Hi,
I haven't blogged for a while so I thought I would today.
Well I have now managed 22 weeks of not smoking. It does need to be noted though, that without my e-cig I would never have achieved that. I take my hat off to anyone who manages without some kind of substitute but we all have to find the best way for us as individuals.
I have a colleague at work who has been using the same e-cig as myself for almost as long and yesterday we had a chat about how things were going for both of us. I had to laugh because she had 3 e-cigs in her hand. I asked her why she had so many and she told me that she keeps losing them so buys a new one when this happens. Then she finds the one that was missing. Anyway, the main things is, I think, that like myself she is still not smoking. I'm about 25 years older than her. As individuals we have our own reasons for wanting to stop smoking and sometimes there is a driving force. For myself it is that I do want to live a long life and don't want to be plagued with health problems. I think that compared to some people I am probably quite healthy but I want to do the best I can to keep it that way for as long as possible. I am also concerned about those I am close to and also anyone else who may have been affected by my smoking habit. I have younger sisters, for example and was well pleased when I told one of them that I wasn't smoking anymore. I'm quite a bit older than my sisters and I suppose that since our mum died, even if only symbolically, I am kind of a mother figure. Bar the youngest none of them have ever smoked and like myself they watched our mum die from a disease that is smoking related. I would never want them to watch me die that way, not if I can help it. So these kind of things drive me to stay not smoking.mok
I was perhaps lucky that as soon as I stopped smoking, and I mean within 24 hours, I noticed a difference. I began to sleep better, stopped having problems with cataarh and wasn't so breathless after exerting myself. Over time I've noticed that I am not as effected by pollen and other things that I am allergic too. For the first time in years I don't have to take anti-histermines. It's true, we don't really have summers anymore but I was sometimes having to take something all year around. On the down side I have put on weight but I'm working on that and I think I've reached the peak, so to speak. The worse things, so far, have been dealing with other people who still smoke at work and issues that I have with anxiety. I work in a very high pressured, stressful job with an equally stressful work environment but that is the same for many these days and I refuse to allow that to be a reason to ever go back to smoking. It took a while to work out in my mind that these things are going to be the same whether I smoke or not and I'm finding that as time goes on I am beginning to look at how to deal with those issues for what they are.
Another colleague of mine said something yesterday that brought a smile to my face. She said that no matter how hard things got(in terms of work) I should remember that I had given up smoking. That made me feel so good about myself. She doesn't smoke and I don't think a lot of people who don't smoke realise just how hard it is to stop. For someone who has never smoked to acknowledge that fact is so important.
I had another chat with another colleague yesterday. Did a lot of chatting yesterday......lol. She smokes and has bought herself an e-cig. Spent quite a bit of money on it, but is yet to try it. I sensed that she feels that she needs to hold on to the smoking because perhaps for her it is something that she has a choice about. For no one is forcing her to smoke. It is purely her choice. In life today I think there is a definite feeling that many things are forced upon us but in my reality I don't think that is the case. Again, I think that because I am having to change my thinking in terms of smoking I am also changing how I think about other things.
Okay well I think that is enough of my sometimes profound thinking for one blog.
Sally... 
17 Days off the Cigs,17 Days on The E Cigs.
Just a little hello😊 
