Challenge no.4

No smoking for a day

Set by the love of my life, the infamous Puffin, aka Danny.

Danny is my boyfriend. We met right at the beginning of uni and I fell head over heels in love with him the minute he walked in the house.

He is 6 foot 5 which is handy as I'm only 5 foot 2. He puts up with my madness and makes me smile and laugh every single day. He is amazing, a happy, cheeky, gorgeous charmer and everyone adores him, but no-one does more than me. He is my hero.

Danny said he set me this challenge, just because he wanted to see if I could do it.

Puffin has never asked me to give up smoking, which is good, because I actually don't want to quit, but I would if I was made to choose between him and the cigarettes. He is far more addictive and better for me.

I am well aware of what I am doing to myself before you all start tsking at me. I am of the view that I might get hit by a bus tomorrow.

However I have been considering quitting recently, but not for health reasons. It's for vanity reasons (it always is with an Essex girl). Not because smoking makes you wrinkly, that is what botox is for, but because I have psoriasis. This means that my skin cells regrow 3 times faster than anyone elses and you may have noticed the ugly red patches on my arms and feet.

Psoriasis is the only thing that brings me down, when I notice the angry red blotches glaring at me I go from feeling beautiful and happy to mutant like and depressed.

I have tried everything to banish my psoriasis, but it's harder to get rid off than crabs (I don't know this from personal experience). Every morning and night I have to put on greasy ointments containing potent steroids, I have to ensure my skin is constantly moisturised throughout the day, otherwise my skin cracks and bleeds and I'm always itchy. Anyway boo hoo hoo poor little me, enough of the sob story, apparently if I quit smoking there is a high chance that my psoriasis will clear up.

So rather than focus on the health or financial benefits, I will be focusing on beautiful clear skin.

I decided that my day of no smoking would be a day when I am looking after my stunning nephews. Joey (8) and Charlie (10 months). I decided this for two reasons, 1) I can't smoke around the kids anyway 2) hopefully they will inspire me, I adore them, they mean everything to me.

I woke up at 8am, which was a shame, because I was hoping I would be able to lie in, the longer I'm asleep, the less time I would have to spend not smoking, but I had my gorgeous nephews to occupy me and I hardly ever get to see them as I live 300 miles away.

At about 8.30 the nicotine cravings kicked in really badly. There was nothing I could do about it other than ride them out, I had a cheeky 10 month old to run around after. He crawls around quicker than a whippet!

The cravings passed after about 20 minutes (it felt longer). However a trip to the bank soon made the cravings rear their ugly head again. I desperately wanted a cigarette, I was also convinced that a little girl was staring at my psoriasis and I had images of myself screaming at the little girl 'yeah had a good enough look, take an effing picture' Oh dear I was close to turning into a monster, so I took deep breaths to the count of 5 and I felt a tiny bit more relaxed.

I managed to handle the cravings quite well all day. I tried my hardest to not snap at anyone, even when Joey was skate-boarding round the house. But I really did miss doing something with my hands, I was fidgety and kept chewing on pen lids, I do that anyway, but I was really going to town on them. I kept trying to visualise smooth soft peachy skin where my red flaky blotches are, but it wasn't really working. I decided to do some research to see how not smoking effects psoriasis, but it turns out there is barely a correlation. Great. Luckily I still had two cheeky forms of inspiration. I was looking at my nephews and thinking how disappointed I would be if they started smoking and I really do not want to influence them in that way. This thought really spurred me on, maybe I am less selfish than I originally thought!

I managed to go a whole day without smoking, and it turned out my nephews and not my vanity kept me smoke-free, however I am sorry to say I had a cigarette as soon as it turned midnight, and it was bloody good.

It's not all sad though, today has made me think about quitting, but I will not be kicking the habit cold turkey.

Some tips to beat Nicotine Cravings.....

1. BREATHE, slowly to counts of 5

2. Chew gum or suck sweets

3. Sip water or camomile tea

4. Give yourself a manicure or facial

5. Sleep - not even the heaviest smoker can spark up in their sleep.

6. Focus on WHY you are quitting.

7. Change other habits too, for example eat at different times and places

8. Have a bath

9. Do some excercise

10. Keep your hands and mind busy, knit, do crosswords.

11. Think about how disgusting smoking is. Really gross yourself out.

Difficulty rating: Easier than you think
Fun Factor: Not very fun, but not torture

Do this if.....you want to quit smoking!

Challenge no. 4: Completed!

Holly

x

To find out more about quitting smoking visit http://smokefree.nhs.uk/?WT.mc_id=search

To find out more about psoriasis visit http://www.psoriasis-association.org.uk/