23-Feb-2007
Celebrate or Commiserate? The Cigarette fast was broken.
I have been quiet on the blog lately on my anti-smoking endeavours, but also this week I have been travelling.
It is with some disappointment that I have to report that I did weaken as a result of extra travel-induced stress at the start of the week involving a drive to Heathrow and getting stuck in travel jams and an M1 closure. As a result, I did buy and smoke 4 cigarettes with the remainder being destroyed.
I am angry with myself and bitterly regret having to declare the clock started once more, but should I beat myself up over it?
Personally, whilst it would have been preferable to have fought the urges, I think that there is still a lot for me to celebrate.
If I look at how many cigarettes I would normally have smoked in the last ~32 days it would have been somewhere in the range 1,000 - 1,200....how many have I had in that time? 4!!
So, whilst I do feel extremely disappointed with myself, I am comfortable to dust myself off and say no more again and to still give myself some pat on the back for a 99.7% reduction in my cigarette intake.
I still feel that there is a pretty powerful message here that lends itself to any area where personal safety has to be of the utmost importance and it was my seven year old daughter that woke me up to it.
Please feel free to use the attached materials to ram the safety leadership message home in your own environment. The content is identical, just the form is different.
Powerpoint version here:
PDF version here
One Page web link here
The content is all as follows (but much clearer!!):
So be safe and think of your kids. Thy want their mums and dads to stay healthy and it destroys the argument that mummy and daddy know best when they see that we are killing ourselves!!
It is with some disappointment that I have to report that I did weaken as a result of extra travel-induced stress at the start of the week involving a drive to Heathrow and getting stuck in travel jams and an M1 closure. As a result, I did buy and smoke 4 cigarettes with the remainder being destroyed.
I am angry with myself and bitterly regret having to declare the clock started once more, but should I beat myself up over it?
Personally, whilst it would have been preferable to have fought the urges, I think that there is still a lot for me to celebrate.
If I look at how many cigarettes I would normally have smoked in the last ~32 days it would have been somewhere in the range 1,000 - 1,200....how many have I had in that time? 4!!
So, whilst I do feel extremely disappointed with myself, I am comfortable to dust myself off and say no more again and to still give myself some pat on the back for a 99.7% reduction in my cigarette intake.
I still feel that there is a pretty powerful message here that lends itself to any area where personal safety has to be of the utmost importance and it was my seven year old daughter that woke me up to it.
Please feel free to use the attached materials to ram the safety leadership message home in your own environment. The content is identical, just the form is different.
Powerpoint version here:
PDF version here
One Page web link here
The content is all as follows (but much clearer!!):
So be safe and think of your kids. Thy want their mums and dads to stay healthy and it destroys the argument that mummy and daddy know best when they see that we are killing ourselves!!Labels: cigarettes, forum, hypnosis, nicotine, stop smoking, tobacco
Have UK Gas & Electricity prices fallen enough?
Following on from a couple of my recent articles discussing the recent high costs of Gas and Electricity and movements in the spot markets, I thought that reader might be interested in a Motley Fool article which suggests that there is some sleight of hand with some of the announcements.
I don't think that this takes away any of my thrust that there will be more price reductions in the offing if we as consumers can create the competitive pressure and switch to the cheapest supplier at this time.
If others then want to reclaim their lost share, they will be forced to drop their prices still further.
In terms of switching, it could not be easier with price comparison engines checking the market on your behalf based upon your postcode and consumption patterns - Motley Fool has one.
My own personal preference is USwitch, having completed a painless change of supplier managed by them last year to NPower for a dual-fuel offer on Gas & Electricity.
I checked through there last week again to confirm that my existing tariff with NPower still remains competitive at this time. But it is probably worth while checking month on month to see how prices change.
Remember, don't change just when prices may be subject to seweeping change across all suppliers - you will lock yourself into a 4-6 week transition period and may delay the opportunity to move to an even cheaper supplier who has been a little slow to review their pricing.
