Writer's Workshop (trying to catch up) - 20/04/23

I know two in one week - I must be insane

Anyway I will catch up and I will add a reminder that every Tuesday these come out.. and also that Mama is in the USA so I will always be behind....

 

Back to the subject at hand, the prompt that I have chosen is about a time I quit something so here goes.

 

 

Creator: MyriamsFotos| Credit: Pixabay

 

 

So back in the day when this blog was actually still going, I was that mother, the one who smoked. I started smoking in my late teens at unviersity and carried on. I did give up whilst pregnant with both the kids but no matter how hard I tried I couldn't stop.

Until I came to turning 40 - now I'd always told the kids that I would stop at 40 but with the stuff that happened that year and the one before and with at one point my diet consisting of coffee and cigarettes and not much else that didnt happen.

Then one day, I went to a health drop in at work. One of the stalls was a stop smoking stall and as I had always said I would stop I put my name down. Now, I'm not one for doing things with help, I'm very stubborn and prefer to ignore things or do things in my own time so using the NHS stop smoking service was going to be a treat for me. But work had said they would let me go to the drop in weekly with the hospital in work time so really I had nothing to lose. So off I went...

And in August 2019, for the one day I went to the local tribute event , I didn't have any cigarettes - I did however at that time vape and right until the start of lockdown in the following March all I did was vape - which to me seemed the right inbetween step.

Expect it wasn't lockdown happened and I started smoking again - I mean we had no idea what was going to happen and if we were all going to die I'd be happy.

Until I met J, I smoked - not a lot - but after a stressful day in work / via Teams and not in an office I would smoke. One or two a day, sometimes none. I also lied to J and told him that I only had one now  and then with alcohol but I was lying to myself.

I don't remember whether we discussed it or not, but we had a conversation about it and I went cold turkey. Threw away all the lighters, all the vapes, all the cigarettes and since that day - sometime in November 21 I havent had a cigarette since.

So yes, I am now an ex smoker - what have you given up?

BNM