Debating with Self

There is much debate on the new Health Insurance Reform, formerly known as Health Care Reform, nothing is set in stone yet, but one of the interesting piece of legislature being looked at will tax ‘High Risk Lifestyles’. Included in that lifestyle are things like cigarettes, cigars, high calorie items like cheeseburgers, sodas and junk food, and of course other high risk items such as cars, yachts and personal planes.

I bring this up only because in my attempts to stop smoking, I may, in fact, be using some of these items, and may be considered someone with a high risk lifestyle. My original reason for quitting smoking was because a pack of cigs went up over $5, and I’m cheap and refuse to pay that for a bad habit. Now I find out that the substitutes will also be taxed and prices will go up, and I’m beginning to reconsider this notion of not smoking.

In my previous hub, I mentioned that eating has slowly replaced smoking, and just for the record I want to state that at the beginning of this process, I was a healthy 130lbs. Not that this should change, but if things continue as they have for the past couple of days, you never know.

What to do with your hands

To change a bad habit requires a change in your lifestyle. Every stop smoking literature makes it a point to change your eating habits, your daily routines, clean out your ashtrays, and stay busy to keep your mind off the urge to pick up a cigarette. What they don’t tell you is that smoking, to some, is partly subconscious, or an automatic behavior. As a smoker you are used to holding a cig in your fingers, even if it’s not the entire seven minutes, you are used to smoking after eating, or when you are stressed. So when you stop, or are trying to stop smoking, your hands subconsciously want to do something.

Here are a few things I have personally tried:

Play with a pencil.

Grab one end of the gum in your mouth and wrap it around your fingers.

Twirl you hair.

Chew your nails.

File your nails.

Paint your nails.

Paint a picture.

You get the idea, Fortunate for me, I dabble in the arts, and do occasionally stay busy painting. I can, on good days, waste a few hours playing in paint. My subconscious however, is in overtime, I wonder if I smoke in my sleep?

Other things to do

There are some who advocate exercise as an aid in the quest to stop smoking, and although I admire anyone who can run miles without panting, I have never been a big fan of exercising. I have been known to do a few leg lifts, and elbow bends, but overall, the most exercise I get is climbing up and down two flights of steps taking out the garbage.

There are articles which insure that you can break a bad habit in 21days by just imagining yourself in a habit free environment, or by writing down your goals, or by staying away from people and places who feed your habit. These people obviously had never smoked.

On this my 3^rd day of trying to stop smoking, I realize that I may not be the kind of strong willed individual I thought I was, and, in my mind there is less pleasure in the substitutes that in actually lighting up. I have come to the conclusion that I am an addict, I have a bad habit, and until I can find something of equal value, I will continue to be an addict. My quest will continue, until I will somehow transform in to politically correct non smoker, even if on the way I end up living a ’high risk lifestyle’.

Day 3 ends with me smoking the 3 cigarettes I had left, in my previously taped box of Marlboros on my computer. Yikes!