Image via Wikipedia
Today, i conclude the first month of a 7-month deal to quit smoking.
The deal which i agreed with my colleague Ariel, is a gradual process of making me permanently kick off a 21 year old habit of smoking.
Condition for the first month was a maximum quota of 3 sticks of cigarettes a day, which I have passed with flying colors averaging 2 sticks a day for 5 days in a week. I have managed not to smoke at all on weekends in the last 30 days. I believe it's quite a feat. But of course I was also aided by fate and by my frail health, having been sidelined for a week due to flu and cough, which all the more made the thought of smoking undesirable. When you are coughing like hell and your throat is burning, smoking is probably the last thing you desire.
I am celebrating not only because i have managed to cut down my smoking drastically, but also because I have survived the first tier of penalty that the deal imposes if i violated the 3 sticks a day condition. If i did, I would have lost a new IPhone 3GS and a thousand dollars to a worthy charitable institution.
Now I am in my second month in the deal. I am down to 1 cigarette a day quota. This will be the harder part and I am hoping i will survive this in a breeze, just like I did in the past 30 days. Else, i would have to give up the IPhone and pay up 800 dollars to a charitable institution. Not that I can't give up an IPhone or don't want to donate to the needy. I am no quitter (no pun intended!). I hate losing a bet, especially if its about a commitment to a better health and probably a smoking free future.
As the old Zen Master says in the movie Charlie Wilson's War, "We shall see..."
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=0eb722b4-9d7c-4a94-842c-8e6c7ee1b90c)