Somwhat surprisingly, you can often go for a Green source of fuel without paying a hefty increase either....something you way want to look at
I don't think that this takes away any of my thrust that there will be more price reductions in the offing if we as consumers can create the competitive pressure and switch to the cheapest supplier at this time.
If others then want to reclaim their lost share, they will be forced to drop their prices still further.
In terms of switching, it could not be easier with price comparison engines checking the market on your behalf based upon your postcode and consumption patterns - Motley Fool has one.
My own personal preference is USwitch, having completed a painless change of supplier managed by them last year to NPower for a dual-fuel offer on Gas & Electricity.
I checked through there last week again to confirm that my existing tariff with NPower still remains competitive at this time. But it is probably worth while checking month on month to see how prices change.
Remember, don't change just when prices may be subject to seweeping change across all suppliers - you will lock yourself into a 4-6 week transition period and may delay the opportunity to move to an even cheaper supplier who has been a little slow to review their pricing.
Somwhat surprisingly, you can often go for a Green source of fuel without paying a hefty increase either....something you way want to look at
Labels: comparison, Electricity, Energy, Gas, Green, Prices, save
14-Feb-2007
British Gas cuts costs, but Fuel Costs will go even lower?
I have been working in the competitive energy industry since the early 1990s, and the BBC article held no truck with me talking about medium term high prices in the wholesale market driving our consumer pricing to new highs. I knew that 25 year deals are not unusual for a long term fuel supply and would have been locked-in ahead of the higher spot market prices; I could not see that these relatively short term spikes in wholesale pricing could be seen as a long term indicator of fuels pricing.
And what happened.......
Following my call to you to ignore the pessimistic reports of continued high prices, I suggested that you use utility pricing engines to work out competitive fuel rates for your own circumstances.
And then, British Gas announced reductions of 11% on Electricity and 17% on Gas. But is that enough.......? In David Cameron's opinion it is not....on 8th Feb 2007, the coldest and wintriest day of the year when Britain was gripped in wintry snowy conditions, the spot price for Gas was only 32p/therm compared to 70p/therm at its peak last winter. That gas cost is also an important driver of our Electricity costs.
Now it may look like prices have fallen by 50%, but that does not tell the whole story....measuring prices peak to peak is not the best indicator. However 17% is a long way off 50% and David Cameron believes that some suppliers can be more generous in passing on wholesale reductions.
My recommendation is that you bookmark your favourite Utility Pricing Engine and come back to it in 3-4 weeks when it is likely that the majors will have developed their response to BG's new pricing.
Remember that your prices will have increased substantially in the last two years....don't necessarilly rush to change when it will take around 4-6 weeks to effect a change in supplier and by doing so, you may lose the opportunity top switch to a cheaper supplier meantime....however, if you have the memory of a goldfish and are likely to forget to return here , then for goodness sake, pick the cheapest pricing for yourself now......it is like printing free money.
13-Feb-2007
22 Days without a cigarette - where is all the sponsorship?
For a confirmed smoker like me, it is an achievement to report that I am now over 3 weeks without a cigarette.
The recap:
Cancer does not necessarilly arise just from smoking....Breast Cancer being a case in point. Huge inroads are being made in the prevention of cancer, especially in the case of cervical cancer whereby an actual vaccine could be fully licensed inside 5 years.
Please don't think of Cancer as being just a smoking related disease. At least 1 in 5 of us will be touched by cancer in one way or another through adverse diagnosis of a friend or relative....or even ourselves.
My sense so far is that many of you are visiting the blog and are somewhat disinterested with the thoughts of cancer....my plea is to think how easily you could be in the one in five affected and to make a small donation to help research the prevention and cure of this horrible disease.
I have already donated £65 directly through this campaign, matching other donations to date, but can't match once off donations indefinitely.
I am now pledging to personally make at least £20 per month donation (matched by my company) for at least the next 10 years, equating to at least £4,800) plus prevailing tax breaks.
If you feel that you could make similar pledges, then please let me know either here or via the forum (at http://www.davidcameronsdiary.co.uk/forum ) and I will be delighted to report your support...there is provision for me to report off-line donations and I would be delighted to report longer term pledges in this way.
