Quit Smoking – I Make it to Day Three Smoke Free!
I Quit Smoking 3 Days Ago!
Three days on and how is it going?
Well, so far I have not killed anyone, although it has been close a couple of times. I went for a walk yesterday (day 2) and while in the pub after the walk with a beer in front of me I would have walked over burning coals to get to a tobacconists. (Un)-Fortunately, there was not one in the village so the soles of my feet are unscathed.
The most surprising thing as I quit smoking is that I do not miss the first cigarette of the day. When I decided to quit smoking I expected my first waking moments to be among the hardest but not at all. The moments that are the hardest are the unexpected ones. The ones while I am cooking and would normally nip out of the kitchen for a drag while something is simmering. The ones when I am listening to the radio and one programme ends and there is the chat until the next one starts. When I am listening to music. When reading and the urge comes unexpected and strident.
In other words, all the bloody time without any specific triggers. How can you prepare yourself for that? All you can do is face it head on, and fall back on all those coping strategies that you have devised. Trouble is, they do not really work. What works is not smoking, just that. Not smoking until the craving subsides. Not listening to the “one will not hurt” voice that nags away at you.
There is one thing that is helping me quit smoking more than I expected and that is the NHS quit smoking web site.
The way to quit smoking? Not smoking, that’s all. It is also the hardest thing that you will ever do, sometimes, and the easiest thing that you will ever do at other times. The trick is to reduce the instances of the first and increase the instances of the latter. The only way to do that is by keeping on quitting, every day.
Click image to discover some benefits of not smoking.
Phil’s British Heart Foundation Donation – you know it makes sense
