Two weeks ago I decided to quit smoking.

In the last two weeks I have felt stressed, happy, angry, tired and like I was saying goodbye to my best friend. I have smoked since I was 18, my 'cool' brother offered me my first smoke. I think I kept smoking to be 'cool' as well. I couldn't have been more wrong. Smoking did not bring me a status of being cool. It gave me a status of having a lot less money than I could have had being a non smoker, it gave me less time to live, less time in the day and it gave me the opportunity to hear people say - "eww, what's that smell?" With this all in mind, I still absolutely loved smoking. It felt like a great stress reliever, it gave me something to do if I was early for an appointment and it gave me something to do when socialising with other smokers.

Source

The price of smokes have increased an incredible amount in Australia over the last few years. When I first started I am pretty sure the price of a packet of 25 cigarettes was around the $15.00 - $16.00 mark, now they are sitting at around $25.50 at my local super market. The government has essentially priced me out of smoking. Which to be honest is probably a good thing. I am a relatively new father and I feel bad that my eight month old would be smelling cigarette on me.

The first week felt pretty easy to be honest. I wouldn't think about smoking at work and when I got home I was distracted enough to pass through any cravings that came my way.

The second week is where I started to unravel. My partner and I thought we were doing really well however were still having cravings. We spoke to each other and decided that we could have one a day and enjoy a smoke without going back to buying a pack a day to share because well, look how well we did the first week!

SourceOur first couple of days turned out okay. We had our one smoke a day and life was great. It was wonderful going to work and not thinking about smoking and then coming home and enjoying some time with my partner talking and having a smoke together. Then, I went on leave from work for the Christmas period. There were no more distractions. We had friends and family with us who were smoking and a couple of smoke here and there would have hurt, right?

Well they did, we are back to smoking. Not how we were with 15+ a day. We are having maybe three our four a day which is better but still not what I want. We have decided to quit smoking again as of 08/01/2018. Well I have any way.

I would love your support

I am not trying to ask you to up-vote the post or share it with all of your friends. All I ask is that when/if I post an update about my journey through quitting smoking, you leave a word of inspiration or a share an experience to help drive me towards the right thing.

Thank you very much for reading Steemian, you are the best!