Chrysalis

Congratulations, Evelyn, and Merry Christmas! The good thing about cold turkey is that it's going to get easier every day from now on. With NRT, you keep feeling the withdrawal from nicotine every day. This way you don't. So good for you! Sounds like you're really on the right track now.

Good for you, Jess! I know it was difficult yesterday, but you emerged victorious! Now stop messing around and get rid of that cigarette. The ONLY one encouraging you to hold onto it is Nicodemon. You know, I am surprised that you were able to bum a cigarette from somebody. I expect that you have already told all of your family and close friends that you have quit smoking and they should not offer you any cigarettes or give you one even if you ask. If you did tell them that and they still gave you a cigarette, whoever gave you a cigarette is a scary mean jealous person who would rather see you dead than be successful. You can see that, can't you? Stay away from that person. And if you didn't tell them that you quit, please do so immediately. I understand that in the first week or two you might not tell everyone because you were afraid of failure and embarrassment. But you are far enough into your quit that it is real. As you said yourself, you don't want to smoke and you won't go buy your own, so the biggest threat to your quit is a get-together with family or close friends. Now that you have learned your lesson, protect your quit-- tell them you quit and not to give you any cigarettes. If you REALLY choose to smoke, you will have to go buy your own. Meanwhile, good for you for posting an SOS and for reading the responses even if you couldn't reply last night. You did good! :) You are now a little smarter and a little stronger than you were before. Just keep going one day at a time. These temptations will become fewer and farther between week by week. Merry Christmas, Jess!

Love the card, Fay! Thank you for taking the trouble. I hope that you and your family have a lovely Christmas holiday!

As you probably know, the problem with nicotine replacement is that you still experience nicotine withdrawal symptoms. All day every day. And it never ends. As long as you use the patch or the gum, you will experience nicotine cravings. All day every day. Getting rid of nicotine entirely is the only way to stop the withdrawal. So, while it may sound scary, cold turkey is really easier on your mind and your body than is NRT. You're doing great! You head is in a really good place. Make quitting smoking your #1 priority for the next month and you will be OK!

A Christmas present for Lace and Doreensfree. :)

seagulls

OK, Jess. It's officially Christmas Day in my time zone. That means you have less than one hour until Christmas where you are. What gift are you going to give yourself this Christmas? The gift of clean lungs and enough energy to keep up with your grandchildren? Or the gift of renewed addiction to a stinky, expensive, toxic chemical. Yeah. Merry Christmas, Marlboro Man. Yuck!!! So, just like Ebeneezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, if you continue as you did in the past, you are NOT going to like what your future holds. But happily, you still have time to change it! When Christmas Day dawns, it will be a day when you do NOT smoke and it will be the first day of a happier future for you. Like Scrooge, throw open your shutters and tell the urchin in the lane to bring the biggest goose in the shop to the Cratchett family. Life is wonderful!

Devil Doll found your "pre-respond to your own SOS" post. You should read it-- it's really good. Here is my favorite line, "You have your children and two beautiful grand dtrs who love and need you. Remember saying you dont ever want those babies to know you as a smoker! Keep that thought going." Remember that? If you're really struggling with keeping your quit, go back on Chantix for a while. I have done that. I find that taking a Chantix really seems to help on those "crazy days". I don't know if the drug really makes the difference or if it's just a placebo effect. But when I feel I'm on the verge of going to buy cigarettes I take a Chantix and wait 20 minutes for it to work. So far, I have not actually smoked. Even if you did smoke that cigarette you were holding (and I hope that you didn't) do not smoke a SECOND cigarette!! Read your own pre-response. Come here and talk to us. Take a Chantix. Do everything you can to Keep Your Quit!! Don't throw it all away!

Jess? Are you still there? What is happening with you, honey?

Way to go, Jen! That is a major milestone! Good for you! You see, that's the way the healing happens. At first you have a lot of bad days with only the occasional good day. Then you have fewer bad days and more good days. Then you have a lot of good days with the occasional bad day. You're right on track for complete success! The next time you feel like the cravings are constant and will never end, remember this victory--not every day is bad. As we promised, things ARE getting better! Keep up the good work, Jen!

In the summertime when the weather is fine... What would you buy if you won the lottery?

Rowly, listen to Colleen. She knows whereof she speaks! Even if you think most of us are not worth your time and attention, if you want to quit smoking, STAY CLOSE TO THE BOARD. The experience of many, many people has shown that those who participate here regularly are the most likely to stay quit forever. Colleen is reaching out to help you succeed; meet her half way, OK?

a bat somehow got into the bedroom. MAN! You should have seen our cat go after that bat! :D I'm really looking forward to...

deceive

Here are our cats, Trixie and Harry. Trixie is the upside down goofy one. They were both snoozing on the bed but as soon as she saw my camera she had to get silly on me. Trixie is 6 years old. Harry, our 16 year old tom cat, is as usual looking at her and thinking "Always gotta grab all the attention, don't you, Sis?" :)

Deltawings, what you did this year was to QUIT SMOKING!! For Pete's sake, don't minimize how difficult that is or how important that is. You said in your first post that you had quit before, several times, but always relapsed. Well, this year you did NOT relapse and you sure as shootin' proved that you have control there. I don't know what else you did or didn't do this year. But if you quit smoking, then this year was a huge success! Give yourself a lot of credit for that.

