How I Started and Quit Smoking

The early days...

My first memory of smoking was when I was about six years old. My dad threw his cigarette stub on the ground and I waited for him to enter the house so that I can pick it up to take a drag before it dies. When the coast was clear, I inhaled the nearly extinguished bud. Confused about why adults would waste their time with this taste of smoke and whilst coughing, I threw the cigarette away and continued playing as children do.

High-school experimentation...

In high school, we experimented with Cigars. At the time (year 2000-ish), cigars cost around R10 each (+- $1). As a friend collective, we put our monies together to buy a cigar and smoke like legends on a weekend night out. A R10 was worth a lot in those days. If memory serves me correctly, a pack of 20 cigarettes cost about R10 back then.

As a scholar, I couldn’t maintain the high roller Cigar lifestyle, and looked toward cigarettes instead. In my country, we have what we call ‘House Shops’. These are informal convenient stores selling everyday household goods. It is usually at a House shop where you can buy a single cigarette. We call these: “A loose”, or “A loose gwaai”. They cost around R1 each then back in 2003. I would buy a loose and climb onto the roof of our house to watch the sun set whilst smoking. I was in my final year of high school.

At first, the buying of loose cigarettes was few and far in between. However, when I began University in 2004, my purchases increased from a loose to buying a full pack of smokes. Initially, I smoked around 3 per day, and this grew to around 7 per day. During exam time, I could smoke anywhere between 20 and 30 cigarettes. I honestly believed that smoking helped me to cope with the University stress and that it helped me to focus on the studying.

Becoming a certified smoker...

By the time I finished university and entering in the working world, I was a consistent 20 a day smoker. There were times that I tried to quit. One time, I made it to day 4, cold turkey, before returning to the habit. This 20 a day cycle continued on for another 7 years.

Me being my Rebel self

When I woke in the morning, the first thing I would do is have a smoke. For goodness sake, I didn’t even brush my teeth yet and I would be sucking smoke. Usually, I’d smoke two cigarettes whilst getting done for work. When I climbed into the car on route to work, I would have another. At the first sign of traffic, I’d have another. Depending on how bad the traffic was, I’d have another. Before arriving at work, I could have easily smoked about 4-5 cigarettes already.

My usual routine was to have another smoke before getting into some work, and when I accomplished something, I’d have another. This was the victory smoke. Having smoker colleagues didn’t help either. On smoke breaks, depending on the conversation, we could easily smoke three cigarettes. We called that triple tapping.

I never considered the possibility that I would be strong enough to quit despite the desperate desire to kick the habit. I think every smoker wants to quit, but believe they can’t. We make New Year’s resolutions only to fail days later, or we tell our loved ones we will quit soon, and never do. It’s a tough one; I was there.

Making the decision to quit...

In January 2015, a friend visited me from another city. We both were smokers at the time. We planned our holiday and went about our business. On one of the days, I had a random thought and looked at my mate, in front of his wife, and said: “Hey dude, let’s quit”. His wife didn’t smoke and naturally supported the notion. I went on to further explain that if I fail to quit, I would give him R2000. This is about $200, and in my country, you could buy groceries for 2 for a month with R2000. So it wasn’t a little amount of money.

My friend reluctantly agreed to the challenge and we agreed that we can continue smoking during the vacation, but when it ends, and they fly home, the smoking ends. I think he thought I was joking, but we shook hands on it anyway. The week went by, and I drove my friend to the airport. I reminded him about the deal, and he maintained that the deal was on. We added conditions to the challenge siting that we may not smoke anything but we may make the use of aids like the E-cigarette or Nicotine gum.

On my way home I stopped at a petrol station and bought myself a Cigar. I figured that since I started smoking Cigars, I would end by smoking a cigar. Luckily, I found the exact same brand I started with. I smoked it in the car on the remainder of my trip home.

Actually Quitting...

The next day, I found some Nicotine gum that I bought on a previous attempt at quitting. I chewed on that. By midday, I was craving for a cigarette so bad that I was tempted to go and buy a smoke. After all, my friend left and wouldn’t know if I smoked or not. If he’d ask, I can always just lie and say that I quit successfully…how would he know? But, I stuck to my guns and stumbled through day one. I chewed about 8 gums per day initially. I didn’t even buy the flavoured gum. I bought the full strength original Nicorettes that burned my throat to the point where you didn’t even want a smoke. Also, if I chewed too fast, I’d get nauseous.

In the early days of quitting, I found a subreddit on Reddit.com called stopsmoking. When you subscribe, you encouraged to get a badge and the system will calculate the number of smoke free days for you. I was active a lot in the online community posting questions and providing support where I could.

The first few weeks were rough. I chewed and chewed my Nicotine gum, but was at least happy that the amount of gum reduced to just three chews a day. The Reddit community spoke about Alan Carr and his easyway to quit smoking. I thought I’d give it a try. I didn’t want to buy the book, so I did what any money saver would do. I searched on YouTube to see if I could find an Audio book of it. And I did. I listened to about half of the book. I didn’t even get to his quitting steps and the information Alan provided was enough for me to quit the Nicotine gum.

I quit the Nicotine gum on day 32. It was then that I decided that I would no longer waste my time on any Nicotine product. I went to the super market and bought a packet full of sweets, sugar-free gum and chocolates. I was in for a rocky road ahead.

Surprisingly, the road ahead wasn’t that rocky. Sure, the odd craving came, but 5 minutes later, it was gone. It was this thought that helped me get through a craving. When I would get a craving, I would tell myself in 5 minutes it will be gone…so stick it through.

The quit days became weeks, and the weeks became months and I sit here proud to say that I am smoke free for one year! There are obvious benefits to quitting. We know about the financial benefits and our non-smoker friends and family will all too often remind us of the health reasons for quitting. What stood out for me, as a quitter, was my sense of taste and smell. Not only did food taste better, but for the first time in a long time it was a pleasurable experience. I think this is because as a smoker, our appetite is suppressed and eating is more a formality. But as a quitter, biting into that burger and truly satisfying my hunger was an experience that I would not give up by failing to quit.

These wins are what motivated me to continue to remain quit. As the months went by it became easier and easier. Initially, I counted the days and was well aware that I was on day 67 for instance. But as the time went, I lost track and only checked into Reddit’s stopsmoking now and again to be made aware about what day I am on.

Here is the thing. I can’t tell you to quit smoking. I did it for 10 years. In fact, I hated it when some condescending non-smoker prick would tell me to quit. I can only share my story. I figured that it didn’t cost me money to start smoking (besides the cost of the cigarette itself), and it sure won’t cost me money to quit (by taking some medication or trying some other quitting scheme). I was determined to quit on my own, and I did…. for good.

By the way, the friend I made the deal with, also quit. He still however uses the E-cigarette, but I will continue to encourage him to quit Nicotine for good.

Feel free to reach out on social media and I will help where I can.

Take care, Anwyll.

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By the way, I used an app on my Windows Phone called Quit Smoking and took a screenshot. This is just after one year of nonsmoking! Lets put the magnitude into perspective for a second here! 7300 cigarettes not smoked! 7300! Let us say that again.....7300! If I were to buy a year's worth of 20 packs, and unpack 7300 cigarettes in my house, I would surely make a massive mess!

Now, to consider the R 12 775 saved. As of writing (26/01/2016), this equals $775 USD. I am sure cigarettes cost more in the US, but R 12 775 is enough to buy a brand new Chinese motorcycle in my country. That is equal to a decent apartment in upperclass Sandton for one month! I could feed 2 people for 6 months easily with that amount of money. That is amazing!!

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