The Smoke Stack

This may be news to some, but I smoked on and off for about 13 years. I started smoking cigarettes when I was 12. My mom's a smoker and it was easy to sneak some here and there. Of course most of my friends at school were hoodlums so we all shared the wealth when we were wealthy with our parents "coffin nails", as my dad calls them.

During times of not smoking, I began frequently eating large amounts of food, not unlike Garfield when he would effortlessly consume stacks of lasagna. I've heard people say that they are afraid to quit smoking because the last time they tried, they gained weight because they ate significantly more food than they did while smoking regularly. The last time I quit smoking, I used m&m's, peanuts, dum dums, reeces pieces, twizzlers, pop corn, potato chips, etc. to ease cravings. Clearly as a result of eating basically nothing but candy and junk food, I packed on big pounds.

Essentially I'm saying that nature really does hate a vacuum and that you can't put down one bad habit without expecting another to develop. I originally heard this idiom from Prof. Ron Wheeler. For my bad habit of excessive restaurant food consumption and purchase, I plan to spend significantly more time in meaningful conversation, playing guitar and writing songs, and reading. I've been eating too much. That's all there is to it. Fortunately, I no longer have cravings to smoke, but I do have constant cravings for BBQ, chicken salad, steak, fried chicken...you get the picture. Nature hates a vacuum.

Today for lunch, I had a turkey sandwich, some pretzel chips, a serving of greek yogurt, and some carrots. It was a lovely lunch. I will say that I noticed every single restaurant in existence between Knoxville and Spring City - that's 150 miles round trip of greasy convenience all around. A Facebook friend told me that he thinks the first 40 odd days will be the most difficult, and I think he's right.

This Sunday I plan to have a few friends over for home food and a game of cards. I'm looking forward to strengthening my friendships this way. Later this week, I will post some more information I gathered from using Mint.com to see the big bucks I've spent at restaurants over the past year or two. Until then, happy home cooking.