Quitting Smoking

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Author:
Martin Avis

Many years ago I walked into my doctor's surgery with tight pains in my chest. I was 30 years old.

He sent me to the hospital for tests and when I went back he dropped the bombshell: "Martin, it is time that you quit smoking."

"Oh yes," I said laughing, "I've quit smoking lots of times."

The doctor wasn't smiling. "Your new baby is 6 months old, isn't she?"

"Yes, she's a beautiful baby."

"And how many cigarettes do you smoke each day would you say?"

"40 to 60." I was in a high stress job and I smoked to keep awake through the late nights working.

"Then I've got some bad news. You have got a form of angina and if you don't stop smoking right away - and I don't mean cut down a bit, I mean really quit smoking once and for all - you'll be very lucky to see your daughter's 5th birthday."

When someone tells you that, believe me, you pay attention! I'd always known in the back of my mind that I'd have to quit smoking someday, but I was only 30 years old! The thing was, my doctor wasn't a scaremonger. I'd known him for years and was convinced that he was telling it to me straight.

I had no choice: I had to quit smoking and I had to do it right away. I handed him my packet of cigarettes and said, "Well, it looks as if I'm now an ex-smoker!"

The next two weeks were tough. I wasn't mentally prepared to give up and I hadn't expected to go cold turkey there and then. But I kept the image of my daughter firmly in my mind every time I felt my resolve start to weaken.

Don't let anyone tell you that it's easy to quit smoking. It is a physical and a mental addiction and quitting smoking is tough. But when you have the certain knowledge that if you weaken, you will literally put a nail in your own coffin, an inner strength appears that really does help you through it.

After two weeks of misery I actually started to have odd days when I didn't think about smoking. I felt deep down inside that a barrier had been crossed and started to believe in myself as an ex smoker.

I avoided the places that would naturally make me want to smoke - I became a lot less sociable for a while - but by the time a month was up, I honestly lost the urge to smoke completely.

My daughter is nearly 21 now. Those chest pains are a distant memory. Several lung and heart examinations have shown that both are in tip top working order and even though I'm 50 years old now, I love to run a mile or two every day.

That's a lot more than I could have ever done before I quit smoking all those years ago!

This article is my small attempt to encourage you to reclaim your health by quitting smoking. You really can do it if you truly believe that it is possible. And although quitting smoking is tough, the rewards are huge both in terms of the quality of your life and the amount of money in your pocket! Best of all, you get to enjoy seeing your kids grow up. That's worth more than anything else in the world.

There are many great articles and resources that can help you to quit smoking and to help you I've collected useful articles and essays from all over the Internet to advise, educate, shock and most of all, help you to stop smoking and enjoy your life to the full. Please visit Quit Smoking ABC at http://www.quitsmokingabc.com/

Martin Avis calculates that before he finally quit smoking, he smoked over a quarter million cigarettes. At current UK prices that is more than £60,000 ($108,000) in wasted cash. His website, Quit Smoking ABC, http://www.quitsmokingabc.com/ gathers together articles and resources to help you to stop smoking today.

A Quick Note From The Publisher... If you like the article above, you may be interested in the following article which is also related to Smoking... Smoking With High Blood Pressure Is Even More Injurious To Your Health! If smoking, blood pressure, stress and headache were the candidates for Presidential Elections in the US who will win? Make a guess. Jokes apart…All will lose deposits. No one likes them, for the simple reason that millions are affected by them and suffer on the account of them. They are all most unwanted. You wish to get rid of them but may not actually know it. High blood pressure which is also known as hypertension in medical terms has affected millions in the US. The estimated figure is 80 million! Many of these, and their number also runs into millions, do not know that they have blood pressure. The identifiable symptoms of blood pressure are constant headache, difficulty in breathing and feeling dizziness. Smoking is definitely harmful in the state of high or low blood pressure. It is an accepted fact that smoking increases the possibilities of heart attack. The reason is simple enough to understand. Nicotine in cigarette and other tobacco products constrict one's blood vessels and the heart thus beats faster which is not good for the high blood pressure patients. Further, smoking creates complications in the lungs and in the vascular system. In fact the thread bare analysis- whether smoking, alcohol, coffee, tea, are good or bad in the condition of blood pressure is meaningless. They are all equally bad. The loyal agents of the dreaded nicotine therefore deserve nothing but condemnation. Any soft attitude towards the products of such classification is not going to help the cause of your health. And if you are the jack of all trades and are indulged in activities such as drinking coffee, drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes, you are a certain candidate for blood pressure. You also become a possible candidate for future heart attacks and other lung...