Giving up Smoking is easy!
written by Stuart on November 9th, 2005
From the age of fifteen I have been a smoker. once I left school and started earning money, I smoked a lot of fags. Anything up-to 30 a day for five years. When I was in Japan over the summer, the absolute number one revelation was the price of smokes. For 230¥ (£1.20) you can get 20 fags, granted, the best you can usually find in a vending machine are John Player specials, but still, after a fourteen hour flight, a smokes a smoke right!
Second to price, was the marked difference in how smokers are treated in the UK, and in Japan. Get on a train here, no smoking. In Japan, a smoking car, full of leather skinned businessmen, awesome. Go to a restaurant here, sorry no smoking. In Japan, spark up and relax.
Upon my return, at Heathrow I clambered to the first newsagents I saw and bought a pack of cigs. "Thats £5.09 please". Fucking hell. Hold on, a fiver?!
Once I started back at uni, I decided I was going to stop smoking. The financial advantage weighing heavier on my mind than the slightly more high profile risks associated with lighting up. And that's just what I did. I have now gone a month without lighting up. Not even a crafty one out of the window when no-one is looking.
I have come through drunken nights out, offers of cigarettes from beautiful women and the sorts of days when before quitting my first response would have been to sit down and light up. For me, the whole thing was pretty easy. That's not to say that I think people who find it difficult are pathetic. I guess I'm just lucky. I always joke that now I've given up smoking, I might take up heroin and see if I can get off that so swiftly.
The key, I think, is actually wanting to. Being one hundred percent willing to give up that minute of pleasure with your morning cup of tea. I know people who have been quitting smoking for the last fifteen years, but the truth is, they just don't want to stop.
Good for you, and a timely post as I gave up at 1.30pm this afternoon (when my last pack of Golden Virginia ran out…)
Needless to say I’m now climbing the walls, chewing on a piece of NiQuitin gum (nicotine flavoured rubber), and eyeing the ashtray full of cig butts enviously (must empty that out….) However, I’m determined to crack it this time round.
Cheers for the inspiration - I have a feeling I’m gonna need it……..
I used to say that when it was over £5 per packet, i was going to stop smoking. Now i buy them in a 10 pack carton from Costco and the likes once a month. This way, i can still do what i enjoy everyday, and stick to my rule.
“I could give up whenever i want to” a saying i’ve found myself saying quite a bit since the new year with all this talk of new years resolutions. The standard responce is, whoever i am talking to will laugh at me with disbelief, but it is exactly that. When i want to, which is’nt yet.
I congradulate your strong willpower. Its the only way i would like to give up.