop vibe. Timmies is more cafeteria-like, quite sterile and bright. But it had everything I needed. Plus… it opened at 5 a.m. Be still my beating heart! Finally, a coffee shop that was on my schedule.

That was on July 19, 2025.

For 100 days, I faithfully went to Timmies, breaking the Starbucks + hot chocolate loop. And no, I was never tempted by Timmies’ hot chocolate. The only downside… I came home smelling like hashbrowns and scrambled eggs. Not a pleasant smell. 

After 100 days, I tried a Starbucks visit… and I was able to order a tea without immediately reciting, “I’ll have a grande hot chocolate, no whip.”

I had broken the loop.

Slowly, I migrated back to Starbucks. It’s the hashbrown smell at Timmies. It’s just… icky. And yes, Starbucks hits my pocketbook with an extra $0.70, but I’ll take that if it means going home smelling like roasted coffee instead of greasy hashbrowns.

Parking Uphill: A Tactical Approach to Breaking Bad Habits

I've learned something new. Or heard it in a different way, so that it seems new. There's one key feature of forming good habits and rooting out bad habits... and it's NOT willpower (news flash). What is it?

Friction.

Remember friction? From physics class. Ugh. I remember doing these calculations to see if the angle of the slope was steep enough to cause the box to start sliding. Lots of trigonometry and cosines and sines.

But we're not going to talk about that sort of friction. Nope.

The sort of friction we're talking about is really simple.

Reduce friction - make things easy, quick, short

Add friction - make things harder, slower and farther

Forming Good Habits

The trick to forming good habits is to reduce the amount of friction in three key areas: time, distance, effort.

Want to do weights everyday? Move them out of the basement gym, into your home office. Put the 5 lb weights on your desk...  See, reduce the distance and the effort. Once you're doing 5 lb weights in between meetings, you can eventually up it to 10 lbs.

What to get more people to sign up as organ donors? Make the sign-up process super easy and seamless with a QR code and a process that only takes 2 minutes. Reduce the time and the effort.

Want to remember to bring a reusable mug/cup for your Timmies/Starbucks run? Have it by the front door or on the counter, and keep a spare in your car.

There are so many different ways to reduce time, distance and effort. I wrote a blog about it a few months ago. Want to get your day off on the right foot, make sure you "park downhill" the night before. Have your work-out gear laid out, have a full water bottle ready to go. Make it easy. Make it quick. Make it short. Reduce the friction, so that all you have to do is pop in the clutch and you are rolling downhill with no effort.

Breaking Bad Habits

Soooo... if we form good habits by reducing friction, then obviously, we can break bad habits by adding friction to... time, distance, effort.

I've known some of this for a while. I've got a bit of a sweet tooth so if there is chocolate in the house, I will find it and eat it. Yes, even the baking chocolate. Ask my mother... When I was a kid, my sister and I would raid the baking cupboard and eat the baking chocolate... or the chocolate chips. Mom would want to do some baking and couldn't figure out where all the chocolate went! Anyhoo... Today's Solution: don't bring chocolate into the house. Clamp down hard on this!

Yes, there is a corner store a 3 minute walk away, but it is downhill to the store and uphill on the way home. And that is enough friction to stop me from walking down there. And driving that short distance just seems ridiculous, at least to me. Plus... I don't want to spend $3 on a chocolate bar that costs $1.25 at the regular grocery store. That is highway robbery!

So for me... adding cost to the friction equation also works. Make something more expensive, or with a financial penalty... and I'm easily swayed in the opposite direction.

They (the scientists) have done studies... if you slow down elevator doors by 26 seconds, more people will get impatient and take the stairs. If you remove vending machines from schools, you (theoretically) make it harder for teenagers to snack on junk food. Judging by my niece... some teens just go to the nearest corner store or Timmies!

It's called the Principle of Least Effort. Habits are kind of like water and take the path of least resistance. So if you want to make a good habit, you need to make it as easy and frictionless as possible. The idea is to change your environment as opposed to trying to change things like willpower or discipline.

Frictionless Bad Habits

It works the other way too... we can reduce the friction for any habit... even bad ones. A lot of companies use this to their advantage. Want to buy something on Amazon? One-click shopping - super easy! And today, you can just say "Hey Alexa, buy "whatever"... and it happens. Very little friction there... and that can make it very easy for a bad shopping habit to form.

Credit cards and debit cards now have the tap feature so you can be in and out of stores super quick. Heck... credit cards make it super easy to buy something even when you DON"T have the money! Hence... credit card debt...

Netflix... we are trying to watch the latest Loki season, one episode at a team, making it last. But as one episode ends and the credits roll... the next episode queues up and before you know it, 20 seconds have gone by and the next episode is starting... automatically. "Oh heck... we might as well watch the next episode... just one more..." Netflix made "binge-watching" a thing...

Soooo many things are designed to make it easy for those little bad habits to get more and more deeply entrenched.

