Stop Smoking

I’ve decided it’s time to take action. I’m going on the patch.

During the past several months since my last update, I’ve had little desire to quit. I’ve been enjoying cigarettes and not thinking of the potential health consequences, the money, the social effects. I also became involved with a girl who doesn’t nag about it. She knows that I smoke, but I don’t smoke around her, so it might be out of sight, out of mind. Most of the rest of her family smokes, so she might just be sick of nagging people. At this point in our relationship, if she asked me to quit, I probably would.

But this time is on my own. I saw some pictures of myself from a work event last week. I hate myself. I look fat, out of shape, and completely pathetic. It’s time for some changes. It’s not smoking-related, but I’ve been eating poorly, not working out, and watching way too much TV. My first step in getting back to shape is to quit smoking. I’m currently on step two with that (step one was starting this weblog). Step two for me is the patch.

A study quoted in Men’s Health magazine stated that starting on the patch for two weeks prior to quitting smoking gives the quitter a 20% greater chance of quitting the habit for good. I know once I get past the point of actual quitting, the biggest problem is fighting the urges and staying out of situations (i.e. drunkenness) when I might be tempted to smoke. But those are future steps. For now, I’ll stick with step two.

Step one, of course, is taking the first step. Sound redundant? Well, it doesn’t to me. I started setting up this site and making the header image two months ago. I finished that the next day. The hardest part is getting started

I wrote a short history of my addiction when I set up the site originally. It will always be available by clicking “About” at this top of this page, but to make sure everyone reads it, Here it is… with a few updates.

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.

I hope this site inspires, encourages, and helps you break your own habit, whatever it is. And I hope that this time, I kick my habit, too.