Thursday, April 30, 2009

How Addicted Am I?

I just filled out the 3rd and final questionnaire over at QuitNet, titled "How Addicted Are You?" In order to find out how addicted you are to nicotine, the questionnaire uses the Fagerstrom test. According to QuitNet, "the Fagerstrom test is a rough estimate of your physiological addiction to nicotine. It can give you an idea of where you stand in relationship to other smokers in terms of how physically dependent you are on the active drug in tobacco."

Here are my results:

Fagerstrom Addiction Questionniare

The Fagerstrom test is a rough estimate of your physiological addiction to nicotine. It can give you an idea of where you stand in relationship to other smokers in terms of how physically dependent you are on the active drug in tobacco.

Your score was 50% (5/10 points) on the questionairre.

What does this mean?
Your score on this questionnaire was in the average range. This means that you are likely to have some difficulty with physical withdrawal symptoms when you quit, but no more than most other people.

Okay, so that does not sound too bad. I will go through some withdrawal, which is to be expected. I am hoping that by working through my plan, I can minimize the withdrawal symptoms. I guess we will have to wait and see what happens.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

If Today Was Your Last Day

Have you ever noticed that when you are consciously thinking about something, you see it everywhere? For example, lets say you went out looking at cars and you found one you particularly liked. Over the next several days you notice that make and model of car everywhere. But prior to you looking at the car, you probably didn't notice them.

Now that I am consciously thinking about quitting smoking, things that I had not previously associated with smoking I am starting to associate with smoking. On the way home from work tonight I was listening to a song by Nickelback called "If Today Was Your Last Day". I had heard the song a few time before I started quitting smoking, but now that I am in the process of quitting, the words have a different meaning. I won't post all of the lyrics here, but here is the first verse and my thoughts about some of the lines in the verse:

My best friend gave me the best advice
He said each days a gift and not a given right
Leave no stone unturned
Leave your fears behind
And try to take the path less traveled by
That first step you take is the longest stride

"Each day is a gift and not a given right"
We never know how long we are going to be here on Earth. Every day is special. So why am I shaving time off of my life by smoking? If I were laying on my death bed and was still a smoker, I would be kicking myself in the ass for not quitting. I would be telling myself something like 'If only I had quit 20 years ago I would be able to stay here on Earth with my beautiful wife and kids. But because I let the addiction consume my life I must say goodbye.'

"Leave no stone unturned"
I need to do whatever it takes to overcome this addiction.

"Leave your fears behind"
Like most smokers who are thinking about quitting, I am scared. Scared that I will not be able to quit. Scared that I will become irritable as I go through withdrawal and take my aggression out on people that I care about. Scared about what life will be like as a non-smoker. Scared of a lot of things. And I can't be afraid to ask for help if I need it.

"That first step you take is the longest stride"
The first step is always the hardest. I have been thinking about trying to quit again for months. Thinking is the easy part. There is nothing easy about actually starting the process of quitting. I know this will be a long journey, but I hope that as the days go by, it gets a little easier.

The entire song is good and has really made me think about life and how how we cannot rewind the clock. There is no going back. Once your clock runs out, that's it. You can't replace the batteries.

I think I am going to make this song my Quit Smoking Anthem. Every time I am having a hard time quitting or thinking of giving up the fight or want to remind myself why I am doing this, I will play it.

If you want to hear the song, here it is with the lyrics. I used to have the actual music video, but it was pulled from youtube for some reason. Probably copyright issues.

SmokeSmart Review


In my previous post, "My Quit Smoking Plan", I mentioned that I was going to use Nic-Out filters and SmokeSmart during Phase 1 to slowly reduce the amount of nicotine entering my body. Since I have already written a review of the Nic-Out filters, I will not go into that here. If you missed that review, you can read it by clicking HERE. I do, however, want to tell you about SmokeSmart.

Honeslty, I don't really know how to describe SmokeSmart. I guess the best way to describe it is that SmokeSmart is a device that allows you to slowly reduce the amount of nicotine, tar, and carbon monoxide that you inhale from your cigarettes. It does this by putting little perforations into the filter of a cigarette. It is really easy to use. All you have to do is insert the filter end of a cigarette into the hole in SmokeSmart and squeeze. That's it.

