JustinHoot99

Start date 9/24 start wt 179.0 goal by 11/1 under 174.0 3 days in a row Current - 9/26 - wt 178.8. Exercise - 9 hole frisbee golf 20 - In this workout, I simply walk 9 of the 18 frisbee golf fairways and do 20 pushups at each basket for a total of 180. Eating Breakfast - 2 strips bacon, banana Lunch - 5 small pieces of deer sausage and cheese Dinner - Grilled salmon, large salad Snacks - 1 soda, bowl of ice cream later. Starting to dial in the diet. Last thing I need to do is get rid of the bowl of ice cream in the evening. So did everyone exercise their azz off, or use it to dust the couch today?

@Katgirl Yeah, right now my diet is way off. As I get further into my wt loss mode, you will see it become extremely boring w/ pretty much the same foods at the same time everyday. Tonight will be my last nite for that bowl of ice cream I have every nite. I generally lose wt pretty quickly once I get going on the diet side. Did I see that you run outdoors as well?

@MLMR I like your attitude in that you put the ticker back to day 1. I see some want to call something like that a "slip" or something and think they can carry on with the count. The moment you smoke another, the quit is over. If you start again, you start at 0. Otherwise, I think the subconscious will use that as just one more excuse to have just one because "you can just call it a slip, it won't hurt your quit so you can just pretend it didn't happen".

9/24 start wt 179.0 9/25 wt 180.0 thanks to eating Mexican late yesterday. Goal 174 by 11/1 Exercise - Whitewater kayaking 1hr Eating Breakfast - 3 strips bacon, banana Lunch - 5 small pieces of deer sausage and cheese Dinner - 2 pieces of pizza Snacks - 1 soda, snickers bar, bowl of ice cream later. Went out and bought a bunch of salad and fruit stuff I'll be needing this week.

@Katgirl MovNat is the brand name for something called natural movement. Natural movement has a lot of philosophy behind it that I don't pay much attention to. But it has 2 parts. The first part can be done inside and involves a lot of stretching and ground movements. Similar to yoga in some ways but yoga seems to be more of a stretch and hold where this is more of a flow. You can just learn the basics or get quite involved in the indoor portion. But I think the first part is just a precursor for the second part which is where natural movement comes in. Natural movement exercising is very similar to what you would see if you watched kids play. They run, jump on and off things, roll on the ground, climb anything and everything, balance on things, lift and throw things, etc. Natural movement is very similar with emphasis on doing this outside, preferably in nature, like a forest or park, but it can be done in urban areas as well. For instance, I do my HIIH workout using a wooded frisbee course. I have at least 30 activities I can choose from and usually select 10-12 to do on my 1-2mile hike. A typical workout might me be walking to a large stone I have set by a tree, picking it up, lifting and throwing overhead, picking up again and repeating 10-15times. Then maybe jog for a bit and do some pushups or burpees, then move to a wall of posts sticking out of the ground that serve as a back stop for the frisbees, climbing up on them and balance walking across the top of them. I might do some ground exercises like tripod extensions, log flipping, or tripod vaulting on a tree that fell but is about 3' off the ground. Maybe a steep hill climb where I have to grab roots to help pull my way up the hill. Basically, you are moving the entire body in a large variety of planes, and working on strength, cardio, balance, and flexibility. I do this in every season from hot humid summer to the most freezing days Illinois sees. A lot of people who start out in natural movement wind up progressing into Parkour as well, at least some basic Parkour. Parkour can be done at any age, just taylored for what your age and abilities are. At 60, my parkour work is mainly vaulting over low objects like park benches using the tripod vault or jumping from one low object to another. In natural movement, we believe you don't stop playing because you get old, you get old because you stop playing.

Anyone on here into MovNat training or follow it?

@MLMR Doing good thank you. End of today will mark 18 days free. I'm feeling comfortable enough I'm going to start watching the diet and bringing my wt back down to norm. I've gone up from 176 to 180, which is quite a bit for me since my wt does not fluctuate a lot. And 176 was already higher than the 170 max I feel my best at. So it's enter the diet phase now. I workout daily anyway, but joined the Daily Exercise log where I will be logging both exercise and diet until I get back down below 170. ETA is 2mths. I see you are closing in on 3 mths free. Hows the cravings going. Honestly.

9/24 Wt 179.0 Exercise - HIIH w/o (hike with kbswing, horiz lat pull, situps, tripod xtensions, burpees, seated dips, tripod vaults) Eating Breakfast - egg, bacon Lunch - Eggsalad sandwich, chip, milk Dinner - Mexican resteraunt fajitas, ice cream Snacks - 3 sodas, several pieces of candy We'll start working on this tomorrow.

Thanks for taking the time to pop in here. It's always good when "experienced" quitters relay that it is possible to stay quit.

