Just one more cigarette.
That’s what I kept telling myself. It didn’t matter when or where, whether it was at the crack of dawn or in the black of night, I always had a reason to smoke.
In hindsight, I don’t know if I even liked it, let alone loved it. I suppose that’s what addiction can be like though. Not emotional; just an obsessive, insatiable compulsion to keep coming back.
When my addiction was at its peak, I was probably burning through thirty a day. But now, I’ve got that number down to zero. If you’ve stumbled across this article, then chances are, you want to know how I did it. Maybe you’re in a similar predicament yourself. If you are, then keep reading.
Escape the Routine
A lot of smokers say they don’t miss it, and maybe they don’t. But I do. If it were good for me, I’d probably be puffing on one right now. But in the end, I realised that my life can go on without them.
On my first day as a non-smoker, a depressing realisation entered my mind. I’d somehow managed to structure my entire life around the disgusting habit. My daily routine for the past 10 years or so was firmly built around cigarettes; my morning smoke, my commute smoke, my lunchtime smoke, and so on, all the way up to number 30 at the end of the day.
My life needed a big restructure, so I did just that. In hindsight, you could argue that I changed too much, too fast, but it worked for me.
I woke up earlier and cooked a substantial meal, which worked as a great distraction from cigarettes 1-3. I filled my morning with meetings and coffee breaks to distract myself then, and after work, I started going to the gym. At first, I had no idea what I was doing, but I enjoyed the progression.
Avoid the Cravings
Despite my distractions, the cravings still took over from time to time. To fight them, I initially tried nicotine pads and an inhaler, but in the end, nicotine pouches worked best for me – specifically Killa Nicopods. They completely eliminated my cravings and allowed me to move on to other things more easily.
On top of that, I became an avid coffee drinker and continued my regular trips to the gym. Regular cups of coffee (until late afternoon) gave me a bit of a buzz that helped me to get into the flow with different tasks. After three or four months, I really got into the swing of things at the gym and started to see noticeable changes to my strength and physique – though I did get the feeling that I’d just swapped one addiction for another. But hey, at least this one hopefully wouldn’t kill me one day.
Rounding Off
So where am I now? Well, after 6 months off focus and discipline, I feel healthier. The constant sore throat and cough that I had are now gone. As I said, I do miss smoking, but that’s just the shadow of my addiction talking.
