One month and four days after I quit smoking cigarettes, I am writing some of my thoughts. I like to share them with you all, perhaps they will benefit you, as they are benefiting me, alhamdulilah!

‘About two months, before I quit smoking I had eliminated eating refined, and processed foods. Basically I had eliminated ‘wheat’ out of my eating habit.

After I had quit smoking, I was thinking to myself, is smoking the issue that I had, or is it deeper?

And this is some of the new findings, alhamdulilah.

The consumption of products that have wheat in them, effects my thinking, and wheat products themselves were also an addiction.

This information to me is a gateway into a deeper understanding of issues that I had dealt with on daily bases. And when I went deeper into the understanding of an addiction, I had realized that addictions can come in many different forms.

In this case, many key players assist my brain in getting addicted. For instance, the taste buds on my tongue, assist my brain in forming a habitual addiction to a specific taste of a specific food.

Similarly, I had realized that my 7 year old daughter, always asks for a specific brand of “Chips”, and after reading up on that, I had realized that a similar activity happens in her brain, when she insists on the specific bag of chips that of the one that happened in my brain, when I insisted on smoking the cigarette. And a similar activity occurs when I specify the brand, taste, and type of food that I’m used to eating.

I had realized that the purpose of food for the body is for it to provide me with a balanced amount of Proteins, and Nutrients that my body needs to function efficiently. But the reason I was consuming the foods, is because It’s breakfast time, or it’s lunch time, or dinner time.

Also, cultural, and social events were associated with eating. And one of the effects of eating foods with wheat, is brain fog. Of course beside the internal inflammation that is disposed inside my body. And the additional un-necessary refined carbohydrates that includes massive amounts of Sugar/glucose to be stored as fats in the stomach, and then in other parts of the body.

If Islam had taught me anything, it had taught me that it gave me one full month of Ramadan, to fast from eating, which I’m now learning that what this does is actually forces the body to shift its focus from using carbohydrates to gain energy, to absorbing the fats in the body as a source for it to function properly, and efficiently.

I share this information with you all, perhaps you can also benefit, as I am benefiting from it.

Of-course this is not an easy task, without reviving our intentions that first and foremost is this;

God have given me my body as a gift, and He has entrusted me with it.

I don’t have the right to be careless with my body, because I do not own it. I did not create it. Nor am I responsible for its complex unconditional functions.

I am thankful to God for raising my awareness on such a crucial issue that if I would had neglected, I would have been the person to pay the price, and those who associated with me.

I deeply apologies to God, and to my self, and to those who had associated with me while I was intentionally and unintendedly abusing my body, every single day. I’m sorry!’