Replacing Smoking with Excercise
Last few days have been punctuated with early morning thoughts of smoking, so today I thought I’d try a new solution. This morning when i woke up, within about 5 minutes my mind wandered to the thought of a cigarette. Now, as a full time smoker the first cigarette of the day was both the nastiest (after 8 hours of relaxing sleep you started chugging down those noxious fumes) but also the most powerful (having deprived your body of nicotene for a few hours). Now as an ex-smoker the most important cigarette to avoid was clearly the first of the day, to this end as soon as I had that thought, rather than engage with it and let it fester – i put an old t-shirt on, some sweat pants and headed down the gym – you could just as easily go for a brisk walk etc.
The upshot of this is – an hour later, I’ve done an hour of excercise – which given the current condition of my lungs and cardiovascular system in general is no mean feat – which is all good. I’m not thinking about smoking and I have that warm glow the excercise addicts love so much.
I think the principle that you do something useful when you feel the urge to smoke is a good one. But the activity needs to be sufficiently engaging to totally distract you – which is why watching TV just don’t cut it.