4r3s's quitting smoking Journal
 

I'm quitting smoking today and thought I'd make a thread on it so you all can bash or support me in my effort. I'd prefer the latter but I know how things go on here with you all :tiphat: I've been smoking for about 12 years now and I have been smoking about a pack a day for about 8 years.

So yeah, last night at 10pm I smoked my last cig. I woke up this morning feeling excited and nervous about my new journey. I took a shower and slapped a nicoderm cq patch on my shoulder. I don't know if its just in my head but the patch kinda burns when I first put it on. I usually start my car and then smoke a cig while it warms up so just hoping into the car and then leaving felt really weird. I usually smoke two cigs before leaving for work, one right after I get up and one just before leaving for work. I think I just found a way to sleep in an extra 10-20 mins by quitting. I managed to get to work waaay early today.

I was having a major craving a few minutes ago which is why I decided to start this thread to just spew my thoughts out and hopefully get me through the initial craving. I probably don't have the right audience for this but I hope that if someone is thinking about quitting and they see this thread it might be inspiration for them to quit as well or a deterant for someone that is considering smoking to see what someone that has been smoking for about 12 years has to go through in order to quit.

I'll probably be updating this frequently, I feel very edgy and mildly aggitated right now. My hands are a lot more shakey than they usually are and I would love to smoke a cig right now but I refuse. I am strong and will get through this one way or another.

Good luck! Ive been smoke for for over 2 years now. I used Chantix to quit. If you want to quit you can quit. Its too damn expensive and will kill you to boot!

Good luck. In my line of work I see people die/ permanently disabled after ruptured cerebral aneurysms due to smoking. Keep it up! :tup:

I smoked for 15+ years or so... even got to the 2 pack a day point some years back... I quit 6 months ago, on sour icebreakers....

I have heard the patch burns a little, and that if you go over board on the nicotine dose, it makes you so sick, you quit smoking automatically.

some tips:

-tell people who you smoke with that you are quitting.
-do not hang around smokers for at least a couple of months.
-(this is an iffy) but its ok to take a drag if it gets to bad, just don't go do the entire damn cigarette and then buy a box.
-Download some APPS... for whatever phone you have... I loved those, had three of them, they show you a time of quitting, money saved and a bunch of little bits of information.



hardest part will be going out for a drink and not lighting up... that **** sucks... and if someone in your household still smokes it makes it virtually impossible to quit....

good luck


edit: also recommend exercise... Start running, or biking, or whatever... but push your self... its rewarding to see how much stamina you gain, and how the pain of your lungs goes over time.

4r3s, I wish you the best, buddy. I quit back in '03 after 2-3 years of a pack per day habit. I did it cold turkey. You can do it, man.

I have decided to take up smoking to account for your loss.

Did you lose five pounds last week? Because I think I found it.

good luck man!

get your car detailed on the inside in an attempt to getting rid of the smoke smell...

It also helps if you don't socialize with your normal smoking buddies as often. I know that sucks from a social life perspective, but it helps.

You can do it. Since you decided to do this for yourself that is the first huge step. You have to want to quit more than you want to smoke. Bottom line. If you kid yourself in saying that you "just love to smoke" and that you "just don't want to quit", and you will quit when you are ready, then you will never quit. These people are Doomed IMHO!

So you are way ahead in my mind and it looks like you will do fine.

Walse on over to whyquit.com if you need a pick me up on your previous bad habit! ;)

Good luck bro

Good luck man, it's all for the best.

:tup: Awesome, thank you everyone for your support! I just got back from lunch and I'm jonesing pretty bad and reading you all's words is just what I needed. I'm unusually sweaty today and my hands are shaking like a mofo, but I'm not going to give in! One thing, I'm very happy I had broke my habit of smoking while driving over a year ago when I bought the z. The plan was to quit when I bought the car but I just stopped smoking while driving which in retrospect was a really good step in the right direction. I'm really happy my car doesn't reek of cigs and that I never smoke inside my house. That would have made this almost impossible. I do however need to buy some new clothes and get rid of clothes that I would smoke in the most often. I noticed this morning all of my jackets reek like crazy. Next step is to make a dentist appointment and get my teeth cleaned so they aren't a dingy yellow anymore.

