#Reverb10, Day 10: Wisdom

For the month of December, I’ll be participating in Reverb 10. Each day gives a new prompt, which is a chance to reflect on 2010 and manifest what’s next in 2011.

December 10 – Wisdom
What was the wisest decision you made this year, and how did it play out? (Author: Susannah Conway)

I feel as if I’ve made many wise decisions in 2010 – moving to an amazing duplex, encouraging my sister to move back to our hometown, getting Lulu, switching from WW to counting calories (not that I have anything against WW, it just didn’t work for me, personally), deciding to get Lap Band surgery, etc.   But one of the best decisions that I made came in the middle of the year.

I quit smoking!!!

I’d been wanting to quit for some time, in fact, I tried to quit on Jan. 1, but that attempt failed miserably.  It wasn’t until the head of bariatric surgery at Kaiser said that the would not, under any circumstances, perform any weight loss surgery unless we had quit smoking that I actually knew I HAD to quit.  And so I did.

Other than a bit of a struggle on the 3rd day, it really wasn’t that difficult.  Granted, I have gained about 10 pounds since I quit, but that weight is coming off and when I compare that to the boost I gave my health by quitting, it’s a small price to pay.

It’s been 4 months (122 days!!) now, and I can honestly say that I don’t miss it, most of the time.  There are twinges now and then when I know a cig would be ideal, but those are few and far between.  The other day my mom commented about how happy she was that I’d quit, and I can say with all honesty that I hadn’t even thought about smoking for at least 2 weeks until she mentioned it.  It’s actually surreal how quickly I’ve let that part of my life go.

For so long I thought I’d always be a smoker.  Even though I knew it was bad for me, I felt so tied to it that I seriously didn’t think I’d have the will to stop.  And yet I did.  Just like that.  So it gives me the pride and the confidence in myself to know that if I can do that, I can do anything – including lose the required 30+ pounds to qualify for Lap Band surgery.  So I KNOW it will happen in the first quarter of 2011.

A while ago Carina asked me at what point would I consider myself a non smoker vs. someone who had just been smoke free a certain amount of time.  And I can say that as of today I completely consider myself a non-smoker.  I know I’ll never go back, and it feels fantastic to be able to say that I’m over my dependence on nicotine.