Stop smoking: Step 1 - Why?

Hello smokers. Yes, this post is for you. I'm proud to say I was a smoker for 10 years. I have stopped smoking for 5 days now, and I want to share my experience so far with you. I know many of you are thinking of stopping, but you don't know why, and how. Or at least, you don't have a compelling enough reason to stop smoking. Then I'm gonna share what are the side effects that I'm experiencing, and why you are experiencing it. I'm here with you. I feel your pain. Let me guide you.

To start off, why do you need to stop smoking? Couple of reasons:

• Health risks
1. Heart
2. Stamina
3. Reproduction system
4. Cancer
5. Second hand smokers
6. Other major ailments

• Financial
1. I have smoked for 10 years straight now, without skipping. I smoked on average 20 sticks a day. In 10 years, that amounted to RM 27,000 give or take. That's a shitload of money you can save

• Psychological
1. Being a smoker, you need to have that puff in order to think, or to function properly. Without nicotine, you'll be useless. You will be dependent on that drug for the rest of your life
2. You will affect other people around you, especially your loved ones with your mood swings if you don't get your fix

• Physical
1. You smell bad. Your breath smells bad. Your clothes smells bad. You don't realize this, but imagine when you walk in the elevator full of people after you had your fix. It's not the best smell in the world
2. Your fingers will smell afterwards. And it's dirty from the residual tar left behind. Your partner will notice

Now there are a lot more reason that you may have, have read or heard before, but those are the ones which compelled me to stop. On top of all the things I have mentioned above, you need one more. The most important part. You need discipline. And how do you get that discipline? I have found a way, and that way is to find a motivation to encourage me. Now, not only you need a motivation to distract you from thinking about nicotine, but also to get you going, to help absorb the impact from quitting your cigarettes.

Everyone has different motivations. Mine is Nawal. Nawal helps me a lot. She's been a huge part in all this. Right from the beginning. She never asked me to stop smoking. In fact, she loves the smell of cigarette. "But why do you need to stop smoking Aizad?" - because I'm motivated to give us a good life. I'm concerned about my health, concerned about her health, and also our future babies. I put all of that in consideration when I decided to stop smoking. And that's my motivation. You can cheat. There's no doubt you can cheat. But when the thought comes, you'll need that motivation to say NO.

NO, I'VE WORKED TOO HARD FOR THIS. I CAN'T STOP NOW

I hope this will help you find a reason to stop smoking, and a motivation to help you to continue to stop smoking. I will share the rest of the mechanics of quitting cigarette in the next posts