How does SmokeSmart actually work at removing the nictotine, tar, and carbon monoxide for a cigarette? I found the following information at quitsmoking.com:

SmokeSmart creates ultra fine perforations in the filter or tip end of any brand of cigarette. When you puff on a cigarette processed with SmokeSmart, the perforations allow cool air to enter the cigarette and combine with the hot gases from the burning tobacco. The blending of hot and cool air causes the "condensation" of harmful cigarette gases, trapping tar, nicotine, carbon monoxide and TPM-Total Particulate Matter (hundreds of dangerous chemicals in cigarette smoke) before they can enter your mouth or lungs. (Courtesy of quitsmoking.com)

So how much does SmokeSmart reduce the tar, nicotine, and carbon monoxide of a cigarette? It all depends on how many perforations you put into the filter.
  • 1 perforation reduces nicotine by 20%, tar by 30%, and carbon monoxide by 36%
  • 2 perforations reduce nicotine by 28%, tar by 50%, and carbon monoxide by 58%
  • 3 perforations reduce nicotine by 53%, tar by 63%, and carbon monoxide by 71%
  • 4 perforations reduce nicotine by 62%, tar by 72%, and carbon monoxide by 80%
Unfortunately, I do not have any equipment to verify these claims, but I have been using SmokeSmart for a couple of weeks now and I have noticed that I feel like I need a cigarette more often. I feel as if my "nicotine fix" wears off quicker. I just have to make sure that I do not give into the craving right away. I also feel like I am not inhaling all of the normal "crap" that is in cigarettes. When I first start using it I noticed that it almost felt like I was not smoking at all. Have you ever smoked a "regular" cigarette and then switched to a "light" cigarette. It kind of felt like that, which I don't think that that is a bad thing. It makes me feel like I am doing something good. Sure, I am still smoking, but I am making steps on becoming a non-smoker. I started out with 1 perforation, and am now using 2 perforations. I will probably continue with 2 perforations for another week or so and then start smoking with 3 perforations.

The cost of SmokeSmart is only $5.95 over at QuitSmoking.com, so it might be a worthy addition to your quit smoking arsenal.

Questions or comments are gladly accepted.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

My Quit Smoking Plan

"He who fails to plan, plans to fail."

I am not sure who said that, but there is a lot of truth in it. If you don't have a plan, you are going to fail. Imagine trying to build a house without a plan. Or go through school without a plan. What would the results be? Probably not very good. The house would probably collapse on top of you, and you would probably never finish your education.

If you have ever tried to quit smoking, you know that it is a HUGE undertaking. Although some smokers are able to wake up one morning and decide they will never smoke again, most of us simply cannot do that. We need to have a plan. We need to figure out how we are going to overcome nicotine addiction, what methods we intend on using, and what support systems we are going to use.

To me, my smoking is 2 things. It is an addiction, and it is a habit. I am addicted to nicotine, but I also find myself smoking out of habit. When I started thinking about quitting again, I looked back at my previous attempts at quitting and tried to figure out why I failed. It occurred to me that in all of my previous attempts, I focused on the addiction and not the habit. Let me explain. In one of my previous attempts at quitting, I used the nicotine patch. A nicotine patch provides a steady, controlled dose of nicotine throughout the day, thereby reducing the effects of nicotine withdrawal. Patch strength is reduced over time, which weans the smoker off of nicotine gradually. The patch helps people quit smoking by gradually reducing the amount of nicotine that enters the body. So, in essence, the patch fights the addiction, but really does nothing for the habit. The habit is going for a cigarette even though you are not craving one. For example, every morning when I wake up one of the first things I do is go out for a cigarette. I don't even have to think about it. It is like second nature. When I get to work, I have a cigarette while I am walking from my car to work. Again, I don't always feel like I 'need' a cigarette. It is just habit. And this continues throughout the day. Does that make sense? Do you see how addiction and habit are 2 different things? Since I feel that I have to fight both the nicotine addiction and the smoking habit in order to become a non-smoker, I have come up with a plan. There are 2 phases in this plan.

