Three years as a (non smoker?) ex-smoker
I thought I was never going to be able to say this: three years today I smoked my last cigarette.
If you are a smoker and you are willing to stop, please do everything you can
- now - to quit. The benefits start the minute you stop.
While there is no universal way of stopping, here is my 10 tips, based on what
has worked for me:
- set a date to stop;
- do not lose faith if at first you fail: I only managed not to smoke for a few hours on the date I'd set, but tried again the following day and it's been three years now;
- minimise temptation around you: I planned to stop the day my flatmate (a smoker) left on a three-week holiday;
- get rid of smoking paraphernalia around your house;
- wash all your clothes and soft furnishings; you probably do not notice it yet, but they stink;
- choose a relatively stress-free period - best not a holiday though (withdrawal symptoms might spoil it, and the stress of going back to work might prove too hard afterwards);
- your metabolism is going to slow down and you are likely to put on weight, so join a gym (or go swimming, or take long brisk daily walks, whatever suits you and your lifestyle) a few months before you plan to stop, so that when you quit it already is an ingrained habit;
- keep track of how much you are not spending after you stop. If you are able to afford it, put the money in a jar daily: if you are a twenty-a-day smoker you will have 35 pounds in it at the end of the week. Treat yourself to to some pricey pampering extravagance. No, that does not include Cuban cigars;
- for the first few weeks, try as much as you possibly can to avoid situations where you will be tempted to smoke; a few drinks in a smoky pub/club, and the strongest of resolves can falter;
- meet a non-smoker about three weeks before your stopping date, and fall
in love. I am sure the support I received from a just-met Dr B. (a strongly
anti-smoking non-smoker) helped me enormously. This is why I am treating him
to dinner and a play tomorrow night with part of the, ahem, 7,500 pounds I
have not blown off in my former thirty-a-day habit.
Come on, if I managed to stop, anyone can.