Saturday, August 25, 2007

i quit!

no, i'm not going to quit blogging. but it's high time i gave up cigarettes.

i never planned to still be smoking into my 30s. now that i'm 31, that means it's time to get serious about kicking the habit. i'd already done what i could to cut way back—for several weeks, i've been down to about 5 or 6 cigarettes a day—so last night i took the next step and bought a box of nicorette (chosen because i can control my dosage better than i could with, say, the nicotine patch). if things go well, i'll never smoke another cig again.

if you've never chewed nicotine gum before, it's a uniquely disgusting experience. it tastes pretty good when you first pop it in your mouth, but by the time you're done with it a half-hour later, your mouth is saturated with that dirty, mesquite-grilled, "just smoked a cigarette" mouthfeel. and you're not supposed to eat or drink anything while chewing (or 15 minutes before), so you can't suck down soda to eliminate the taste until you've spit it out. on the other hand, this grossness could be a good thing, as i certainly don't want to keep chewing this crap forever...

4 comments:

Doug said...

Good luck, man!

Not an endorsement, but as it happens, I was reading a Men's Health magazine today -- it's not Dostoyevsky, but it's a guilty pleasure -- anyway, one of their squibs mentioned that folks who had friends send them messages a few times per day encouraging them on their effort to quit enjoyed a noticeably higher rate of success.

Just, for what it's worth.

Unknown said...

dad hated the gum too but eventually he quit.
I'm proud of you! I'm sure virago is pretty happy too.
you can do it

arratik said...

having been there not too long ago, i realize that a 100+ piece box of nicotine gum is a big investment, but fwiw nicorette fruit chill is actually pretty tasty. for nicotine gum, that is. it helped me.

good luck with it!

stAllio! said...

the mint flavor tastes just fine... for the first 15 minutes. it's just the last 10 minutes or so, after the flavor has been sucked away and just the nicotine remains, that's kind of gross.

i was actually interested in the fruit chill, but i don't know if they have it at my local cvs. (the person behind the counter was not exactly knowledgeable.)