OK, I will play for 36days till the end of Oct, then evaluate if I want to continue. I decided I'm far enough into my quit to handle watching my diet. When I commit, I commit, so it will be daily. And I'm going to add my diet and wt cause I had been gaining before I quit and am increasing quickly since my quit. Exercising daily will be a breeze because I have not missed a single day in about 3.5yrs. And I do not count anything productive as exercise (only for me, not someone else), but I do count sports I'm involved in. I primarily due HIIH workouts (high intensity interval hiking) which is just a name I made up because it sounds cool to tell people I get HIIH in the woods everyday. Basically I hike from 1-3miles and do exercises at intervals. Some freebody like pushups, situps, burpees, etc. Some wt lifting using logs, rocks, and brake rotors (hid about 6 of these in the woods). Some are MovNat type ground exercises or just climbing on things. My only rule is exercise everyday, a little or lot, does not matter intensity, duration, or type. If I'm throwing up sick, I still do one free body squat. It does nothing for the body, but everything to keep the mind programmed. So each day I'll let you know what I ate, what my exercise was, and what my wt was at start of day. Goal is to drop from current 179 to 174 by Oct 31. Thats about a pound a week which is reasonable. My ideal wt (the wt I feel most energetic at is 168. I know some people say you should not weigh daily cause it causes so much stress. I disagree as long as you have the ability to just look at the trend and not get bent out of shape on daily fluctuations.

I chose my quit time to be 6:30pm (16 days ago). This wasn't a randomly chosen time. By choosing 6:30pm, it was late enough in the day that since I immediately showered after that last smoke, there would not be so many waking hours left in the day that I would feel like going out to buy more cigarettes, because then I would have to shower again. The advantage to this was that when I woke up the next morning, I could tell myself I already had a half day under my belt. I was already thinking in terms of being an ex-smoker, not in terms of whether I had the strength to start my quit. AND, all I had to do was not smoke for 12 hours (until 6:30pm) and I would be able to say I had 1 day of the chemical withdraw over with. Much better than waking up and thinking I have 3 full days to go and wondering if I even had the strength to get started. Psychologically, knowing I was only 12hrs from having 1 day over with really meant a lot to me. And after going that 12hrs, at 6:30pm, I immediately put a red X on my calendar so I could go to bed knowing I was already into my second day. The point? Plan your quit, do it strategically.

Probably changing the oil in my car. Then replace a storm door. Need to go to landscaping place and buy a tree. And a bunch of smaller stuff.

@MLMR Doing good. Surviving. Thanks for asking. Got my red X on my calendar. Drank a code red, ate a donut and piece of candy so far (in addition to bacon and egg for breakfast). Gaining wt, but frankly, I don't give a dang right now. Spent some time (a lot of time) surfing quit smoking blogs and articles. Walked around the block 5 different times. Used my visualizations several times. My next steps I need to take is to start working on my productivity a bit. I mean, I have probably gained 3 hrs a day if time. Right now I fill that in w/ whatever fills in the time and gets me through a craving, but I can do better than that. I already exercise 45min/day, everyday, so I can't use that. There are a lot of "adulting" projects I need to start doing, that should be my priority. Appreciate your asking. Hope your day is going well.

Thanks everyone. Great to hear there is a lot of support hear. Plus, typing is something to do when times get tough, rather than reach for a smoke. I already walk around the block about 10 times a day now. Neighbors probably starting to think I'm scoping the neighborhood for a breakin. lol

I quit my 1 pack a day habit cold turkey on Sept 7 at 6:30pm. I actually had a pretty easy first 3 days. a) I had my wife (who does not smoke) hide both sets of my car keys so I could not drive to get cigarettes and told her I was not to get them back until 3 days were done. (I had here write location and seal in an envelope just in case of emergency). Except for long walks, that stopped me from having access to cigarettes. Nicotene is only in the system for 3 days, after that, it is all mental. b) I bought a bunch of cold red mountain dew to deal w/ any tiredness. c) I printed a calendar of the month for putting my red x's on. d) I decided my visualization to fight urges was that I could smoke, but I would have to pay $4000 for that 1st cigarette and accept being handcuffed to a barrel w/ 7000 cigarettes in it that I would be required to smoke. It was realistic because I know I never am able to seriously try quitting again for at least a year and that would be cost and approximate # I would smoke in a year. I believe there is no such thing as a "minor" slip up. When a junkie gives in to the craving, they have quit their quit. Its interesting how easy it was to get through the first 3 days when your access is cut off. All my previous quit attempts would result in irritability, tiredness, dizziness, and other issues during the chemical withdraw. This time, I had some slight dizziness a couple times and minor irritability, but nothing major like in the past. I think the symptoms were inflated in the past just like when I have my "man" colds. Since I had no access, the mind did not seem to get as bent out of shape over not getting the nicotene. Now I have to get through the more long term issue the constant cravings. They aren't huge cravings, more like having a child poke his finger into the back of your head every hour to remind you that you haven't had that nicotene you've been taking 20 times a day for the last 40yrs. And that's why I'm here. Just wanted a support group to turn to and share the pain some. And give encouragement to others if I can.