Smoking is Killing me.

Smoking cigarettes is likely the worst decision I ever made in my entire life, and that's saying something as there are a few skeletons in my closet that I'm not overly proud of as well.

I tell clients now, I wish I knew 30 years ago what I know now. I would have been a non-smoker 30 years ago. Now, I'm just 30 years older and can't breath, literally If I laugh, like really laugh, I run out of air nearly immediately. you can really feel the lungs collapsing on nothing... Not even thin air.

We all have a story, at 16 I was introduced (coerced if you really put a point to it), to cigarettes, Cough, Cough, yuck, Spidle, etc... but like anything you learn to like it, its an acquired taste they say... (hmm, that's alcohol another story), It really wasn't long before I figured out how to actually inhale, and find that first "Rush" of carbon monoxide, nicotine and all of the other bits cigarettes' are designed to impart. My first experience having a mind altering experience, as well as the neuro-physio responses designed to reinforce the desire for more.

From the age of 16 through 45, I was a smoker, Twenty-nine years, roughly 10,585 days, at about twenty cigarettes' a day... Nearly a quarter million cigarettes' 250,000 reminders each and every day to chase after that elusive feeling from the first time, Sounds familiar doesn't it? Even with a mean average of cost over those 30 years of 10 cents a cigarette that's $25,000 dollars up in smoke.

A drug addiction, we're told over the years that quitting smoking is way harder than giving up Hereon, that we're addicted to the nicotine, that we can't make it through a day without them, that we need that crutch to make it through the stress, the worries, etc.

Well, here's the unsaid reality. You were LIED to, Nope, Yep, LIED to. You are NOT addicted to nicotine. I say that YOU are not addicted as I managed to quit the hard way, the Heart attack was a pretty good convincer for me. If you're still smoking, literally cooking your lungs with heated air, ( think smoking BBQ ribs over a slow cooker, think COPD ) you already know that breathing isn't what it used to be.

So lets break it down. Okay so I was lied to, big surprise, no one really ever thought they were healthy right? Well, here's the thing, You are NOT addicted to smoking, cigarettes, nicotine, etc...You're addicted to eating, Huh? what, Thought we were talking about smoking...

So here it is. our bodies run on sugar. proteins, carbohydrates etc. But the real fuel is sugar. Think of a gas gauge in the brain that measures the amount of sugar it has available to use, ( I.e. how much fuel, energy it has in the bodies systems for use ), and the meter is going down, so it sends the signal to the body that says, hey its time to eat, and the lower that meter goes, the more the signal goes out saying, hey, its time to eat, I'm hungry, I need fuel!. So we eat a hamburger, the food hits the stomach, and into the system it goes, breaking it down to all of the components that get converted into fuel for us to use. This takes time, so the time from eating it to the time the "Fuel" is available for use isn't overly fast as things go. Now somewhere along the line, you ate a candy bar, and the system stand up and yells YES, fuel, fast easy to convert, tasty, I like it, sweets are GOOD!. So of course lots of raw sugars, dextrose, etc that gets converted quicker and easier, but still a process that ultimately feeds the bodies systems with actual usable fuel.

Now bring in cigarettes, You take a hit and the gases (smoke) hit the lungs, into the blood stream and up to the brain in seconds, fast, and full of sugar!! Yeah, there it is the hook, not an addiction, but a system that the body already has, an absolute need for. So you smoke the cigarette, it of course is made up of tobacco that was cured ( take a guess, I know its a surprise by now ) in molasses which is a simple sugar!, so the big tobacco folks had us from the start, Nicotine is a herbicide, its literally a POISON, one drop of pure nicotine is enough to kill us. Have you ever heard of anyone being addicted to the patch? or the Gum? yeah right... So you took the hit, the smoke hits the lungs, the sugars in the tobacco were vaporized and now are on the fast tract to our brain, where the fuel gauge meter pegs out, thinking that wow that was a LOT of sugar that hit the system, I'm loaded with sweet goodness!!!! Thanks Me, here have some dopamine (the pleasure compound that the brain produces to reward us, the feel good drug) So you there you go, the hidden cycle that binds us to smoking, and why we find it so hard to give up.

So lets sum it up, Big tobaccos marketing from the early 1900's has been working hard making cigarettes the big FAD to have, the product to desire, and COOL look to have. The Chemists literally putting all kinds of additives to the mix, to make it burn smooth and evenly, to taste a particular way, adding nicotine to the mix and such, curing the product in a simple sugar knowing full well that this is going to hit the bodies reward centers. Every aspect of this product is designed and engineered to hook you in, to convince you that your body needs it, that you can't go without it. Pretty cool if you're the one selling the product.

I am not going to belabor the point, sickness, disease, cancers all of the things we've known for years that are likely going to happen with smoking, I'm going to point out two things. 1st - You were tricked, lied to, your money, time, energy, life was being stolen from you one drag at a time. and 2nd, the most important, you are NOT addicted. A habit, yes, a desire that has been reinforced over and over you bet. but you are not chemically addicted.

Hypnosis is literally the one tool that gives you a super powered boost in breaking out of that habit, to break the cycle, and to give you the super charged jump start to leave tobacco behind for good. More people convert to a permanent Non-Smoker with Hypnosis every day. Join that group. Todays costs for a pack of cigarettes is literally 10 times that of what I started at, Even at just $10 a pack, that's a dollar a cig. that's and average of $400 a month up in smoke. Think about this a minute. Consider that in todays economy, what is it worth to you right now to leave tobacco behind? One pack a day is basically $300 $400 a month.

I smoked for 30 years, I know that animal, I know the burden... Book your session now, make today the last day you let big tobacco steal anymore of your life.