My Latest and Greatest Achievement

I generally try to keep my blog focused on gaming, but today I want to brag on myself for something that is totally unrelated to gaming: I haven't had a cigarette in over a month. There is no bad reason to quit, but I had a particularly good reason to do so: my Dad died in his 50s from COPD that he got because of his smoking. He desperately wanted me to quit smoking throughout his life, but especially after he was diagnosed with the COPD. I tried, but could never do it. I have tried to quit a million times, but I have always used some sort of product that promised to make the quit more tolerable. In fact, I tried a new one this time. Initially, I used Chantix to help me get quit. I took that medicine for 10 days into my quit before I realized that the Chantix, as a nicotine receptor blocker, didn't really do anything unless I chose to smoke. Since I was committed to quitting and since I felt that I had gotten over the worst hurdle, I decided to proceed without the Chantix crutch (not to mention that that stuff is very expensive). I also got a lot of vital information and support from a cold turkey quit website called www.whyquit.com. Anyway, by now, all of the nicotine and all of the Chantix is out of my system. I still think about smoking every day, but the thoughts are becoming fewer and farther between. I know that I have to stay focused and not let my guard down, but that all I have to do to stay an ex-smoker is to never smoke another cigarette.