Being relatively smoke-free for more than six months now I’m here to tell you about the immense benefits of not smoking and how to quit smoking in less than one minute. There’s simply too much material to cover in one post so we’ll have a 3-4 part series about cigarettes, their dangers and how to quit. Today let’s go through some of my personal history. Next we’ll talk about the pros and cons of smoking, focusing on health, economics, and time. Finally, we’ll discuss how to quit smoking in less than one minute. If you’re not subscribed to the RSS feed, now would be a good time to subscribe!
For the first 18 years of my life I never smoked a cigarette and was very adamant about the dangers of smoking and trying to get people around me to quit. When I was a little kid there was one or two incidents where I threw a cup of water at my step-father while he was smoking. Needless to say I quickly figured out this was not a very good strategy! I’d also see my mom smoking on very rare occasions and would take the cigarette from her and threaten that I’d start smoking it if she didn’t put it out. So, you can see I was certainly not a smoker, knew the dangers and publicly promoted not smoking.
Alas, a few months into my freshman semester at the University of Southern California, I got a little too drunk and ended up smoking a cigarette and enjoying it. Though I smoked on only very rare occasions for a few months, eventually I degraded to being a pack a day smoker. The low point came that summer, while working for my step-dad as a construction worker, I smoked nearly two packs a day!
The next school year, I incidentally transferred to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, home of Tobacco Road. Though I didn’t repeat the mistakes of smoking two packs a day I still smoked way too much. Even as a poor college student, I could easily find ways to scrounge up the $2-$2.25 for a pack of smokes. Yup, they are dirt-cheap there as much of America’s tobacco is grown in the region.
So my drunken slip turned into a habit and six years later at the age of 24 I was still smoking nearly a pack a day. At this point though my desire to quit was growing exponentially every day. A few incidents pushed me past the tipping point. In January of this year I quit smoking cold turkey. I had one relapse, which I expected to happen, but it only served to further convince me that not smoking is clearly the right move. Seven months into my smoke-free existence and I’m wicked happy and healthy. Buying and riding a bicycle personally helped me remember to keep my lungs clear and over the course of this series we’ll discuss similar strategies for kicking the habit and staying clean. Remember to sign up for the RSS feed or e-mail updates to stay up to date.
Lookign forward to the rest of this series. My girlfriend is quitting as we speak and it’s getting tough. I sent this link over to her in hopes it would help. 🙂
Should have the second post up tomorrow so good timing. I’ve got a real simple but logical way to stop smoking so hopefully it does help.
The first few hours/days are the toughest so if she’s past the first 2-3 days just keep telling her each day it’s only going to get easier, and easier.
If she’s just quitting, cold turkey is the way to go. Otherwise she’s just transferring her addiction to something else instead of dealing with the issue.
I need to read a few articles like this. Respiratory Test tech showed me the numbers of most likely being disabled within ten years unless quit. That was a year ago. time’s running out.
Yeah, it’s always a good time to quit. Here’s a quick tip, don’t look at it as quitting but rather starting a new chapter in your life. Our society has a mentality that quitting is bad, that it’s giving up. So don’t quit smoking, start tomorrow as the first day of the rest of your non-smoking life!
Btw, Part 2 of my series is almost ready Duane and Justin and should be published within 1-2 hours. I had to take my bicycle into the shop today so I’m a little behind schedule!
That picture made my day! The only time i ever smoked in my life was when i was like 12 years old and when my mother found out i got grounded for 2 weeks straight so as you can guess, i haven’t touched a smoke since!
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Its the subtle inbtroduction of cigarettes that can be so tough. You’re not hooked, just the odd smoke when you really want one. Then suddenly one day you run out and its like your life is over and you think – ooops, it wasn’t meant to be like this! You then take years wondering what happened before finding the motivation to quit. But cold turkey, dude?! Kudos!!!
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Your mom did you a huge, huge favor Mr. Article as it’s really just a silly habit that drains your wallet and health with little to no benefit.
Your right Get Rid Of Man Boobs (haha, great name!). I never thought I’d be a smoker, even after I had my first cigarettes I thought it would only be a once in a while thing…and just like you said one day I woke up and realized I’d just dropped thousands of dolllars and years of my life for a very stupid habit.
Cold turkey actually seems a lot easier than trying to ween your way off by relying on other drugs, but to each his own! Also, not smoking is a great way to get rid of those man boobs as you begin to be more active and eat better too, which of course helps one’s physique tremendously!
The title of your write-up is itself an eye-opener for many who make excuses for not quitting smoking despite knowing that it is harming them. Inspiring and helping people in quitting smoking is a praise worthy social work.
wow what a collection fo information! do you have any more quit smoking stuff?
bad boy not smoking and then started at least you kicked it so good luck and great read.