Quitting smoking… again… for good!

Wednesday, 31st of January 2024 [116]

For 2024, I have set a few monetary goals, but my primary goal as mentioned in my goals post is to take a better care of my HEALTH.

Apparently health is wealth and while I’m not sure if the two literally go hand in hand for everyone, I know that when I’m not physically or mentally well, everything feels like a struggle. Therefore it is no brainer that health should be my main goal if I want to perform well… well, in life in general. All fronts of life.

Last year was an eye opener in terms of my health and how the stress, bad eating habits and even bad thought processes can affect it in a significant way. Of course, none of this happens over night, it’s years of abuse and bad habits that come out later in life.

Since summer I have made many changes in my diet, increased my physical exercise, been working on the way I’m thinking and while making all those changes the quitting smoking was at the back of my head. Something that will need to happen, but trying to do it all at once would most likely cause me to fail creating some or all of those new habits.

This week however is the time for kicking that next bad habit out of my life. On Monday I still had last 3 cigarettes left. Yesterday was the first day without a cigarette. I say specifically no cigarette, cause I’m using a bit of a cratch for those first few days.

At some point I decided to try those disposable nicotine vapes. They didn’t agree with me much, cause they leave a very sweet taste in my mouth. It might be great for the youngsters who just start smoking. It might even feel a bit healthier, as you’re left with a nice taste in your mouth, rather than a nasty one from the ‘normal’ cigarettes.

I thought this would be an advantage, especially if I’d like to smoke in my car or in the house in any other place than a kitchen where I usually smoke. Yes, it smells less, but considering I’ve been smoking (with some years breaks) since I was 13, I’m quite used to and actually like the nasty taste that a cigarette leaves in my mouth.

The sweet taste not only feels weird, but my other beef with it was that it most likely breaks my fast when I was still doing intermittent fasting. That sweet taste surely doesn’t come without a price. It tastes sugary, so some sort of sugar is surely used in the production of those. Nicotine dose in those is much smaller than that in cigarettes though, so after puffing on it throughout the whole break I still didn’t feel like I’ve had a cigarette.

All in all these are a no for me. They also make me cough. But I did collect a few of those, as I was trying out a few different ones to see if all of them are sweet (they most definitely are). Clever of those vape manufacturers btw. Not only you get a usual nicotine addiction, but also create or reinforce your sugar addiction.

Anyway… so what I’m saying is that although I smoked my last 3 cigarettes on Monday and that ashtray on the picture below is now free of any new ash since Sunday night (the last 3 were at work), I still use the vape for maybe another day or two. It’s already a huge change, but not really as dramatic as it usually is when I quit smoking. Also no huge withdrawal syptomps so far.

Oh yes, I did quit smoking many times before. Once when I was 18, for 2.5 years. Once in my 20’s for 1.5 years and many other times for a few months. When one doesn’t smoke for 2.5 years, one most definitely isn’t addicted to the nicotine anyore, but rather stupid and/or influential 😉

For me it’s the former. I just like smoking, that’s the problem. All of those times I quit smoking I did so to save money. This time round I’m quitting to save my health. That’s why this time I believe I can quit for good.

Can I? Time will tell! Fingers crosses and pray for me to succeed 🤞