Should you give up certain things in the bid to quit smoking?
This post came about after seeing someone’s tweet about giving up their morning coffee because of the association with having a cigarette. Looking at my particular case (and I’m sure that the below will apply to an awful lot of smokers/ex smokers) if giving up anything that has a strong association with cigarettes was a ‘must’, or even beneficial for being able to quit, then realistically I’d have had to also forgo the following:
1/ Hanging around with Friends that smoke: total bull, as I also hung around with friends that didn't smoke before I quit! The outcome would be that I’d have had to avoid going out and spending time with any of my friends, full stop! Pubs, clubs, bars and restaurants are all smoke-free and therefore ex-smoker-friendly now, so there really is no excuse, and when would you feel safe? A months time? A years time? Never?
2/ That first cup of coffee in the morning – let's face it, if I woke up and had an orange juice I’d still have had that cigarette. I love coffee, it perks me up – the outcome of missing out on the caffeine is that I’d fall asleep at work!
3/ Food. It's obvious that you'd have to stop the after-dinner cigarette when you quit smoking, but to some people this was seen as an "enjoyable" one, so if I was to try and avoid the hypocrisy, what should I have done? Stop eating? Let's face it, there’s always an ‘after food’ scenario; lunch, dinner, breakfast – even a chocolate biccie, but I digress…
4/ Smoking in the car: – Again, if I was following along with the ‘coffee’ train of thought then I must, of course, associate driving with cigarettes – how long would it take to cycle the 7miles to work? Heavens, maybe I should have avoided getting in a car altogether…
Realistically, if you gave up everything you did which had an association with cigarettes in order to quit, then you’d have to give up a hell of a lot more than you think, and actually more than you would realistically be able to. Why force yourself to give up the things you love, when you can continue with things that are necessary without a second thought?
The sooner you go out and just do the things you love without cigarettes, the sooner you can enjoy the things you love without cigarettes.
I try to think of ways to explain this better, but at present I really can't think of a way. If I had applied the same logic of avoiding all the things I enjoyed, to the things that were also NECESSARY then not only would life not be worth living, it would also be impossible.
Quit smoking. Enjoy Life.
No comments:
Post a Comment