Great topic! Hmm, a few of the more significant ones..
One day at work about six months before I quit, a woman scrunched up her nose in the elevator and commented how it smelled like 'cigarettes and garbage - does anyone else smell that?' I had just come in from having a cigarette. Holy jeez she was talking about me. Humiliation with a capital H.
People always used to look at me like 'you loser' when I'd go in front of the office to have a cigarette and it got to the point that I felt like a real moron after a while. Now when I see people huddled up now against the cold just to have a smoke I always think 'I'm so glad I'm through with that crap!'
My husband and I want children in the next few years. I need to get into training if that's going to happen and refuse to be a smoker during pregnancy or after I have a child. Then too, the thought of being hormonal and trying to quit smoking at the same time was about as horrible as it could get, so what the hell, I stopped on January 1st!
I've had chronic sinusitis for years and most recently had an MRI to try and determine why the right side of my nose was suddenly running like a sieve. The diagnosis? 'Quit smoking, you loser, there's your source.' But, you know - the doctor said it in the nicest way possible.
So that day I went out and bought Allen Carr. Read it, thought about it for a few months and finally quit using NRT anyway (which I now somewhat regret due to the withdrawal disco that accompanied every step down.) Then too, I don't think I'd now be on day 80 had I gone cold turkey, to be honest, but that's a different post!
UK TV advertisements (another different post, have a look they scare the dickens out of you)
My grandmother just died of cancer of the mouth that spread to her brain and caused her a ridiculous amount of pain. My dad has emphysema and is probably within a few years-if not less-of dragging an oxygen tank around behind him, that is if he's still able to walk at that point. I don't want these to be me.
Everyone in my immediate family smokes now except me. I was also the first to get a college degree, so maybe I can start something else here!
And of course there are the standard shiny hair, whiter teeth, stop smelling funky (like garbage! LOL) longer