Oneistoo

My sympathies. I'm at the tail end of Hell Week myself. What I learned from Joel's videos is really huge. I've wanted to quit just about every day for several years now, and only managed to string together a couple of days here and there. I always ended up caving in and going and buying cigarettes. Turns out I didn't fully understand about the withdrawal stuff and cold turkey. Once you've invested in a Hell Week and know that the next time you take a puff you'll have to go through it all again, you are far less likely to go to the store and pick up a pack. That was my situation yesterday. I had come to the decision point I have been to thousands of times when I have wanted to quit during the last nine years....should I continue with my quit or should I go to the store and buy a pack and chain-smoke it and then quit again? Until eight days ago, the cigarettes had always won these kinds of discussions with myself. However, yesterday I only needed one more day then all nicotine would be out of my body. If I smoked, I'd have to START ALL OVER AGAIN! And there's a reason for Hell Week being called that. This past week has been no ******* fun! I just decided that there was no way I'd want to go through that again. So for the first time in those thousands of decisions about going/not going I said No to going. My cravings disappeared rather quickly, and mentally I felt really good. I would have felt like crap if I had disappointed myself yet again. It gets easier and easier if only you don't smoke. Smoke, and the whole circus starts over with wanting to quit....

Welcome to the board! :) It's an addiction. You are an addict, therefore your thinking is warped. No sane person would like and miss something that has literally killed their parent, let alone go to the store and pay money for it. I almost slipped yesterday, and listening to Joel videos helped me. http://whyquit.com/joel/#video

I just got home from the gym and I feel sooooo gooood! My body and mind are swooning in delight from the beneficial and natural chemicals that my treadmill run and circuit weight-lifting have released. :) :) :)

I think the biggest deterrent to going and buying a pack of cigarettes and chain-smoking for "just one more day" and then quitting again is the fact that I have already spent eight days in withdrawal and I'm still not out of it. I took my last puff (or nicotine microtab) on Jan 14. Understanding how just one puff reawakens your addiction and puts you inside the insane withdrawal circus is a missing piece that I did not have in my other nicotine quits. Only with that understanding do you fully realize how much that one puff will cost you in time, effort and agony. This is information that I didn't have when the craving would hit in the past. Back then, I would go, "I want to, but I really shouldn't..." which is pretty easy to knock over with a "just one more" argument. Thank you, Joel Spitzer.

I think I woke up to a distinct change in the way my skin looks. That's welcome news. :) I'm also experiencing some low-grade anger bubbling underneath it all.....I only have to THINK about a particular friend IRL who sometimes can be a bit annoying, and I get mad. I better stay clear of her in the forseeable future. Last time I saw her, I had just quit cigarettes (before this quit) and she upset me so much that I bought cigarettes on my way home and chain-smoked as soon as I got home. There's nothing wrong with HER. I recognize certain aspects of myself in her, aspects that I don't particularly like about myself, and I react to them. That's why it is important self-therapy to learn to handle this. But right now I'm a bit too early in my quit to do this.

NOPE!

Good going, Laura! :)

Yes, I make my own smoothies. Rice milk is great with any kind of fruit because it's naturally sweet. This way, you only need two ingredients for a fruit smoothie: A fruit (or berry) and rice milk.

I really want to keep this in mind at all times: If I have a problem, and then use nicotine, I now have two problems.

I came very close to smoking today. I had to do something that made me feel anxious, and that's usually when I cave and go buy a pack of cigarettes when I'm quit (I've probably done that a hundred times, if not more, over the years). I had listened to a lot of Joel videos yesterday, and he talks about how one puff would start the withdrawal crap all over again. I thought about the fact that I've gone from 30-40 cigarettes a day lately to none, and that I've only had two micro-tabs in the past 72 hours and none in the past 24 hours. What he said about the stressor still being there even though you smoked also resonated with me. It seemed a really BAD INVESTMENT for me to smoke, if 1) I sabotage my quit to date, and 2) it won't change the stressor anyway, me smoking is not going to alter anything, 3) I'm going to feel like shit afterward, physically and psychologically. I started listening to some more Joel videos until I felt a bit more secure. And then I slowly did the anxiety-provoking stuff I had to do. And now it's done! And it didn't bite me! I didn't HAVE TO smoke in order to make it through. I can see from this experience that it would be really good if I can start practice handling anxiety producing stuff as a non-smoker. I mean, to see it as important non-smoking training instead of just stuff that has to be done. I am feeling very solemn now.

