I think it’s been almost two weeks

Let’s see… friday 19th March. I think that’s the day I stopped smoking. As you can see, I didn’t quite make as big a deal of it as the last time.

Oh wait. I haven’t updated for a while now, yes? Ok here’s the quick update.

I started smoking again.

 

Duh. Not much of a story even. A stick here n there, “just for the holidays” and next you know, I’m back in it like I never left.

Anyways, for the past few months, I’ve been reading what is known as the most effective method of stopping smoking in the world. The name of the book is rubbish though, it’s called “Allen Carr’s EasyWay to Stop Smoking”.

Why self-help books MUST HAVE horrible names, i’ll never guess. But I can tell you that this book made my quitting process much less of a pain in the ass than previous occasions. It works on a simple metaphor, that a prisoner doesn’t want to know how nice it is outside, but would rather just be given a key to the prison cell.

In other words, the book doesn’t give you reasons to quit, but instead, takes away all your reasons to smoke. It’s difficult to explain, but one of the things I can assure you’ll love about it is that it encourages you to keep smoking until you finish the book.

WHY!?

Well, that’s a point of curiousity I’ll leave you with to give the book a shot.

 

Anyway, since then, I’ve found it surprisingly easy to stop so far. Most days I don’t even think about it. Sometimes when you’re in a group situation, the feeling is largely inevitable, but surprisingly manageable.

 

If the book was brainwashing, then I can only say that for now, my brain is clean. And so are my lungs.

Back on the wagon for 2010

Wow… how’s that for a cliffhanger? 6 months ago, my last entry was “It’s getting Dangerous”. Well guess what… it did. Big time.

I’m smoking pretty much everyday again, although it’s only one or two sticks. I suppose I could view that as some form of an improvement, but I’d like to think i’m a bit more ambitious than that.

I’ve got a packed schedule between that and NewYear, so let’s do the corny thing and make it into a New Year’s resolution. Anyone wanna bet against it (your odds might improve based on the size of your best)? Promise I won’t cheat.

Anyways, that’s it. midnight January 1st 2010, I light my last stick.

Pictures to come.

Yikes. It’s getting dangerous

I’ve been smoking.

Yup. Stealing one here, one there, and I’m teetering on coming back into the whole social smoking scene. I can’t even keep count anymore.

Not good.

First, let me get the excuses out of the way. As those of you close to me would know, it’s been a very taxing two weeks for me, both professionally and emotionally.

So yeah.

I know they’re just excuses, but I can tell you that the comfort of a puff is indeed quite comforting. Still, there’s a marked difference this time compared to other times i’ve tried to quit. Funnily, I’m still resolute on kicking the habit.

I just need to reassess myself and start again.

Gimme time.

One month, and it doesn’t look good

Ok, first things first. I made it to the one month mark. Yup, was mum’s birthday, and sure enough, she did a little not so subtle checking to see if I was still on the wagon.

“1 month and counting",” I told her confidently.

And the next day, I had a ciggy with my friends at Souled Out. Yup, it was just one, and I was resisting for about three hours prior to that, but one of them was half way through quitting as well, and she told me not to beat myself up about it, and just have one.

When I really think about it, I think she could really have been offloading a portion of the guilt to me, subconciously, not that I’m blaming her or anything. I mean, at the end of the day, I was the one who bit.

One month of non-smoking bookended by two sticks of Dunhill Lights.

And not even a week later, another. This time at Sunburst KL! I ran out of lollipops (why do girls always want lollipops from you and why do I keep offering them goshdarnit!?) and someone was rolling a ciggy.

I always said that switching to rollies was a good stepping stone to quitting, but the caveat is that for the past month, I haven’t seen a single person rolling a cigarette. Well, just so happens at Sunburt, my friend GaryJohn (who probably doesn’t even know that I’m trying to quit) was rolling up, so I ASKED HIM for one. Geez. It’s actually pretty embarassing.

Worse still, it was HARVEST! About the worst rolling tobacco there is.

Actually, that last part was a blessing in disguise. It tasted awful, not because I hadn’t smoked for a while (i smoked 5 days before, remember?), but because HARVEST is the cheapest, roughest, most godawful rolling tobacco money can buy.

So i smoked it to just a bit after halfway, and dumped it. Good riddance too.

 

So what’s to learn from all this?

Well, I lasted a month without much problem, so why give in now? Well, because I didn’t tell myself to last any longer. After a month, I was already pretty happy with myself, so I just sorta lost the motivation to stop.

And lemme tell you, it’s not like the cravings stop. Physically, they do, but mentally, you still wonder at how easy it would be to just light one up to kill that itch.

So the lesson here is, I need goals. Same as everything in life. So here’s the goal.

TWO MONTHS from today.

May 23rd.

Here we go.

Another one bites the ash

Just found out yesterday that my fellow quitting buddy, Anna, has started smoking again. Worse still, she's not under any illusions about it, and has started back to full-on, buying her own cigarettes. I always thought that if you started again, you'd pinch a few first to see how it goes, disillusion yourself further, then go the full monty.

If you've read my earlier posts, you'll know that Anna was the one that got me thinking about quitting in the first place. She quit on New Year's Day, whereas I quit on Chap Goh Meh (End of Chinese New Year). So in effect, she's lasted aaaaalmossst 3 months. I've barely made it past a month, and I've already had a lapse.

I was actually planning on posting up some tips to help others quit, but I guess if there's one thing this is teaching me, it's that I'm not out of the woods yet.

To be honest, the news of her quitting quitting, made me think for a moment that starting again wouldn't be the worst thing to happen. Right now, despite having gone without a cigarette for three weeks (since my lapse), I'm currently suffering the worst cough I've had in a long time, and it doesn't seem to be going away. About the only benefits right now I can think of are that my voice isn't as rough, and that i have alot more space in my pockets.

That's why I'm waiting for this damn flu to end, so I can experience all the so called wonders of not smoking. Will keep you guys updated.

My 5 reasons for quitting

1. My voice is my wallet - As some of you might now, i make quit a nice bit of income slutting my voice out to the advertising industry. Lately, I've gotten comments that it's a bit rougher than usual. I also find myself getting the flu more often than i should. Ironically, since I quit, I've had a stuffed nose in the first week, and a sore throat in the second. Am trying to think positively.
2. I'm a hypochondriac, so not smoking is one less potential cause for dying - Ever since i contracted Pseudomonas Aeruginosa and spent 6 months of my life coughing blood, I've never trusted my body completely. Every little ache, pinched nerve or bad flu compels me to do a symptom search online. As you can imagine, this tends to happen to smokers more.
3. I wanna use my real name at Pushmore - Ok, normal gyms are bad enough, but with those, you can just raise your treadmill speed by two notches when you see a good-looking girl passing by. With Pushmore, my new crossfit gym, you're given daily challenges, and your time/maximum reps are put on a whiteboard for everyone to see. Right now, my name on the charts is usually "Alice".
4. My teeth are bad enough already - I already have teeth at funny angles, not to mention yellowing and staining. And the staining is much much worse with cigarettes. Lately, they have been cleaner, so there's a good sign.
5. Sometimes (especially in Singapore), I feel like an outcast - Well frankly, this was one of the reasons I gave myself when I quit, but i think you only start noticing just how bloody many of your friends smoke when you quit. I suppose it still applies to Singapore, where they make smokers feel like leper handicaps.

Spliffs are not Fags

uh huh.