Still winning

Dors has 9 months :) Happy 9 months free chicky. Horrible addiction can't have us anymore, we are marching towards our stripes. An honour to follow your path my friend. xx

I too thought you were one of those who didn't need the board anymore and was off and running. I don't want to be harsh, I've been a smoker, it never helps. Tiff, you are still trying to convince yourself smoking is ok for you. I hear it come through in all you say above, yet I'm sure you've done this and got past it - did you not really? I'd be doing you no favours to say yes, eating and exercising will get rid of smoking illnesses, c'mon now - really?! You are a clever clever woman, wake up and smell the addiction!! That's it, there's no "enjoyment", "need", "me time" or any of that utter nonsense...it's addiction to nicotine. Your brain, every 20 minutes or so, starts dropping nicotine levels and starts asking for the next hit. End of story!! There will never be a time it stops doing that until you stop feeding it nicotine. every...twenty...minutes... Hope you stop torturing yourself to be honest. I want your freedom from this for you. xx

How's it going??

Goodness, silent but deadly march there :) Utterly delighted for you and how well you are doing. How's the march, any help or support, just ask. xx

I can't help much on the use or not of patches. I want to say I think you're doing amazing getting to day 3, sounds like you really want this journey and I am delighted for you!! With regards to advice and help, I think our bodies all go a little crazy when we first quit, I thought of it as healing from the inside out, there may be some bits and pieces. Everything was helped by fruit juice, water and exercise for me. Also by learning and reading, a number of us kept posting too. It helped to get encouragement as sometimes it was just a needing distraction time. We all learnt fairly quickly that it was a simple thought and a choice of whether to distract ourselves or smoke. Made clear for me when someone said you can do anything you like except put something in your mouth and set fire to it. I hope the exams went well too!!

On sept 28th, I celebrated not smoking 6,000 cigarettes. Today I am at 8,125!!! That's a really large amount. I normally like my commitment levels to a cause but in this case, yikes, that's a big number. I see other normal quitters numbers, a lot are nowhere near what I haven't smoked in far more time!! As per usual, I don't know whether to smile or sob at the amount I smoked and therefore haven't smoked now. This whole month has been odd. It hasn't ended yet (few days off 9 months quit) but I'm sure now that there is a message somewhere in this feeling. Or put another way, this is part of the bigger quit journey. I'm ok with learning, I want to win this battle so going through anything is not a problem. It's not bad like the earlier quit, just weird thoughts that pop out of nowhere and then dissapear again. Overall, I am really happy to have not smoked over 8,000 cigarettes as that number is obscene!!

Where you at chicky?? Hope it's not too stressy at home. Loves.xx

Proper cold!! Loving watching the steam come off the garden with each new piece the sun rays touch :) NOPE, of course as well

Hi Wendy, It can be quit related, I think we all struggled over a few weeks. But if yours has been going on longer and it's really affecting you here's some tips. Peppermint tea, drink a cup about half hour before bed. Lavender scents, or if it's stress keeping you awake Vanilla scents. Personally, when I'm on a bad run of sleeping and it's become a pattern I hit the nightnurse medicine for 3 nights straight - just to get a better pattern going again. When you've not slept, mind over matter is pretty important. For instance, tell yourself you feel crap and you will, tell yourself it's ok, you can manage and will have an early night and you may well feel a bit better. Feel for you, insomnia can be awful. Hugs hun. xx

4 toes :( Following your dancing feet beauty. You inspire me every day to try and be better. I'm sure you do to others too. Bet your daughter is bittersweet but ultimately relieved! So pleased you held on Doreen!! x

You hang on. Ultimately, at the end of the day we answer to ourself, no one else. Or maybe our kids, cause the Mom card and showing an example, becomes a strong part of the quit. Don't under-estimate what you have done the last two days Kristin!! You faced the demons and won!! Keep on marching!

One completely overdone tree - voila!!

