How to Quit Smoking: Pa Rock's ICE Plan

by Pa Rock
Ex-Smoker

January is on the horizon, the month when portly slobs like me traditionally head to the gym and put in a couple of weeks aimed at reshaping ourselves for a healthier New Year - and usually cancel our memberships by the time the March bill is due - if not sooner.  This year, of course, many of the gyms are closed due to COVID, so we either have to remove the clothes hanging from the home treadmill that hasn't been used more than a dozen times since Sears delivered it, or find some other way to feel invested in developing a healthier lifestyle.

It might be the perfect time to try to quit smoking.

I noticed a "tweet" yesterday from a man who was preparing to quit smoking tobacco.  He said that he had quit once before and was off of cigarettes for four years when some situation led him to smoke "just one," and, not surprisingly, he had then quickly fallen off of the wagon and resumed his unhealthy vice with a vengeance.    But he was determined to give it another try.  The tweeter said that as soon as he finished his current pack he would once again quit and this time he would win the battle.

I tweeted back a couple of suggestions based on my own successful attempt at quitting.

I have not had many big successes in life - other than my wonderful children and grandchildren - but back in the 1970's I did manage to quit smoking.   At the time I quit I was a young lieutenant in the US Army who was often working eighteen-or-twenty-hour days, and during those long days I consumed a great many cigarettes.  In fact, by the time I quit I was sucking down a minimum of three packs a day.

One reason that I quit was the cost.  The price of a pack of cigarettes had recently climbed to around fifty cents a pack, money that could be put to better use elsewhere.  Also, my oldest was a baby when I quit, and I knew that the smoke that I could see lingering in the air inside of our army housing was not good for him.

Once I determined to quit smoking, I just sort of stumbled into a three-step approach that actually worked, at least for me.  I call it my "ICE Plan," and it has no connection whatsoever to immigration enforcement.

First of all, I threw away cigarettes, an "investment" factor.  I didn't wait to finish what I had on hand, and opted instead to endure some immediate financial hardship by throwing several packs in the trash and not looking back.  Second, I quit with a friend which set up a bit of "competition" and a "challenge" effect.  Sadly, my friend later started up again, but I was able to stay off of the killer weeds.  I won the challenge!   And third, I told everybody within shouting distance that I was quitting, so that if I started back up dozens of people would know what a loser I was.  That was an "embarrassment" factor.

So, to recap, "invest" in the plan by throwing away some actual cigarettes, set up a "challenge" or a "competition" with someone else as motivation and to firm your resolve, and arrange to suffer some serious "embarrassment" if you fail.

No guarantees - but it worked for me.

(And, if you are successful in the effort, don't turn to eating to fulfill that lingering oral fixation with cigarettes.  Take up walking, jogging, and other good cardio-exercises to begin cleaning out those poor abused lungs.   I have a walking goal of 10,000 steps a day - and there is no gym membership fee or equipment purchase required!)