15 days 9 hours

15 days 9 hours without a cigarette.

15 days without having to go to the shops to get a packet of expensive cigarettes and feel like a third class person while buying them.

It’s all mostly good, I feel that I’m really over it and I barely ever think about them. I am a bit worried about going to a couple of festivals over the summer but I really reckon it won’t prove to be a problem.

I think the only thing that does bother me is the mood swings, not as bad as they have been but they’re still there. I actually know when they’re happening now and I’ve even been known to remark upon rants after ranting, sort of things like “well where did that come from?” and the like. The other day one crept up on me while I watching football on the box with my daughter Izzi beside me, basically everyone was milling around and chatting and in the end my Mum spilled a tumbler of juice while leaning over me. Nothing broken, nothing a problem but I just bit and went into a bit of a monologue of not being able to watch anything in peace and quiet. I was walking out of the room to get some kitchen towel and Izzi came up behind me, grabbed my hand and said “it’s all right Dad, it doesn’t matter”… heck I stopped in my tracks, she’s so flipping wise is my little four year old.

Anyway, on the positive, my skin is getting much better, my body feels much warmer and fleshier. My breath is great now, my finger stains have gone but my teeth still look a bit tarnished. My fitness is returning, I did a four and a bit mile run the other day and I’ve done three 5,000 metre static rows on my rower.

I’m trying to lose weight by getting on the 5:2 diet again and this does contribute to my mouth furring up again but that only lasts for fast days. I’m toying with having 4 litres of water a day (see living forever page) and hope that might work wonders on turning back skin damage and also make me feel much fitter.

My taste and sense of smell haven’t returned – they used to in the past but I think I’ve wiped them out forever with the amount I smoked – I do still have lots of smell and taste senses, it’s just the hyper-improvement that one would normally get from giving up smoking hasn’t come about this time. I did get a bit of a whiff of something strange this morning, that could have been a teeny bit of smell improvement, but I’m not too sure whether it was or not.

My lungs were a bit of a worry and felt lumpy, they feel fine now and my throat was a bit raw for a while, that seems to be getting better but it’s still not 100%.

I’m trying some supplements too, I had come off them when I had some bad experiences earlier this year, but hey I was going some and I did increase my pill intake suddenly, so what should I expect. I’m now taking the mix for running (Omega 3 and Glucosamine/Chondroitin) and the anti-aging one (Vitamin E, Vitamin C, Lycopene and Isoflavones) this seems to be pretty benign but my knees seem to be getting better and I’m keeping my fingers crossed on turning back some time.

I have started taking a B complex too, my memory is really bad recently, I’m getting tired easily etc.  Well reading around and checking against all my symptoms, it could just mean I have a vitamin B deficiency, so hey ho why not give it a go.

Anyway all is well on the smoking front.