Day Four

Day 4 at 4.15PM and I’m sitting here typing (while drinking an espresso) just to try and keep myself awake. Whether it’s jet-lag, the effects of stopping smoking (and drinking) or the aftermath of a stressful few weeks I don’t know, but the urge to flake out on the sofa is very strong. Yesterday I wearily closed my eyes at 1.00PM and next thing I knew 3 hours had just disappeared. Or perhaps it’s because I’m being more active physically? I got in a second weight-training session today, followed this afternoon by a walk down at the prom in Maldon (Old picture here from the winter. Hot and crowded today).

So, other effects: after just three days my morning smokers’ cough has gone. My senses of smell and taste are improving. The result of the former is that during that walk along the prom the smell of frying burgers and onions was the most exquisite torture, while I can now smell a cigarette at a hundred paces and zero in on it as if possessed of the targeting vision of a Terminator. The improvement in my sense of taste – and my appetite – has resulted in an almost manic urge to stuff food in my face (hence my reaction to those burgers). Thus far I’ve been pretty good in suppressing that with various fruits or by nibbling my way through a carrot or two. Hopefully it will pass along with the other side-effects of kicking this habit.

Sorry to bore you all with this but by talking about it on the Internet I am deliberately putting extra pressure on myself to stay the course.