Put That Fag Out!: When I gave up smoking, Mrs. B said, "I suppose I'll have to stop as well?"
"No," I replied, "if the shoe was on the other foot, I wouldn't."
And there are often times, even now, when I am in the newsagents queue waiting to buy the paper, looking at the rows of cigarette packets, and the yearning is still there.
Once a smoker, always a smoker, they say.
They are right.
A still-struggling non-smoker a couple of months on, I asked my doctor what else there was on the market as support after the gum and patch medication had had its day?
"There's nothing!" he said, bluntly, and with finality in his voice.
So, if we get past a certain level using the nicotine based products, there's nothing else?
Right.
Nothing else.
So, I had to find my own, because the way the world had turned with the smoking ban, it was no fun standing outside a concert venue, supermarket, shopping centre, wherever; in the freezing cold, snow, or rain, having a crafty drag.
Also, I had achieved something I never believed I could, and I didn't want to throw that achievement away with just one puff on a ciggy.
The alternatives I found, worked.
Despite the craving still being there, and it always will be, because nicotine never gives up, I put my alternatives; (well, they weren't alternatives, really, as the doctor's had nothing whatsoever on offer;) into a book, and I hope that if you try giving up, they help you stick with it, too.
There's nothing worse than driving past a firm seeing the employees in a huddle on the pavement having a fag break. It's far better being in the warm, looking out of the window at them.
Give this book a try, and you can be in the warm looking out of the window, too.
It's on Amazon.
So if you're thinking of kicking it for the New Year, get a copy now and be ready for the big day.