If you would just like to make a once off contribution now and record a modest "well done so far", then please visit the donation site at http://www.justgiving.com/iquit.
Note: I don't ask this for personal gratification.....I may already have messed up my health by smoking for so long, but there are so many different forms of cancer..cervical, testicular, breast, lung, mouth........ thate know it is one of the biggest killers around and contributions can help prevent death in the future.
My forum is somewhat slow to take off at http://www.davidcameronsdiary.co.uk/forum ; I would really like it if ex-smokers could come forward to offer their encouragement to potential quitters and talk to the techniques that worked for them. It would equally be great if the potential quitters would come forward and talk about the things that concern them.
Come on.......... a forum is not a forum without participants.
Edited 27th Feb - realised that there was a broken link.
The recap:
I decided that I would support Cancer Research UK as part of my campaign to stop smoking - whilst I am glad to see a couple of people sponsoring me, it is somewhat disappointing that there are not more - half the sponsorship so far comes from me matching others donations.I am 46 yrs old, smoked up to 40 Cigarettes a day since age 14
Have a couple of daughters under 7, asking awkward questions
Had my last cigarette 20:00 on 22nd January 2007
Started using Patches (Niquitin CQ) and backup hypnosis Stop Smoking MP3
Personally managed to stop after only wearing a new patch for 3 days.....see earlier blog entries for that.
Cancer does not necessarilly arise just from smoking....Breast Cancer being a case in point. Huge inroads are being made in the prevention of cancer, especially in the case of cervical cancer whereby an actual vaccine could be fully licensed inside 5 years.
Please don't think of Cancer as being just a smoking related disease. At least 1 in 5 of us will be touched by cancer in one way or another through adverse diagnosis of a friend or relative....or even ourselves.
My sense so far is that many of you are visiting the blog and are somewhat disinterested with the thoughts of cancer....my plea is to think how easily you could be in the one in five affected and to make a small donation to help research the prevention and cure of this horrible disease.
I have already donated £65 directly through this campaign, matching other donations to date, but can't match once off donations indefinitely.
I am now pledging to personally make at least £20 per month donation (matched by my company) for at least the next 10 years, equating to at least £4,800) plus prevailing tax breaks.
If you feel that you could make similar pledges, then please let me know either here or via the forum (at http://www.davidcameronsdiary.co.uk/forum ) and I will be delighted to report your support...there is provision for me to report off-line donations and I would be delighted to report longer term pledges in this way.
If you would just like to make a once off contribution now and record a modest "well done so far", then please visit the donation site at http://www.justgiving.com/iquit.
Note: I don't ask this for personal gratification.....I may already have messed up my health by smoking for so long, but there are so many different forms of cancer..cervical, testicular, breast, lung, mouth........ thate know it is one of the biggest killers around and contributions can help prevent death in the future.
My forum is somewhat slow to take off at http://www.davidcameronsdiary.co.uk/forum ; I would really like it if ex-smokers could come forward to offer their encouragement to potential quitters and talk to the techniques that worked for them. It would equally be great if the potential quitters would come forward and talk about the things that concern them.
Come on.......... a forum is not a forum without participants.
Edited 27th Feb - realised that there was a broken link.
Labels: cigarettes, forum, hypnosis, nicotine, stop smoking, tobacco
11-Feb-2007
Nearly 3 weeks without a cigarette?
I must be really boring now.......surely?
I gave up cigarettes now, nearly 3 weeks ago and avoiding any suggestion of having a relapse by enjoying a fly cigarette..... I give my apologies for having a re-cap of the blog for those not previously involved, but....
I gave up cigarettes now, nearly 3 weeks ago and avoiding any suggestion of having a relapse by enjoying a fly cigarette..... I give my apologies for having a re-cap of the blog for those not previously involved, but....
