A Piece of Cake

Well I thought that this giving up smoking was going to be piece of cake. A couple of months back it was all done and dusted, it was just a matter of a bit of willpower, some stirring thoughts on the evils of smoking and that was it, I would be an ex’ smoker. Now a couple of months further on and I think I must have stopped and started at least three times, with one time thrown in for good measure. It’s not been easy, it’s not been that piece of cake I thought it would be.

This weekend too I’m off to a festival, I’ve stopped now for nearly a week and I know that once I’m sat in a bar or relaxing in a field I’ll be reaching for that box of twenty. I know from my experience at the same festival last year that it’ll ruin the day but I bet I do it. Last year I started again on the day of the festival and after around thirty (well a lot anyway, but thirty wouldn’t be out of the ordinary before lunch at a festival) I started suffering from really bad acid indigestion and a bout of the hiccups that just wouldn’t go, it really ruined my beer drinking for the day.

Today though I’m proud to say that I’m still on the wagon as last night posed a serious temptation for me. Basically I had a long drive on down from the hills and a simple transaction in a local shop would have meant a few moments of distraction and pleasure in a layby somewhere. I didn’t mean to do it though, I don’t know where the power of will came from but I resisted, I resisted in every shape and form and I feel really good today about it. I awoke this morning (and yesterday too to be honest) and felt f**king great. My skin felt soft and shiney, my body felt all warm and I was basically just firing on a few more cylinders than the day before, it was just good. Whether this was entirely due to me having stopped smoking for a few days or whether it was due to me stopping alcohol for over a week (not had a drop since Thursday the 30th May) or whether it’s due to my new regime of running and a bit of rowing too, I’m not too sure but I’ll bet a lot is due to the lack of smokes.

Yesterday too I had a bit of unplanned training in that I had to shoulder my three year old up a huge staircase off the local beach. She suddenly wasn’t happy with walking in sand (too slippy according to her) or up stairs, so I put her up on my shoulders and sweated my way to the top. Not a good thing to do considering the stairs were all concrete and sharp edges but she wasn’t going to go up any other way. Good exercise though and a bit of excitement for her too.

A piece of cake – lost and found art

Still though this giving up smoking ain’t a piece of cake.