Knowledge, Awareness & Willpower are Not Enough

But knowledge is power, right? And once we are aware of our bad habits, we can choose differently? We have free choice, we have the willpower! We are disciplined!!

Meh. Not so much. Very few people can go "cold-turkey" and make it through the other side. Oh sure, inhibition and self-denial work for a while. If you've been reading this blog for a while, you might regularly wonder... "What the heck?... she is doing ANOTHER sugar detox?"

 Yep. Rinse. Repeat. That's what trying to rely on willpower does.

And this is not a 21st century problem... Does this quote sound familiar?

"I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do, but [I do] what I hate I do."

Yeah. St. Paul struggled with this too. Cause it's not about willpower... or knowledge or awareness. It's all about friction. 

If we want to break a bad habit, we need to modify our environment to add friction. If something is more difficult to do, or takes longer... or is farther away... we will tend to do it less often.

Adding Friction to Chocolate

Let's take my love affair with chocolate. I already know that I can't keep it in the house, otherwise it all disappears. Yay! There's knowledge! There's awareness!

Not so fast... I go to Starbucks during the day and... they have a chocolate brownie that is my kryptonite. Soooo... I have been successfully denying myself chocolate at home, but the craving is still there. What do you think happens when I go to Starbucks? Maybe I'm feeling a tiny bit frazzled or think I deserve a "reward" or... whatever. And bingo... chocolate brownie is on my plate!

Sooo... are there other options? Well... here's my plan.

I am no longer going to deny myself chocolate. I am actually going to keep some chocolate in the house. Yep. But it is going to be seriously dark chocolate. And a Dark Burnt-Almond Cadbury or Dark Rittersport bar do not make the cut. I am talking 70%, 80%... even 95% dark chocolate. Have you ever tried a 95% dark chocolate bar? It is seriously bitter! 

So, the plan is, when I'm at home, and get that chocolate craving, I can have a square of dark chocolate. Trust me... one square is usually enough. Right now, I am starting with 70% but I have some 90% as well. If I do want a second square later in the day, that's fine, but it's going to be the 90% chocolate. I take one nibble of that and I am good. You can't really binge on dark chocolate... it's not that sort of taste sensation.

If I want something sweet, I go and have an apple, because compared to 90% chocolate... an apple is a lovely, sweet, delicious, juicy thing!

As for the chocolate brownie... I now carry a cut up apple with me when I go out, and some almonds. I'm also thinking of bringing a half square of 90% chocolate with me... as back-up. The idea here is... if I get hungry, I have the apple. If I have a serious chocolate craving, I can have the dark chocolate.

As my palate gets used to the dark chocolate, I will up the first square from 70 to 78% and then 85% until I'm doing 90% for the first and 95% for the second.

So I am making it easier, quicker, shorter to have an apple or a bit of dark chocolate. I'm also making it harder, longer and farther to get crap chocolate.

We have little chocolate bars that we put in the welcome basket for our Airbnb guests... I've now tucked those down into the "pit" by the front door. The "pit" is a floor hatch by our front door, that leads to our little mini-basement (under the stairs space). It is a serious pain-in-the-butt to move the entrance bench, all the shoes, the rugs and floor mats, haul open the hatch door, prop it open and then go down and get a chocolate bar... and put it all back. So far, that added friction is working quite well. It's the "out of sight - out of mind" technique...

Out of Sight - Out of Mind

The other aspect of the brownie situation would be to add some more friction to the process... With Starbucks you earn points with every purchase and once you hit a certain threshold you can redeem them for things like... tea... or chocolate brownies (100 points). Who can say "no" to a FREE brownie!!!?? Not me. Although I could get a free tea too... but why "waste" those points on a tea.... 

I could just ditch the points program. But the thrifty person in me likes to get things for free... And there is really no way for me to say "Can you ban me from ordering a chocolate brownie". Although... if I let the points accumulate until it reaches 200 stars... I could get myself a tasty, relatively healthy snack box that has things like apple slices, cheese, nuts, peanut butter... That would be better? Maybe.

Here's an option that just popped into my head...

I use the Starbucks app on my phone to pay for my tea. But as I swipe the app open, it tells me in big, bold font, how many points I have. When I see 103 points... I think... FREE Brownie!!!!! But... what if I stopped using the app? I still have my Starbucks Gold card... I could use that instead. I got out of the habit of using the card during Covid when nobody wanted to touch it and swipe it... But if I use the card, I won't see the points building up and... that might just work! Going to try it!

Step 1 - remove the Starbucks app from my phone... (gasp)... Done.

No mobile order for me anymore, but I didn't really do those... Back to the old-fashioned card. Fingers-crossed.

N.B. IT WORKED!!! I wrote this in mid-October... and it is now early January and...October 18 was my last Starbucks brownie. Not seeing those Starbucks Rewards available to me makes a difference! As does having a cut apple in my bag... and a square of dark chocolate. Yay me!

Another Idea - The Kitchen Safe

The other option for increasing the friction for the munchies is to buy a Kitchen Safe. Yes, you read that right.

