The First Step

Today I take the first step towards a more healthy me. I am quitting smoking. I tried this once before through hypnosis last January, but my peers at work pleaded for me to start smoking again (or stop coming to work).

I guess that this could actually be defined as the second step (or third) towards a more healthy me as I have lost about thirty pounds on a modified Atkins diet and been sober for the last four years, but I digress.

The deciding factor occurred during our recent trip to Florida. While sitting outside smoking, my three year old son Cole came up to me and, with all the innocence that childhood affords, asked, "Daddy, can I have a cigarette?". I was crushed. The pangs of regret hit me so hard I lost my breath. I had promised him (and myself) that for his second birthday I would give up smoking and had failed miserably. He was becoming aware of my actions and, like a good son, wanted to emulate his father.

I could put this off no longer and decided that it was time to break the smoking chains I had carried around with me for far too long. I dug up my smoking cessation hypnosis tapes from last January and am combining them with the Nicoderm-CQ patch for a one-two punch that I hope will work.

God help me.