When I started to think about quitting smoking, I took note of my triggers for smoking. Answer the phone or make a phone call, light a cigarette. Have a decision to make, light a cigarette. Get on my computer for anything, light a cigarette. Before meals, after meals, getting dressed. Seems like everything I did had smoking connected to it. One night, while on my computer, I saw that the ashtray was full. I was shocked. I counted the butts, totalled up the cost of what, essentially, had gone up in smoke - as I lit a cigarette, put it down, it burned out, so I lit another. Nothing like a visual aid to knock some sense into me. That's when I asked my doctor for a prescription for Chantix. Took me a bit of time to decide to really do it, after all, I was a long time, hardcore smoker. But I bit the bullet and started the pre-week dosage the week before Thanksgiving.
I'm not saying that changing my behavior has been easy, but in a way it has because I analyzed everything I did that caused me to smoke. It's been hard at times and I've been tempted. But this is the first time in a very long time I decided to quit - didn't make it the last and only time I tried. I guess I really didn't want to nor have I wanted to until I saw that ashtray full of butts. That was, as silly as it seems, my motivation.
