Looking ahead, there is the Christmas season of bloat and binge just around the corner for most of us, and beyond that, the traditional New Year period of fasting, repenting and reduced calories. Most popular of all items to give up for the New Year is smoking - and the business of quitting is almost as lucrative and controversial as the business of smoking itself. Should quitting smoking be a publicly funded issue? What's the moral implication for pharmaceutical companies profiting from nicotine replacement gums and patches?
But most important of all the questions surrounding smoking and stopping smoking: what the hell do you do with yourself once weaned from the little white death sticks?
Well, it's true that smoking can lead to heavier and more worrying addictions - after all, it is one small step from lighting up a sneaky Lambert and Butler to hanging around in gangs and messing about with needles.
By which we mean knitting needles. Knitting. That's right. Knitting.
A group of determined quitters have had their first session of unique displacement therapy in South London this week: the Knit to Quit group gathered with their needles and yarn to share their patterns for ribbed roll neck sweaters and simultaneously air the trials and tribulations of trying to give up smoking in a friendly, constructive and supportive atmosphere. Group organiser Rachel Heywood is optimistic for the group's success at staying clean: "Because research shows you are four times more likely to succeed if you have support."
Knit to Quit: woolly, fuzzy-thinking at its best.
More information on Knit to Quit and other stop smoking clubs available here.
