One Year of No Cigarettes – Feels Good

It has exactly been one year today since I decided to give up smoking for good. It was on my Birthday last year, December 13th, that I last had a cigarette and have now successfully completed an entire year of no cigarettes. Was it tough? Yes, definitely and took a lot of will power to stay away from smoking. The battle however is not yet won because this isn’t the first time that I have given up cigarettes. I had done it before and it is actually the second time that I have not had a cigarette for an entire year. I have done it before but the last time I failed eventually and started to smoke again. So the challenge now is to not fall back to old ways.

I always say that cigarettes are like your girlfriend. When you smoke, they are like those bitchy, crazy, poisonous, clingy girls that every guy so badly wants to get rid of but she won’t just let go. This is truly how it is. Everyone who smokes wants to give it up but the habit just won’t let you off the hook. And the moment you decide to make that decision to quit finally, it is no more the clingy girl you want to dump. It then turns into the love of your life that you miss at every step of your life; and so badly want to get back to.

Luckily for me though, I was able to not give up on my resolution for 2018. I am still not smoking and to be honest, I don’t even miss cigarettes anymore. Yes there is still that occasional moment when I miss smoking; like when out on trips with friends, sitting around a bonfire on when in a party. But except for these few moments, I think I can say I have given up on the habit and still have the resolve to keep it so.

Nicotine gums were a great help indeed and I think without the gums, I would have struggled even more to quit finally. But the thing is that the gums can only help if you truly want to quit. In the end, it is your will power that counts. Nicotine gums can only “help” you quit but it cannot “make” you quit. That part you will have to do on your own. There will be moments when your body will crave for nicotine and you will have to make a choice to either chew on a gum or light a cigarette. The choice you make in those moments will finally decide whether or not you will be able to quit forever or not.