Year of Gratitude - Day 123 - Quitting Smoking

When I was 26, I decided I needed to quit smoking. It makes me happy to hear that more and more people are either quitting smoking or never picking it up. It was a very nasty and expensive habit to have. That is not to say that I don't smoke every once in a while - drinking will make you do stupid things like that. I am grateful I made the change regardless.

Here are some of my past blog posts about the struggle of quitting:

• Book Review: Thank You For Smoking - this book was awesome and a motivator to stay away from Big Tobacco. 
• Smoking and Suffering
• Smoking: Worst. Habit. Ever.

Reason #4923 to quit smoking: cigarette litter

Originally posted January 19, 2008. It's much more relevant in Michigan since the smoking ban was enforced May 1, 2010.

This came through one of Wayne State University's electronic discussion lists. Good information and yet another reason to heap on the the pile of reasons to stop killing yourself while increasing Big Tobacco's profits.

Many people who would never consider throwing candy wrappers on the ground almost automatically flick away their cigarette butts. Cigarette butts may look like small bits of litter, but they're a big problem for all of us.

Some surprising facts about cigarette litter:

• About one of every three cigarette butts ends up as litter.
• Think butts are biodegradable? Think again. Filters are made of cellulose acetate and may take up to 25 years to break down.
• In the United States, cigarette butts account for more than 176 million pounds of litter every year.
• Worldwide, more than 4.5 trillion cigarette butts become litter each year.
• 80 percent of littered butts end up in our waterways, which they pollute with such potentially harmful chemicals as cadmium, lead and arsenic.
• Cigarette butts have been found in the stomachs of fish, whales, birds and other marine animals. These creatures risk poisoning from the toxins in cigarette butts as well as blockage of their digestive systems.

Only smokers can stop cigarette litter. Dispose of cigarette butts in an appropriate receptacle.

Thanks for the Sore Throat

My friend Ryan Ladell always sends out a message after his shows thanking everyone who attended. I attended one of those shows and I'd also like to thank some people. I'd like to thank the bar I was at, the Liquor Box, for having terrible air circulation. I'd also like to thank all the smokers that surrounded me with their death smoke. This show was on Saturday. Today is Monday. My throat continues to be sore. So, thanks everyone. Thanks for helping me march toward death a little quicker.

Book Review: Thank You For Smoking

Thank You For Smoking

By Christopher Buckley

This book was really great for me for a variety of reasons. The reading of it was perfectly timed. The writing of it was masterfully done and playful all the while. The characters' behaviors are absurd, but not enough to be unrealistic. The book really picks up about halfway through. It was very quick reading and I never once thought about my 50-page rule. Plus, as evidenced in this review, this book was a very personal reading experience for me.

Nick Naylor, the main character, is a tobacco lobbyist and a brilliant one at that. However, he's on the hot seat at work right up until he gets kidnapped and tortured by "gaspers", those who are crusading against Big Tobacco. He somehow spins it and becomes a, well, I guess a hero in the land of tobacco? It's strange and bizarre.

Nick's a player and he's always thinking about women. This book had a little bit more sex that I'm comfortable with, but for some reason it didn't piss me off this time. I think the author did a good job of making the sex scenes kind of...cartoon-ish? Babes are attracted to him like moths toward flame. The more raises and responsibilities and pats on the back from "The Captain" Nick gets, the more action he gets. There's a couple of twists and turns and, well, no spoiler here, sorry. The twist is actually pretty easy to spot, but that didn't ruin the novel for me at all.

Finally, he's part of the MOD Squad - the Merchants of Death. It includes him, representing the tobacco lobby, and then a lobbyist for alcohol and for the gun lobby. This bunch is really entertaining as they talk about their work woes. Plus, their friendship is genuine. They're not always nice to each other and they're always honest with each other. Their interactions were my favorite part of the novel.

My boss, Rev. Ice D, recommended this book when he read that I was looking for a pick-me-upper. It was about the same time I reviewed The Natural. I picked that book up thinking "Field of Dreams" and instead got baseball noir. The Natural was great, don't get me wrong, but it was no pick-me-upper. Initially, I really didn't think Thank you for Smoking wasn't either. It was pretty damned funny, but it sort of sent me on a warpath at the same time.

[Warning: The "smoking sucks" rant begins here]

I started reading this book at a very interesting time. In my post Smoking and Suffering, I described how cigarettes effected my health. I was eyeball deep in this book and it was the final straw for me. Although the main character was brilliant in many ways - hustler that would make Jay-Z proud - I knew he and his army of death merchants shouldn't fool me, or anyone! I knew I could be smarter by simply learning from my own experience. I wheezed when I did yoga. I was out of breath at the top of the stairs. I don't need scientific data to tell me smoking is bad - ten years of doing it made that clear! But it shows how the most wealthy and powerful industries can find the smartest people, the best con artists to get the job done. I know that this is a work of fiction, but frankly, it doesn't seem like it's too far off the mark.