It is a simple plastic box with a lock on a timer...

You can put your cookies, candies, chips, phone, drugs, Xbox controller, car keys, credit cards into the box, set the timer and... voila... they are out of reach. Uh-huh... that's a well-spent $80... but maybe it would work for someone.

Although there are already websites that will tell you how to hack into your Kitchen Safe. I can already tell you that a hammer would probably work. Amazon has replacement bases for the Kitchen Safe...

This is apparently "America's #1 Habit Breaker" as seen on Shark Tank. Seriously? Oh... and it has charging access so your phone can be charging while it's in the penalty box.

Hey, whatever works. Our "pit" works similarly... it increases the friction to get at whatever we are craving.

Think of the Postivies

I'm sitting in McDonald's again this morning (6:30 am) after a few weeks of relapsing back to Starbucks. I know, I know... change is hard. I wrote about that a while back and it's so true. Even after writing that I was breaking up with Starbucks... there I was... back in it's familiar space. This morning though... I thought... "no"... just do it!

I walked in the door at McDonald's and figured out how to place an order on their big display screens. Another new thing. Now, it came in a disposable cup... so I'm going to have to figure out if they do reusable mugs. I'd probably have to order at the counter but... the first order has been completed. I can't articulate what a big hurdle that was for me... maybe not huge... but big enough that every morning I just thought "I'll just go to Starbucks". So it was probably more like a speed-bump hurdle but... it doesn't take much to derail the best laid plans! Oh... and get this... McDonald's has "table service"!? You can place your order, give them your table number and then sit down while they bring it to you! Go figure!

This morning, there is a different crowd hanging out at McDonald's. These are the guys heading off to work, a lot of them middle-aged. There is one table of old guys chatting away. It's not that different from Starbucks actually... where there's a similar gaggle of middle-aged construction guys that hang out. But I guess... the difference is, I'm on a first-name basis with some of them. And here... it's all new and different and strange.

Now McDonald's has a fairly limited tea selection but... the price is ridiculous. At Starbucks, it now costs $3.90 for a small tea. Here... I can get a senior's tea (smaller) for $1.42. And even a small tea would still be less than half the cost of a Starbucks tea. Soooo... sitting here... I am thinking of the positives...

Walkable/Bikeable

The McDonald's is an easy 30 minute walk from home. I can do that. And it's maybe an 8 minute bike ride. Also very doable. And I'll get the bonus of exercise. What's not to love about that? I could also bike to Starbucks but it's probably more like a 15 minute bike ride and that just somehow seems a bit of a bigger hurdle. 

Cheaper

This is a no-brainer. If I get a Starbucks tea every day (more or less)... that's... let's just round up... $4/day = $120/month.

Whereas at McDonald's... it's $1.50/day or $45/day. What could I do with an extra $75/month? A heck of a lot more than over-priced tea!

Reliable Wifi

Sometimes, at Starbucks, connecting to the wifi is a real hassle. You have to login every single time, even if you check off the little box that says connect automatically. And sometimes the wifi just doesn't work well.

Whereas, here at McDonald's, I was here once and connected to the wifi. This morning, I didn't have to do anything, the laptop connected automatically to the wifi and I was off and running. Gotta love that!

Quiet Music

Sometimes, at Starbucks, the baristas have the music cranked and are rocking their favourite playlists. Which is fine when no one is in the store but... when there are customers... it gets to be a bit much. Part of the problem is that the speakers are in the front corners of the store, far from the baristas, so in order to hear the music over the noise of the espresso machines and coffee grinders, they crank it. 

Here at McDonald's, they have ceiling speakers and even though I am basically sitting under one of them, the music is very chill - Lionel Richie, Phil Collins... Not exactly cool coffee shop jazz but... it's not hideous.

Errand-Friendly

The two Starbucks that I visit the most tend to have errand options nearby. The farthest one has Superstore, Home Depot, Costco, Walmart, etc. Hard to beat that for errand- friendly but... can McDonald's compete with the others?

• Starbucks 1 - grocery store, big thrift store, drug store/post office
• Starbucks 2 - dollar store, bulk food store
• Starbucks 3 - grocery store, library, drug store/post office
• McDonalds - grocery store, drug store/post office, vet, hair cut, several thrift stores

So, it does compare quite favourably. 

Scales Tipping in Favour of McDonald's?

It's kind of hard to argue with all of those pros... isn't it? Especially against a tiny list of cons. They are a multi-national conglomerate behemoth? So is Starbucks. It feels unfamiliar and strange. Yep... that's how life works. Life is change. Life is growth. I used to love Starbucks hot chocolates and that was the draw back in 2010. No other hot chocolate (Timmies for example) could compare. But tea? Tea is pretty generic. I'm not a tea connoisseur by any means.

At this point, it's the shear force of habit that keeps me going to Starbucks... and familiarity. But I can do this, right? I am stronger than those well-worn paths in my synapses! Small steps.