Phase 1
In Phase 1 of my plan, I will work on the addiction. During this phase, I will decrease my body's dependence on nicotine. I will use a combination of Nic-Out filters and a device called SmokeSmart. I have reviewed Nic-Out in a previous post. You can see the review by clicking HERE. I will review SmokeSmart in the near future. Both Nic-Out and SmokeSmart reduce the tar and nicotine in cigarettes. I will slowly wean by body off of nicotine. When I feel that I have gotten my nicotine intake to a low enough level, I will move on to Phase 2.

Phase 2
In Phase 2 I will work on the habit part of my smoking. When I am at work, I currently have a cigarette break every 2 hours. During this phase I will slowly increase the time span between cigarettes. Instead of every 2 hours, I will have a cigarette ever 2 hours and 15 minutes, then every 2 hours and 30 minutes, and so on. There are a few habitual cigarettes that are going to be hard to change...like the 1st cigarette of the day, and the last cigarette of the day. I have not totally figured out how to deal with those yet. But I figure if I start with the habit cigarettes that are easy first, then the harder ones might not be as hard when I get around to working on them.

So there you have it. I have 2 things to work on in order to give up smoking, and I have a plan that will work on each of those things individually. There is 1 more thing that my plan needs...my quit date. I originally though that August 1st, 2009 would be a good date to shoot for. It was far enough into the future that I would not have to rush my plan and still give me a month until the baby is born. But someone at QuitNet talked me out of it. They thought that quitting smoking and then have a baby soon after would be too stressful. So I have changed my quit date to July 4th, 2009. It may seem that July 4th is too far into the future, and maybe it is. But like I said earlier, I do not want to rush this quit. I want to take it slow and easy. Besides, I like the thought of quitting on Independence Day.

Wish me luck!

Monday, April 27, 2009

20 Quick Tips to Help You Quit Smoking

20 Quick Tips to Help You Quit Smoking

By Fred H. Kelley

© Copyright 1999 Fred H. Kelley

Web: http://www.quitsmoking.com
Phone: 770-346-9222
Fax: 770-475-5007
Mail: 3675 Glennvale Ct
Cumming, GA 30041

See the end of this report for reprint information.

1. Believe in yourself. Believe that you can quit. Think about
some of the most difficult things you have done in your life and
realize that you have the guts and determination to quit
smoking. It's up to you.

2. After reading this list, sit down and write your own list,
customized to your personality and way of doing things. Create
you own plan for quitting.

3. Write down why you want to quit (the benefits of quitting):
live longer, feel better, for your family, save money, smell
better, find a mate more easily, etc. You know what's bad about
smoking and you know what you'll get by quitting. Put it on
paper and read it daily.

4. Ask your family and friends to support your decision to quit.
Ask them to be completely supportive and non-judgmental. Let
them know ahead of time that you will probably be irritable and
even irrational while you withdraw from your smoking habit.

5. Set a quit date. Decide what day you will extinguish your
cigarettes forever. Write it down. Plan for it. Prepare your
mind for the "first day of the rest of your life". You might
even hold a small ceremony when you smoke you last cigarette, or
on the morning of the quit date.

6. Talk with your doctor about quitting. Support and guidance
from a physician is a proven way to better your chances to quit.

7. Begin an exercise program. Exercise is simply incompatible
with smoking. Exercise relieves stress and helps your body
recover from years of damage from cigarettes. If necessary,
start slow, with a short walk once or twice per day. Build up to
30 to 40 minutes of rigorous activity, 3 or 4 times per week.
Consult your physician before beginning any exercise program.

8. Do some deep breathing each day for 3 to 5 minutes. Breathe
in through your nose very slowly, hold the breath for a few
seconds, and exhale very slowly through your mouth. Try doing
your breathing with your eyes closed and go to step 9.

9. Visualize your way to becoming a non-smoker. While doing your
deep breathing in step 8, you can close your eyes and begin to
imagine yourself as a non-smoker. See yourself enjoying your
exercise in step 7. See yourself turning down a cigarette that
someone offers you. See yourself throwing all your cigarettes
away, and winning a gold medal for doing so. Develop your own
creative visualizations. Visualization works.

