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How I Quit Smoking Cigarettes – The Answer Is Kind Of Unusual

I quit smoking cigarettes about four months ago.  That doesn’t sound very impressive but when you consider I’d been smoking for the past 46 years that really is an accomplishment.  I didn’t do it because my health was bad, its fine, and I didn’t do it because I stopped enjoying smoking.  I did it because this horrific economy had given my business a true and through beating and I could no longer afford the habit.

I had tried quitting smoking before and actually quit for about a year and a half but that was back when I was in my 40’s and working for someone else, not myself.  In January of 2009, it was painfully obvious that the coming year was going to be a major challenge financially; I started cutting back on everything I could.  When I put a pencil to it I was spending close to $75 a week on cigarettes or a whopping $3900 a year.  Obviously this was a habit that had to go.  If nothing else, that $3900 represented a nearly two year supply of good Scotch!

I live in Los Angeles and the County was providing free nicotine patches to the residents in their smoking cessation campaign.  I promptly got my supply and the next morning slapped one on my arm.  Day 1 wasn’t bad.  I expected worse.  I knew if I could get through Day 2 I had a real chance of quitting as I had scheduled myself for a group hypnosis session for Day 3.  Day 2 really sucked.  I had to get up countless times from my desk and go outside for a walk.  The urge was pretty overwhelming but I made it.

So Day 3 arrives and I put on my patch and head out to the hotel where this stop smoking hypnosis session was to be held.  The first thing I noticed about the 30 or so people who were there is they looked like losers.  They talked like losers.  Most of them dressed like losers.  Nobody demonstrated anything that came close to self confidence.  And then I realized I’m sitting here with them.  Am I a loser?  Should I look in the mirror?

And then the hypnotist turns out to make his full time living as a professional musician and only does these sessions as a contractor for the firm that puts them on.  I hope God loves the stupid because I am assured a place in heaven if he does.

So after four hours of “hypnosis”, most of which was used to sell vitamins and minerals that we will desperately need if we want the hypnosis to work, I leave the place wiser and $65 poorer.

The morning of Day 4 arrives and I put the coffee on.  It fills my kitchen with that delicious coffee aroma and my tongue screams out for a cigarette.  I resist and try to put myself into a trance like I learned at the hypnosis session.  Maybe I should have bought a bag full of those vitamins because the trance is doing squat.

I actually had to go out to the garage and dig around my golf bag to find an old pack of cigarettes.  It had three left in it.  They were wrinkled and one had a kind of yellowish stain as if it had been wet at one time.  They were beautiful.

I took my mug of coffee and one of the cigarettes out to my patio and lit up.

Israel had its Six Day War and I had mine. Israel won theirs, I lost mine.  I went and bought a carton as soon as the store opened up and started back with the habit.

And that’s the way it went for the next 8 months.

Then on one of my trips to the smoke shop, the owner surprised me because it appeared that he was smoking behind the counter.  Now maybe in some places this would be no big thing but in California, a tobacco shop has to have one designated place to smoke and if you smoke outside of it, you risk losing your license.  I knew this guy wouldn’t risk that.

It turns out he was not “smoking” at all. It just looked like he was.  He drew on the cigarette and the tip turned red and he exhaled smoke but then I noticed there wasn’t any ash. He was using an electronic cigarette that he just started carrying in the shop.

I had never seen one of these so this obviously led to a conversation.  It all sounded pretty nifty until he mentioned the price.  The starter kit, and obviously you can’t start without the starter kit, was $150.  The first thing that went through my mind was the sales pitch for vitamins that the musician-hypnotist had made.

So I plunked down my $40 for a carton and left.

But the idea of an electronic cigarette intrigued me and I started doing some research online.  The first thing I discovered was the government, specifically the FDA, is not real fond of ele

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