This week is national non-smoking week, and today is Weedless Wednesday. Below is a testimonial from one Muskoka resident who succeeded in quitting after being a smoker for over 50 years.

I was nine years old when I had my first cigarette. Both my parents smoked and kept their cigarettes and matches on top of the refrigerator. It was July 1951 and I took a cigarette and match and went down to our basement and stuck my head into our cleaned-out coal furnace and lit the cigarette.

Thinking the house was on fire, because of the smoke billowing out of the registers, my mother came down to investigate. When I heard her footsteps coming down the basement stairs, I ran out and stayed out of the house for a few hours until I was so hungry, I had to return. Of course, I was punished and warned not to smoke until I was 16.

I had my second cigarette at the age of 13. Most of my peers smoked, so I bowed to the peer pressure, learning to inhale, and became addicted.

Over the next 50-plus years I tried to quit several times. My doctor prescribed a Nicotine Replacement Therapy program and it worked. I had my last cigarette on March 26, 2006.

Before quitting, I watched myself smoking in my bathroom mirror and saw the wrinkles form around my lips with each puff. I also made a list of the reasons I wanted to quit and put it on my fridge. At the top of the list were my health, my husband, my pets, the cost, and the social stigma.

I implemented a more stringent exercise routine to help me feel physically better. Cravings are fewer, but still happen and when they do, I take several deep breaths until the craving passes.

The benefits of not smoking are numerous. My skin is less wrinkled and has a healthy glow, my teeth aren’t nicotine stained, my energy level has increased and overall, I feel better both physically and mentally. I also have an extra $40 in my pocket every week. I save this money to put toward vacations or spend on things I want.

In closing, it was peer pressure that made me start and it was peer pressure that made me quit. Don’t forget, never quit trying to quit because one day you will succeed. Should one of you “kick the habit,” then I have been successful in telling my story and if I can quit, so can you. Good luck.