10. Cut back on cigarettes gradually (if you cut back gradually,
be sure to set a quit date on which you WILL quit). Ways to cut
back gradually include: plan how many cigarettes you will smoke
each day until your quit date, making the number you smoke
smaller each day; buy only one pack at a time; change brands so
you don't enjoy smoking as much; give your cigarettes to someone
else, so that you have to ask for them each time you want to
smoke.

11. Quit smoking "cold turkey". Many smokers find that the only
way they can truly quit once and for all is to just quit
abruptly without trying to slowly taper off. Find the method
that works best for you: gradually quitting or cold turkey. If
one way doesn't work do the other.

12. Find another smoker who is trying to quit, and help each
other with positive words and by lending an ear when quitting
becomes difficult. Visit this Bulletin Board and this Chat Room
to find a "quit buddy."

13. Have your teeth cleaned. Enjoy the way your teeth look and
feel and plan to keep them that way.

14. After you quit, plan to celebrate the milestones in your
journey to becoming a non-smoker. After two weeks of being
smoke-free, see a movie. After a month, go to a fancy restaurant
(be sure to sit in the non-smoking section). After three months,
go for a long weekend to a favorite get-away. After six months,
buy yourself something frivolous. After a year, have a party for
yourself. Invite your family and friends to your "birthday"
party and celebrate your new chance at a long, healthy life.

15. Drink lots of water. Water is good for you anyway, and most
people don't get enough. It will help flush the nicotine and
other chemicals out of your body, plus it can help reduce
cravings by fulfilling the "oral desires" that you may have.

16. Learn what triggers your desire for a cigarette, such as
stress, the end of a meal, arrival at work, entering a bar, etc.
Avoid these triggers or if that's impossible, plan alternative
ways to deal with the triggers.

17. Find something to hold in your hand and mouth, to replace
cigarettes. Consider drinking straws or you might try an
artificial cigarette called E-Z Quit found here:
http://www.quitsmoking.com/ezquit.htm

18. Write yourself an inspirational song or poem about quitting,
cigarettes, and what it means to you to quit. Read it daily.

19. Keep a picture of your family or someone very important to
you with you at all times. On a piece of paper, write the words
"I'm quitting for myself and for you (or "them")". Tape your
written message to the picture. Whenever you have the urge to
smoke, look at the picture and read the message.

20. Whenever you have a craving for a cigarette, instead of
lighting up, write down your feelings or whatever is on your
mind. Keep this "journal" with you at all times.

Good luck in your efforts to quit smoking. It's worth it!

Permission to reprint or reproduce this article is granted as long as the following conditions are met:

  1. No changes are made to the article without permission of the author.
  2. Whenever possible, please notify the author of any reprints;
  3. The following byline must be included with the article:
** Article © Copyright Fred Kelley of QuitSmoking.com. Visit the web site at http://www.quitsmoking.com for great information and products designed to help you quit smoking.

Why Do I Smoke?

Before you can quit smoking, or any habit, for that matter, you need to figure out why you do it. Over at QuitNet, I took the 2nd of 3 questionnaires that they have in the Expert Support area of the site. The questionnaire is titled "Why do you smoke?"

Here are my results:

Why Do You Smoke?
To understand your smoking habit, you must first learn what kind of smoker you are. There are generally six traits that describe many people's smoking:

  • Stimulation
  • Handling
  • Pleasure
  • Crutch
  • Craving
  • Habit

Your smoking may fit into any one or a combination of these categories. This test will help you identify what type of smoker you are and give you possible strategies for quitting smoking.

Relaxation
You scored high (73%) as a Pleasure/Relaxation smoker. You may use smoking as a reward to sit down and relax. You enjoy a cigarette after a good meal or in social situations, like a party. For you, alternatives to smoking may include taking a walk after eating or finding other activities that give you pleasure. At parties, try to drink non-alcoholic drinks. Alcohol tends to reduce your willpower for staying off cigarettes. 76% of QuitNet users are Relaxation smokers.