Good luck man :tup:

Once you make it through a couple days, the patch will literally make you forget about smoking, just a couple times a day you will think, I gotta smoke and then you will think oh yeah, I dont smoke, ...patch works pretty well, exercise will be good as well as mentioned above as you tend to gain a few pounds, get some healthy snacks to munch on, like carrots and take it one day at a time, it is pretty rewarding after you look back and realize you CAN quit. also might be good to jot down a list of why you dont smoke. here is one I made.

REASONS WHY YOU WONT SMOKE!!!!!



1. You get winded easy
2. You are killing yourself
3. You will have a dry mouth when trying to sleep
4. Your clothes will smell
5. You are wasting money you don’t have!
6. You are killing your workouts
7. You get a better nights rest
8. Your food tastes better
9. Your fingers will have yellow stains
10. You become a slave to smoking

no need for goodluck, you can do it, its all mental

Here is some more Z related motivation for ya... you can do it. Think of all the $ you are saving!

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._7550503_n.jpg

^^ I think you would have to smoke 2 packs a day for 10 years to get to the Z price range;

$5/pack (Florida price)

$10 * 356= $3560

$3560*10= Z with sports package and nav... maybe even dealer fees, and tag, and carpets on the inside.

That last one was a big motivator to me, and you can add to that list "All those times you wake up coughing uncontrollably." I don't miss that at all.

Ummmm, there are 365 days in a year :rolleyes:

you are right... well that makes more money for a nice set of rims.. all the better.

2pm. its been 14 hours since my last cig. I feel good for the most part but I feel like I need to go outside and sprint as far and fast as I can and scream as loud as I possibly can. I can imagine how ridiculous and hilarious that would be to witness.

Once I get free time at home I will be dishing out a whole lot of rep to everyone posting positive comments for me! Will be nice to be able to read everyone's names next to their post too once this bieber crap goes away.

4r3s, the good news is that if you can make it through the next 2 weeks, the worst of the cravings will be gone, or at least that's how it was for me.

Well the whole reason I got serious about this was because the person I loved dearly and thought I would end up marrying left me so why not throw in another life changer while we're at it right? This happened about a month ago and I was literally physically sick from this and how messed up the whole situation was. Turns out she was not the women I was looking for or who she was showing me she was. When I got sick I lost about 10-15 lbs which is a lot when you only weight 150 to begin with. I used to work out a good bit but for some reason I slipped on that when I was seeing this girl. So this past week I started a new regiment. Monday,Wed, Fri/Sat I am back to lifting and I'm starting a new habit of jogging Tue and Thurs. I honestly only ran once this week bc of the weather but this is the plan and I am going to force myself to stick to it. I need to gain back that lost weight bad, so hopefully quitting and being physically active will help a lot on that front. Okay back to work!

Good luck bud... I quit about 5 years ago now and it wasn't easy. I went cold turkey, no patches, nuttin...

Work was real hard as it was always a good excuse to give my eyes a break from the computer and go for a lap around the building while having a puff.

After I quit, I found myself staying inside more, but eventually just got up and took that lap while chewing a new stick of gum.

Get through the first month and it gets a lot easier!

Well my mindset was like this: Cancer sticks are $8 a pack here. 2 times $8 = $16 a day x 30 = $480 a month

Pretty darn close to a typical 370Z car payment I think!

Just think about that next time you want to smoke. LOL

Thats how I justify my car to people. I tell them, I could smoke a couple packs a day, or have my sports car with high car payment. And I am not able to quit. And I don't want to. LOL

Good for you man! I need to give up the habit as well. 10 years now for me.

