How Dare I Suggest That It's Easy to Quit Smoking? Part I

Because I did and it was. I heard about a book titled "The Easy Way to Stop Smoking" by Allen Carr. The title was preposterous but like the allure of a "get rich quick" scheme I was sucked in and ordered it. I'd researched it first and found hundreds of reviews on Amazon.com, all but a handful of which praised it as nothing short of the Second Coming of Christ. Carr told me to continue smoking while I read the book--he'd let me know when it was time to quit. No patches or nicotine gum would be tolerated, nor would chewing gum, thumbs or lollipops. I finished the book, put it back on the night table and then smoked a few hundred more cigarettes.

I picked the book up a few months later; "Think I'll read the last few chapters again," I told myself. The next morning, July 2, 2007, I sat on the porch with my last Marlboro Light and told it exactly how I felt about it.

There were lot's of CS-ers and MF-ers, some GDs and a tear or two. When I'd sucked every last bit of poison from it I threw it on the ground and smashed it like an effing cockroach bug. And that was it--I was a non-smoker.