Your First Days, nicotine Free

[Chrysalis]

If you are feeling stressed out or anxious or have difficulty sleeping (all common symptoms when you quit smoking), I highly recommend this 30-minute mindfulness meditation by Jon Kabat-Zinn. It's available for free on Youtube here:  Mindfulness with Jon Kabat-Zinn

[Sazerac]

to:   QTrain

re:  first days nicotine Free

 

In your First Few Days, 

while the Nicotine left your body,

 what helped you ?

 

For me,  it was 

Sleep  (assisted with over the counter sleep medication or whisky).

Ice Water.

Satsumas, Citrus.

Deep, deep breaths.

Long 'singing' showers.

 

(If I had known about y'all,  I guarantee I would have been here)

 

 

Edited to avoid controversy as to method of quitting smoking.

I just want to know what helped you while nicotine left your body.

 

 

Newbies who have this fresh in your memory or anyone who hasn't posted,

 

please post the things that helped you through your first days.

 

Your experience will help others during the first days.

 

Thank you,

S

[dancer_I]

I get the fuzziest head when I quit smoking.  I can't think properly so I just learnt to go with the flow.  I had to be pretty accepting of myself particularly when I kicked a fence when a dog barked aggressively at me. For some reason I needed to drink a lot of water.   I was soooo thirsty.  Every day for the first week I've drunk at least 3.5 litres a day.  Sometimes I needed a lot of exercise.  I did a lot of walking and some weights but other days I was really fatigued and had a sleep.  I just had to get used to a new normal for a while until my body gets back to normal without nicotine.

[Sonic]

For me it was:

 

 

 

Drinking lots of water

 

Cinnamon hard candies

 

No Coffee

 

No Beer

 

Running

 

P90

 

and the most important thing.. NOT ROMANCING THE CIGARETTE.

 

[Jules]

Planned a special treat to look forward to.
Used the Free NHS Quit Kit and found calendar really helped.
Bought an E-Cigarette for emergency.
Stuck notes everywhere to remind me why I was quitting.
Slept.
Fruit gums.
If I had known about this forum helped I would have joined sooner!

[Wendy]

.

[slovenka177]

I feel like the first few days is sort of a tug of war between "Yay I quit" and feeling strong and prepared with some moments of junkie thinking and self doubt. ALL temporary seeing as once you climb the hill you question how you could even think like that to begin with. My experience was very uplifting and powerful (coming from a ex relapser). As uplifting as it was it was still a struggle at times, the things that helped me with my first few days were;

• staying close to the board, read, re-read material until you can't read any more (everyone here knows what you are going through and that support really made a world of a difference)
• Allen Carr Material - relate it to yourself as much as you can (find examples of what you used to do) 
• Drink lots of water (3L + a day) 
• Journalling - made a one week journal and wrote everything from smoking problems to work issues.
• A questioning obsession with gum (it is slowly disappearing)
• I vowed to pledge NOPE for 365 days - and then some, but made a commitment to myself - this made me feel apart of something bigger than my smoking
• I ignored other people (more so close friends) who claim to quit but never follow through - their problem not mine (smokers like to feed off one another)
• Lots of exercise (which I did before but have more energy now)
•  remembered to only tackle one day at a time :) 

Yikes, feel like I rambled :). Hope this helps! 

 

Blessed be 

[Humbled]

For me I was just ready - I am at a good point in my life -I decided to focus on my future and my kids. I told my closest friends so I would be held accountable, I did not tell my family or children because I didn't want that kind of pressure. I came to the QT curious and ready - I was still smoking and had planned a quit date but after being on the site I was more addicted to the quit then actually smoking. I downloaded the ticker app on my phone and looked at it religiously when I couldn't hop on the site - It was a quest or a fun game for me to see how many days I could go and how many cigarettes I didn't smoke- I challenged myself but also avoided drinking unless it was a few drinks at night at my house (I do not drink and drive so I knew if I had a few drinks I would not even consider going to the store just to buy cigarettes) that helped because I got used to having a drink or two or more ;)  without smoking - then it just became normal for me. I don't really ever sleep much but instead of waking up at 2:30 and having a cigarette - if I woke up and couldn't sleep I would do some push ups and some pull ups and then back to bed. Change all routines that lead to smoking it is vital. This site and the people here gave me the strength and conviction to stay quit. Can't express gratitude enough.