Poor little sweetie! I'm glad that she made her feelings known. Hopefully, Santa will be a fun experience next year!

Decided to get creative tonight and made a new dish. It's standard bacon-wrapped chicken but I marinated the chicken in A1 Steak Sauce for an hour before wrapping and baking it. It's excellent! (I have seen something similar but using teriyaki sauce, which is too sweet for me). Here is the marinated chicken on top of the bacon strips. Here are the wrapped chicken strips heading for the oven. Here is the finished product. Served with rice pilaf (with mushrooms and pine nuts) and spinach/mushroom salad. DH was a happy man tonight! :)

Well, as most hospital workers know, when the patient starts feeling well enough to grouse about everything, their recovery is well under way. You say that you are feeling better, headaches almost gone, able to exercise some, definitely on the upswing. So naturally, now is when you start to complain about your eating patterns! You're complaining about that because everything else is noticeably improved. (LOL!!) Please don't worry about what you are or are not eating just now. Continue doing whatever is necessary to continue and complete the healing process. Exercise gently as often as you are allowed. And get off your back about anything else. Cut yourself some slack, girl!

Love it! Thanks, Jenny. Bakon, you look good in a beard! :)

Good man, Rowly! I know that you feel as though you are hanging on by your fingernails right now. I felt that way too from time to time. But remind yourself why you chose to quit in the first place (I imagine that the 2-year-old is a major motivator) and trust us when we tell you that this rough stuff WILL PASS. Things WILL get better! I promise.

There is a lot of help and advice floating around intended to help people through the beginning of a quit. And, indeed, the first month or so is the hardest time. Not only do we have to suffer through the physical nicotine withdrawal, but we have to learn about how a nicotine addiction affects us and how to deal with the emotional and psychological aspects of quitting, too. So the intense help and support are necessary. But I have also seen quite a few people start to have trouble AFTER the beginning stage. They start to have a lot of trouble in month 2 or 3 or 4. These people are no longer "newbies" but they're not Phartes yet, either. What I have noticed is that a lot of the time people at this stage of quitting-- what I call "the end of the beginning"-- start obsessing about cigarettes. That's what happened to me at about that time-- I started to think about smoking a cigarette all the time. I wanted one all the time. I fantasized about driving to the nearest convenience store and buying a pack. Half of my brain would say, "No! No! No!" and the other half would say, "Yes! Yes! Yes!". I really didn't WANT to go back to smoking, but eventually I couldn't stand the constant, corrosive, obsessive thinking about cigarettes! There are some very good classic posts about this in-between stage that is sometimes called the"No Man's Land"stage. But something that helped me a lot was something another member said when I was struggling-- you CAN control what you think about! Imagine that! When you keep thinking and thinking and thinking about smoking, you can NOT stop thinking about smoking. That is true--you can't stop. But what you CAN do is to choose to think about something else instead. For example, right now think about an elephant. Imagine that elephant in great detail-- size, color, smell, environment, eyes, tusk, etc. Now think about a classroom. Imagine it in great detail-- its size, color, smell, desks, windows, environment, etc. Now the elephant-- in detail! . Now the classroom-- in detail!. Notice that you can focus EITHER on the elephant OR on the classroom but not both at once. (Unless you put the elephant in the classroom which is cheating. ) Your brain can not hold 2 different images at the same time. It just can't. So when you find yourself obsessing about smoking a cigarette and it's driving you crazy-- FORCE YOURSELF TO THINK OF SOMETHING ELSE. Do not entertain those thoughts about smoking. Get out of the house and go someplace. Or go clean the kitchen. Or put on some bouncy music and dance. Or balance your checkbook. Or sit quietly and imagine in great detail your favorite vacation spot. YOU control what your brain thinks about. Do not let Nicodemon control your thinking; YOU control it! This can be a tough fight, I know. It took me a couple of weeks to master the knack of choosing what to think about and what not to think about. But once I mastered that, I never got into another one of those miserable obsessive ruts. The occasional smoking thought, yes, but not the obsessing. And believe me, that is a marvelous relief! So try it. If you find yourself thinking about smoking all day every day, force yourself to think about something else. Don't try NOT to think about smoking, but DO think about something else. I hope this will help you "tweeners" who are doing so well!

I have used patches and yes, you can cut them in half. The only problem is that the 1/2 size does not stick very well. You have to keep it in place with adhesive tape or something.

Come on, Rowly, say something! Please don't just sit there thinking about how miserable you feel. At least tell us how miserable you feel!

Hi, Karen- Yes, many people seem to go through a really tough time around 8 weeks. Odd how that happens, but it does. But as you say, it is TEMPORARY. Things WILL get better, I promise!