David Cameron's Diary

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!!

Labels: cigarettes, forum, hypnosis, nicotine, stop smoking, tobacco

For a confirmed smoker like me, it is an achievement to report that I am now over 3 weeks without a cigarette.


The recap:

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 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.

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

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.

Labels: cigarettes, forum, hypnosis, nicotine, stop smoking, tobacco

I am not going to kid anyone...this is not a walk in the park:

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

• 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.

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

My last cigarette was at 20:00 on 22nd January 2007 and I started using Nicquitin CQ patches (step 1).

Well, it is now 5 (maybe even 6) days since I last put a new nicotine patch on. Mind you, I only took that one off yesterday evening. I think it is safe to assume that the 24 hour patch has probably given up all the nicotine that it can do by now.

It was possibly a wacky hypothesis after 32 years of smoking up to 40 cigarettes a day and probably starving my brain of oxygen, but I thought that I could get gradually less and less nicotine entering my system, weaning myself off Nicotine quicker than the Nicquitin CQ plan suggests, getting the quitting without aids down to ~ 1week.

It may have been wacky, but I just couldn't get the sense of taking 6 weeks at 21Mg, then stepping down to 14Mg for two weeks and then nothing!! i.e. you take 6 weeks to drop 7Mg and then only the 2 weeks to finish "step 2" and drop the final 14Mg - I didn't like the idea of that drop. Looking 8 weeks out, that didn't seem like a drop, it looked like a precipice and this system did not have a step 3 (or 4 etc....)

So, I was somewhat bold and decided to squeeze every last drop of Nicotine from my step1 patch until it could give no more.

So far it is early days, but it has worked for me - Since last night I have given up the (admittedly exhausted) patches; however, I don't claim to be better than the scientists and I can assure you that if I had encountered the first feelings of weakness, I would have (and still would) apply a new patch - anything other than take a cigarette.

Of course, I possibly have some mental programming too, having used the Hypnotic Tracks Stop Smoking MP3. I will be honest and say that I find the MP3 so relaxing, that I have usually drifted off to sleep, so am not sure whether it has subliminally implanted something or not. I do know that I have found it somewhat easier to try and stop on this occasion.

Now should you decide that you want to buy and use the Hypnotic Tracks Stop Smoking MP3, then I want to declare an interest - I will receive commissions from this company for any services bought following a link here - in turn I will make donations to Cancer Research UK.

I also celebrate my first new member (Kasper) on the Smoking Support forum that I launched yesterday - I have had huge numbers of private messages of support having gone public in my company email system. I think that all smokers deserve the support in their decision to quit and to leverage the advice that others may have through a forum environment - so I am glad to take the initiative and just see where that forum takes us.

Labels: cigarettes, forum, hypnosis, nicotine, stop smoking, tobacco

Having gotten 8 days in and receiving many private messages of support, I thought that it may be quite nice to give all smokers out there the chance to join my stop-smoking bandwagon, sign up to a forum and start telling your own story under your very own "topic".

I want to see everyone get evey bit of encouragement from others to help the succeed. I know that a blog goes some way to fulfilling that, but a dedicated forum should help get the messages flowing.

I'd like to see tips in the forum to help break the habit...e.g.

what did you do after a meal when you would normally have lit up a cigarette?
did you rely upon crutches e.g. patches, hypnosis, acupuncture etc.. and with what results

If you bookmark http://www.davidcameronsdiary.co.uk/labels/stop%20smoking.html you can continue to get all my stop smoking blog entries here without reviewing all my other grumpy comments.

But.... if you would like the opportunity to discuss this further in my new Stop Smoking Forum in a bit more conversational way, please join up to the forum now.

Remember that you don't have to have been a smoker yourself to have been touched in some way by smoking related issues....perhaps you lost a father or brother or worst of all, saw a child lost to smoking related illness? For that reason, I have opened a "shock" forum where those that are comfortable telling their own horror stories may do so under the anonymity of a forum pen-name. If only one person is saved from an early grave by recognising something in your story that triggers them to stop smoking, then the Stop Smoking Forum will have been a great success.

Labels: cigarettes, forum, hypnosis, nicotine, stop smoking, tobacco

I am amazing myself - I have always weakened in the past, yet I do feel different this time - I feel like I have really committed to giving up this time and will not fail.

This is from someone who went for an face to face hypnosis session (rather than the mp3 method this time) first thing of a morning in the past, felt great and stayed off the cigarettes all that day. In the early evening, I got curious about what the hypno-therapist had done to me and whether he had made cigarettes taste like [you substitute whatever horrible nasty you can think of here].

So, on that occasion, and of course it was purely for research purposes, I took a cigarette and it tasted lovely and I was back on them again. I am determined not to make that mistake this time.

The messages of support from colleagues has been tremendous - one colleague has pledged an incredible ~£5,000 to Cancer Research UK via monthly payroll giving over the next 10 years if I can get to three months without a cigarette.

Pledges like these are terrific and really morale boosting - they may not have the instant effect on the fundraising thermometer at http://www.justgiving.com/iquit but that in no way diminishes the value of the offer and it does place the moral obligation on me to stay off the cigarettes for the duration of that pledge.

Labels: cigarettes, hypnosis, nicotine, stop smoking, tobacco

In ~8 hours time I will have completed a full week without a cigarette.

I was previously smoking somewhere between 30-40 cigarettes per day and the first thing I would reach for in the morning was a cigarette.

During this week, I have found quite a few unconscious attempts to reach to my side for my pack of cigarettes - simply out of programmed habit. From the unconscious reaching out for a cigarette packet, it then hits my consciousness what I am doing and I realise what an idiot I have been in the past.

Tesco has been doing a special offer on the Nicquitin range of products and I have spent ~£100 stockpiling them whilst the price was relatively good. The irony is that for the last few days, I haven't felt the need to renew my patch - it is just as well that my wife is also attempting to stop and the patches are a very real crutch to her otherwise I would have regretted trying to bag the bargain patches.

Labels: cigarettes, hypnosis, nicotine, stop smoking, tobacco

It is now over 5 days since I last let a cigarette pass my lips.

For those that have followed this blog or know me directly. you will know that I have smoked for the last 32 years and I have enjoyed it immensely; giving up smoking is a big ask...........

Rather than just rely upon willpower alone, I am using a couple of techniques:

1. Nicquitin patches
2. Relaxation Techniques through Hypnotic Tracks

Although the Nicquitin program suggests that you should use the 21Mg patches for 6 weeks before stepping down to a 14Mg patch, I am feeling pretty good this week and am contemplating amending these suggestions.

I am wearing a 21Mg patch over 36 hours later after sticking to my arm. I do not feel particularly anxious about my next dose of Nicotine and the only ting that I am conscious of occasionally is the fact that I *LOVE* a cigarette; I am not the bothered that it may be *many* hours before I get access to "normal" cigarettes......I just know that I am appreciating a relatively free chest absolved of any smoky cconsequentrial issues.

In truth, although I should have changed my "24 hour" patch at ~8.00am this morning and am still using it 16 hours later, I detest the idea of using tablets\drugs\medicines etc. and feel good that I am resisting taking on a "stronger cure". I hate taking tablets and am using the Nicqyuitin patch >36 hours.

I am amazed to still be avoiding cigarettes; I am still further amazed that my body is not twisting my arm to try a cigarette... actually I feel quite liberated; If you think that I am doing well, please consider donating at: http://justgiving/Iquit - with a company donation, this is extremely generous.

Labels: cigarettes, hypnosis, nicotine, stop smoking, tobacco

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