Day 11: No more Ninja

I’m not surprised that my quitting chewing smokeless tobacco has gone unnoticed by most of the people I know.  Sure, some are reading these posts and know I chewed, but most had no idea I had the habit and therefore have no idea I’ve stopped. I was a chewing tobacco ninja, seriously a pro at hiding it.

It’s amazing how addicting smokeless tobacco is. When I started it was cool thing to be doing, rebellious I suppose. It was easy to conceal in school and better than smoking because I didn’t smell like an ashtray. As with a lot of things when we are teenagers, tips and tricks are readily available from peers on how to beat the system, and there were never any shortage of ideas on how to conceal tobacco and which brands had the most nicotine.

I used it all the time. There really wasn’t too many events that I wouldn’t chew at. It is a habit that is haunting when you don’t do it, which is one of the toughest parts about quitting. And when it can be concealed so nobody is aware, there is very little nagging about how disgusting the habit is. For me, the ninja approach made it less confrontational even though it was a pain and required a lot of extra thought at times.

Only if I could go back in time and bring myself out to the woodshed and have a little ‘splaining of how unhealthy, addicting, mood altering and expensive chewing tobacco is. It definitely is in the top five of my dumb decisions.

But alas, there is no turning back the clock. I can however change the future and I am well on the way in doing that.

I’m sure a lot of people may not be interested in these posts, but if it can reach someone who is trying to quit and helps that would be awesome. The best time to stop is right now, just do it.