Quit Smoking Cold Turkey

I have been without a cigarette now for almost two weeks.  On Sunday March 22nd of this year I decided that enough was enough and put down the cigarettes for good.  I am in my upper 40’s and quit smoking for 11 years but started back up a little over 2 years ago.  That was the worst thing I could have done.

Back in 1994 I decided that I was done smoking and ordered a kit from a company called Quick Quitz.  It consisted of two pills and an aroma therapy bottle.  I quit on a Thursday evening by taking two pills and heading to bed.  The next morning I had just a slight craving but it was no big deal.  That night, Friday night we were out in the boat and went to a waterfront bar.  It seemed like everyone was smoking including people I went with, yeah I know, no love at all.  But that was the last I smoked for over 10 years.

Fast forward to 2006 and I was at a comedy club and had a bunch to drink and bummed a cigarette from a friend.  Well you know the story… the rest is history.

Well now I am unemployed and running out of money it seemed crazy to spend that much money on a nasty habit, so I quit.  I didn’t feel like spending money on patches, drugs, or other cessation remedies.  So I reached for a cigarette Sunday night and said NO.  That was it… almost two weeks and no problems.

The secret to my success has been the internet.  I started a blog called www.quitbeforebroke.com  This allowed me a place to create and write stuff that kept my mind off cigarettes.  It also helped me stay occupied by researching products and web sites that deal with the idea of quit smoking cold turkey.  There are also a lot of tools that can help you along the way like counters and calculators.  These small software applications record the time and day you quit and keep a running total of money saved, number of cigarettes not smoked, and days added to your life.

Here are my stats as of today:

1 week, 6 days, 14 hours, 13 minutes, 5 seconds  since last cigarette, 299 cigarettes not smoked, $59.80 saved