Today I ran through my bank statements, and realized that I was spending around $80/month on cigarettes. Normally this number wouldn’t phase me for any other commodity, save for the fact that cigarettes are hardly essential, and definitely not beneficial. It’s been an on-again off-again idea of mine to remove smoking from my daily activities. The main difficulty has been in finding enjoyable activities to offset the cravings.
Yes, I can drink water, go for walks, read books, and exercise, but truly, these things are white devils.
So, I tabulated the number of cigarettes I was consuming monthly, and arrived at 200.
Using the information on the side of the pack, the following values are the minimum and maximum amounts of poison I am consuming (per month):
Tar
minimum: 2.2 grams
maximum: 5.2 grams
Nicotene
minimum: 0.2 grams
maximum: 0.24 grams
Carbon Monoxide
minimum: 2.8 grams
maximum: 5.6 grams
Formaldehyde
minimum: 0.0114 grams
maximum: 0.028 grams
Hydrogen Cyanide
minimum: 0.02 grams
maximum: 0.044 grams
Benzene
minimum: 0.0056 grams
maximum: 0.0134 grams
The most upsetting values are tar and carbon monoxide. Up to 5.2 grams of road covering for my lungs in a month? A guaranteed 2.2 grams at the least? Sadly, these values don’t motivate me to immeadiately cast the pack out the window, however I feel like striking a deal midway.
Playing so much guitar, I’ve come to appreciate the value of incremental progress.
Thusly, if I smoke ~6.6 cigarettes/day, I’m willing to call it 5/day, and next month, hopefully only 4/day. And so on. By the time I’m down to 1/day, I may end up skipping days, and my exercise routine will be in full swing.
I suspect the cold turkey faction are a bunch of lunatics. I’ve tried it so many times, it causes me to recall a wonderful quote by Mark Twain:
“It’s easy to quit smoking. I’ve done it hundreds of times.”
and with that, I’m satisfied.
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