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So i'm nearing the end of day one. I have been here before a few times in the past, I knew what was coming and what to expect. A few hot flushes, a nagging voice to 'go buy some smokes'. Getting past trigger places through the day; keeping my mind occupied. I only had one really bad moment in the day, that was early evening, when I would smoke the most. It's about snapping that routine, 'doing something else'. I smoked for 25 years, sometimes heavy sometimes not. I liked smoking, I enjoyed a cigarette, but over the past few years I have really wanted to stop. No one smokes anymore, it's no longer social to smoke - I wasn't enjoying it anymore, however I was addicted. So, now i'm at this point. I whittled down my smoking to around 10 a day (probably 10 trigger places in a day for me) and I'm set to kick it once and for all. Hopefully by the end of the week, most of the physical withdrawal effects will have eased. But for now, I just need to stay focused, stubborn and determined!

:)

Exactly,stay focused, and remember - this is all so temporary. Soon you will have kicked addiction's butt. Just gotta get through the early days. It may not be all sunshine and rainbows, but still very doable. Else none of us would be here. And a belated welcome and congrats on the great decision!

I was down to 10 a day. That means I eliminated all the non essential smokes but kept the most essential, most important ones. In a way, that almost strengthens the addiction in the end, because every one of those ten was somehow "meaningful". Keep vigilant and fight the thought that ANY freak fag is meaningful. Hell, what is meaningful is all the oxygen you're gulping, and what a great runner you now are. There are some radically dedicated exercise heavy weights here...hope you join up with them!

I have a shameful secret that I never shared with anybody... I find staying quit harder than the original quitting. This has bothered me for months. To this day, I feel that I could easily and happily go right back to smoking 2 packs a day with no problem. The weird thing is that I am NOT romancing the cigarette. My rational brain knows perfectly well that there are an endless number of reasons NOT to smoke and zero reasons TO smoke. But here I am 11 months quit and I don't feel any better. I don't feel FREE (as some people claim)! I don't have more energy. I don't revel in my non-smoker status. Plus I gained a significant amount of weight and can't get rid of it. I won't smoke, but I am not a happy camper. And my life in general has been stuck in a boring, unfulfilling rut for the last year or more. I don't think that's because I quit smoking. But never-the-less, I have been feeling bored and boring and useless and adrift and disappointed and the fact that I quit smoking doesn't cheer me up at all. But Babs started a thread the other day that really got me to thinking. It's titled "Nicotine Replacement Therapy" . In it, she explains that she is not referring to alternative sources of nicotine like gum or patches. She is referring to replacing smoking's role in your life. As she said: "Most people who have an addiction--whether it's to smoking, food, drugs, alcohol, people, sex...whatever it is...they can't just "put it down" without a replacement. There has to be a plan...there has to be an alternative." She went on to suggest several things that people can do to replace smoking. But those things didn't work for me. I mean, yes, when I was suffering from strong nicotine cravings and had to distract myself, exercise, music, yoga breathing and things like that were life savers. But to just fill the "emptiness" I'm feeling since quitting? Not so much. I am happy to report that I think I finally figured out what I've been missing-- I'm missing my right brain. Meaning being in touch with the creative, emotional, imaginative, "big picture" side of my brain. I have read many, many posts from people who get very emotional when they first quit smoking. They rage, they cry, they get their feelings hurt. They pick arguments with spouses and yell at the kids and they NEVER used to behave that way! I believe that smoking helps to tamp down our emotions. Somehow, the nicotine itself is biochemically soothing. And the act of stepping away from a stressful situation (like the constant bickering between your kids) for a few minutes to smoke and clear your mind and collect your wits really helps keep your emotions in check. Without the chemical nicotine and the smoking ritual, our emotions get totally out of whack unless and until we can find some other way to deal with them. Or, as Babs said, until we find a "nicotine replacement". For me, I realized that rather than continuing to try to tamp down my emotions the way I used to do with cigarettes, I need to bring them out into the light and defang them. To do that I need to get in touch with my right brain by being creative. For me, cooking, gardening, and art are my favorite forms of creative expression. I still cook sometimes (after all, one has to eat, right?) but I have let my gardening and my art work go for a couple of years now. That was a mistake. I miss those pursuits. I need those pursuits. So I am going to resurrect them. As a first step in the right direction I cleaned up my "artist's nook" this weekend. As with any disused room it got filled up with junk and dust and cob webs. So I got in there and cleaned it up and set up my easel again. That felt good. And today I read some of my "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" book and then painted a picture. Note that I am NOT an artist and I don't try to be one. I just mess around with paint or charcoal to relax and let my mind wander and to get in touch with my emotions. My main inspiration for this approach is called the "Point Zero" method. It's very freeing! Check it out on . And finally, I uploaded some images of my artist's nook and my "emotive art :D " for you to see. Remember, these paintings are not meant to be "good" or "bad". They're just meant to wake up the right side of my brain and be fun. You can view them here I hope that if I get back to regular exercising and back to regular creative pursuits I can finally climb out of this rut I have dug for myself in the last year. Obviously, what I have been experiencing is not just related to quitting smoking-- there have been some other major changes in my life lately that have also had an impact-- but I am tired of being where I am and I'm ready to make some changes. As Babs said, I need to find my own, personal "nicotine replacement therapy." Thanks, Babs!

Monday the 9th is when we'll be moving to our new server. The site will be down from approximately 1:30-4:30 PM EST. In the meantime, I encourage everybody to post on our Facebook page, especially if you're needing some help, advice or a place to just hang out. The QuitTrain® Blog will still be up so there are tons of articles to read, videos to watch etc. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Quit-Smoking-Quit-Train/550498668401231 http://quittrainblog.com/

The forum will be down for a brief period so please don't be alarmed. We've had a server built for us and will be transferring QuitTrain over to it. :)