How it all started: I was a regular smoker for over 10 years. I tried to quit now and then but without any real success. I must admit I never actually tried hard enough. I started my IT career in a pharmaceutical company, got kids and I realized that active smoking is not a good part of my life. I was seriously thinking about quitting with that bad habit.
It was the end of December on a company New Year's party and our general manager asked me when I'm going to quit smoking. I was already in a good mood and replied instantly that I can quit on a first day in a new year. Probably it sounded too optimistic and he just offered me an interesting reward. He offered me a rise in an amount of money I spent on cigarettes. Quick calculation was that I would get twice as much as he offered. I would save as much as I would get extra. It was a good reason to try.
Philosophy: I decided that I will quit smoking, but if I will have any kind of problem I could smoke a cigarette or two. Having too much problem or any kind of crisis was not my main goal.
Plan: My main plan was to reduce smoking on one cigarette per day. But in a case I would manage to go trough the day I could have next day two cigarettes.Sounds weird but it worked for me.
How it went: I started few days before New Year. First day I had one, next day I had another and third day I managed to go trough a day without a cigarette. Next day also and so on. It was hard because in that time of the year there are parties around, different happenings, birthdays etc. But after three days I was determined that I will quit. I think first month is the toughest part, everything on is just a routine.
Problems: First problem was being on a party or with people that smoke. I decided not to tell anyone that I'm trying to quit. So the main subject would not be how should I do it or how everyone tried once and so on. That, I do not consider as an added value.
Second one is getting out on a drink. I found out that there should be some substitute because there was a need for some cigarette in a late night in a pub. So I decided to have a cigarillos but I never inhale the smoke. I had no problem next day. Soon I decided not to use those cigarillos any more and I didn't even like that.
Today: I'm not fanatic anti-smoker or something like that. I still do like to have a hand rolled tobacco on some special occasions.
Conclusion: What I did was that I manage to get all my good will and just quit smoking. Without any kind of treatments, preparations and something like that. I just decided to do it.
I'm sure anyone can do it like that, if there is just enough will.
Weight: Yes I did got some extra weight, but I think the main reason was more or less type of my work. But that problem I solved on another way.
