ONE YEAR ON
I celebrated my first no-smoking anniversay on November 26, 2011. Quite spectacularly, as it happens - a ceremonial destruction of the 13 cigarettes I had left the day I quit smoking - 13 cigarettes which I carried about with me for a year, to remind myself that a relapse was just an arm's length away.
Once that was done and dusted, I carefully put away the cigarette case that had been my faithful companion through thick and thin, for three long smoky years, and took stock.
This is what I found:
The Downside
1. For the first time since 1992, my trousers didn’t fit. I was in denial about this for a while, but I finally got myself some new clothes .
2. The bottom half of my tie doesn’t fall straight down any more, it rests gently against the swell of a large pot belly.
3. My silhouette has changed from that of a matchstick to that of a large bowling pin in a children’s bowling alley.
4. I still huff and puff, but the reasons are a combination of ill-treated lungs and excess weight, rather than merely the former
The Upside
1. I don’t let loose blood-curdling, deathly hollow coughs any more
2. I can laugh without fear of paroxysms…..in fact, I need to get a new laugh, the old one was customised to pamper my throat !
3. My teeth don’t feel as though they’re coated with Scotch Guard !
4. Fingers used to be yellow, they're not jaundiced any more !
5. Skin looks clearer, though that’s probably just an optical illusion
6. Shirt pocket bottoms are no longer lined with tobacco flakes
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