This is a Smokefree Zone (or do I mean drone….)

smoking_logo

Well it’s nearly 8 months now since I quit smoking!  I put a stone on (which I’m only now losing) and I feel healthier…or I would if I didn’t have to breathe other peoples smoke in, but sometimes it’s unavoidable. 

Nasty niffs

It’s great not to HAVE to smoke.  It’s great not to HAVE to stock up on cigarettes, always panicking when they are running low and the shops are shut.  It’s great not to HAVE to stink of smoke.  It doesn’t matter how much you douse yourself with perfume, breath freshener etc, people like ME can SMELL you a MILE OFF lol!  It’s true that your sense of smell improves greatly when you don’t smoke, also that you can taste your food better. 

R.I.P.

Yes, it feels good NOT to HAVE to smoke, it sets you FREE!  When I say HAVE I mean HAVE, because smoking IS an addiction, there’s no two ways about it.  And it’s not a case of ‘just don’t smoke’, that’s too simplistic, smoking masks a lot of stuff.  The hardest thing about giving up smoking is DECIDING TO DO IT.  Once you’ve done that, then the hard work begins, and it IS hard work.  I did it by reading this book.  I don’t believe in giving my hard earned smoking money to the money making nicotine replacement programmes.  Why swap one addiction for another?  To me, this is just a way of cashing in on peoples misery…..and prolonging it.  It may have worked for some, but not for me.

Non, je ne regrette rien

  Have I missed smoking?  Well the longer I go without, the less I miss it.  Even after only 8 months, I can honestly say that I hate the smell of it, wonder how I every did it, wonder how I ever afforded it and now see it for the addiction it is.  I feel sorry for people when I see them putting that cig in their mouth before they reach the door of a shop, and the relief on their faces as they light up outside.  The relief one gets to be breathing ‘properly’ through that white stick is indescribable.  And that’s what stuck me the most whilst watching smokers outside the shops.  The NEED to breathe through a stick, instead of through the lungs.  Such is this strange, expensive and fatal addiction.