Crutch
You scored high (73%) as a Crutch/Tension smoker. You tend to use cigarettes as a crutch in moments of stress or discomfort. You may smoke when you are nervous, worried or angry. All these feeling represent some kind of tension. For you to quit smoking, you need to find a release for that tension. Try deep breathing, relaxation or physical exercises to help reduce your stress. 80% of QuitNet users are Crutch smokers.

Craving
You scored high (73%) as a Craving smoker. You often feel a 'hunger' for a cigarette. This is a physiological addiction. You crave the nicotine. Each cigarette you have is a stimulus for the next. Drink plenty of water, it may help to lessen some of the physical withdrawal symptoms. 72% of QuitNet users are Craving smokers.

Remember

There are no easy solutions when it comes to quitting smoking. This program merely offers suggestions to help you get started. The rest is up to you! Find out what methods work for you and stick to them. Do it for yourself! Do it for your health!

So, it looks like I have to work on 3 things to overcome my addiction to cigarettes...the cravings, using cigarettes to relax, and using cigarettes as a crutch.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Nic-Out Filter Review


A week or so ago I mentioned that I purchased a few things from QuitSmoking.com to help me quit smoking. One of those items was Nic-Out. Nic-Out is a device that fits on the filter end of a cigarette. It acts as an additional filter for your cigarettes. But what this filter does is simply amazing. Here are a few of the company's claims:
  • Nic-Out cigarette filters remove over 90% of the tar and nicotine from your cigarette.
  • Does not affect cigarette taste or temperature
  • One pack of Nic-Out is good for 150 regular or 300 light cigarettes
  • Turns 1 pack into 2 cigarettes
  • The clear Nic-Out filters let you see exactly what is being removed from your very first cigarette.
Now, I am not a scientist and do not have access to any scientific equipment, so I cannot verify the claim that the filters remove 90% of the tar and nicotine, but after using a few of these filters, I believe that they do remove some "crap" from cigarettes.

Nic-Out is sold in boxes of 30 filters. The box is the size of a pack of cigarettes. If you purchase them from QuitSmoking.com, the cost is $6.50 per box if you purchase 1 box. If you purchase more than 1 box, the cost per box decreases. When you pull a fresh filter out of the package, it looks like this:

There is nothing fancy about the filter. It is clear with a yellow filtering device in the middle. There is a round end that fits around the filter of your cigarette, and the opposite end goes in your mouth. You smoke a cigarette as you normally would. I did not notice any difference in the taste of my cigarettes. Okay, so do you want to see what happens after you smoke a cigarette with a Nic-Out filter?

This is the filter after 1 "Light" cigarette:
Notice the dark area around the middle of the filter. I am not sure exactly what that is, so I will just call it "crap". Whatever it is, without the Nic-Out filter, it would have made its way into my throat and lungs.

Here is the filter after 5 "Light" cigarettes:
More "crap" that did not make it into my lungs!

And here is the filter after 10 "Light" cigarettes:
Pretty gross, huh? That is after only 10 cigarettes. A 1/2 a pack! Just imagine the build up of that crap in your lungs after many years of smoking! Does that make you want to quit? It has given me more incentive to quit, that's for sure!

Like I said earlier, I am unable to prove their claims that Nic-Out removes 90% of the tar and nicotine from cigarettes, but after using the filters, I beleive they remove something. And something is better than nothing!

One last note. They say that 1 box is good for 150 regular cigarettes or 300 light cigarettes. That means that 1 filter can be used for up to 5 regular cigarettes and 10 light cigarettes. I used light cigarettes and I have to say that 10 light cigarettes is the max. After 8 or 9 cigarettes, the filter starts tasting like like an old cigarette. Have you ever smoke part of a cigarette, put it out in an ashtray and went back later to finish smoking it? It kinda tastes like that...that old and stale cigarette taste.

Overall, I was impressed with the filter. I was skeptical at first, but after seeing the "crap" build up in the filter with each cigarette, I think that Nic-Out is a good product. I like the fact that you can actually see the "crap" getting trapped in the filter. I would recommend it to anyone who is thinking about quitting smoking.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

How Ready Am I?

