Quitting Smoking

You know I completely forgot, I quit smoking two days ago. Errr... three.

I've stopped smoking for lent, how's that? :) Although technically I did have a cigarette first thing on Wed morning, so I started a little bit later than lent officially starts.

Anyway, I've finally got as far as actually thinking about it this morning, and I was considering either turning this into a "look I've quit smoking blog" or creating a new one for that. But I realised, well, I really don't have anything to say.

The problem with quitting smoking is that most times people do some weird variation on cold turkey. They might try using replacements, or refocusing the addiction somewhere else, but basically they go cold turkey. So all they do is stop smoking and then try and deal with the cravings. Surely it makes more sense to deal with the cravings first and then stop smoking? After all if you don't actually want a cigarette then you won't be tempted to smoke, and you can get on with life.

Basically people will tell you quitting smoking is really hard, when in actual fact it's easy. After all nicotine cravings are so weak that generally they won't even wake you up at night! I mean yes, I do know people who've woken up to have a cigarette each night, but they're the exception rather than the rule. And even then they go far longer during the night than they would even consider during the day.

Another thing people forget is that nicotine burns out of our system within three days of smoking a cigarette. Then it's gone. No more cravings. The problem has never been quitting smoking. I don't believe there's a single smoker who can't (with the right mindset) quit quickly and easily without problem. However I do think that there's a number of smokers out there who try to make out that it is difficult and so refuse to quit. Or if they do attempt to quit, they go about it completely unprepared to deal with anything that might be even slightly problematic.