I started smoking as a teenager.
It started off as a social thing.
I would have a cigarette or two when I would hang out with friends.
One or two led to three or four and the next thing you know I was hooked, like so many that smoked before me.
After a couple years I tried to quit, cold turkey, to no avail.
A year would go by and I would try again.
I would always make it a week or two or sometimes even three.
It then became too much.
I would grow irritable; perhaps flip out on someone, maybe even a close friend...
maybe.
Sometimes I would make it two weeks, and then I would go out for a drink and boom.
Cigarettes and beer, like a horse and carriage.
After a few failed attempts I suppose I just convinced myself that I liked smoking.
I mean it was cool to see the smoke, right? Yeah, that's what I told myself.
I kept smoking.
But I knew I didn't want to.
I began keeping track, mentally, of when I smoked most.
I realized that the two most smoke filled events in my life were when I was drinking and when I was driving.
So rather than unsuccessfully try to quit cold turkey again I tried to change my smoking habits.
First, I cut back drinking, a lot.
When I was in my early twenties I was drinking quite a bit more than I should have been but that is a story for another time.
Along with cutting back on drinking, I also stopped smoking while I was driving.
This was harder than not drinking, a lot harder.
Nonetheless, that was the plan.
First, try to change my worst smoking habits and then move on to step two.
Step two was the strike.
I wasn't sure when the strike would happen I just knew it needed to.
Then one day I was running up my stairs, I got to the top and I was out of breath.
That was it.
Talk about a twelve step program.
I ran up twelve steps and I was out of breath, at 26 years old.
That's when I knew step two had to be soon, real soon.
Knowing full well I tried to quit cold turkey, multiple times with no success, I knew I needed a little assistance.
I got the gum.
I didn't try any off brand, cheap-o version either.
I bought the $40 box of Nicorette and I set a date.
My date was April 1st 2009.
I allowed for a little cheating week one, very little, but some.
After week one there was no more cheating.
I had to get this done, I had to.
The first couple weeks I chewed a piece every time I thought about it.
It didn't taste great but I tolerated it.
By, May 1st I started cutting back on the nicotine.
Every three pieces of gum I chewed throughout the day would just be a regular piece of chewing gum.
That's how I did.
I began to weed myself off the nicotine gum by slowly interchanging it with more and more regular gum.
By the last week in May I was chewing 2 pieces of Nicorette a day and five or six pieces of regular gum.
The first week of June I probably only chewed two or three pieces of nicotine gum.
By mid June, I no longer needed any.
I had only bought two boxes of Nicorette and still had some left.
I used the leftovers the first couple times I went out for drinks with friends.
That actually worked well.
Today is April 26th 2010.
It has been a little over a year and I am still standing strong.
I am no longer a smoker trying to quit.
I am a non smoker.