Etzel's Quitting Smoking Journal

'sup everyone.

So today I decided to quit smoking. I made a 100€ bet with a friend that I could stay away from nicotine for a full month and you too can bet your ass I'm going through this until the end. Aside from the obvious health-related reasons, there is another which drove me to agree to this bet (and even though the 100€ + all the money I can potentially save in say, a year of no tobacco, are all a nice incentive, it has nothing to do with money), namely pride -- I just can't stand any longer the idea of being a little pleasure-seeking and weak-willed slavish loser who can't see beyond a certain balance of chemicals in his addicted brain. I've just had enough of smoking and, as pleasurable an experience as it certainly was, it's time to close this chapter and move on.

However, since I've tried quitting a couple of times already and failed miserably, I'm aware it won't be easy -- but that's honestly an added motivation. After smoking a pack a day for the past 2 and a half years, it's safe to say I've extracted all the pleasure I could from nicotine already. Now it's becoming a mere nuisance.

The point of this thread, then, is to note down my thoughts as I advance through the month. I'll post at least once a day and anyone who wants to comment or fire questions at me is welcome to do it. In the end I hope to have left a journal which will give me a good laugh whenever I decide to go back in time to read whatever the hell was going trough my head while quitting what is purportedly such a hard drug to quit. I'll also make it seem so fun that whoever ends up reading this will be hard pressed to quit smoking just for the hell of it. And the non-smokers will start smoking just so they can go through all the trouble of quitting. So stay tuned.