A lot of people are going to fail their quit smoking attempts today. I quit smoking for good just over four years ago. And not smoking rules. But I had help...
After two prior six-month quit attempts that failed for whatever reasons, the last puff I ever had was on Christmas Eve 2007 and this time it's obviously worked.
I didn't quit because it was a New Year's resolution tough. It just turned out that way, after I spent a large chunk of time with family for Christmas and going a full 24 hours without smoking 'by force', it seemed as good an opportunity as I'd ever get to try and go for another 24 hours instead of heading to the shop when I eventually got back home.
Sure enough 24 hours became 48 hours. But by day three or four, it was getting tough.
Right now it's that time of year when a lot of people are on day three or day four of their quit following New Year's resolutions, and a lot of people are going to either make it through or fail on this very day. (Day three is said to be the hardest and apparently it gets marginally easier once three days' worth of muck is out of the system).
On my day three when I felt that familiar life-controlling craving I resorted to a throwaway Google search in hope of maybe finding something that might keep me focused.
What I found was a site that I truly believe made the difference between success and failure. It's a site which gets into your brain and helps you reframe what you thought you thought about smoking.
The design and navigation is piss-poor, and its name makes no sense (WhyQuit, a site that is not about why you should quit - you already know why - but rather about helping you quit once you already decided to do so).
But persevere and have a look around its various showcase articles and features and you might find its advice life changing for any heavy smoker who wants to quit.
Its no-nonsense, almost militant-like advice is from a guy who's had years of experience in helping people with smoking cessation based on a few very simple principles, and it struck me as quite different from all the fairy-ass advice we usually see puffed about.
It would be good to see health authorities stop wasting people's time and taxpayers' money recommending crap that doesn't work and simply direct people to this site instead.
Happy New Year!