In my last post, I discussed QuitNet, and their vast array of support available for people who want to quit smoking. Under the Expert Support section at QuitNet there are Quitting Tools, which are 3 questionnaires that you can fill out. I just filled out the first one, which is called "How Ready Are You?"

So how ready am I? Here is my result:

Congratulations!
It sounds as if you are making good progress towards quitting and staying quit. Make sure that you work your way through the resources available on the QuitNet, as well as talking to other users about the quitting process!

Where You're At
There are many ways of looking at where people are in the quitting process. The QuitNet uses a model called the "Stages of Change" which breaks people up into very rough groups

  • people thinking about quitting
  • people ready to quit
  • people who are currently quitting
  • people who have quit and are concentrating on staying "smoke-free."

We have placed you in the group of people that are in the process of quitting. The QuitNet can help you by giving you some ideas on the best ways to make it through the withdrawal symptoms and providing customized tips on staying away from cigarettes permanently.

QuitNet.com

Are you trying to quit smoking? Do you need some extra support? Are you looking for people that have gone through (and are going through) the process of quitting smoking? If so, I recommend you check out QuitNet. The site is full of support, news, facts, and resources. There are so many valuable things at QuitNet, that I won't even attempt to list them all here. But here is a brief list of some things that I find helpful:

  1. The large community of people that are either in the process of trying to quit or have quit and are there to help others quit.
  2. The Quitting Tools, which are 3 questionnaires that will help you assess "How Ready Are You", "What Makes You Smoke", and "How Addicted Are You".
  3. The Resources section which includes a Quitting Guide, and a directory of Smoking Cessation Programs that are in your area.
As I said earlier, that is only a brief list. The support available at QuitNet.com is virtually endless. If you are serious about quitting the habit (or even if you are just thinking about it), you should check it out.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

13 Best Quit-Smoking Tips Ever

I was in the process of putting together some information for a blog post when I came across a nice article at WebMD.com. It is a slideshow called "13 Best Quit-Smoking Tips Ever". The slideshow lists 1 tip on each slide along with additional info about each tip. Although I won't post the additional information here, I thought I would list the tips. To view the slideshow, click HERE.
  1. Know why you want to quit.
  2. Don't go cold turkey.
  3. Try nicotine-replacement therapy.
  4. Ask about prescription pills.
  5. Don't go it alone.
  6. Manage stress.
  7. Avoid alcohol and other triggers.
  8. Clean house.
  9. Try and try again.
  10. Get moving.
  11. Eat fruit and veggies.
  12. Choose your reward.
  13. Do it for your health.

Tips to Quit Smoking

I found this video on youtube and thought I would pass it on. A couple of good tips if you are trying to quit smoking...

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

How Do I Plan on Quitting?

I have tried to quit numerous times in the past, all of which have been unsuccessful. There have been 2 times that I can remember that I have tried quitting by using the patch. I tried nicotine gum until I had a pretty bad allergic reaction where my throat started closing up. I have tried going cold turkey, but that did not last too long due to my extreme irritability. I even tried hypnosis, which actually worked for a while. But after all of my attempts at quitting, I eventually found my way back to my dear old friend, the cigarette.

I believe it was Albert Einstein who said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Since all of my previous attempts at quitting have failed, I needed to find another way. It occurred to me that maybe I was going about quitting all wrong. There are 2 parts to smoking...addiction and habit. All of my previous attempts have gone after the addiction and focused on removing my bodies dependence on nicotine. But none of them focused on the habitual part of smoking...the act of putting a cigarette in my mouth and the times of day I would smoke. So this time around I am going to try a 2 tiered approach. I will first focus on reducing the amount of nicotine I put into my body and then I will work on altering the times I reach for a cigarette during the day.

I remembered that years ago that I had found some filters at Walgreens that were supposed to remove a good amount of tar and nicotine from cigarettes. Unfortunately, Walgreens no longer carries those filters. The only stop smoking aids that Walgreens currently carries are the patch, the gum, and lozenges. So I tried the pharmacy at our grocery store and they only had the patch and the gum. So I turned to the Internet to try to track these things down. I finally found them at quitsmoking.com, along with several other similar products. I purchased the filters (Aquafilters), along with Nic-Out filters and SmokeSmart. In later articles, I will review each of these items and let you know how they work for me.

