Are you a smoker? Have you ever thought about quitting, but you always found some excuses not to do it? Or have you tried quitting but nothing really worked?

If you’ve read Allen Carr’s book – “Easy way to stop smoking” – but somehow it’s not that easy when you’re the one who needs to quit… if you’ve tried electric cigarettes, ear acupuncture etc., but haven’t managed to quit with any of them… Don’t worry, you’re not the only one: I’ve done all of the above as well. Until I realized that the only way to quit smoking is to really want to quit and to rely solely on myself – than on any type of products and services I can find on the market.

I smoked my last cigarette in the airport

It was October 24^th 2013. The day before, I had told myself that the following day would be my last day as a smoker. I had come to the point where I really wanted to quit. I felt I wanted to quit for myself rather than for the sake of the family and close friends who had been wanting me to quit for a while.

I was in the Henri Coanda International Airport, expecting to board on my flight from Bucharest to Amsterdam. That’s when I told Mr. Fox I would be smoking my last cigarette. He would have wanted to believe it, but I’m pretty sure a part of him was looking at me in utter disbelief. I hadn’t bought cigarettes that day, so I went to a smoking cubicle and asked two Dutch-speaking men to please give me a cigarette, while mentioning that it would be my last cigarette ever… As you might imagine, they started laughing. Interestingly enough, I couldn’t even smoke half of the cigarette. My mind was made up! I didn’t want to smoke anymore!

The revival of the non-smoker

The first two weeks after having stopped smoking were hardcore from headaches, coughing, cramps, nausea and sweaty hands. I’m not going to ponder over these symptoms, otherwise I would totally crush the “about beautiful” theme of our blog ;) But I will be honest in telling you that you can expect all of this if you quit cold turkey. The best part of it is that, once the symptoms fade away and you crave less, you feel so immensely powerful and so proud of yourself! You feel like a reborn. You feel like, if you were able to do this, you can do everything. 

Most importantly, since I stopped smoking, I exercise twice as much and I became more interested in sports, healthy eating & lifestyle. I cannot emphasise enough how much happier I am since then and also how my skin looks healthier, my strength, my drive and energy levels are higher.

I feel it was an ambitious decision that brought about a chain of improvements in many other areas of my life, thus I’ve started meeting with my friends for dinner on October 24^th, having fun and celebrating yet another year of being a non-smoker. There’s always a reason to celebrate, isn’t it?

Proud,

Manu

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