Penguin

Congratulations!

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I haven't forgotten about exercising, but I also haven't been as diligent as I should be. Between the holidays and my busy schedule and whatnot, it's difficult for me to remember to take time to practice lifting. That said, I have carved out some time after Christmas to plan a whole regimen, with alarms and written reminders and whatnot to help me remember to exercise.

I made it 14 months! Sometimes I'm surprised by what even makes me think of cigarettes, or of having one. A random sight or smell or rumble in my stomach can kick off a small urge. I've also noticed the irritation I used to feel around cigarette smoke has abated somewhat. I suppose at some point I'll level out and it'll be like it was before I was ever a smoker, when I didn't find the odor of cigarette smoke offensive. Then I'll really have to be on my guard, because that'll be one less thing keeping me from smoking. I don't mind admitting I enjoyed smoking, to some degree, and there's a part of me that would enjoy it still if it wasn't for all the negative things about it. Smoking is still a nasty, lethal habit, but that doesn't mean there isn't a part of me that misses it. Thankfully I don't tend to let that part of me in the driver's seat very often, because that part of me is an emotional idiot who does what feels good in the short-term, with no regard for the long-term consequences.

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"Ready Wally? On three. One, two--" "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOPE!"

Lie: I'll quit when ___. Whenever you think about quitting smoking--any addiction, really--you might come across a series of lies, in no particular order. One of those lies is, "I'll quit after this ___." You think you'll really quit after that next cigarette, or that next pack, or whatever. For me, it was always, "I'll quit when I can get through a pack without anyone asking me for one." When that finally happened, I thought, "Well, I'll quit after I can thoroughly enjoy each cigarette." On and on it went, in a never-ending loop. Before we go any further, keep something in mind: I was sincere. I truly believed I could and would quit under the right conditions. Thing is, my brain kept moving the goalposts because I was afraid of what quitting would be like. It was going to be uncomfortable. When you're addicted to something, your instinct will be to change the goalposts so the addictive behavior can continue. You will be entirely sincere in thinking you can quit under magical circumstances that will never happen, or if they do, well, they weren't perfect for one reason or another. It'll never be enough. At a certain point, you have to accept the perfect circumstances won't ever arrive. You're killing yourself waiting for Godot. You also have to accept it will be uncomfortable. Lie: Quitting smoking will be miserable. When I finally did quit, it really didn't feel awful; not in the way most people think of quitting as being awful. When I quit, I had a collapsed lung, a tube in my chest, nothing to do but watch TV for four days, and even now a year later my brain likes to panic whenever I catch even a whiff of a cigarette, which I'm fairly certain is some kind of PTSD. So yeah, it was awful, but I didn't have any of the typical symptoms people associate with quitting. Different strokes for different folks. Every quit is different. Sure, you're likely to experience irritability. You're likely to feel out of sorts. You're quitting dependence on a dangerous concoction of chemicals, so yeah, you're probably going to feel something unpleasant. Thing is, I don't know of anyone who died quitting nicotine. I'm sure someone has, in the history of forever, but the odds of that happening are statistically insignificant. You know what has a much higher chance of killing you? Not quitting. That has a statistically significant chance to kill you in some really unpleasant ways. Until you go through it, you won't know what quitting is like. "Well I've tried quitting before," you say. Fair point, but allow me to retort: you're still here. Trying to quit didn't kill you. It very likely didn't even bring you anywhere close to dying. For all the unpleasantness you felt, you survived. The chances are very good you will survive quitting nicotine. Lie: I'll smoke an alternate to be healthier. We're all taught smoking tobacco is unhealthy, but still rumors persist about menthols, lights, cloves, cigars, cigarillos, pipes, vapes, and the list goes on. Some swear smoking weed doesn't have any bad side effects. And of course there are those who say chewing tobacco in one form or another is a better alternative to smoking. The truth is, all tobacco products (and marijuana) are processed with harmful chemicals you shouldn't be ingesting, period. Smoking anything lets smoke into your body, which invites a whole host of health issues. Chewing tobaccos have a long history of horrifying cancers. Even vapes--long touted as a "safe" alternative to smoking--contain toxic chemicals linked with diseases. The only advantage to smokeless tobacco is that it doesn't inflict your habit on others. That's it. You're still causing harm to yourself. Don't delude yourself into thinking you're engaging in a healthy habit. Smoking is addictive and dangerous, no matter how you try to play around with it. The safe alternative is to quit, not try to find a way to have your cake and eat it, too. https://www.cancer.org/cancer/risk-prevention/tobacco/carcinogens-found-in-tobacco-products.html https://www.lung.org/quit-smoking/smoking-facts/whats-in-a-cigarette https://www.nhsinform.scot/healthy-living/stopping-smoking/reasons-to-stop/tobacco/ https://www.dana-farber.org/newsroom/news-releases/2021/study-finds-new-evidence-of-health-threat-from-chemicals-in-marijuana-and-tobacco-smoke https://www.lung.org/quit-smoking/e-cigarettes-vaping/whats-in-an-e-cigarette Feel free to add your own lies and debunk them. I'll add more as I think of them.

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