2 Years of No Smoking

It was exactly 2 years ago today on my Birthday that I decided to give up smoking. It was actually the second time I was making that resolution. The first time I quite was back in 2011 for an entire year, but only to pick up the habit again a year later. In 2017, on December 13th, I decided that it was time for me to give up get rid of cigarettes and this time, forever.

Two years have passed and I am happy that I have been able to keep up with my resolution. I have not had a single cigarette in the last 2 years. There were plenty of times when I almost gave up but by god’s grace and a little bit of willpower, I have been able to keep myself away from it.

Was it difficult? Yes but only for the first few months. I stopped myself in December 2017 and for a good 6 months, until May 2018, Nicotine Gums were my constant companion. For the first 2 months, I used to have a piece of gum in my mouth all the time. Then it slowly started to reduce and after 6 months, I did not even need the gums anymore.

There are several positive changes that I can feel ever since I stopped smoking. The first and biggest one is that the cough is gone. Earlier I could not speak at length for even 30 seconds without clearing my throat. But that constant cough problem is now gone.

I am also able to run better. There is a boost in stamina as well and I can lift weight and do cardio workouts in the gym better than before. The only downside was that I gained a lot of weight after I quit, almost 10 kg because of all the overeating that I substituted cigarettes with. I have successfully been able to lose all that weight as well though. So in short, after 2 years, I can say that I quit smoking successfully. The only challenge now is to keep away from it and not fall back. So the battle is still on.