[natalie_3]

Water, water, lots of water!

Sleeping

Deep breaths

Posting here all day 

Help from all the guys in the forum

Posting SOS when you need it

Drawing (keeping yourself busy)

 

It´s worth it!

 

-Nat

 

 

[Mastergardener]

Keeping busy.

Merlot. Switched from white to red.

Cutting down on coffee. Switched to green tea at work.

Trying not to dwell on it! 

Deep breathing.

[Kristin]

Crochet, Hot Tea, Coloring, Lollipops and Gum, Long hot showers,Video Games, Naps and snuggling my baby.

 

ETA: I misunderstood this post, this is how I got through my first days not smoking but I am using NRT.

[yabmob]

I quit cold turkey so i knew that the first few days will be tough, and if i can get past that then i can truly give it up completely. The first day will be bad and you will often feel the urge to light up but you also become more aware of your triggers. On the second day you first feel proud that you could actually go without a smoke for one entire day and for me that was huge motivation to carry on for another day. On the third day, you are even more proud of your accomplishments, there are still strong urges to smoke at times, but it is less frequent now. On the fourth day i saw a drastic reduction in my desire to smoke and the urges were reduced substantially as well. I remember on this day i had to drive for a good hour for a long meeting with a client, and normally after such a meeting i would have been running back to my car to grab a smoke, but this time i did not feel like i needed it and this was an awesome feeling. 

 

Remember that when you were smoking you were essentially taking a break from an activity, and i felt that it was important to still takes those breaks when you get the urges, but now fill those breaks with other tasks. I started browsing the news, taking a walk, eating a few snacks, and yes drinking lots of water.

[El Bandito]

Quitting is scary.

 

The scary bit is BEFORE the quit. Fearing failure, or worse fearing success...the fear of NEVER having another cigarette. SCARY!

 

So when I quit, I always focused on being Happy. I had done it. I quit. That's good news!

 

Then sipping water. Keeping busy.

[Evelyn]

Drinking senseo cups of decaf and tea with sugar. In my 6th day I'm close to leave sugar behind!

Keeping busy, laundry faulding, washing clothes, visiting my smoking neighbor (YES!) to face my smonster and it was a huge conquer; but this might not be suitable for everyone!

[Tyme2B]

I Looked at Smoking Cessation sites to see what I was in for.

Tried to cut down on smoking for a month before....unfortunately if I had cigarettes in the house I smoked them.

Made a quick Quit Date: once this pack was gone I would not smoke again (and so far I haven't).

Told family & friends I had quit smoking so it would be harder to go back without feeling like a failure. Made the choice to use Nicoderm gum....I had failed too many times in past trying going cold turkey....I'm a 40 yr Smoker.

Knowing I have mild COPD & only cure is stopping smoking.

Losing my 6 yrs younger brother to a horrible death with lung cancer.

Looking at my grandbabies & knowing they would be devastated to lose me.

I take one day at a time

Only use gum if I have to...but use it if I need to....beats a cigarette

Sleep when I can...insomnia will go away soon

Post on this site & read everything I can...watch videos on the site....keep close to the board

was up in morning & say "I am a non smoker" & feel proud

Drink lots of water

Chew "regular" gum....I am so afraid of gaining weight...this curbs my appetite

.

[Runfree]

Repeated - Smoking is not an option.

Water. lots and lots

Slept when I wanted or needed

Took long epsom salt baths

Read here often but couldn't get it together enough to post 

Read everything Pinned in the Quit Smoking Discussion thread (good stuff!)

