Quit Smoking

Everyone in my immediate family smokes: My mom, my stepdad, my brother and sister-in-law, even my baby sister, well she's about to be 21 so I guess she's not a baby anymore. The whole time I was growing up I swore I would never smoke. It was a nasty habit that smelled and killed you young. Hit the fast forward button, age 26, and I too picked up this nasty habit.

Normally I don't smoke a lot. It will take me 2.5 days to get through a pack of cigarettes unless we are having a Saturday night and then we go through them quickly. Recently I've been thinking a lot about health and the future and sticking around for as long as possible. Not that I want the kids to hurry and grow up but I do want to be around to see my grandchildren and great grandchildren would be nice too.

Since I started smoking I noticed a change in my energy levels, my eating habits, what I drink during the day and how much, that I can't smell as good as I once did, that I am sicker more often (not that my immune system is just awesome or anyting), and that my skin is nasty and my hair is different, so I decided last night to quit smoking.

We headed to Walmart to buy things we needed for lunches and for breakfast for the next 2 weeks and headed over to the section maked "Stop Smoking". There are about 8 different things to choose from so I decide I'll go with gum. It might help with the oral fixation, it might actually taste good and I can control how much of it I use.

There are 2 strengths of gum. One is 4MG for those who smoke more than 25 cigarettes a day-I almost died when I read this. Who smokes that many cigarettes in a day and how? or you have the 2MG for those of us who smoke less than 25 cigarettes a day. So I choose the one I think I want, get in the truck and light up. I mean I do have to finish the ones I already have.

So this morning I put the pack of gum in my purse after reading the instructions last night and head to work. It's all great until I reach the 2 o'clock hour. This is usually when I sneak outside to smoke when no one is looking, so I pop a piece of gum.

At first the gum is ok and I follow the instructions on how to chew the gum to a tee, mind you the instructions said 9 pieces a day for the first 6 weeks of the 12 week program.

Yeah, here I am 30 minutes before time to go home and I think I can just do this cold turkey. The gum leaves a strange taste in your mouth not to mention it's just weird and left my tummy feeling a little weird. This is from a single piece of gum.

So I will continue to carry the gum with me for the next 30 days, they say that's how long it takes to break a habit but honestly, I don't see me using it and if this nasty gum is the alternative to smoking, I think I can just quit that too.

My goal is to be smoke free in our household. I have fears about going to family functions with all the smokers because will it make me want one?

The good thing is I have a hubbs who supports me and loves me and even if I did slip up, he will forgive me.