Stop Smoking

I’ve been an on-again, off-again smoker since 2000. That was the year I began college. At first, I limited myself to one cigarette per day and only when alone. For me, it was still embarrassing to smoke at that time. Sophomore year, I began smoking with a couple people from my dorm. Senior year, my father had a heart attack, which scaled back my smoking dramatically. I finally quit two months after his heart attack, in December 2003. Nine months later, I started smoking again while celebrating a friend’s birthday. In September 2005, one of my best friends got married. Two days later, I started running: for health and for enjoyment. I stopped smoking a few days later, as smoking makes it difficult to run, and running makes it difficult to smoke. Fast forward nine months to May 2006. I was celebrating the wedding of a friend of a friend and I got started again. I haven’t been regularly running for six months.

At this point, I am starting this weblog to give myself some accountability. Every other time I have tried to quit smoking I had great people around me to support me. I have even quit with others, providing plenty of very personal, in-your-face accountability. soangry.net/stopsmoking is meant to force me to be accountable. It also serves as a repository for my experience with smoking, information found by me and others, and tips and strategies for kicking the habit.

This is my struggle.