It's a beautiful, cold Monday morning here in New England. As I was walking the dogs this morning, inhaling that nice, fresh ocean air, I ruminated on that damnable Yahoo story about the smoking habit of the President Elect. He has, according to Tom Brokaw, fallen off the wagon a few times. So, being a reformed smoker myself, I'd like to offer some tips to the President Elect, and will welcome yours below!
Ah the allure of cigarettes. I lit up my first one on a summer day out behind Line Street School with three of my neighborhood girlfriends. I was 12, and the beautiful white cigarette with the swirly green lace around the filter was an "EVE" cigarette. Marketed as a competing brand for Virginia Slims women who had "come along way" - We girls liked the packaging of the Eves, so one of us went into Mac's Store and told him they were for her mother (all of our mothers smoked in those days). And then we snuck out (snecked out?) behind the elementary school and all three of us lit up. Euwww, koff, gross. But we finished the whole pack in the next three days anyway. I wasn't completely hooked. I didn't like the smoking gang at the junior high and I was't thrilled about keeping company with the hoods on Butt Corner across the street from the high school, so I gave it up by the end of the summer. I was much happier swimming and reading novels in my room.
Fast forward 10 years, by which time I had hit the bar scene in Philadelphia, where smoking was de rigeur. It was that scene that got me hooked. I smoked on-and-off for the next 15 years. I wasn't a heavy smoker, but I easily put away a pack a day for a few years, especially on weekends.
Anyway, let's jump ahead to the part where I quit - the original plan was wait until cigarettes hit $2.00 a pack. Well that benchmark came and went and the additional costs were rationalized without a lot of fanfare.
My ultimate quitting plan was called five after five. And my husband, who liked cigars while riding the mower around his farm, but didn't do cigarettes, encouraged me to go ahead and quit already! So I enacted the plan wherein I would absolutely wait until 5:00 p.m., and have my first cigarette with my first screwdriver of the evening. I then parceled out the next four over the rest of the evening and, ususally by 9:00 p.m. I was finished.
I then set a goal of quitting on New Year's Day, 1997. And it really wasn't hard. I liked the smell of my hair in the morning and I was no longer distracted by the first coffee and cigarette of the day. I still looked forward to 5:00, but it really became part of a quitting plan rather than part of a lifestyle plan.
So now, 11 years later, I am happy to report that I have never fallen off the smoking wagon - although some times I think about what it would be like to have a cigarette.
I would love for others to share their quitting stories (or stories about why they haven't quit) It's a crippling addiction, but yet it takes years to really cripple - and in the meantime, the pleasure factor tends to outweigh the long-term health risks.
I was glad to read that Hillary Clinton was the person who enacted the White House no smoking policy, and I would love to see President Elect Obama live the rest of his life without having to step outside for a quick Marlboro.
Five after five worked for me, what worked for you? Let's help President Elect Obama quit smoking and let big tobacco find someone else to be their poster person!