Hello folks and Happy New Year to all!!!

Just thought this was a good time of year - and an ideal place - to share my "secret tip" of how I managed to keep my new Year's resolution of stopping smoking in 2006.

I stopped smoking cigarettes around Spring 2006, and, barring a few drunken misdemeanours on nights out (like... maybe 10 - 15 cigarettes in 7 months, where I was previously on 20 a day), haven't smoked since......and I did by motivating myself with MAC eyeshadow as a rewards scheme, lol!!

The only downside is this is effectively swapping one addiction for another but hey! Mac's cheaper than a heavy smoking habit, and it's DEFINITELY healthier and more hygenic :-) (MAC addiction I'm sure is something many of you ladies and gents can relate to too... and at the end of the day I discovered that yes I *did* love cigarettes, but I loved makeup a hell of a lot MORE, lol!)

I started off by buying myself a large pro pan palette, and one of the little handbag sized quad palettes, too (to carry with me, out and about). Then, each week that I managed to succesfully refrain from having a cigarette, I would purchase a new pro-pan eyeshadow to put in it. I was deliberately quite strict with myself, and didn't let myself go INTO Mac at all if I'd faltered and had a cigarette during the week. The girls working at Mac soon got very used to me lurking around on a Friday afternoon picking out what I was going to get, and what I was going to get next, lol!

I started off with Beauty Marked and Seedy Pearl (was naughty and bought two the first week), then slowly built my collection up from there: any time I felt tempted to smoke, I'd take out my pocket quad and look at it, thinking "but a packet of cigarettes is ALMOST the price of a pro pan shadow!", and I'd find I could my nicotine cravings were in the main far, far less than the BURNING DESIRE to own steamy/parfait amour/gorgeous gold - whatever the particular obsession was at that time etc - to play with and wear at the weekend.

I know this relies on having a decent Mac store in your area that you can pop into regularly, but if you do, I found it a FANTASTIC motivator and maybe somebody else here can benefit from this idea too. You get to slowly build up a wardrobe of colours as time goes on, and each shadow feels satisfyingly "earned" as it clicks into place. Your progress of filling the palette is a VERY rewarding visible reminder of how you're getting on towards your goal. Today I celebrated another week of not smoking by purchasing my latest pro-pan shadow (Stars and Rockets!! How gorgeous!!) and have just realised that I'll be needing a THIRD 15 slot palette soon!!!!!

Please pinch my "pro pan motivator plan" to use for your own motivational purposes if you think it will work for you! I'd be really pleased if someone else tried this out!

In the meantime I'll proudly list my Mac pro pan collection shall I - just to prove how many weeks it is since I've now not smoked :-)

- Beauty Marked
- Seedy Pearl
- Carbon
- Freshwater
- Bitter
- Parfait Amour
- Gorgeous Gold
- White Frost
- Melton Mauve
- Sweet Lust
- Idol Eyes
- Nocturnelle
- Swimming
- Steamy
- Shimmermoss
- Tempting
- Chrome Yellow
- Orange
- Coppering
- Electric Eel
- Expensive Pink
- Satellite Dreams
- Moons Reflection
- Flashtrack
- Passionate (depotted to palette)
- Crystal Avalanche
- Stars and Rockets

.... and that makes 26!! 26 cigarette-free weeks! I'm so pleased! *beams*

Good luck for all of you with new years' resolutions for 2007! I'm still thinking on what mine should be (and how I can use Mac goodies to keep me going, lol!)

That's such a wonderful idea, congrats on all those weeks without smoking! Too bad my new years resolution was to buy LESS mac, eh?

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That's SUCH a good idea and well done on going so many weeks without smoking.

I quit smoking as my 2005 resolution, I think I had a maximum of 10 cigarettes (was also on 20 a day before that) throughout 2005. I have had 0 since October 2005.

Think I should go out and buy myself 60 eyeshadows? hehe. If only I could afford it.

I might do something similar for my weight loss goal - I'm a poor student so I can't afford an e/s a week but I may put aside some money for every 10lb I lose then save it up for a huge MAC spree at the end of the year. Or something.

Thanks to you both!

Vicky88 good luck with the weight loss thing!

An eyeshadow a week SEEMS a lot of money, I would never have spent all that money on makeup before this... but then I realised that I was spending just a HUGE amount of cash on ciggies every month without even blinking!! Here in the UK a pack of Marlboro Lights (my smoke of choice back then) cost about £5.50 for 20 on average (we're taxed quite heavily on cigarettes here - which I don't actually think is necessarily a bad thing.....), while Mac pan eyeshadows are £7.50 each. So if I was smoking 6 packets a week (which I was doing at my heaviest point quite easily), then that works out at something scary like £33 a week gone up in smoke... I must have been spending nearly £150 a month on cigarettes !!! which is really quite horrific. And means a rampant Mac habit of 4 or 5 eyeshadows a month is really quite moderate by comparison. (less than £50). Yet if you'd asked me BEFORE I quit smoking, I would've thought I'd never be able to afford so much high-end makeup on my kinda average income.

I'm going to stop with the pans thing after I fill this palette but it really was tremendously incentivising at the time. Maybe use the "MAC" money for a gymn membership as I did (inevitably) put on a bit of weight while I was quitting cigs, lol. But hey, who cares? I'm healthier, my skin looks better, I smell better, my "attractive" and painful ikky smokers' cough is gone and with all that lovely MAC I've bought my eye makeup is FABULOUS darling!


:-D

Oo I'm in the UK too! And I also smoked Marlboro Lights back then. It's amazing how much prices go up, I was paying £4.97 in '04 I believe!

It's funny how money for cigs just becomes part of your everyday budget, it's not something you have to factor in like make-up. I was at college at the time and I'd buy a pack of 20 every single morning but that would mean I would have to go with out lunch - didn't bother me in the slightest. I can't believe I ever did that.

However, I'm not 100% sure I'm never going to smoke again. I'd like to say that I wouldn't and that I don't need it anymore but quite honestly, I enjoyed smoking and weirdly, I quite like the smell! But we'll see what happens when I move out to go uni. Then again, uni in central London (hopefully) should hopefully provide enough MAC and clothing addiction to keep cigs out of my mind!!! xx