I smoked for over 20 years, about a pack to a pack-and-a-half a day. I quit cold turkey, after many false starts in the preceding years, on May 5, 2003. And I haven't had a cigarette once in all that time, or any other tobacco product. My secret? I was basically flat broke and couldn't afford to smoke anymore, so I had to choose between food and cigarettes.

Eventually, food won out.