The thought of quitting smoking is what scares most smokers. The finality of it is overwhelming ala “I’m never going to smoke again”. That’s a long time. The rest of your life is a long, long time. The real trick, I found, is to take that huge gap of time and break it down into manageable segments.
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While I might not have had a cigarette in nearly 6 weeks, I’m still eye the “ban it everywhere” zealots with a great deal of uneasieness. The slippery slope of “good of the public” has makes me wonder what they’ll come for next. At one time, the Nazi party had a very popular public health campaign, and the party as a whole was very anti smoking. For some reason, the American Cancer Society and various public health czars never include this in its list of effective campaigns.
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Isn’t that just sooooo precious and clever. Absolutely darling. The anti-smoking message of this taskbar is right on point.
Today is my official “one month smober” day. I feel like I should be given a token key chain or something, and have people applaud me in a meeting. Lately though, I’ve wanted a damn cigarette. Business is slow, and my bills are higher, so I have reduced cash flow with increased outflow. I hate that. There are times when I find myself subconciously patting my pocket for a pack of smokes. Other than that, I’m starting to feel pretty good.
I’ve been excercising in the mornings before I sit my ass down at the computer, I’ve been able to taste food better, and I seem to have more focus on my many, many projects.
Today is the Great American Smokeout. Whoopty-friggin-do.. As a quitter, I think providing encouragement to other people who express interest in quitting is good, however, I don’t agree with the villifying tactics and the numerous quitting tips provided by organization “experts” who have obviously never been smokers.
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I’m coming up on my one month smoke free anniversery (the 17th of November). Already, my initial coping habits (sunflower seeds, mochas, straw chewing, incessant candy snacking) have subsided. The only time I desire to have a cigarette is when I’m out drinking, and that usually subsides: Every time I want to smoke, I have another drink. Plus my hangovers are incredibly less severe.
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I’ve heard that as a rule of thumb, it takes a good 3 weeks to form a habit, and just about as long to break it. I really don’t think a habit is “broken” until you no longer have to think about restraining yourself from it. Likewise, breaking doesn’t mean a good solid beating a dead horse. There is no need to try and whip the shit out of it, once something is broken, it’s hard to fix.
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I alone hold the secret to quitting smoking: continue all your other bad habits with increasing regularity. I decided to do a nice solo renegade run last night, stumbling all over Northwest Portland, going from bar to bar to bar without smoking a single cigarette.
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Amy Jenniges from the Portland Mercury has given me a double dose of supreme love. First in the form of a flattering interview, then she posts on BlogTown something that rings of “has the whole world gone mad, Kyle quit smoking!??!??” (with lots of punctuation to indicat utter shock as our world is turned upside down).
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Yesterday was a toughy for some reason, probably my worst smoke free day since day #2. I don’t know if was the fact that I stayed in my windowless office for nearly 6 hours without a hint of daylight, only to come out to find Portland’s gutters overflowing, but I just wanted to smoke like a muthafucka, especially after heading to Shanrock’s Trivia at La Merde.
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