Reciprocity

Everything you said is right on!! Anticipating whatever triggers you can allows you to take them on much easier. When you realize that you can get past these situations, the addiction gets weaker and you get stronger. That's why it's recommended you stick around for at least a year - all seasons. Each may have their own set of triggers for you. Christmas/New Years with parties and family gatherings. That kind of thing. Each season has different situations coming along for the first time since you've quit. And yes - this quit is for YOU! It's a benefit to your loved ones too but it's your quit. You own it and YOU are responsible for it and when you have that solid long term quit, YOU are the one who reaps the rewards. Carry on Rose - doing great

LA Kings have won Stanley Cups in the not too distant past I believe. If you want the "Poster Child" for hockey failure over the past 5 decades .... go with the Toronto Maple Leafs One of the original 6 NHL (National Hockey League) teams and won tons of Stanley Cups (the holy grail of hockey) over the years before league expansion. Since 1967 (their last Stanley Cup win) ..... nothing This pic pretty much says it all!!!! Oh and the A on a jersey stands for Assistant Captain. They usually have a couple of assistant captains on each team. It's really just a status symbol though. The captain is supposed to be the leader in terms of rallying the players. If you want to get Bakon going .... trash talk the Pittsburgh Penguins. Maybe ask, who's this guy "Cry-Baby Crosby"? Then .... run and hide

Ha,ha, ..... this will happen well, when .........

Major hurdle scaled today for you. That's HUGE Be Proud!

^^^^ You peeps need some serious kind of chemical drugs to stop that sh*t from ruining your natural thoughts of puppy dogs, kitty cats and a loving family that thinks you are super-woman; capable of making everyone's lives easy as pie because YOU solve ALL their problems. Geez .... get with the program already

You forgot to mention your ability to manipulate the entire Interweb too

You may be on to something there ..............................

Fake news ....... all of it. There's no games going on. You guys are just screwing with me. If there were games and Canada was winning medals and stuff, the news people would be falling all over themselves to report that stuff. So far ..... not a mention. Not even a peep about any sort of sporting events going on. They talked about the Masters Golf thingy the other week, they even bored us to tears with a full week of unending Men's World Curling Championship TV coverage (there's a week of my life I will never get back ) but still NOT 1 WORD about any Commonwealth Games ..... not even a mention in passing like "oh and by the way .... bla, bla, bla Commonwealth Games bla, bla, bla. NOPE, nothin'!!

#2

NOPE! Not gonna lose my head just because it's Friday 13th

There will likely be a lot of way up and way down moments over the next while for you Rose. As you said in your post above. If you you try not to make a big deal of the down moments, it won't be so bad. You know they don't last all that long so do your best to focus on the positives you see. How much better you smell, how you don't have to go buy smokes any more. How you don't have to find a place to smoke anymore and how you don't miss other important things in your life while you are having those smokes. It just gets better and better all the time. Keep moving forward and be proud of what you've done

Glad you made it through this Rose. Proceed with confidence. You have leaped over a big hurdle. I used deep breathing myself when I felt the anxiety getting the better of me.

So True!! I went through similar with my sister only her addiction was booze. As you state, unless they WANT to make change, it's not going to happen. We can only provide them with the tools and encouragement - not the determination they need. After my sister passed I was angry with her. I felt she had cheated me somehow. I had tried to help her and she didn't do what I had wanted or hoped she would do. I've since realized, it was HER choice, not mine. I did what I could. She just made her own life choices, as poor as they may have been. It's still sad but in both cases Doreen, we did what we could.

Remain strong in your resolve Seren because you have a beautiful quit going now. That 1st month is something you don't want to lose - that's for sure. I think you will find things settling down a little more through the following weeks. Knowing your challenging times is actually a good thing because you can prepare yourself in advance to deal with them. Keep up the fight we're routing for ya!

I missed this original post but am happy to see you facing this new challenge head on and with the knowledge that you have come this far already and battled this addiction successfully so weaning off the NRT product can certainly be done. I have no experience myself weaning off the NRT products but I have heard of others who have done the same as you're doing and yes, they have had to deal with increased cravings and discomfort while weaning themselves off the NRT but, they have all done it successfully. I too wondered at the start of my quit whether I should use NRT or just go cold turkey? I used a patch for the first two days then forgot to put one on day 3. When I realized I had forgotten it, I just decided then to try the cold turkey route. I can't tall you if that was a good decision or not. Cold Turkey wasn't easy by any means - fighting both the physical and mental withdrawal at the same time but, the benefit to me was later on when I didn't have to wean off the patch. No matter which route any of us choose to take, we all have to pay the price somehow at some points in our quits. No choice is completely right or wrong. Whatever we feel is best for us is always the right choice individually I think. You will do just fine GITW! I don't think this challenge will last too long for you and you already have a whole tool box of tricks available to do battle with .... and us here of course for support

Congratulations Seren on battling that nicodemon all through your 1st month! You are a whole month smoke free now That's a huge accomplishment. Be sure to treat yourself with something special today in recognition of this proud moment.

This is a BIG one Barry!! 1/2 a year smoke free! That's right, you're half way to that Lido Deck. Go celebrate big time today my friend because you certainly deserve to treat yourself for all your hard work.

They must be imports because we have no beaches. Besides, true Canadians are too busy roasting their nuts to have time to play games!

Go sit in the naughty corner ......you put Canada Last!! We can't help it if we suck Norfolk Island?? ..... Is that even a place?

Hey Ren. I read your post about "getting more information on smoking "It is important to not only know what smoking does to your bodies health but equally important in the education process is to truly understand that nicotine is an addiction and just how that powerful addiction will do everything in it's power to get you back to smoking. It will play tricks on your mind to get you to feed the addiction. Read. read, read, the "pinned" posts on the Quit Smoking Page and watch all the Joel videos you can. This stuff will help educate you on what's really going on with nicotine addiction and will show you that by refusing to give in to the addictions demands for long enough, you too can be free for life if you want to be. Education about this addiction will help you make the right choices because as other's have said ....... the choice is yours. Smoke or don't smoke - your choice. NOPE is the only way (Not One Puff Ever)!

Oops ... Guess I screwed up (again)? Sorry about that. I will fix my spread sheet. 10 months would be cool though ..... ya gotta admit

There ........ fixed that for ya

You're doing well my friend. Just keep moving it forward and noping every day. Take it day by day and pretty soon you will find you are further along than you could have imagined. Don't look too far ahead and don't over-think things. It's as simple as NOPE! That's it right there, all in a four letter word

I love reading these early quit blog posts because it reminds me so much of what my own early days were like so thanks you Rose I only wish I had done my own day by day blog. A couple of things that caught my attention in your post ..... I agree that you should go to your places where you used to enjoy smoking. If you go there knowing it will be a challenge you want to overcome then you will be successful 100% of the time. It's soooo important as a step in rewiring your brain to be able to just sit out there and really enjoy yourself again without a smoke. You've taken a huge step toward that now. The other thing you said was that "you'll choose not to smoke right now." That's right Rose! Smoking is a choice that we make. No one is forced to smoke. The power to choose is all ours.

What happens when you go back to your normal diet tho? Does your metabolism go to hell in a hand basket again or is the idea that the 30 days on the diet jump-starts your metabolism again and it keeps going even after the diet stops. I think dieting would be harder for me than quitting smoking. I have never had to even give a seconds thought to what I eat and I never gained a bit of weight. Been the same weight since before I was 20 until I quit smoking. It's been a race to fatty-land ever since then. I bet I have gained 5 or 10 lbs ..... maybe more. It's not going away on it's own