This week is home to the 2 year anniversary of a very big step in my life...
The day i quit smoking.
I picked up the habit from my girlfriend and my friends back when i was 16. Nobody forced me too, or even really mentioned it. but one day when my girlfriend went into the store and said "hold this" well...i couldn't resist the urge to give it a puff. after that came a 6 year addiction that cost me hundreds of dollars and many sick days.
Even back then at the wise old age of 16 i had the forethought to say "I will never smoke in front of my children" and the will power to hold myself to it. 2 years ago my wife (the same girl as the first cigarette) and I made the decision that we were going to try to have a baby...and with that decision came time to give up our favorite vice. We both smoked over a pack a day on a normal day, and closer to 2 packs a day on the weekends when drink was involved. There were days we would wake up from the party the night before and the fish tanks water would be cloudy from all the smoke in the air the night before...yeah...
Well i am proud to say that on April 24th at 4:05 (giver or take a minute or so) i drew my last drag and spewed the last of the smoke from my lungs. Never to touch a cigarette to this day. And now we have a baby on the way, due this October...
Quitting was probably the hardest thing i had ever done then, and still is today. Still, i always thought it would be harder...maybe it was the fact that both of us were going through the same thing at the same time and turned it into a bit of a competition...either way...we both pulled it off. And today, i am sick far less often, i run regularly and am in probably the best shape i have ever been!
Do i still want to smoke...HELL YES! Though the urges are fewer and further between with each passing month. But my mouth still waters when i catch a whiff from someone else from time to time. i still go out and join others on "smoke breaks" and so on. A lot of former smokers do a 180 and turn against their former brethren...not me, we still sat in the smoking section at big boy until it was removed. and i still think that some of the smoking laws are a bit over reaching...but, honestly, i dont care any more lol. as it has no bearing on me today.
I have come to realize that even if you quit...you will always be a smoker in your mind, if not in the physical act.
2 years down...all of them to go
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Comments: 59
It has been one year (as of today) for me. I miss it. I've been addicted to other things in my life and I don't miss them at all. But the cigarettes.... sigh.
I had to quit because of the coughing - it was constant and I needed an inhaler. Not anymore tho! yay
By the way when is the due date? Just wondering since my birthday is in October.
( i really need to find out the sex so i can stop saying "it"!)
that and they raised the tax on Roll your own stuff 2000% that year...so i wasnt going to pay that...
Is that you or a young picture? If you're that young you have a long healthier life ahead.
Was it just determination or what motivated you? Kids, health issues? What?
You should try to share tips on what made it work for you.
We know it's hard even if you want to quit. Will eating take take the place of the pleasure or not?
Best wishes and congratulations to you and your wife! To have you both trying to quit must have been real helpful.
Aloha, Frank
we both went cold turky so i dont know about any of the "aides" they sell...
as for attempted replacements...you have to watch this too. replacing smoking with something like fatty foods or even worse drinking doesn't really help you in the long run! i found that those little vitamin C drops helped me. it occupied my mouth and also gave a little bit of a "burn" which i had found myself craving without smoking.
besides those things...it was just will power really...
I've heard other smokers say that they never get over wanting to smoke. I have a friend who quit a three-pack habit about thirty years ago and she says every day she still wants one. But she is strong! And so are you and the K.
but to me the choice i made is worth the cost of never ending urges.