I have never been big on the doctor or popping pills, so a few months ago when a pharmaceutical ad caught my eye, I was surprised. The ad was for Chantrix, a nicotine receptor of some type that helps people quit smoking. What caught my eye about the ad was that the spokes people seemed real. I believed they were ex heavy smokers. Then an old pal of mine,Rob who lived in our basement in San Francisco for a couple years and now resides back in England told me both he and his girlfriend had quit using Chatrix. Now if you know Rob, he is what i would consider "a real smoker". I was amazed and inspired.The picture above is Rob, good to see he hasn't given up all his old ways. I told myself I would give it a shot this spring. Spring came and Terry gently reminded me about my promise. So I made an appointment to see the Doc and get a perscription. At the Doc the nurse starts going through the usual routine, step on the scale ( i hate that part) blood pressure etc. As she takes my blood pressure she starts making weird faces. Oh Oh. Lets try the other arm. Have you ever had high blood pressure before, she asks. Um no, but I think my Dad did or does. She then tells me to sit and relax and they will try again in ten minutes. Oh yeah I'm feeling real relaxed now that you gave me that news. So the Doc comes in and trys this time. He has better bed side manner and refrained from making faces about how high it was. So that's it my blood pressure is high, scary high, level 3-4 high. So I did what any mature adult would do. I went to the car and started crying and feeling sorry for myself. Here I tried to do something good and go get a pill to make myself healthier and I get a slap in the face. Terry tried to console me and say we would get through this. Terry a guy who lives for his heavily salted ribeyes starts talking about cooking fish and changing his diet too. Then we headed to Costco to get the Chatrix prescription filled because apparently they have the cheapest phramcy in town. At Costco I hit up every cheese sample three times. I am my mothers daughter after all and cheese is good for all that ails you, right? I then went home and called my Mom so I could whine to her, which actually did make me feel better. Then I decided to give myself a swift kick up the ass and stop feeling sorry for myself and make some changes. I have been eating bagels and cream cheese for breakfast for the last two and half decades. And I might add it was never the serving suggestion amount of cream cheese. I blame it on living in NYC in the early 80's. You see I have always exercised and I was always thin until my late thirties when I started to spread a little. Because of that I thought I could eat whatever I wanted and that was never fast food for me, more like cheese cheese cheese. Well I was wrong. So I had to make a lot of drastic changes in my diet. Fresh fruit smoothies for breakfast. No more turkey on rye for lunch (with cheese of course).Now its organic greens with tomatoes, onions and a little goat cheese(a gal has to live a little). Today I retire my old clunker of a Cusineinart coffee maker. yes Ill still have coffee but I bought one of those Pod makers so 8 ounces a day is my new limited. The good news is I have lost four pounds and to be honest my smoothies are really good. Next Monday marks my next BIG change. Easter will be my last day as a smoker. You take the Chatrix for 2 weeks before quiting. It's not an easy drug to take. It can make you feel quite ill, but I reckon it might take some powerful medicine/poison to wean me off a addiction I have had for over three decades. That's whats going on in my world, now whats going on in yours?
