Quitting Smoking - the very BEST Health Decision I make every single day!

The day after my 40th birthday, I quit smoking! We had a birthday party for me (to include a water-slide) and I knew I wasn’t going to be smoke-free then, so I decided to quit the day after!

I had been smoking on and off since I was 15 years old. Sometimes the girls and I will play "well, what if" and for me, it's difficult to say "if I never smoked" because if I never smoked, I would not be the person I am today. I would not have met and developed the relationships I have with some of my friends and Jon. I would be a different me. Thankfully I am now a smoke-free me. An almost 4 year smoke-free me!

How did I do it? Well, for me, I believe it was the perfect trifecta of turning 40, taking a magical anti-depressant drug, and reading "Allen Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking"!

As a smoker, I could really relate to the book. Allen Carr recognizes smokers are truly smart people who are addicted to nicotine. As a former smoker himself, he knows all the negative ad campaigns telling smokers the horrible things that they are doing to their bodies don’t work. Because they don’t. Allen addresses the physical addiction of nicotine and the emotional addictions to the act of smoking.

In the book, Allen says once you are done you are done. So he says, go ahead and smoke while you are reading the book. If that means you read one page a day and it takes a year, then that is fine. I know for myself, I am one cigarette away from utter chaos. I am addicted to nicotine. Just like one sip of wine is detrimental to an alcoholic, one drag off a cigarette is detrimental to a smoker. 

There are moments I miss smoking. I really enjoyed drinking wine and smoking a cigarette outside in the spring or the fall. I miss just hanging out with friends for hours while drinking and smoking. I would be lying if I said otherwise.

But I LOVE waking up feeling good! I LOVE not smelling like smoke! I LOVE not getting sick as often! I LOVE not seeing nicotine stains on my fingers!

So when you are ready, I encourage you to quit too. Everyone makes the choice at their perfect time and I do recommend you have the book by your side when you take the leap. Your body and brain will thank you!

My sister-in-law shared this poster with me (it was the guy actually) and I had it hanging on my pantry door. I found it to be very motivating to see how my body was repairing itself by being smoke-free.