Three Months of not Smoking

It has been over three months since I quit smoking. Now that some time has passed, I have a few observations.

First, though I still get cravings, they are not as bad as they have been, and they seem to change from week to week. For instance, last month, I was getting pretty strong cravings. This month, they are not too bad. It all seems linked to whatever stress I'm under. If things are crazy at work, when I get home, I want to smoke.

Second observation: I go for a walk every day at work. In fact, that is what I do instead of smoking. Every time I walk by the smoker's area, I look at all of them outside sucking on their poison sticks, and you know what? THEY LOOK LIKE SMOKERS. They look pale. They look wrinkled. They look old. They smell. They do not look healthy. Did I look like that? Do I look like that? I mean, I've only been quit for three months. When does that smoker look go away?

Another observation: I used to sing in the car. Granted, I did not sing well, but I could at least hold a tune, until I started smoking again three years ago. Then my singing voice turned into a toad voice. Scratchy and gross, I stopped sing in the car because it even offended me. Well now being quit for three months, I caught myself singing in the car again. I could actually hold the tune. Oh, it was not 100%, but it was better than it had been for three years. My singing voice is returning. Oh, the little joys in life.

Another thing that I noticed is that riding my bike has gotten easier. I can ride further, and handle the hills much better. In fact, I went for a 20 mile ride the other day. Now, it used to be 10 miles was about my limit. However, 20 miles, with hills even, was not that hard. I could have even kept going. Granted, this is not as far as many bicyclists ride -- I am not ready to buy bike shorts and a jersey -- but I am improving.

Even with the last thing said about bike riding, I still have that smokers cough. Every morning when I get up, I have a coughing ritual. Sometimes I cough so bad that I almost throw up. I don't think that it is as bad as before I quit, but it is still there. I am looking forward to the day that that goes away.

That is all I have to say about that for now. Perhaps on my six month anniversary I'll post something. Until then, it is back to brewing posts for me.