QUITTING SMOKING SUCKS! HERE'S WHY I DID IT..

I hate being preachy – I am not the kind of person who thinks that I am any better the those around me, in fact I spend an unnatural amount of time quietly berating myself for all of my shortcomings big and small – but that’s another blog all together.

If you are not thinking of quitting at the moment, rather don’t read on, scroll down to some other blog I wrote and read that rather.

I quit smoking in December, 2008, on the 18^th to be exact, at about 7pm GMT. I will never forget these facts. It was in the OR Tambo International airport lounge – smoking section- waiting for my New York bound flight to board. I will never forget these facts, tears were shed (Gregg’s and mine). What I can tell you is I don’t know how long it has actually been, I no longer count the days or even think about having a smoke (unless I’m drunk, that’s harder, but I expect that will never go away and is, in truth, easier to cope with than you think)

Quitting smoking does suck though. And I still don’t feel any better.  I have attributed this to a fear I have that I was not inhaling properly for 10 years. Leave it to me to not even get my deadly addictions right!

Quitting really sucks, you’re in a bad mood permanently, you don’t want to be social, the only thought you have in your head is how much you feel like having just one and you put on weight. I put on 5kgs myself and these smoke free kilos are damn near impossible to lose.

Not sounding like much of a reason to give up yet is it. It’s because I don’t want to down play how hard it is and if you are trying you should be really proud of yourself! Really proud, hell I’m proud of you!

And there are great side effects too:

1)    You can buy more shoes. Smoking is expensive and instead of acquiring yellow teeth you can acquire some sexy heels (yellow heels if you’re so inclined)

2)    Hitting on boys that don’t smoke is more fun – yes, we’ve all been there – you want a cigarette but he doesn’t smoke and as he’s talking to you, you tune out of what he’s saying and into the ‘should you or shouldn’t you light up’ internal debate.

3)    Your skin DOES look better. I swear, I went from grey to glowing in a week!

4)  Nicotine stains become a thing of the past and you can get that Colgate smile back.

5)    Less wrinkles to worry about around your mouth cause you are no longer sucking on said ciggies all day long.

6)    Oh and the dying of cancer thing (NOT belittling this, but my shallow stupid brain did not use this really good reason as often as the wrinkle thing – Whatever gets you through!)

There are also a few things you can do to make this process a little less sucky, here are some of the ways that I got through:

1)    Quit with a friend. Yes there’s the whole moral support thing, but there's also the whole ‘ I will not cave before you’ competitive thing that really worked for me.

2)    Set a date and cut down before u quit

3)    Don’t use quitting aids – cold turkey baby! Forget the patches and the gum, they just feed the addiction and for crying out loud please do not use those electronic cigarettes. It’s tough enough to quit without looking like a total chop in the process!

4)    Quit when you are going away the change of scenery works wonders

5)    Don’t tell too many people. Or, alternatively, ask people not to ask you how it’s going – its too much pressure and pressure makes you want to smoke. It also means you won’t be reminded that you quit during that ONE moment in the long, painful, smoke-free day that you weren’t thinking about it.

Good luck, stay strong and remember, you’ll look younger, live longer and you won’t be smelly any more.

XO

Some of the comments after I posted yesterday!