I am 46 yrs old, smoked up to 40 Cigarettes a day since age 14
Have a couple of daughters under 7, asking awkward questions
Had my last cigarette 20:00 on 22nd January 2007
Started using Patches (Niquitin CQ) and backup hypnosis Stop Smoking MP3
Personally managed to stop after only wearing a new patch for 3 days.....see earlier blog entries for that.
I LOVE calling myself a non-smoker!!
07-Feb-2007
Be Unlimited: No faster than ADSL Max?
I'll let you know how I get on with this one going forward.
Prior to signing up to the blisteringly fast ADSL 2+ product, I wanted to understand how fast I should be able to go. At the time, I was nly getting around 3Mbps on the ADSL Max product. I duly sent in data about my synch rates , attenuation (~34db down) and Noise Margin (~10db).
Great news came back - I should be capable of receiving ~15Mbps on the new service.
So, I duly signed up and got my activation date of 6th Feb. I even started tidying up my cabling to take extra phone equipment out of play to give me as much good signal for my new service. Why settle for fast, when you can have really, really fast.
So, whilst still on my Nildram service for the MAx product, I took my TiVo (now updates over the internet), Sky and Fax machines out of the lounge socket (the primary socket), and to my amazement, three extension sockets later where my office is, my ADSL Max synch rate jumped to anywhere between 6-6.5Mbps.
Wonderful, thought I, I have improved the line and made it go faster even before Be upgrades me....I am bound to get faster than the indicated 15Mbps.
Alas, this has not proved to be the case. My speed with Be is only marginally faster, but with a reduced noise margin, the service seems more prone to dropping out.
From all accounts, Be are extremely helpful and I have raised a support ticket with them.
My suspicion is that it is somehow related to the fact that I have two telephone lines coming in over the same copper bundle and being extended round the outside of the house to various extension points.
It appears that most people enjoy good speeds by being able to access a test socket on an NTE5 faceplate. I believe that technically I am responsible for all extension wiring after the master socket. Unfortunately, when BT did all my extension wiring when I moved here in 2001, they didn't leave it in a consumer-friendly state to allow me to isolate all the extension and 2nd line from the master entry point. Seems a bit strange.....I am responsible, yet it will be illegal if I actually touch the wiring at their master....erm, how do I maintain it then?
I think I may be making an argument for a free BT switch to an NTE5 Master box....and they can remove the second line at the same time. The second line used to be important as a business line way back before ADSL, but not now.
It will be interesting to see whether I can get a free callout from BT.
Prior to signing up to the blisteringly fast ADSL 2+ product, I wanted to understand how fast I should be able to go. At the time, I was nly getting around 3Mbps on the ADSL Max product. I duly sent in data about my synch rates , attenuation (~34db down) and Noise Margin (~10db).
Great news came back - I should be capable of receiving ~15Mbps on the new service.
So, I duly signed up and got my activation date of 6th Feb. I even started tidying up my cabling to take extra phone equipment out of play to give me as much good signal for my new service. Why settle for fast, when you can have really, really fast.
So, whilst still on my Nildram service for the MAx product, I took my TiVo (now updates over the internet), Sky and Fax machines out of the lounge socket (the primary socket), and to my amazement, three extension sockets later where my office is, my ADSL Max synch rate jumped to anywhere between 6-6.5Mbps.
Wonderful, thought I, I have improved the line and made it go faster even before Be upgrades me....I am bound to get faster than the indicated 15Mbps.
Alas, this has not proved to be the case. My speed with Be is only marginally faster, but with a reduced noise margin, the service seems more prone to dropping out.
From all accounts, Be are extremely helpful and I have raised a support ticket with them.
My suspicion is that it is somehow related to the fact that I have two telephone lines coming in over the same copper bundle and being extended round the outside of the house to various extension points.
It appears that most people enjoy good speeds by being able to access a test socket on an NTE5 faceplate. I believe that technically I am responsible for all extension wiring after the master socket. Unfortunately, when BT did all my extension wiring when I moved here in 2001, they didn't leave it in a consumer-friendly state to allow me to isolate all the extension and 2nd line from the master entry point. Seems a bit strange.....I am responsible, yet it will be illegal if I actually touch the wiring at their master....erm, how do I maintain it then?
