2018 will mark my 30th year since I stopped smoking.

Before I gave up the habit I had been smoking since I was 11 years old, graduating from 2 to 3 sticks to as much as a pack and a half a day.

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• Drinking days were worse when I can finish 2 packs. I enjoyed smoking, really. Smoking was the first thing I do when I wake up and the last thing I did before I slept. There were times when I run out of cigarettes at 2a.m. and I would go out to buy one so's I can sleep in peace. There were no 7/11's or All Night convenience stores then so I would drive my car along Buendia Avenue at 2 in the morning looking for sleepy-eyed cigarette vendors just to buy at least two sticks - one before I sleep and one when I wake up. I was young then and I hardly felt the effects of smoking on my body except for the occasional sore throat or tonsilitis which I remedied by taking antibiotics. Yup. That time you can buy antibiotics over the counter like you were buying newspaper from a stand. No prescription needed. I was in smokers' heaven.

Why did I stop? My ex-girlfriend said I can't do it.

How did I stop? Cold turkey and miserably.

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The first day was the worst when all I could think of was cigarettes.

I nearly gave up after an hour. But you know in the old days this" macho" image was so important that the thought of my ex laughing at me and at my pathetic attempt to quit and telling me, "See I told you so" was the only thing that was more powerful than my desire for cigarettes. But otherwise I was a nervous wreck. When the phone rings in my office, I automatically reach out for the pack of Marlboros I always have lying on my table and finding none I suddenly remember I stopped and then I panic. Talk of security blankets and thumb sucking. My officemates knew I stopped smoking because I told them and so they would one by one enter my cubicle and offer me a stick or sit on the visitor's chair and smoke and enjoy watch me suffer. Schmucks! After meals is where most of the satisfaction of smoking is experienced. Ahh a good meal deserves a good smoke. No. Any meal deserved a smoke after. It's the highlight of my smoking life aside of course when I'm in the john where smoking is a necessity. Night out with my office buddies over beer and song was the worst. They would all be smoking and laughing and telling me to stop this madness of quitting while blowing sweet smelling smokes at me, at my face! What am I doing? Why am i doing this? The beer doesn't taste as good. Oh how was I to last another day of torment. DAY 1.

DAY 2 to DAY 7 - Extreme suffering. Almost quit 70 times.

DAY 8 - I remembered an Australian customer telling me that nicotine is a short term drug.

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He told me then that smokers are not addicted to nicotine. If nicotine was the problem then you would not be able to sleep 6 to 8 hours straight. You'll have to wake up in between to get your fix. He said the addiction is in the habit. The act of lighting a stick, inhaling the smoke, blowing it out, sometimes making "0" shapes out of the smoke, tapping the ashes on the ashtray - all these are what a quitter misses. With this in mind, I asked for a stick from an officemate (who had this really big smile while giving me the cig) and started to puff on it unlit. Someone once said: "A cigarette is a pinch of tobacco rolled up in paper with fire on one end and a fool on the other." Well this stick I was sucking on had no fire on one end and a macho on the other. Hah! I would tap the unlit cigarette on the ashtray, imagining the ashes spreading on the clean tray, then take a hit again. Phone rings. At least I was holding a cigarette and blowing imaginary smoke. That calmed me down.

DAY 9 to Month 7 - The smoke from the guy behind me was beginning to bother me.

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I wished he would smoke somewhere else. HEY, did I just say that? The guys in the office now refused to give me cigarettes because I was just drenching them with my saliva while smoking them unlit. Waste of money, they said. Ha ha. Their efforts to stop me from smoking have all been futile. Now they want me to buy my own cigarettes. Oh no, I wasn't spending another cent on cigarettes. So, I got a sheet of paper, rolled it and started to puff on it. That did the trick. Now, I would go out with the guys with a bunch of rolled out papers and pretend to smoke on them while they burned theirs. I was beginning to notice a change in me. From doing 15 sticks of wet cigs a day I was doing less and less as the days and months went by. The sore throat and tonsilitis were gone. The smell of cigarette smoke was not sweet anymore.

Month 8 to date - Totally quit and off the habit.

For smokers who want to stop, it's never too late. You can do it. It really is not about the need to stop. Oh I know I had to stop for health reasons. But this did not push me to quit. It's WANTING to stop that drove me to almost being crazy about doing it. There's a gap the size of Alaska between Needing and Wanting. It's the latter that always win. It's what moves mountains, gets people to reach out beyond the ordinary. It's what makes you try more than your best. Find out why you want to stop not why you need to. Try my method. It could work for you. Oh by the way, my ex-girlfriend? She's now the mother of my kids.

As a conclusion, I am posting a video I recently saw on Facebook. It might help you start your DAY 1.

_{If you love yourself, don't do this to your body}

Special thanks to my daughter @jacinta.sevilla for the visuals of this post for which I do not have a single knowledge how to go about.

THANK YOU FOR READING, I HOPE THIS HELPS!