Coffee, Tobacco and Caffeine - The Big Three

This week I'm extremely thankful that I gave up my use of tobacco almost 20 years ago. My nutrition program has ordered a "holiday" from all alcohol, tobacco and caffeine products beginning yesterday and I know some people will have a really hard time doing that. For people who signed on thinking this was a diet program, they might be in a world of hurt starting this week. 

The big three - Alcohol, Tobacco and Caffeine. These 
three substances are all highly addictive and extremely 
difficult to abandon. 

Of course, there's no "WildFit Police" hovering over us making sure we abstain and follow program. This isn't a cult where they gather everyone into a single room and rant and rave for hours until people are totally brainwashed. No poisoned Kool-aid here. The three items - tobacco, liquor and coffee/tea are the Big Three - the substances that get into us and under our skin, and they feature large multi-barbed hooks. Why abandon the Big Three? We're supposed to be learning how to listen to our bodies and help our bodies flourish. Part of listening is paying attention to these three also, even though they aren't actually food items. They can, and do, affect nutrition. 

Smoke, of course, has a distinctive odor. I always 
wondered why the Fellowship didn't get attached at 
the crossroads in Moria since Gandalf saw fit to 
light up his pipe at the junction while he thought 
about where to do. Then again ... the many times 
Aragorn and Gandalf stopped for a smoke, let alone 
the hobbits, the orcs would have been all over 
them, drawn by the scent. 

I quit tobacco when I had a surgical procedure that would keep me in the hospital for three days, on pain killers for one of those days. I had been trying on and off for more than a decade, to put the cigarettes down and not pick them up again. DH had quit years earlier - just put his pack into his desk drawer and never took them out again. My father quit his pipe smoking the same way - just put it down and never picked it up again. I wasn't that strong (nor was my mother who smoked even into her Alzheimer's years). I tried and failed and tried once again. 

When I was raised, most adults smoked. My aunt Vera 
never smoked, but almost every other adult in my life 
was attached to tobacco products. It's a hard addiction 
to just shelve for a period of time, and I'm quite sure 
not everyone will be able to simply put them aside. 

I figured an opportunity like my surgery wouldn't come around twice in my life and I had to take advantage of it. So I had one last cigarette while being driven to the hospital, and didn't touch it again. The drugs they had me on for the first 24 hours helped the initial withdrawal, and I just left it behind me when I returned home 72 hours later. 

I'm sure we've all had days like this. Fortunately, 
I haven't had many of them. 

So, to get back to what turned into today's topic - I'm eternally grateful I had the opportunity to put tobacco out of my life in 2002. I left coffee behind me when we shut down for Covid last year, so that's been more than a year, and I drink alcohol rarely - I enjoy it in my tea sometimes, and I like our Margaritas on the patio in the summers. Still - the big three have lost a lot of their power over me. Time to focus and celebrate and get the rest of my life into my own control once again. On that note, I'm out of here. Have a wonderful day - be well, stay safe and please wear your mask. I'll be back tomorrow.