I think I may be making an argument for a free BT switch to an NTE5 Master box....and they can remove the second line at the same time. The second line used to be important as a business line way back before ADSL, but not now.
It will be interesting to see whether I can get a free callout from BT.
Labels: ADSL 2+, Be 24, Be Unlimited, BT
Over 2 weeks without a cigarette: No big deal?
Well.....it has been quiet on the blog and I haven't felt the need to post anything particular in the quest to give up smoking.
From smoking up to 40 cigarettes a day, I now smoke zero and have now done so for 16 days!!
If you refer to earlier entries here, you will realise that I am now off the nicotine patches way ahead of the recommended interval, perhaps because I also used a "hypnosis" stop smoking MP3 too.
I am pretty evangelistic about the anti-smoking message now and genuinely do consider myself a non-smoker. I feel very confident that I will not revert because I am now operating without aids.
It is difficult to describe the sensation..... I know that my health must already be somewhat better even after that relatively short timescale; for example, I no longer have that dreadful morning cough. Yet my brain isn't fully re-programmed right now, because occasionally I still feel some of the triggered memories for a cigarette kicking in e.g. after a particularly enjoyable meal, and almost reaching out for the invisible packet. But then, I just tell myself that I don't smoke any more and away the sensation goes, pretty much like it is no big deal.
I know that everyone's experiences of attempting to stop smoking are different....this final attempt is different for me and there is a drive and determination within me to "stay stopped".
For me, one of the biggest incentives to try again was when my six year old daughter asked me the question ....
"Daddy....? If you know that cigarettes kill you, then why do you smoke?"
I couldn't claim to be a great parent and at the same time to effectively teach my children to ignore all good advice.
How many parents smoke in front of the kids, and then expect them to listen to us when we tell them that drink\drugs\sex.....whatever is bad for them and they should avoid it. Do we have any right to expect to be respected for giving good advice with a cigarette dangling between our fingers?
Remember that I have created an anti-smoking forum at http://www.davidcameronsdiary.co.uk/forum - it is a bit slow to get going, but I am sure that there are millions of smokers out there literally "dying" to kick the habit.
From smoking up to 40 cigarettes a day, I now smoke zero and have now done so for 16 days!!
If you refer to earlier entries here, you will realise that I am now off the nicotine patches way ahead of the recommended interval, perhaps because I also used a "hypnosis" stop smoking MP3 too.
I am pretty evangelistic about the anti-smoking message now and genuinely do consider myself a non-smoker. I feel very confident that I will not revert because I am now operating without aids.
It is difficult to describe the sensation..... I know that my health must already be somewhat better even after that relatively short timescale; for example, I no longer have that dreadful morning cough. Yet my brain isn't fully re-programmed right now, because occasionally I still feel some of the triggered memories for a cigarette kicking in e.g. after a particularly enjoyable meal, and almost reaching out for the invisible packet. But then, I just tell myself that I don't smoke any more and away the sensation goes, pretty much like it is no big deal.
I know that everyone's experiences of attempting to stop smoking are different....this final attempt is different for me and there is a drive and determination within me to "stay stopped".
For me, one of the biggest incentives to try again was when my six year old daughter asked me the question ....
"Daddy....? If you know that cigarettes kill you, then why do you smoke?"
I couldn't claim to be a great parent and at the same time to effectively teach my children to ignore all good advice.
How many parents smoke in front of the kids, and then expect them to listen to us when we tell them that drink\drugs\sex.....whatever is bad for them and they should avoid it. Do we have any right to expect to be respected for giving good advice with a cigarette dangling between our fingers?
Remember that I have created an anti-smoking forum at http://www.davidcameronsdiary.co.uk/forum - it is a bit slow to get going, but I am sure that there are millions of smokers out there literally "dying" to kick the habit.
