How to Quit Smoking

Anyone who has ever smoked cigarettes as a habit, anyone who has ever reached automatically for a smoke after a large meal, anyone who has ever lit up a cigarette with a shaking hand in the middle of a bad fight or a funeral, anyone who has ever thoroughly enjoyed smoking and drinking a beer at the same time understands how hard it is to stop smoking. And we all know that it is even harder to quit if you really enjoy smoking in the first place. But take it from me. I was smoking over a pack a day and I wasn’t slowing down: two on the way to work in the morning, four on my hour-long lunch break, two on the way home and countless filled ashtrays in the hours filling up prime time television. What I didn’t realize was, I was never really going to want to quit – I was just going to have to realize that I had to. So, in the spirit of helping others achieve what I have achieved over the past three weeks (yes, I am 21 days smoke-free), I going to share some of the thoughts and situations that finally made me crush out that last Camel Light and brush my teeth guiltily for the last time.

I love to sing. I’m not saying that I belong on “American Idol” or that I’m even worth listening to, but the feeling of my voice vibrating over the voice of John Lennon in the car, Debbie Harry in the shower or Neil Diamond at karaoke night is something that I always prided myself in and had fun with. Then, all of a sudden, my favorite Beatles song came on and I couldn’t even sing along with Sir Paul. I was croaking like a sick frog, straining like a laryngitis patient. This was the first clue that I needed to quit smoking. So, there’s Tip #1: If you find that you used to be able to sing and you can’t, maybe you should think about dropping those Marlboros and picking up a glass of water.