Watched lots of videos

Had a good supply of carrots, wintergreen lifesavers, gum gum gum

Cried freely and often

Swore freely and often

Ordered out for food when I was too scrambled to cook a meal.

[Sunnyside]

Used a forum alot whine all the time to the members there.

Cold water, exercise and keeping busy. Just have your sights on the day you are in, get yourself through that day as tomorrow will take care of it's self.

Complete stubbornness got me through, after all I'm not going to be beaten by a dead plant!

 

 

 

 

[Evelyn]

Drink tea / coffee with lotsa Sugar, or cola or soda. Faced my smoking neighbor first day, where i iused to relapse and didn't smoke, posted a lot, sos if needed, cycled lots

[PorkandPancakes]

Quitting is scary.

 

The scary bit is BEFORE the quit. Fearing failure, or worse fearing success...the fear of NEVER having another cigarette. SCARY!

This! That has always been the scariest monumental thought!! Never!? Never ever ever!?!

 

Lol, 1 day at a time is good for me.

[Jospehheg]

Done some workouts,watching some movies and went off to a friend home on that first day.. then i last long for a 2weeks of quit. The next week i get uses some cigar's but not that much i used before. And again i doing the same think (workouts,movies) to divert myself from cigars

 

Note: i not a complete quiter yet. i just trying to bring the things under control.. then make it quit i hope ^_^ ^_^ ^_^

[MarylandQuitter]

Done some workouts,watching some movies and went off to a friend home on that first day.. then i last long for a 2weeks of quit. The next week i get uses some cigar's but not that much i used before. And again i doing the same think (workouts,movies) to divert myself from cigars

 

Note: i not a complete quiter yet. i just trying to bring the things under control.. then make it quit i hope ^_^ ^_^ ^_^

 

It's better to simply quit nicotine all at once because when you're still smoking (even cigars) you're keeping yourself in withdrawal.  Not fun!  I could never advocate smoking for any reason but if you wanted to use a NRT product, that could help.  The goal is to get completely off of the drug, nicotine and never go back to it.

[buMbLeB]

This is my plan (Hope it works):

 

Now i trying to quit, So why not to bring that down step by step

First Step: try and do 1 week off...may use 1 per day...

Second Step: 2 weeks off..may use 1 for a couple of days.....and so on

 

i dont know ..its going to work or not but let a try is not a bad idea

 

Hi Josephheg, and welcome to the Quit Train. First, congratulations on your decision to try to quit smoking! Helping you succeed is why we're all here, and so I hope you don't mind if I add my own thoughts about your plan to cut down smoking a little bit at a time. Many people on this board have different ideas about the best way to quit smoking, but I'm fairly sure that most of them will agree with what I'm about to say.

 

Quitting by cutting down SOUNDS like a good plan, but it probably isn't. I bet almost all of us have tried to "get it under control" a number of times, and failed. The reason is because we're addicted to nicotine, and by cutting back a little bit at a time we're just prolonging our suffering and reinforcing how hard it is for us to stop. We might seem to succeed for a little while, but eventually we'll run out of willpower and go right back to where we where before. And then we have to start all over again, and we feel more powerless than ever. If we just QUIT, then we have to endure withdrawing from nicotine for a few days or weeks - mostly the first week is the worst part - and then it quickly gets easier and easier, until after a while we start to forget what it was even like to smoke.

 

Please take 7 minutes to watch this youtube video from a quit smoking expert - he's talking about exactly this issue, and he explains it very well:

 

[Doreensfree]

Reminds me of pulling a plaster of a sore....

It might hurt so I'll do it very slowly... Ow,ow.ow....

Much better to do it in one swift pull...it done over with...

[Sazerac]

Stay busy.... don't dwell.

 

I love this, ChRiSpY, 

because that is exactly the trick for the first days and super advice for life in general.

 

Stay Busy.....Don't Dwell.

 

It helped me today

for something not nicotine related,

just another life lesson learned and used.

[Sazerac]

Here is another thread about this

Tools and Options to Beat Craves