February 2nd this year will see me off cigarettes 2 years. You see I was/am a smoker. I say I was, then there are those who say….once a smoker…always a smoker but I know one thing, I will never smoke again.
You see for years I smoked 25 cigarettes a day. They were my life, I loved them, they were my companion, my best friend even, there was no holiday to be had without them, they enjoyed a few glasses of wine with me on a Saturday night, they kept boredom at bay, they occupied my hands, they were there when I got up in the middle of the night to feed my babies and were in my hand first thing in the morning, we hoovered together, we drove around together, we even got drunk together. I was a shameless smoker…I smoked anywhere, I smoked everywhere, I would starve myself for a cigarette. They were my comfort and I loved them.
But then you see a funny thing happened. I fell into running. Don’t ask me how it happened…it just did. I was that girl in school, the girl who dossed P.E class with her best friend ( he’s now a consultant so suspicion tells me P.E was about the only thing he was dossing.), the girl who stood in line before each volley ball game, each hockey game and the girl whose heart sank each time she made it to the last two to be picked for the team. It wasn’t a popularity thing because I was always a part of the gang, it was as basic as this….. I was crap at sport! NOT ANYMORE!!!!!!!!!!! Now I am a runner! I LOVE running, it is my other passion in life apart from food. Nothing can beat that feeling of tying up your laces hitting the road and finding your pace and rhythm. You slip into you own world, you loose yourself in a rhythm, in your music, sometimes it’s like going into a trance you don’t want to stop. There are good runs and bad runs, all runners will tell you that. There are days when you would rather sit down and sleep but you know that if you do this you will feel worse. You hear runners talk about the ‘buzz’, the ‘high’ and once you feel this you don’t want a day where you don’t have it. I have boundless energy now. I no longer get that 3pm slump, I sleep well and I am happy!
I have always been happy but now that I don’t smoke and that I run instead I feel a new life has opened up for me. I feel as if I only ever lived up to half of my potential and have achieved more than my wildest dreams in the last two years. I have found a confidence within, a belief in myself. You see I always though I was a quitter, I though I was no good at anything, I thought I was an addict but now I know none of this is true. I have stopped smoking, I have ran half marathons and completed a 15 mile road race but then the biggest dream of them all came true last July when my dream of having a food festival in Kenmare came true and we pulled off Kenmare Food Carnival.
This has been my journey for the last two years. I quit smoking and I am never going back. It can be done ;()
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