#QuitStories Jeff's Story

My journey began with my 5 year old son inspiring me to quit. I vowed to him that I would quit by the time I turned 30. 

• Later that spring, my father had a bout of congestive heart failure, he was a lifetime smoker. 
  This also prompted me to quit for good! 

My boss also inspired my quit plan. He had recently quit (being a 4-pack-a-day smoker) cold turkey and was able to set the cigarette money aside and after one week he realized that he had over $175.00 in his dresser. This plan was something tangible for me. So a lot of these pieces were how I was able to come up with my plan to quit smoking.

I picked December 1as my quit date and I set this well, well in advance because I no longer wanted to freeze outside when I was smoking. I'm tired of going outside to smoke in the cold! Half of the cigarette money I saved went into an RRSP and the other half initially went to pay for the nicotine patch. 

I was quite successful for my first four days. After the fourth day I did have a very, very strong craving to smoke triggered by stress and broke down, bought a pack of cigarettes and smoked 8 cigarettes in a row. After that eighth cigarette, I realized that I was still stressed. It was at that moment that I realized that I no longer needed cigarettes. I threw out all materials and haven't touched one since. I exchanged 1 and a half packs a day smoking to 2 packs of gum a day.

Resources:

• Tobacco - Getting Help - KFL&A Public Health
• Become Tobacco Free - KFL&A Public Health