Day 1 of Smoking Cessation...

Today's the first day I'm attempting to go without a cigarette. It sucks. What I'm trying to do is focus not so much on the fact that I really want a cigarette, but on the fact that it's an expensive habit. A pack of smokes here in Connecticut is nearly $8 per pack. If I just smoke one pack a day, that's around $240 per month or nearly $3,000 per year! But I didn't just smoke one pack per day. Sometimes I would smoke close to two packs, but very rarely did I smoke less than a pack on a daily basis.

Cigarettes are not expensive to produce nor sell. A pack of smokes only costs about $0.47 to produce. The gap between the costs to produce and the price at the local convenience store is primarily taxes. And when I smoked, I never voted for a single tax increase on cigarettes nor any tobacco products. Of course, the only reason I didn't vote on these taxes is because I wasn't given the opportunity to vote on them. Like many of our taxes, tobacco taxes are considered a "luxury tax" because tobacco products, liquor, beer, etc. are considered to be products that we really don't need, but we want them for our own pleasure. It's just another shining example of how we allow our government to tax us without any representation. Of course, Congress knows this because a majority of us don't smoke or chew tobacco. Only about ten percent of us do, but we get to pay 100% of the tax. Some would say that this type of taxation is analogous to the healthcare debate, but I'm talking about smoking here, not healthcare.

I'm discovering (although I already knew it) that I'm a "situational smoker". I would smoke while waiting for the coffee to finish brewing. I would then pour myself a cup of coffee, step outside and enjoy another cigarette while watching the news through the kitchen window. If someone called me on the phone, I would grab my smokes and step outside for a cigarette. While driving, I would smoke because it gave me something to do while I complained about all the sucky drivers around town. And if I was drinking, it was just a natural combination. I hated it when various cities started banning smoking in bars. I could understand banning restaurant smoking, but bars?

That was until I had a dear, close friend of mine die of a rare form of lung cancer attributed to high levels of stress and second-hand smoke. I won't go into the details of the stress my buddy was going through, but we played in bands together and he played in various clubs for most of his adult life. He didn't smoke either.

I've been saying I was going to quit for years. It's actually been more like decades. But I was always able to find an excuse to NOT quit...I'm going through a divorce...I worked for Enron...I just lost my wallet...I think it's about to start raining. I could find an excuse to not quit in any given situation.

So this time, I've decided to focus on the monetary savings of quitting more so than missing the pleasure of smoking. I've heard that you never quit a habit, you simply replace that habit with another habit. Some people turn to food. Some turn to exercise. My choice is to turn to chewing gum and exercise. At least I'll have great smelling breath and be in shape!

Stay tuned...