NOPE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Did you guys get nauseated when you worked out in the early days of your quit?

Thanks, Tracey! I guess I needed a bit of encouragement. It's been raining hard outside all day, so there won't be any fresh-air walking today. Yes, I drink herbal teas, and love them. Since I'm kind of eating everything in sight, I'm using this as a way to clean out my pantry and freezer instead of buying new stuff, including teas. I'm drinking very little coffee, and I don't really miss it. I'm watching Joel's excellent videos. He really is a great guy, very honest and genuine. He's a real gem in this quit process.

NOPE!

Hmmm.....I'm feeling a bit rudderless today. I'm a bit lethargic, too. Hmmm.... On the positive side, my skin is definitely cleaner when I wash it at night. :)

Good going, Laura! I don't know any smokers around me (in the end, I was a closet smoker), but if I were you I'd stay clear of smokers until I felt totally, totally strong in my quit. I can easily see a weak moment, an ask to borrow a cigarette, then buying cigarettes on my way home after school, then smoking for a few days "before I quit again", then having to do it all over again! Definitely stay close to the non-smokers.... :)

I ran 10 minutes on the treadmill, and did 15 mins circuit weightlifting. It was a pretty light workout, but I got nauseated toward the end. I wonder if it's withdrawal related. And boy, can I smell the people at the gym who are smokers! My goal is to go to the gym every morning, I have an irrational expectation that my life will be happy if I overcome myself and have great workouts at 5am at the gym. **** Added three hours later: Wow, my body is reacting to my workout as if it was a mega-workout! I suddenly felt completely knocked out, and had to take a 45-minute deep sleep nap. And now my body feels as if I've really pounded it! I'm totally used to working out, and this was less than a third of my usual workout routines. Really interesting.

Although I have some 20 nicotine microtabs left, I've only felt like having one thus far today. As a result I'm quite irritable and very clumsy, but I think that's just chemical havoc in my body. I keep thinking about the fact that taking a microtab starts the withdrawal process over. And I'm not even nicotine free as long as I use the replacements. That's pretty annoying (lol). The place that I used to buy cigarettes from sells this candy where you customize your own bag from big bins. So that I wouldn't robotically go buy a pack of cigarettes on my way home, I instead fantasized about the combination of candy I'd make. It seemed to work. I've read that quite a few of you have used sugar to help manage the first many days so I guess it's a good approach. I can switch to more healthy, natural-sugar smoothies as soon as my mood is better.

"THIRD STEP PRAYER" Relieve me of the bondage of self. Help me abandon myself to the spirit. Move me to do good in this world and show kindness. Help me to overcome and avoid anger, resentment, jealousy and any other kind of negative thinking today. Help me to help those who suffer. Keep me alert with courage to face life and not withdraw from it, not to insulate myself from all pain where by I insulate myself from love as well. Free me from fantasy and fear. Inspire and direct my thinking today; let it be divorced from self pity, dishonesty and self- seeking motives. Show me the way of patience, tolerance, kindness and love. I pray for all those to whom I've been unkind and ask that they are granted the same peace that I seek. AMEN

OF course! I took it from Nicotine Anonymous. :)

NOPE from me!

Ok, I can let myself be a bit of a sappy hero:

You guys probably have heard this one before, but it's new to me and I think it is great: DEMON STICK

Hehe....thank god we have a sense of humor!

Thanks, DD. That is truly scary. What is even more scary is my imagined visual of all of the cigarettes I have smoked in my life. The f'ing absurdity of it all! I better not think too much about your name, DD...or I might get nasty dreams tonight! DevilDolls with cigarettes! As you can see from my avatar, I'm a heavenly creature painted by Leonardo.