..But I couldn`t just do it with any convention at all, of course!

I was down to five cigarettes only and decided to go for a cycle ride to get used to healthy things.
Ten minutes after arriving home, I am at the local hospital being resucitated, who decided they could not do the job, and called an ambulance for me to go the main casualty in the big town.
Breathing was so low that Mrs Mart was taken into a seperate side room (peak flow of under 70)and I remember very little after that except many different drips , jabs and hallucinations.
Smoking and also drinking as it turns out, has shot my immune system to pieces.

I have officially stopped both, but I did not expect to do it with such drama.

The chest feels much better, the brain is a bit grrrrrrrrrrr! If you know what I mean.

The final straw for me in smoking was all the people running around after me because I was daft enough to start the habit, but then I will say there is nothing like a reformed ex-smoker which I promise not to be.

Personally I don't think cutting down helps ... its best to quit altogether.

Psyche yourself up for a date in the future when you will stop - this helps to condition your mind to it - and make sure its a day when you will be very busy (to take your mind off smoking).

When I quit I also used to "number" the days that had elapsed in the bottom of my diary so that if I "relapsed" I knew I was throwing away XXX days of hard labour !

On about day 5 I got this overwhelming urge for a cig just after tea, and though I'd better find something to do to take my mind off it ! The neighbours must have thought I had gone mad for the next hour I spent weeding in the garden in the rain ! It worked.

(btw - who said that not smoking was healthy? You've already caused extra cost to the NHS as a non smoker !)