Starting the New Year Right-Part 1

New Year's Eve a lot of people will make a New Year's resolution to start the new year right by getting fit. But when the new year arrives...the day after, well...we all know what happens. Not a lot of people hold to it. But today I'm going to give you some reasons to start a fitness program that will hopefully inspire you to continue on through the new year. I will be writing in parts because there is just to much information for one post.
This first part I will be talking about quitting smoking. Some of my bloggy friends have told me that they would like to quit smoking this year. And they have somewhat inspired me to right my first part of this series on quitting smoking. My series will be about fitness though.
First and foremost...QUIT SMOKING! If you do smoke QUIT! Like that commercial said, "DON'T QUIT QUITTING!" Even if that was the only thing you did this year, that would great in itself! Because that would be the BEST decision you made for yourself this year. I'll tell you what, if you quit smoking NOW, then I'll let you off the beginning of a fitness program for this whole entire year. Because that is how important it is to QUIT SMOKING! Then next year you can worry about the weight you gain from quitting smoking. But the weight you gain out ways the benefits of quitting smoking.
Yes I was a smoker for 14 years. I have quit for 12 years now. I started when I was 14 and quit when I was 27 years old. Right before I quit smoking I was already opening up a second pack of cigarettes a day. I was only 27 years old. If anyone can be really, really addicted to cigarettes, it was me. Oh I just loved that first cigarette in the morning. After the housework was done, I'd love to light up. Oh and right after dinner. I just had to have my after dinner smoke. Then right before you go to bed. Oh and what about this one, when I was younger, if your socializing with you friends and your having a few drinks well, what does a smoker like to do? You got it, light up. And if the others were smoking, it wouldn't take long for the house to become so smoked filled, I'd have to open the windows, even if it was winter time.
And yes, I'm going to be brutally honest here. I did smoke with my children in the house and even when I was pregnant with my first two children. Ahhgg...that was hard to say! I'm not making excuses here, but I was so addicted to smoking. I would get sinus infections all the time, I'll spare you the details of what was coming out of my sinuses. And it would never be just a little cold. I'd be sick for weeks when it should have been just a little cold. It was because I smoked. But I was addicted to smoking and had no intention of quitting. Isn't that sick?
Or sometimes I would lay in be on my back and just feel the burning and the tight feeling you get in your lungs when you are a smoker.
One time I went for a haircut and the beautician said, "Oh gosh did you just have a cigarette?" She could smell it in my hair. But I still didn't want to quit.
There was a time when I was a smoker that I would light up a cigarette after working out in aerobics! I've heard someone talk about freezer vegetables being more healthy than canned when this woman was a smoker. Doesn't make a bit of difference when their a smoker. But who was I to judge?
There were so many stories but this is just a post and not a book. But I think you can get an idea of what I'm saying here.
Just one day, in the morning after my morning coffee, I felt like I was going to pass out. I seen blackness swirling before my eyes. And I said, "That's it. I quit smoking." I remember putting out my last cigarette. It was almost finished.
I quit cold turkey. That little incident made me so scared but also probably saved my life. At least to live a little longer and with a better quality of life.
Right before I quit, my grandmother C. died. I wrote a letter to her to put inside her coffin. I asked her to ask the Lord to watch over me.
Soon after she died is when I quit smoking. And then somehow is when I fumbled through the R.C.I.A. program in the Catholic church and became Catholic. I found out a short time after being Catholic that it is a mortal sin to smoke. Then I got to thinking about that letter I put into my grandmother's casket. The letter was for my grandmother but also asked her if she could ask God to watch over me.
I can clearly see looking back that God did have a part in me quitting smoking whether I wanted to or not.
But anyway, I know what a smoker is going through and the struggles they will have to face with their initial quitting. But it can be done. I'm living proof.
I would suggest to drink lots of water while you quitting smoking. Have a bowl full of Jolly Rancher's up on your kitchen counter. You don't need to replace smoking with something else bad. There is life after smoking as a non smoker. The excuses that run through your mind not to quit, don't forget that that is just the addiction talking and you need to understand that. You will have some cravings. You will get to a point where you'll crave for a cigarette once a year and then once every few years. But the cravings will go away. Soon after you quit, days will go by and you'll look back and be amazed that you have not thought of smoking nor craved for one for a few days. Then a few weeks, and on and on. Also, once you quit, there is no smoking in your house by no one. If family or guest want to continue to smoke, then they have to go outside. Why should you be in your own home with smoke when you yourself don't smoke? Don't ever allow it.
I can't believe I use to be so addicted to cigarettes because now I can't stand the smell of smoke. It's so weird.
I do look back and have terrible regrets for smoking by my family and loved ones. The best thing that I did for myself and them, was to quit smoking. It breaks my heart to think that I did that even to this day. But I have been smoke free now for 12 years.
I hope that my little story has encouraged or inspired someone out there to QUIT SMOKING! If you have any questions, please feel free to comment or you can e-mail me. Good luck and lets start off this brand new year right!
I'm signing off...form Peek-A-Boo Street!