A Life Change?
Last week, my cleo woke up one morning and declared she was giving up smoking. From that moment she has not had a cigarette. I am so proud of her for that. We went and bought her a supply of nicotine patches, which she is using, but I am amazed how well she has coped with the complete stop!
I started smoking when I was about 12 years old. I am now 48, nearly 49. So I have been a smoker for in excess of 35 years. God knows what that has done to my body over that time. Of late, as we get older, and our mortality creeps up on us, the attitude of "couldn't care less" that we had maybe 30, 20, or even 10 years ago seems to change.
I worked over the weekend, and was thinking about cutting down my smoking....but lets be honest, you can't. Cutting down is not the way. It has to be all or nothing. So, from yesterday, I too have stopped. Now for me to go 24 hours without cigarettes is something else. I don't even have major cravings save a few through the day, but nothing I couldn't handle. This evening, we had the remains of 2 packs of cigarettes here at home, each with a few ciggies left in each. We sat there and crushed them, again something I could never have done a few years ago.
People are driven by many things to give up smoking, whether it be health, their kids, loss of a relative to cancer, and so on. All these things of course have a bearing, but do you know what is the major focus for me? Money. We have been spending anything up to £300 or more a month on cigarettes.....up to now it has not been of any consequence because we both smoked, and we chose to buy those ciggies. In one simple decision we have increased our available income by nearlyy £100 per week.
My focus now is that we can have £300 or more pounds a month to spend on ourselves, the kids and the house: it's that simple. That is what will drive me to remain a non smoker from now on. Of course I will benefit healthwise, and in other ways too I am sure.
I started smoking when I was about 12 years old. I am now 48, nearly 49. So I have been a smoker for in excess of 35 years. God knows what that has done to my body over that time. Of late, as we get older, and our mortality creeps up on us, the attitude of "couldn't care less" that we had maybe 30, 20, or even 10 years ago seems to change.
I worked over the weekend, and was thinking about cutting down my smoking....but lets be honest, you can't. Cutting down is not the way. It has to be all or nothing. So, from yesterday, I too have stopped. Now for me to go 24 hours without cigarettes is something else. I don't even have major cravings save a few through the day, but nothing I couldn't handle. This evening, we had the remains of 2 packs of cigarettes here at home, each with a few ciggies left in each. We sat there and crushed them, again something I could never have done a few years ago.
People are driven by many things to give up smoking, whether it be health, their kids, loss of a relative to cancer, and so on. All these things of course have a bearing, but do you know what is the major focus for me? Money. We have been spending anything up to £300 or more a month on cigarettes.....up to now it has not been of any consequence because we both smoked, and we chose to buy those ciggies. In one simple decision we have increased our available income by nearlyy £100 per week.
My focus now is that we can have £300 or more pounds a month to spend on ourselves, the kids and the house: it's that simple. That is what will drive me to remain a non smoker from now on. Of course I will benefit healthwise, and in other ways too I am sure.
posted by Paul Knox at
12:15:00 am
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