Smoking is a Slow death.

The true face of smoking is disease, death and horror - not the glamour and sophistication the pushers in the tobacco industry try to portray. - David Byrne 

Smoking has been part of my life for 25 years and I have quit for several months on a handful of different occasions but always ended up going back to smoking. Each time I picked up the habit again I was with friends who still smoked and the temptation was too strong. Well, I no longer have any friends that smoke…. at least none that I am around regularly.

Week One

As I write this, I am on the eve of being ‘smoke’ free for an entire week! I didn’t want to let anyone know I was trying again because every time I talked about it here, I failed but persistence has finally paid off.

Quit Together

My partner smokes but we had a talk about quitting and both knew how important it was for us to be in this together. We tried to quit many times over the last couple of years and we failed every time.

We would last 24 to 48 hours before running to the store in a frantic, anxiety driven moment of weakness to buy more cigarettes.

Timing

Were we just fed up with being smokers? YES
Did the large amount of money wasted hurt? YES
Had life been more calm when we succeeded? YES
Did stress play a part in our “Quit Smoking” failures? YES

Yes, I think timing has a lot to do with me/us finally quitting. I had a couple major events happen in my life very recently that I had been dreading for a long time and now they are both part of history.
Electric Cigarettes

The word is still out on whether e-cigarettes are actually safe or not and it’s difficult to know what to believe but for now, we will use them because it sure as hell helps by having something to do with your hands during the initial shock of giving up the traditional type of cigarette.

E-cigarettes may not be super-healthy but I think they are the lesser of the two evils …unless the battery explodes in our faces! Hopefully, in time we will lose interest all-together and if that happens I’ll be bragging about it here.