I was just 9 years old when I convinced my Mum to give me a drag of her cigarette!

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“When I was just 9 years old I convinced my Mum to give me a drag of her cigarette. I was so fascinated by her smoking…”

John Dicey, Worldwide CEO & Senior Facilitator, Allen Carr’s Easyway, interviews Ramy Romanovsky, Allen Carr’s Easyway Israel

John; Tell me about your life as a smoker?

Ramy: Since I can remember myself I was always a smoker. At age 9 I convinced my Mom to give me a drag because I was so fascinated her smoking. Naturally I coughed and she was pleased thinking that I will never ever touch it again but at age 14 I started smoking full time.

As time passed by and I passed through my teens into adulthood, as any smoker does I promised myself to quit one day… but that day never came.

When I joined the army my excuse was that I’ll quit when I’ll leave the army. When I left the army my excuse was that I’ll wait until I’ll meet and fall in love with a girl that doesn’t like cigarettes, but all the girls I went out with emulated me by starting smoking rather than inspiring me to quit!

Later on I promised myself that as I turn 30 I will quit smoking, but that didn’t happen either. As I turned 31, 32, 33 I was ridiculed by my family members that said that I’m stuck at age 30 and I refuse to grow up so I won’t have to quit my filthy habit.

John: But you did make attempts to quit smoking?

Ramy: Yes – once I did manage to quit for a while, it was about 2 months. I took part in a 10-day meditation retreat in Australia where you were not allowed to speak, smoke or have any engagement with other participants. I was so carried away by the experience that the smoking cessation wasn’t really hard, and after that I enjoyed the semi-enlightened and healthy feeling and I didn’t want to ruin it with a cigarette.

But…after a while that feeling went away and I felt deprived by not being able to smoke at all. At a special occasion, having a luxurious dinner with two good friends, one of them offered me a cigarette, a Marlboro, at the end of the meal.
And after only that one cigarette, came another and another, you know the rest….it’s the way it goes.

John: How did you hear about Allen Carr’s Easyway?

Ramy: I first heard about the Allen Carr method from an Irish friend, she told me that “there’s this book you just read and at the end you just quit” well it sounded too good to be true, I didn’t do anything about it back then but then when it was translated to Hebrew and I read the great reviews I gave it a try. The truth is that I didn’t really want to quit at the time, I thought that I enjoyed smoking (about 30 a day), but to my surprise when I finished the book I smoked my last cigarette and…that was it.

My biggest surprise is that after that nothing happened, no cravings, anxiety, or feeling of deprivation, something had changed in the way I think about smoking for good. My biggest surprise was that my wife kept on smoking a year after I quit and although I had the same brand I smoke available at our house on a daily basis it never even tempted me.

John: How did you get involved with Allen Carr’s Easyway?

Ramy: Three months after I quit I decided to leave everything I do and to bring the method to Israel, I felt like I had an amazing revelation and I wanted share it with everyone I know. It was very tough to be selected and even tougher to train as a facilitator – but since then Allen Carr Israel have helped many thousands of people to break free from smoking and to live a happier healthier life.

I think that the greatest thing about Allen’s method is that it focuses on the real problem – not the nicotine withdrawal, or daily habit but getting rid of the will to smoke. For a smoker it’s hard to imagine what it means to get rid of the will to smoke, but it’s like finding out that you’ve been fooled for years living in a trap, and one day someone unlocks the chains and opens the door of your prison and sets you free for good. If you’re still trapped – give it a try you’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain.

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From the desk of John Dicey, Worldwide CEO & Senior Facilitator, Allen Carr’s Easyway