Breaking Free: My Journey to Overcoming a 30-Year Habit

Ever felt tethered to habits that no longer serve you? Join me, Christi Chanelle, on a personal journey of transformation as I reveal how I overcame a 30-year habit, not with grand resolutions but through small, intentional choices. This episode is all about celebrating progress and inspiring you to set your own glow-up goals, whether they're about mental, physical, or emotional growth. I’m sharing every step of the journey to motivate you to make this year your best one yet.

We're taking a break from the usual political chatter to focus on something more personal and uplifting: our glow-up year. It's not just about the physical changes but also about breaking free from old habits and creating ones that empower us. Grab your favorite cozy spot and let's chat about what it truly means to prioritize well-being and personal growth. Let my story of transformation spark some inspiration for your own journey, and let's make this the year we break the cycles that hold us back, together.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

We are just having a girl chat today. It's just you and me. I am not going to cover politics. I think we all need a break from politics. Okay, let's just relax our minds. Let's look to the left instead of looking to the right. Let's just chill, let's talk about some other shit. Okay, deal, all right, let's do it. All right, let's do it.

Speaker 1: 0:33

I'm your host, christy Chanel, and this is the Love you Miss you Bye podcast. I love talking about politics. I love all the stuff that I'm learning. I get smarter every day I really do and I love sharing it with you. Today's not that day. Today, we just need a break. All right, we're going to talk about our glow up year. This is going to be our glow up year. Now, it could be in many different categories. It doesn't have to be cosmetic, it doesn't have to be physical, it could be mental. It's whatever you want to get better at. It's your year. Okay, let's talk about me for a minute, because I have to give you some examples of why it is going to be my glow up year. I have to have to tell you that and maybe in some way, it can inspire you to do the same thing.

Speaker 1: 1:27

I have been a smoker I don't know as long as I can possibly remember. It's been at least 30 plus years. I don't talk about it, I kind of hide it and I just live with that. That is my vice and that's usually how I will relay it to people, by letting them know. Yeah, you know, I don't have any vices. I don't drink, I don't do drugs. So this is my vice and that's my way of excusing that behavior which, as we both know, as we're listening to me say, it is not an excuse. Nope, it's just not, and it's been a slow process.

Speaker 1: 2:14

I'm going to tell you why I made the decision to quit smoking. It started I used to work in another job and in that job I would go out and have a cigarette on my break and it was like oh, it's 10 o'clock, it's cigarette time. Or it's 10 o'clock it's cigarette time, or it's one o'clock, it's cigarette time. You know, you get two breaks and I would utilize those as my way to take a break from the job and, honestly, I used to feel bad for the people that didn't smoke because they didn't just go outside because it was break time. You know, I did. I did because I had a reason. So every day the big boss would walk past my office and because she was a smoker and she would say, let's go Like every single day, I just wasn't a big fan of big boss, and it would actually start to make me have a little bit of anxiety, like, hey, man, I have to go smoke with her in the smoke shed.

Speaker 1: 3:06

I don't want to go to the smoke shed with her every day because we really it just I'm not good at pretending. I'm a real motherfucking person and if I don't like you I don't know how to pretend to like you. I'm just not good at it. So I had to fake, had to fake conversation in the I keep wanting to call it the Shake Shack. I had to fake conversation in the smoke shed, conversation that I didn't want to have on my break. So I got to a point where I'm like you know what I quit? I'm going to quit smoking during the day. I'm at least going to tell everybody that I quit. So I did, and I had to start going all day long without a cigarette to avoid having those uncomfortable conversations in the smoke shack. And so my will to not hang out with this woman was bigger than my desire to smoke and it won, which I am thankful for, because ever since then, I have carried that on throughout the rest of my career and today to this day, I do not smoke during the day at any job.

Speaker 1: 4:22

The next big thing that happened to me was I got a brand new vehicle. Now I had already never smoked in the car. When my kids were in the car, that was cut out, but I did when they weren't in the car. I would have a cigarette every single time. Well, when I got a new vehicle in 2020, I stopped doing that too. So now I've cut out smoking in my vehicle and smoking during the day at work, and these are the two positive habits that I've been able to carry forward in my life.

Speaker 1: 4:55

Unfortunately, I was not able to keep that when I got home. I was not able to keep that on the weekends or at night, and now currently, what smoking looks like in my world would have been wake up in the morning and have a coffee, have a cigarette, go take a shower, get dressed, go to work don't smoke. No smoking in your work clothes. No smoking in your vehicle. No smoking at the job. Get in the car again no smoking. Come home and it's on like Donkey Kong. I would smoke and smoke, and smoke, and smoke and smoke. It was like this was my reward for waiting all day. Now I can do whatever the fuck I want and it's my relaxation, it calms me down, it's really really good.

Speaker 1: 5:43

And so now, because I'm getting I'm getting I just told you it's my glow up year I'm getting major, major dental surgery. It's over $30,000 worth of dental surgery. I am more than excited. I cannot wait. I'm over the moon. And because I'm paying almost for a vehicle in my mouth $30,000, my vehicle was what I think. My vehicle was $36,000. So $6,000 less than my vehicle was. I basically have a fucking Ford Escape in my mouth now and I'm not about to fuck that up either. So, just like I did with my car, I'm going to do with my mouth, and I am. I have quit smoking Today's, day three.

Speaker 1: 6:30

So I know there's no victory parade. I know nobody's going to be standing in front of my house going good job, christy, we love you, yay, and applauding. But I'm going to applaud myself, just like I had when I didn't smoke in my car, just like I had when I stopped smoking during the day. This is another step in a positive direction for me. So that's step one in my glow up and I'm proud of myself. I mean three days I should be proud of right, because this started on Thursday, so I didn't smoke in the morning, I didn't smoke at night. Then Friday, I didn't smoke in the morning, I didn't smoke at night, and now we're on Saturday.

Speaker 1: 7:09

I am filming this on Saturday and I haven't smoked and I could easily get in my car and go to the corner and get cigarettes and, trust me, it's really a mindfuck. Ok, because it's like after I finished my podcast, I would go and I'd have a cigarette and I'd want to. You know, just chill and and kind of get ready, and I have no reason to go back in there on that couch and chill. No, and there's nothing besides a cigarette, there's nothing to go sit and do Like I need to be doing stuff. Now it's propelling me to keep my mind busy and my thoughts busy and myself busy. So, yay, I'm going to continue to update you and if I fail which I will not I will let you know. Update you, and if I fail which I will not, I will let you know I'm not about to fail.

Speaker 1: 8:08

I feel really proud of myself and I really think that it really has to be something that you're doing. That is bigger than the price of quitting, you know, and my bigger is I want to have good lungs and I want to have good teeth, and I'm about to. So that's two things Quitting smoking, dental surgery and number three. I'm going to say number three, but there are going to be several different things that are happening to me. I'm just going to tell you about phase one. Phase one is stopping cigarettes and dental surgery. So that's all I wanted to talk about today. I know it's a quick episode. This is a good time to go. Follow me on YouTube, because that's what's going to have the before pictures and the after pictures and a lot of footage that will take you through my journey. Love you, miss you. Bye, have the best week ever and I'll talk to you soon. Bye.