One month without smoking!

And it feels great. Seriously, seriously great! I never thought I would be able to go through with it. I did speak with a lot of people who quit smoking, and frankly, the method was always the same: quitting cold turkey.

I have tried many times to reduce, with no success. The longest I was able to reduce was for a week, when I cut from 10 to 5 cigarettes per day. The thing is, if I have them, I smoke them. There is no such thing as reduction. I knew the only possible approach for me was to cut it once and for all, and so I did.

To be honest, it was very spontaneous: one day I simply didn’t buy cigarettes, and told myself: let’s try to detox for a day. Then, the day became a weekend, the weekend became a week, and here we are, one month later.

In a month, my breath capacity has dramatically improved: I am able to complete three full sets of burpees at the gym, I can run (!!!) without feeling like a suicide mission, and well, no more shortage of breath at the end of the stairs.

To all of you out there who think it’s impossible: it’s not, I assure you. It’s going to be hard, very hard the first few days, and even harder when you’re drinking, surrounded by smoking friends. The secret is to focus on how great you’re going to feel, if you just keep going, one hour at a time, one day at a time.

Waking up with no chest pain, or shortage of breath, or heavy chest, is truly priceless. I am still very, very tempted, but the cravings are less and less every day, and, more importantly, I started believing in myself once again.

Now looking forward for another month!