Four years and two weeks :-)

..that’s it’s a hundred weeks tomorrow since I booted this pointless and unpleasant activity out of my life with unbelievable ease and joy – yay! Thanks Allen Carr!

Attention would-be non-smokers! As you may know, I am a devotee of the Allen Carr method, as are all these other 43ers who quit quickly and easily simply by reading Mr Carr’s amazing book.

What you may not know is that Carr developed another way to partake of his wisdom in the form of one-day courses taken at the clinics he opened all over the world – 38 countries so far.

I got this email this morning from Allen Carr’s mailing list, asking me to pass on this special offer to all the smokers I know. And you’re some of the smokers I know, so here goes:

“Help Someone Quit Smoking with Allen Carr’s Easyway:

If you would like to recommend Allen Carr’s Easyway To Stop Smoking Clinics to a smoker you know, please pass on this £50 discount offer for our clinics (normal price £220 including money back guarantee).

Within the UK:

Your friends, family or colleagues just need to mention “Scandal Discount Offer” when booking a session at any UK Allen Carr’s Easyway Clinic.

Telephone 0800 389 2115 or click on the Union Jack Flag on www.allencarr.com.

Outside the UK:

An equivalent discount is available at all participating clinics outside the UK so just click on your country’s flag on www.allencarr.com to find clinics in your country and just mention “Scandal Discount Offer”when you book your session.

This “Scandal Discount Offer” is not valid in conjunction with any other discount offer or promotion.”

Good, eh? I seriously, seriously recommend this method, and so do all these people. Apparently the clinic has an incredibly high strike rate even with the really hardcore smokers for whom the book didn’t work… and the book works 70% of the time. There’s a short clip about the clinics here. If you’re serious about quitting, please at least give this method some thought.

Edit: I forgot to mention the money-back guarantee. If you attend a clinic and fail to stop smoking, you can claim your money back. You really do have nothing to lose except a nasty, lethal little habit.

..to let a bit of air in.

Five doors down, there is a family who hang out on their front step all day, drinking and smoking (at the taxpayers’ expense, but that’s another Daily Mail cover story).

Even though they’re five flats away from me, halfway down the street, the smoke from their cigarettes has drifted in through my windows, and now the entire house reeks of stale tabs. Thank god for essential oils, that’s all I can say.

As a former smoker, I understand that they don’t understand how annoying it is to have your nasal cavities polluted by someone else’s tabs. I understand that they think they need their cigarettes. I’m a far less smoke-irritated non-smoker than many, because I understand what they’re going through.

But it’s still bloody annoying to have the house smell worse at the end of a day airing than it did at the start. I might bring the kitchen bins back in to cover up the smoky smell.

I feel grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreat! I feel freeeeee! One of the best things I’ve ever done and, surprisingly, it was easy, thanks to the late, great, utterly genius and godlike Allen Carr.

According to my Quitmeter, since I stopped forcing acrid woodsmoke and chemicals into my poor lungs, I have not smoked 9125 cigarettes, and I have not spent £730 on them. I have not missed them one little bit, I’ve never wanted to smoke again, not even during the (very very brief and remarkably painless withdrawal period,) and I know I won’t ever, ever, ever put another cigarette in my mouth again.

Hooray!

Every day I still feel utter joy in my freedom from that pointless habit! Now to add my new goal.

In a little more than four hours, it will become illegal to smoke in almost all enclosed or semi-enclosed public places and workplaces in England. Anyone wanting to smoke will have to go outside. One year ago, the idea of not being able to light up in a pub, after a meal, or while changing trains would have filled me with panic. But not now – I can’t wait for the smoking ban to come in. No more stinky clothes, no more stinging eyes, no more coughing and choking on other people’s fags. Bring it on.

I am so so so glad I stopped smoking. The thought that I never have to do that to myself ever again fills me with glee every single day.

Smokers out there – if you’re dreading the ban, if you can’t bear the idea of standing outside in the wind and the rain to indulge yourself, there’s one thing you can do to help yourself, and that’s to get hold of The Easy Way to Stop Smoking by Allen Carr. All you need to do is read it, and it will make cutting your addiction dead easy and pleasurable… yes, pleasurable. I’m not kidding. I read it, I stopped dead with nary a craving, and I haven’t had even the slightest desire to smoke tobacco since. For your own sake, for the sake of your kids and for others around you, please, please give it a go.

My Quitmeter tells me that since August 18th last year I have not smoked 7500 cigarettes, and I have not spent £600 on cigarettes.

Hooray for Allen Carr!

I passed the eight-month marker four days ago. I barely noticed until I was cheering Ember on his stop smoking goal this morning. That’s how little I miss cigarettes.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll keep saying it. I owe my life to Allen Carr.

Wheeee!

Six months!

I just realised! Wow, it seems like a lifetime ago.

Hooray! Thanks, Allen Carr, you rule the school.