3 weeks is doing great!! xx

Hey Belle, Fabulous choice. Now your study and exam time will not be destroyed by you trying to get out for a cigarette that you don't really want to smoke anyway! Get some things to help distract yourself, that and education are your key starting points. I would think the sleep is patch related, although expect some sleepless times now and then, I think quitting can make us feel anxious. But you do sleep when you're tired, it doesn't force us awake if that makes sense. Maybe it will more when you come off the patch and the nicotine leaves your system, even then it's a week or so, shorter lived then current colds this time of year. Delighted to read your commitment levels, that's fabulous!! Maybe write them down so that if you doubt yourself you can read your own reasons to quit, that helped when my mindset got wobbly.x

Fabulous!! Pleased the meds are helping, so exciting! How you feeling now?

Nice!!! Hope it was fabulous. x

hope all ok action. xx NOPE

Red wine...no fair :(

All the best people have a large mental percentage lol. All good :) xx

Exhilerated yet terrified...perfectly normal, I assure you!! Creating excuses, ran out of them and ended up here...check!! It's going to be great. That fear/excitement will make you feel up and down for a while but it's nowhere near what you expect!! Without support, it just felt like a slog..with support, it feels like a journey that you are able to travel. Some of it is grit your teeth because you don't want to do this day, this hour again. But very quickly you pass this and get into just dealing with thoughts. Get some distractions ready, that's the easiest way to deal with the early times...read/post/distract. Don't forget to change up some habits too. Ie first morning tea/coffee, maybe drink it in a different room. Car journey, have a mint or something to suck on or some tunes to sing a long. That sort of idea. Love the sound of this quit for you, what an utter win!!

Hi J, Good to "meet" you. Shhh, but our brain will always tell us "now is not a good time", it's one of the nicotine addiction tricks of the trade. Sorry to read about being unemployed, perfect time in my opinion to get this quit underway...it gave a lot of us an amazing amount of self esteem and personal feelings of achievement, so I would say perfect timing!! Buy yourself some fruit juice (orange, cranberry, apple etc), and take sips every couple of hours. Some of those dodgy chemicals did weird thing to our blood sugar levels and it can make you feel really tired or create cravings. It's simply our bodies way of trying to do a quick fix so if you help it out it won't need to do that to you :) Read on the site. People gave me NOPE which I used to shout, in my head or out loud. I also used hard boiled candies, sucking air through a straw, clicking fingers, switching from foot to foot, cleaning something till the thoughts passed. A number of people took up exercise or took a power walk sorta thing when a crave hit, that would help. Basically, you can do anything other then put something in your mouth and set fire to it - sounds advice that I am happy to pass on. Keep talking whenever you'd like too, we love to hear. Congrats on the best life choice you will ever make!! x

Late but wanted to add a bit for you Kristin. Linking quits seems like a good idea, however relying on two people to understand and shake free of any addiction together is unlikely. I don't wanna be a downer about it but I do speak from experience. Call it as you wake up...this is YOUR quit, YOU and only you own it and nothing influences it. I've also been where your husband is. The shame is really shortlived because your junkie thinking is quick to react and justify, all the while the insidious addiction is twisting back around your brain and the choice to break free needs to be fought for again! I feel sorry for him. He's too embarrassed to admit to you but not quite ready to let go again. All you can do here is lead by example. Stay free and you show him the way. The little secret I learnedvia these good people was to educate myself. Make sure you keep reading and learning Kristin, then even when those thoughts creep in the ammo to mentally bat it back is there and ready. Your junkie was fair screaming there my sweet, I'm sure. So pleased you had enough savvy to come and talk on here. Your quit will grow from facing a strong trigger head on, so be really proud of yourself, I'm very proud of you!! I am sorry you are sad. My other half occassionally has a cigar or even a cigarette. He quit after me though but it still grates my nerves. I try and remember I'm not in charge of him although I laugh because he really needs morelooking after then the kids sometimes lol. Men, can't live with them, can't live without em ey. xx

Fab four! Massive congrats Paul, doing amazing. X

I know hey!! Beautiful parts of the quit are a joy as is helping someone through a tough time. I think you should treat yourself too Jess!! Treats for the win :)

I love this!!! Epic win!! Shhhhhh, It's the bit no one tells you. Oh sure, it's all "woe is me", "it was hard" but the euphoria is kinda tough to beat and you end up being super excited too :) 1,000 cigarettes (almost) not smoked...what a victory for you on so many levels!!