Final Smoking Update?…
Well, dear readers, I think you might be in for a small flurry of activity on the blog this weekend, assuming we don’t get distracted by other things. Which is always likely.
But I may as well start with the easy one. Yes, it’s been just over 3 weeks now since the last cigarette, and I still can’t really believe how easy it’s been to stop. And I still have no desire, perceived need, or craving to have another one.
Every now and then when I go somewhere for the first time since I stopped where I would normally have had a smoke, such as walking between 2 unusual tube stations this morning, I still have to remind my brain/body that it’s not going to have a smoke. It’s a bit odd. I wouldn’t call it any sort of craving. It’s more like something in my brain/body going ” why aren’t we having a smoke now? We normally would?!” and getting a bit confused temporarily, but it soon sorts itself out.
The only remaining real impact seems to still be yet a higher level of sensitivity to caffeine. I noticed age ago when I “stepped down” to very low nicotine cigarettes that I had to limit my caffeine intake or deal with the shakes etc., but stopping has meant that I’ve noticed I’ve had to limit the coffee intake even more. I wonder if that goes away or not? I guess we’ll find out a bit later. Or a lot later.
Being around other smokers, or having to walk through clouds of smoke when walking down to the tube, doesn’t bother me at all either. It doesn’t make me want a cigarette at all, but possibly just as usefully it doesn’t make me want to go lecture those still smoking. I’m sure at least some of them will make up their minds to quit when they decide to. Years of other people telling me to stop didn’t seem to make any difference to me, so why would it make any difference to them. I don’t even feel superior to them. It’s more just kind of a low level of pity that they’ve yet to manage to stop.
So hopefully weekly or monthly updates can stop now. If there’s any new major impact you’ll hear about it, and I’ll let you know if I slip up, but I honestly think that’s pretty unlikely. After doing all this hard work, why throw it away?
And as pointed out by the book, and as I point out to other smokers at work that offer me one of their cigarettes as they seem sure that I really must want one, that “last cigarette” could maybe end up costing me another £46,000… That buys quite a few trees!