Dear Me: August 23, 2011

Aug 23, 2011

You sampled your first cigarette at 10 years old. Your parents quit when you were eight years old. You went home and told them immediately. However, when you became of age, smoking was a way to ‘fit in’! It became an automatic habit thanks to the nasty demonic creepster named NICOTINE. In my later years, I was able to smoke a nicotine free cigarette. Do yourself a favor, see if you can find one and try it. Smoking a number of these without nicotine can rapidly smarten you up to how hideous this habit truly is! I am very happy to remind myself that it is 11 years now since I quit smoking for good AND I mean that 100%, for good! I planned on the way to quit; I did not want to replace my habit with food. So this is what I did. I went out and bought the nicotine patches; a bonus for me was that they were on sale at the time,too! Then I went and got some of the best smelling stuff I could find. This concoction of a scented bliss known as Toasted Hazelnut Oil came in a large glass bottle at the Bath & Body store…scoffed it up immediately. Day one a whole nicotine patch went on and every time I wanted a cigarette, I sprayed the scented oil on my left hand inhaling the aroma deeply until the urge to smoke passed. Day two, I put on a whole patch again and followed the scent route vs cigarette smoking. Day three, I went to a half patch until day six. Then I went on to one third of a patch for three days, then one quarter of a patch for the duration until I was all out of patches. By then, I was no longer smoking and smelling pretty good all the time! Cigarettes STINK! I don’t miss them a bit…I love breathing!

Deep Breath/Big Smile,

Me