Allow me to be honest for a moment: I know that there's people out there waaaayyyyy smarter than I am, but a tobacco lobbyist is NOT one of those people! I shall no longer be yanked around by their stinking propaganda. It is my hope that others can also break free from Big Tobacco's hold. It's hard. It's worth it.

Smoking and Suffering

"Never to suffer would never to have been blessed."
The homeboy Edgar Allan Poe said that. It's one of my favorite quotes by him and it's just right for this matter.

About 9 months ago, I made the most serious attempt to quit smoking to date. I went about 2 months without a single cigarette. I stopped having them after meals, while driving and while having conversations. I started to have one here and there after enjoying some party beverages. Party beverages and cigarettes are natural partners in pleasure.

Smokes were always around, because people that are very close to me continue to smoke. Plus, being that Michigan is stuck in the Dark Ages, you can still smoke in public places. Yet, even though I smoked one here or there, or on a bad night I'd smoke up to five or six, I still kept it under control and continued to not smoke throughout the week.

At the beginning of this month I came across a very strange realization: my body physically rejects cigarettes. I'm not completely sure what happened, but on July 2 I had a cigarette. Just one. Moments later, my mouth began to water and a familiar metallic flavor developed. I ran to the bathroom and vomited. I blamed the chunk-blowing on some Pierogi that I had.

The next day I once again smoked a cigarette. Yeah, I know - it wasn't one of my brightest moments. The exact same thing happened as the day before. Very unpleasant.

At this point one would think that I got the message from my body and maybe took the hint. Instead, on the Fourth of July I enjoyed party beverages at a cookout and smoked at LEAST ten cigarettes. TEN CIGARETTES! No, I did not project vomit after that smoke-off, but something equally lame and crappy happened to me: both of my tonsils became inflamed.

My left tonsil was the first victim of the death sticks. It swelled to the size of a marble and was uncomfortable, but not terribly painful. After a couple days of coughing up colorful mucus, my left tonsil returned to normal size. Meanwhile, my RIGHT tonsil followed its neighbor's lead. Yet, Mr. Right Tonsil came with a vengeance. It swelled bigger. It created more pus and rainbow colored mucus than Lefty. And it hurt. It hurt for days and it hurt a lot. Yesterday my mood was fouled by the fact that the natural act of swallowing saliva included terrible pain at each pass. I couldn't yawn because it required stretching the inflamed tissue, and Mr. Right Tonsil wasn't having that.

After days of not smoking and drinking gallon after gallon of water, I am finally better. The right tonsil is still swollen, but I can swallow easily and am not producing mucus in appalling amounts.

Yawning is still a little bit tough, but I can manage to get a little bit of oxygen to my brain.
Alas, my suffering is my blessing. I'd like to think that this will stop me from smoking in the future, but I'm a realist. I smoked for ten years before getting my head out of the smoking cloud. It is my body that knows what's good for me, while my mind still whispers "Just one won't hurt." Well, turns out, it just might.

The battle rages on.

Smoking: Worst. Habit. Ever.

I continue what is sure to be a life-long battle to dodge smoking. I read this interesting NY Times article about how we can actually break bad habits AND grow brand new brain cells by trying new things and making them new habits. Read more at "Can You Become a Creature of New Habits?" Very cool piece.

This made me think about yet another commercial from the folks at Become An Ex. It's a great, short message: "re-learn life without cigarettes." The website is cool. The advice is good. It's also a little more adult and a little less obnoxious than the Truth, which I respect, but can't help be annoyed with from time to time.

"Quitting cold turkey" is not a plan. It's vague and doesn't provide any guidance. A couple of actions that I take when that dang craving comes around:

• Do yoga, go for a walk, jog or bike
• Play with my BlackBerry (note: very effective, but equally addictive.)
• Chew gum, cinnamon.
• Sit and write: a much better use of the hands
• Grab a book and read
• Get on Google Reader and read
• Chores
• Guzzle water
• Crosswords
• Twirling pencil/pen while driving (note: also effective, slightly dangerous)

Things I've considered, but haven't gotten to them yet:

• Cross Stitch
• Play the piano
• Create a website (well, another one.)

These are actions that can be taken to get closer to the goal of not smoking. Quitting is very difficult, but it's so important.

November: Lung Cancer Awareness Month

Generally, I try to keep my posts non-personal, but one of my personal goals is something I feel strongly about: every smoker should QUIT. This is self evident, but November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month and my glorious alma mater posted this in their electronic newsletter:

Smokers have several strikes against them that help make lung cancer the leading cancer killer in America. For one, the early stages of the disease—coughing, shortness of breath, weight loss, fatigue and coughing up blood—often go undetected because they are common to smokers. In addition, there is the stigma that smokers bring the disease upon themselves. These factors lead to late diagnosis, which is often deadly. The yearly death toll is higher than 160,000, claiming more lives than breast, prostate, colon and pancreas cancers combined. The U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center provides these and other important facts during November, which is Lung Cancer Awareness Month.

Join me in taking deeper, longer breaths - and more of them.