If you are considering quitting the habit, I recommend that you check out quitsmoking.com. You can either click the link or click the banner in the upper lefthand corner of my blog page. They have a vast array of quit smoking aids, and information to help you quit. And there shipping is pretty quick, too.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

My Reasons for Quitting

So why do I want to quit? Everyone has their own reasons to quit smoking. For me, there is 1 main reason...we are expecting our first child in September. Since I started smoking because my father smoked, I do not want to make the same mistake. Of course there are other reasons that I want to quit smoking...my health, my wife's health (even though I do not smoke around her), and the increasing cost of smoking. But the main reason for me quitting is our son. I don't want him to become a smoker because his dad was. I don't want his health to suffer because of me. I want to be there to watch him grow up, graduate high school, graduate college, get married, and start a family of his own.

Smoking has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. Cigarettes have become kinda like an old friend. They were there for me in both the good times and bad. But the time has come that I need to say goodbye. I know it is going to be a hard and long goodbye, but it has to be done.

In my next post, I will share my methods of quitting.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Good Reasons to Quit Smoking: Part 1

My Smoking History

I started smoking when I was about 12. I am 33 now, so I have been smoking for 22 years. My father has smoked for as long as I can remember. He used to keep his cigarettes in the fridge, so I had easy access to them. (I know that some of you are going to ask why he kept them in the fridge…apparently it kept them fresher longer. I don’t know. When I started buying my own cigarettes, I never kept them in the fridge.) Anyway, every so often I would steal a pack from my dad’s carton in the fridge. Like many young smokers, I started smoking because “it was cool”. It was as simple as that, I wanted to be cool. And I thought I was.

I remember when I first started smoking. I had no idea how to inhale. I would just suck the smoke into my mouth and blow it back out again. I didn’t inhale the smoke into my lungs and back out…just into my mouth and back out. I remember watching other people smoke and noticed that some of them would exhale smoke out of their noses. I had to figure out how to do that. So, I realized that if I swallowed the smoke, I could make it come out my nose! Laugh if you want, but it worked. I don’t know how, but I eventually learned how to in inhale and exhale like a real smoker.

By the time the “coolness” of being a smoker wore off, it was too late. I was addicted. Of course, I did not want to admit it. I kept telling myself that I could quit whenever I wanted, but somehow that time to quit never showed itself. So as the years passed, my body became more and more addicted. It was as if my body did not function correctly if it did not have just the right amount of nicotine in it. The more I smoked the more nicotine my body “craved”. Right now I would call my smoking a habitual addiction. I have cigarettes like clockwork. I have to have a cigarette first thing in the morning; I have another one when I get to work; I have a cigarette every 2 hours when I am at work; I have one when I am leaving work; I have one after dinner; I will have 1 or 2 during the evening; and I can’t forget the 1 before I go to bed. So in order for me to actually quit smoking, I need to break some of my smoking habits AND slowly lessen the amount of nicotine my body gets.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Welcome to My Quit Smoking Blog

Hello and welcome. You might be asking yourself why blog about quitting smoking. Why not blog about it?

There are 2 things I want to accomplish with writing about my journey to becoming a non-smoker. #1, I am hoping that I can get a little encouragement and advice from people who have already taken this journey. And #2, maybe I can help someone else quit smoking at the same time.

If you have successfully quit the habit, I congratulate you. Please feel free to leave me comments about what methods you used, or any advice you may have.

And if you are thinking about quitting, I wish you the best of luck. I know it is not easy. If it was easy, everyone would quit! If you are interested in sharing this journey with me, please let me know. Climbing a mountain as a team will be a lot easier than doing it alone!

In my next post I will discuss my history of smoking, the reasons I want to quit, and the methods I plan on using to help me quit. Scratch that. Maybe I should have 1 post for each of those things to make the posts shorter and easier to read.