Recently in Quitting Smoking Category

So, today is 5 months since I had my last cigarette. I always said if I can go 6 months I will finally feel like I have really quit. One more month to go. Hardly even think about smoking these days, which is rather nice. Every once in a while I still want one though. Guess that will happen for a long time.

Quitting smoking was the first part of trying to get healthy. I have been getting better about eating and all that stuff, but the real scary part started yesterday. Yesterday evening, I went for a run. Yes, me, Skadz, went out to exercise :)

I did just under 2.5 miles in about 25 mins, which makes me feel pretty good that I should be able to ramp up on this pretty quick. I was really hoping to do 3 miles, but between not really eating well yesterday, and well, just not being in great shape, my body didn't let that happen. Hopefully I can crack 3 miles in the next week or so.

I definitely hurt for a while when I got home last night, but am sort of impressed with how I feel today, I really thought my body would be in total revolt, but I just have a little bit of aching in my legs.

The last piece of the whole thing is that I think using my lungs that much have caused them to dig deep and get the last of the smoking crap out. I coughed more since my run than I have in months. Hopefully this means my lungs will be good and cleaned out real soon now.

(And yes, I know I have been a slacker here, hopefully will be getting back in to the swing of it now)

It was four months ago today that I smoked my last cigarette. Even though I officially "quit" a week before, I was still smoking on occasion for the next week. Basically, I finished off the pack I had and then quit.

Four months later, I am feeling pretty good. I still get minor nicotine fits from time to time, but most of them are so minor I hardly notice them. Both while still on the patch and for a while after stopping the patch, I was chewing gum like a madman. Today, I don't even have any gum on me.

So, overall, I think it is going pretty well. I have not gained a ton of weight like I was worried I might. I did start out doing some exercise early on, but that has fallen off some. Now that the weather is nice, I really should get out and try doing some level of it. I guess the first step there is going and buying some sneakers (yes, I don't own sneakers, shush). The one good thing is that I still do walk pretty regularly. I would guess I walked 10-15 miles last. I really should get a pedometer or something to keep track of that.

The big milestone in my head will be the 6 month mark. I figure if I have not had a smoke in 6 months, I am doing pretty darned good.

I surpassed fifty days without a cigarette this week. A week from today I take off my final patch. Going to be quite a ride over the next week, but hopefully things will work out.

One of the things I noticed in the last few days is how good I am at stressing myself out. I am very good at getting something in to my head and not letting go of it. It's not a healthy thing, especially in this time of trying to quit smoking.

One of my friends tells me all the time that I just need to say whatever more often and I wish I could do that, but it seems when there are things in my life that I want to go a certain way and they do not, I get myself worked up and just can't let them go. Definitely something I will need to work on if I want to continue not to smoke long past this time around on the patch.

Who knows? Maybe it's just the rain.

As I have mentioned, I am once again trying to quit smoking.

This is the third REAL attempt I have made. The first time I used Welbutrin, which sort of helped, but when I ran out, I went right back to smoking. The last time I used the patch and it went rather well, I just trusted myself too quickly and one cigarette after Thanksgiving dinner lead to ten and soon after me smoking regularly again.

This time I am using the patch once again. I started 5 1/2 weeks ago on the patch. The first week I was on the patch I still was smoking on occasion, but nowhere near my normal pack plus a day level. Four and a half weeks ago I had my last cigarette.

The plan for the patch is to do 6 weeks on Step 1, 2 on Step 2 and 2 on Step 3. I'm pushing it a bit since I smoked the first week and haven't actually hit week 6 yet, but this morning I stepped down to Step 2. I was out of Step 1 patches and buying another week of Step 1 patches just to hit their pre-determined set of rules didn't sound like fun. I just want to get past the patch and get the nicotine out of my system and start living a smoke-free life.

We will see how it goes, but so far, not so bad. Now, I switched to the Step 2 only a few hours ago, but still, at least there wasn't an immediate issue. Just have to take it one minute at a time and hopefully it will be just fine. And for those times when it is not, just have to remember why I am doing this.

For a long time, I had always said I was going to quit smoking when I turned 30. It had been a personal goal and something I had always said I would do. And I did. On my 30th birthday, I finished the pack of cigarettes I had and then took a shower, threw on a patch and was done with smoking. Sadly, a few months later on Thanksgiving, I figured I was cured and I could have one cigarette after a great meal prepared by K and I would be fine. Half a pack later that night, I was on my way back to being a smoker. By January I was smoking full time again and didn't have any real plans of quitting again any time soon.

That was 18 months ago today (yes, that means today is my half birthday). Well, I am happy to report, that today I am 15 days in to attempting to quit again. I started on the patch 2 Sundays ago, but was still smoking occasionally over the first week. Now I have been completely smoke free for just over a week. I've had a few hard moments, but I just keep in mind the reasons I quit when the nicotine fits hit and I have been able to get through them. That and packs and packs and packs of gum (regular sugar free, not nicotine gum). The most impressed I was so far was being able to actually stand outside with people smoking and not immediately steal a smoke from my friends. The biggest issue thus far was after all the cleaning yesterday and kicking up lots of cigarette smoke created dust, I was hurting pretty bad. But, I have made it through and hopefully I will continue and this will be the last quitting attempt. It's the third serious attempt I have made over the years and am hoping this one keeps up.

Wish me luck!

Well, today is a double anniversary for my quitting smoking. First off, it was two months ago today (on my 30th birthday ), that I quit smoking. I can't believe its been that long.

The second one is that it has been a week since I took off my last patch. I took it off right after getting out of bed last Saturday. The first few days were difficult, but it seems to be getting better every day. If I just had no stress in my life, it would be much easier. Stress definitely seems to be the one thing that really sets me off these days. Even going out and drinking isn't too bad.

I'm still amazed that I have gotten this far. I always thought it would take me at least a few tries to quit. I guess when you decide you are going to quit and really mean it, it's much easier.

I'm still not smoking. It's been 6 weeks now. Started the Step 3 patch this morning. Should be totally off the patch in 2 weeks. Still amazed I've actually gotten this far.

So, as amazing it is to me, I haven't smoked in 10 days. Very strange. Definitely having some issues at times, but most of the time I am ok. Having a very hard time keeping my thoughts straight. Since, I don't have those breaks from time to time, my mind tends to wander, worse than it did in the past. Hopefully, I will get over this soon. I've had mostly good days. Had a few "evil" days over the weekend that I really didn't want to deal with people and was almost at the "fuck it, I'm smoking" point.

I did have a few drinks here and there over the weekend, which was one of my biggest worries. I survived pretty nicely. And last night, I actually went out in Boston and survived as well. This is starting to look pretty good. I even had the patch off for about 3 hours this afternoon and wasn't completely dying.

So, hopefully, I can keep it going. I definitely still have cravings, but hopefully they will keep dying down.

So, I've made it through 24 hours. This afternoon at work has been difficult because I usually break my tasks up with cigarettes and that hasn't really been available to me today.

What do people who don't smoke do when they need a little break at work?

Usually, if I'm stuck on something or between working on two different things, I got downstairs and have a smoke. What should I do now that I don't smoke?