As I'm typing this.. there's 5 more hours left on the counter before it is "officially"one year since I last lit a cigarette, stuck it to my mouth and inhaled. Certainly no risk me messing up that one year stat!
I still remember when I quit quite vividly as it was at the wedding reception of a good friend, I was already quite intoxicated and I figured, hey I've definitely made worse decisions so why not just stop it completely. At that point, I was fighting hard and was down to about 1 or 2 sticks a day.
Do I miss it? Yeah, sometimes.
Did I ever want to light up again? Yeah, crossed my mind several times.
But I don't think I'll go back to it, it was a damn tough experience having to quit.
All in, it's been a somewhat liberating experience. I don't have the dependency anymore. I don't arrive at a new place and immediately case it to figure out where I can go for a smoke. I don't plan ahead on when I need to buy cigarettes. I don't feel have that feeling of guilt that usually happens when my cigarette smoke wafts over to some table/person (especially a kid) and I no longer have to look behind me when walking on the street.
Apart from that, I've had headaches after inhaling second-hand smoke.. especially at places where you can literally chop through the smoke. This was something that never bothered me before. Also, when someone who has just finished smoking stands next to me... that familiar smell makes me miss smoking but at the same time, is quite a put off. Yeah, weird. But, I don't know how my wife put up with it for so long!
Physically, I've put on 5kg... which is a fair amount and definitely not too excessive. From now on, I will definitely start exercising. I really wanted to see how much weight I would put on without having to exercise and quitting smoking.
Well, until next year then!
Have been smoke-free for two years. Officially stopped on July 30 2011 and used Champix to survive the withdrawal symptoms. It was my 4th attempt to quit smoking.
