How I Gave Up Smoking

I decided that I was sick of smoking. It was becoming far too expensive and was not doing my health any good, so it was time to give it up. I knew I would not be able to go cold turkey from previous experience, so I decided the best way to go about it was to gradually cut down on how many cigarettes I smoked a day until I could go without them. I was roughly smoking about 30 to 35 a day. I also needed to get rid of the bad habits I had with smoking too, to help me cut down.

The bad habits - lighting a cigarette up in bed as soon as I opened my eyes in the morning or during the night, having a cigarette every time I had a cup of coffee and having a cigarette every time I had something to eat.

The first step I made was to get rid of the ashtray next to my bed and leave my cigarettes in another room, so that I could not have one as soon as I opened my eyes. If I wanted one, I would have to get out of bed to get them, so I found this habit very easy to break as I couldn't be bothered getting out of bed to get them, so I would just wait until I got up. The next step, was, as I always had to have a cigarette every time I had a cup of coffee, was to learn to drink a cup without a cigarette. I would only have to have a sip or two before I would be lighting up, so I started making myself finish a cup before I lit up. As it was only a habit, it was not that hard to do, so it wasn't very long before I could drink a cuppa without a cigarette and could even wait for awhile after the coffee before lighting up. I also had to have a cigarette every time I ate something, even if it was only a couple of spoonfuls of something. The minute I finished the last mouthful, I would light up, so I started making myself wait for about 5 minutes after I had finished before I had a cigarette and gradually without realising it, I could go longer and longer after eating without a cigarette.

OK. THAT'S THE EASY PART .

Now it's time to cut down. Making myself go a certain amount of time between each cigarettes seemed like a good way of helping me to cut down and helped me keep a check on how many I had a day. I needed to be realistic though. It was no good making it too hard or I would give up, so I made it relatively easy at first. Fifteen minutes to start with, between each cigarette before I could have one, gradually increasing the time between each one once I became used to going that amount of time without a cigarette. It was fairly hard at times and also got quite monotonous watching the time continuously. Some minutes seemed to drag at times when I was hanging out for a cigarette. Persistence and determination was needed to keep going on with it. I few times I cheated and had a cigarette sooner than I was supposed to, but overall I stuck to the times I was meant to and gradually it became easier and easier to go longer and longer between cigarettes. Eventually I found I was counting the hours between cigarettes and spreading it out so that I would only be smoking 5 a day. There was a few days when I might have had a couple of extra ones, depending on what sort of day I had, but that was OK, as long as I stuck to 5 a day as much as possible. For awhile I was quite happy to smoke 5 a day, but gradually cut that down to 3, then 2, then none. It has now been just over 2 years since I quit and I am glad that I did. Food taste better, I am fitter, healthy, have more energy and more money in my pocket. They say you never get over smoking and they are right because there are times when I miss it and occasionally feel like a cigarette and I know I could so easily take it up again, but I won't because I DON'T WANT TO BECOME ADDICTED TO SMOKING EVER AGAIN.

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