Why I stopped smoking cigarettes

28 reasons for freedom from nicotine

Photo by Jonathan Kemper on Unsplash

Following on, I’d like to share some reasons why I quit smoking cigarettes. I want to emphasise that these reasons may not apply to everyone. Some people can drink, smoke, and use drugs without experiencing any negative effects. If you are one of those people, congratulations! But if you’re not, keep reading.

1. So that I can exercise whenever I want and not get annoyed that I am out of breath.
2. So that I don’t have to repeatedly open the window of my car at 100 miles an hour on the motorway — in the rain.
3. So that once I have finished a cigarette, I don’t instantly want another cigarette
4. To free up more time in the day so that I can do the things that are important to me.
5. My skin will be healthier and less wrinkled, and I will look younger.
6. The aches and pains I would have gone to the doctors for before, the type they could find no answer for, are finally gone.
7. Now the challenges in my body are lactic acid versus lungs. It is not lungs versus lungs.
8. I don’t have to go through the embarrassment at the counter of every shop I ever go into; ‘I am weak, please can I have some cigarettes?’
9. I can walk behind a lady in the streets of London and smell her delightful perfume.
10. So, if I am blessed with Fatherhood, I can look after the little blighters without stressing about how their life would be without a Father, as he had decided it was better to die than to live.
11. So that I don’t sit in training courses waiting for the breaks so that I can cram two cigarettes down me in ten minutes.
12. I never smell of cigarettes.
13. I don’t have to clean the inside of my car out as often.
14. I have so much more time to do the things that I don’t like doing; like washing up, cleaning, changing the beds etc.; which, in turn, frees up more time for me to do the things that I do like doing.
15. I now have the option of twice as many women to choose from when selecting a girlfriend, which is a good job considering that I am 32 and most of them are already taken.
16. I can now sit through a dinner date without having to pop out during the courses, leaving my lady stranded and bored on her own.
17. It is more challenging than giving up heroin, they say, but I have never done heroin, so I have never had to give it up. If you think of a cigarette, once you have smoked and given up, it doesn’t make you feel sick; it makes you want one. The thoughts don’t remind you of the stinging throat, the furry teeth, etc…see it, remember it, forget it!
18. I no longer have to have a quick cigarette on the way to squash, tennis, or football; whatever I am doing to try and make myself fitter.
19. If I get pain in my chest now, I know that it could be a little bit serious; before, I had no idea what pain was serious and what wasn’t.
20. I don’t have this as an excuse not to exercise; weirdly, exercise is a lot easier.
21. I don’t have to walk down the street blowing smoke into other people’s faces.
22. I truly now adore good food.
23. I don’t have to see how cigarettes have gone up in price every time I go into a shop.
24. When I should feel confident, I can, without having to go outside, on my own, to tell myself this (the cigarette boost)!
25. I will live longer, one hopes.
26. I can sing so much better.
27. I couldn’t social smoke, so I had to give it up. I no longer have a Marlborough Light for Breakfast.
28. It now holds no bounds; it is now over six months, and with the exercise I have been doing, I am starting to become an athlete.
29. I don’t see stars when I stand up anymore.
30. After a while, not being a smoker is the same as being a smoker; you can go out in the ‘smoking area’ and not need one; and walk back in with someone who has finished a cigarette. They have been out to feel as stimulated as you already do!
31. My clothes no longer have to be washed if I have only worn them once.
32. Don’t think you are cool; know you are cool.
33. At one point earlier, I really felt like a cigarette — so I took in a big breath of air, and then I was OK.
34. I did a 4-hour and 52-minute duathlon at the weekend and didn’t think of smoking during it or since.
35. It is poison.
36. I don’t need to stand outside in the freezing cold in the middle of winter.
37. Maybe discovery too. But I now have all my answers, and dying earlier isn’t one of them.
38. I felt very guilty every time I saw someone exercising.

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