A breath of fresh air...

I'm feeling particularly pleased with myself today because it is now 500 days since my last cigarette.

Assuming that I smoked 20 per day and that I bought them all the supermarket, that means I would have smoked 10,000 cigarettes in this time at a cost of £2065! To tell the truth, 20 a day would be an under-estimate and more often than not I would have bought packs of 18 or less at an even higher pack price from a vending machine. I did roll my own for a while too but whatever the fine detail, I'll still have made a substantial saving.

Despite the financial gains, by now the risk of my having a heart attack is less than half than it would have been had I continued smoking. I'd be lying if I said I hadn't put on weight but that is more as a result of my continued appreciation for real ale rather than any substitution snacking.
I wish I could pass on my secret of how I got this far so easily, but I think I just reached a point where I'd had enough of them. In the last 17 months I think there have only been two or three occasions where it's crossed my mind, but it's never lingered for long. More to the point, the places where smokers are accepted are rapidly diminishing so I thought it better to stop of my own choosing before being press-ganged into it.

If you're reading this and thinking about stopping, please consider it seriously and take advantage of the wealth of free help and advice out there. The Allen Carr website was enough to get me started (or stopped), but all of these links may be helpful:

Allen Carrs Easyway
ASH
British Heart Foundation
NHS - Don't give up giving up
Quit

I'm here as proof that it can be done without spending money on patches or pills but there's no shame in either if you want a helping hand. I'll not deny that used to enjoy smoking and I'm certainly not here to lecture anybody or get into any "freedom of choice" arguments, I'm just suggesting that if you've ever even considered stopping, give it a go...