I used to smoke. And when I mean smoke at one point I was up to about two packs a day. Then when my son was 3 months old I decided to stop and got the smoking patch. It helped out a lot till I went back to work and got around all my smoking friends and the stress of working a restaurant job until 2am, then getting up with my son every hour. So unfortunately I started up my old habit again. I felt really bad about starting up again, even though I never smoked around Cody I knew you could still smell it on me. I always said I would quit later and that I was still young. Then a good friend of mine decided to show me the bad side of smoking.
One day my friend called me up and asked if I would go to a funeral with her. I thought it was a weird request but she said she needed someone to go with and her husband was out of town. So I went and when we got there I found out the gentleman that had passed away was 40 years old and had died of lung cancer and had been a smoker. I soon realized why she had invited me.
During the funeral I watched as his 13 year old son cried and cried, all I could think of was right now I am 30 and Cody is 3 and ten years from now that could be us. That's when I realized that when they say smoking doesn't just affect the smoker it affects everyone was true. I know at some point I will move on and leave my son, but I did not want it to be because of something I could have prevented.
I sat there and cried not in mourning of the passed away gentleman but of the 13 year old little boy who will never see his father again. I want to see my son grow up, go on his first date, graduate and get married not leave him at a young age. It was at that point I decided that I wanted to quit, no that I had to quit not just for me but for my son.
As of right now I have been smoke free for four months. Yes I have had temptations and yes I did gain weight because food taste better now and every time I wanted a cigarette I would eat. But now I even have that under control. I have decided to change my whole life around, I don't smoke and even got my boyfriend to stop, and we now exercise and eat healthy. But it isn't easy to quit and from what I have heard from other smoker that quit, for the rest of my life I will have temptations, but I will also have the picture of that little boy without his parent crying in my head.
This time the patch and my determination to want to quit worked for me. But trust me there are plenty of options out there if you want to quit, but first you must really want to quit. Some jobs even offer to pay for the treatments if you want to stop and there are plenty of free website to go on to get help. I have also found it has saved me a lot of money!! And who doesn't like to save money.
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