I'm no quitter

I'm no quitter!

I'm quitting smoking. Tomorrow. No, seriously. I'm quitting smoking on Mother's Day for my children. They are my best motivation. I quit each time I was pregnant and nursing, but always drifted back. I'm not the kind of smoker who can have one cigarette a day, or only smoke when I drink, or smoke only on weekends. In fact, once when I was trying to be the kind of smoker that only smoked when drinking, I had a very drunken month. I actually drank more to smoke. I'm an all or nothing smoker, and truth be told, I'd have a cigarette burning all day long if I was able to smoke as much as I wanted.

So I thought I should write some good reasons to quit smoking besides the whole lung cancer, emphysema, heart attack, high cholesterol, and dying early thing. Those are all really good reasons to quit smoking, but heck, I knew about all that when I started smoking and that didn't stop me. In fact, all the kids who started when I started knew about these things. We are rebels. We thumb our noses at health!

Reason #1
I stink. I can't smell it anymore because the smoke and nicotine has burned out my olfactory senses. That piece of gum that I chew when I'm going to be around people does not help. I like to think it does, but it doesn't. I know this because for a time I wasn't smoking and my hubby was. He smelled like poop, literally. It was gross.

Reason #2
Time. It takes a lot of time to smoke. It's amazing how much time is wasted by taking smoke breaks. Especially, if you smoke like I do. Most of my day is a smoke break.

Reason #3
It's isolating. We smokers are a dying breed. There is almost no place where we are allowed to smoke. We can't even smoke in bars anymore. It's just not that much fun to smoke outside when it's snowing in Iowa. Trust me. Even in my own home it isolates me from my family. I have designated smoking places: outside, the garage, and an attic room that has good ventilation. I don't smoke around the kids if I can help it so I spend a lot of time smoking and being away from my kids.

Reason #4
I feel like shit. Smoking gives me headaches, acid reflux, fatigue, and the ever present and lovely smoker's hack. It's very attractive. I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired.

So there ya go. Reasons to quit smoking.

A friend of mine called me a quitter. It made me laugh out loud. Yeah, I could continue to unapologetically smoke in this world. Smoking in our culture now says something about you. It says, yes I stink, and I'm isolated, and against all medical advice I will suck on this thing until I get cancer or have to talk out of one of those little boxes, or until I have to wheel an oxygen tank behind me. That's not really the impression I would like to give folks.