The health benefits and money savings are worth it... just need to quit cold turkey :excited:

Good luck!

Don't even try to fool yourself that you can do it cold turkey, you will be setting yourself up for failure. If you are serious start reading all the information available on nicotine addiction and what it does to your body most specifically your brain. Being aware of these things well help a lot but also can make you humble in that this is something that you will need assistance with both emotionally and physically. And the good thing is if someone truly cares for you they will be more than willing to support you in your decision and the process you just have to be willing to accept the help.

pssh listen to me, im only 17 hours in and talking like I'm an expert on the subject lol. Guess thats the attitude you have to take to kick this nasty habit to the curb.

Best of luck man on your ordeal. I say that with the best of intentions because there will certain times as you probably already know that the urge will hit. For me it was just after each meal and anytime I had a drink (beer) in my hand I had to have a smoke. Smoked in the service for ten years and stopped cold turkey upon my return from my last deployment overseas. It was the second attempt. Its been almost five years now. The first two weeks are the most difficult. So hang tough and good luck!

Day 1 = success, not a fun day but I'm still here and didn't smoke a single cigarette. Had a big test last night too, went to my favorite Thai restaraunt in baltimore and I always loved smoking after eating there, something about the smoke and the burning mouth from the peppers went well together. But I pulled through it!

Day 2: Started off kind of rough, probably from all the thai food from last night lol. Peeled that patch off and holy hell that thing is made to stay in place, that **** will get your attention real quick in the morning. You can't use the patch in the same place for about a week and you can't use it on places with hair...this could be an issue after a couple days...I'm somewhat dissapointed, the patch comes with a warning about vivid dreams being a possible side effect. I never remember my dreams so I was kind of hoping for this but nope not for me apparently, oh well maybe it just takes some time. Today I have plans to do some spring cleaning around here, watch some basketball, and then I have a date. She seems sweet but we will see, just hope I'm not jumping back in the pool too soon after I just ate.

rep has been given out as much as Im allowed to for today, will continue tomorrow.

That's awesome man, keep it up. I've never smoked myself, so I can't really give you advice from experience. What I can say is that everything is easier to do if you find someone to do it with you. See if you can get one of your friends to quit with you. You can both help each other out :tup:

You need to get one of those electronic cigs. I quit about 3 weeka ago and these things really help. They still give you a small nicotine fix but you only inhale water vapor. Amazingly helpful! Good luck

Good luck dude!

Good work, When I used the patch I just switched shoulders each day moving slightly up and down and I actually took mine off before bed and then a new one on in the morning, its going to get easier and easier for you, soon you wont even think about smoking, patch just becomes a extra support for the couple months to get through with.

someone shoot me please...

well day 2 = success, got a little rough towards the end of the night as you may see by my previous post but I managed to pull through. Now onto day 3.

^ Keep at it even when it gets a little rough...just think about what it will be like to have a life free of smoking and all the things you will be able to do that you were previously held back from when you were smoking.

I know it's rough right now, but you will get through it and it will become easier and easier.

Good Luck!

Ok... Day three... Time to get on the treadmill....

keep it up you can do it. Once a few weeks is past, it gets easier

well I made it through the weekend cigarette free. Saturday night I had a date and she was alright, kinda boring but she has a lot going for her as far as her career goes. Unfortunately the date made me miss my ex more than take my mind off her so I was really close to buying a pack of smokes. I sat in the parking lot at royal farms for about 15 minutes reading all my reasons not to smoke and managed to leave with just a pack of gum. That by far has been my most difficult situation to overcome as of yet. I'm pretty confident if I wasn't using the patch that would have been the break down moment. I really really want a cigarette but I don't feel like I want one bc I need nicotine, just maybe a stress reliever. I also know that just like using any other drug, you are only hiding from your problems as opposed to facing them head on. Can't wait to see what day 4 has in store for me.

Keep it going man!