Labels: cigarettes, forum, hypnosis, nicotine, stop smoking, tobacco
03-Feb-2007
12 Days on..... I would love a cigarette, but.......
I am not going to kid anyone...this is not a walk in the park:
For those joining the blog, here is the summary:
For those joining the blog, here is the summary:
- I am 46 yrs old, smoked up to 40 Cigarettes a day since age 14
- Have a couple of daughters under 7, asking awkward questions
- Had my last cigarette 20:00 on 22nd January 2007
- Started using Patches (Niquitin CQ) and backup hypnosis Stop Smoking MP3
- Personally managed to stop after only wearing a new patch for 3 days.....see earlier blog entries for that ( I made a cock-up), and accepting no cigarettes, but not fully without angst.
The last couple of days, I have felt more like taking a cigarette than I have done over the last couple of weeks...just a couple of stress points at home that I need to kick in to touch.....I did get angry....the trigger for wanting a cigarette, but I should not jump to cigarettes (remember what I said previously about being in charge of my re-programming?
I know that I pigged out today at lunch - I thoroughly enjoyed:
- 1 slice fried brown(ish..... "best of both") bread
- 3 rashers bacon....Tesco Smoked Finest
- 3 Tesco Finest.....chipolatata pork sausages
- 2 of my Finest Fried eggs (......they were from my very own "farm")
....and it was absolutely delicious.....
I can't do everything at once.....I have stopped smoking, but I do still finf some food urges.....please give your own thoughts and insights along the way! as to how you coped with the food urges!
I am sure that sometime soon I will have to admit to being morbidly overweight, but for now, I can only cope with a generic need to cut back.
Maybe in the next day or two, I will get a bit precise?
Labels: cigarettes, forum, hypnosis, nicotine, stop smoking, tobacco
01-Feb-2007
I Quit Smoking : 10 days in... feeling some pressure
A couple of triggers in the last 24 hours have made me more than a bit irritable and maybe if I had had a pack of cigarettes around, I might have succumbed; the good news is that I didn't.
For those joining the blog, here is the summary:
For those joining the blog, here is the summary:
- I am 46 yrs old, smoked up to 40 Cigarettes a day since age 14
- Have a couple of daughters under 7, asking awkward questions
- Had my last cigarette 20:00 on 22nd January 2007
- Started using Patches (Niquitin CQ) and backup hypnosis Stop Smoking MP3
- Personally managed to stop after only wearing a new patch for 3 days.....see earlier blog entries for that.
The last couple of days, I have found myself getting the 'munchies'....so, OK I am no lightweight and sometimes I just get the need to have a nibble, so it may not be related to the dreaded "give up smoking and pile on weight" syndrome, but I am starting to think that I should keep one eye on my weight and the other on some exercise.
Something else that I am conscious through discussions with my wife and others who are trying to give up smoking are the different approaches to dealing with past triggers for taking a cigarette.
I have chosen to continue to drink coffee, enjoy an alcoholic drink and in general make no concessions to past behaviour - my thinking is that I want to completely re-program my mind to accept that I don't have a cigarette when I have a coffee, whereas the alternate approach sort of re-programs you into rejecting coffee, a great meal, drink.....or whatever else you might have enjoyed a cigarette after.
Oh...I need to correct yesterday's blog entry..I realised that there are Niquitin Step 3 patches available at the lower 7 Mg level...maybe they just haven't made it into my Tesco just yet whilst most people are still working on their 6 week unitial step 1 program. Anyway, Tesco jump-started me into giving up the patches, so I should be grateful that I am nicotine free earlier.
The Chart opposite is a US set of numbers showing that 430,000 US Citizens die each year. There are other countries that are much smaller yet the death rate per capita is actually much higher. I wonder what the annual World Death Rate is that can be attributed to smoking related diseases....I suspect that it must be in excess of 1m.
Anyway, visit the US National Institute for Drug Advice where this chart comes from and learn more about how Nicotine actually affects our body.
Remember that I also now have an open forum over at http://www.davidcameronsdiary.co.uk/forum to help people discuss attempts to stop smoking and to offer tips and support from people who have experienced the trials of kicking the weed.
Labels: cigarettes, forum, hypnosis, nicotine, stop smoking, tobacco
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