I thought I would update my blog to tell everyone how my stop smoking experience is going.Day number 10 wasn't to bad. I had a few minor crave that were easily estinguished with some deep breathing exercises.
Days 11 and 12 were pretty tough. All I could think about during those 2 days were a cigarette. It wasn't as much a physical withdrawals as psychological. I'm not having what I would call physical withdrawals anymore. It's all mental now.
Here's a few things that will trigger psychological cravings in me. Anger,Bitterness, Hatred, Depression. These are just one of many things I have to be on the lookout for. I know if I ever take another puff off a cig, I will have thrown this whole quit away. That's how addicting cigarettes are. Once you quit. You can never take another puff. Never.
I notice I have more psychological cravings for cigarettes when I'm having either a bad day or a boring day. Here are a few things I do that help me get through these tough days.
- Deep Breathing Exercises
- Take a Shower
- Take a Walk
- Clean The House
- Take a bicycle Ride
- Listen to a stop smoking hypnosis tape
Anything to take your mind off smoking for a little while. The stop smoking hypnosis cds work great. They relax you, and after listening to one the urge to smoke is gone. I listed a couple of links to 2 of the stop smoking hypnosis cd's I use.
They work for me. Do whatever it takes to get past the crave. Even on a bad day, cigarette withdrawal pangs aren't that bad at all. They have been blown out of preportion by the media. Millions of people stop smoking every year. You can do it to.
This is day 13 with no cigarettes smoked ! Quit the cold turkey method.
One more piece of advice. I want to strongly discourage anyone from visiting any of the so called stop smoking forums.
Whyquit Has some excellent stop smoking articles and their all free. I strongly suggest you go and read some. However, Stay away from their forums.
In the other stop smoking forums you are going to be reading about a lot of people failing. They've blowed their quit. This will be very discouraging for you. You as a new non smoker don't need to be around such negativity. You don't need a group to cry on their shoulders when a crave comes. The best way to blow a quit is to hang around a stop smoking forum.
Why? If you're around a stop smoking forum. What are you going to be thinking about? That's right. Cigarettes. Here's a little story and it's true. Just a few years ago. Like back in the 1960's. There were no stop smoking aids , No patches, gums, inhalers, potions, lotions, or herbs that were marketed to help you quit smoking. Neither was ther the internet.
Yet people quit smoking back then in spite of not having any of these aids. They all succeeded one way.
ALL QUIT COLD TURKEY They had no choice. There wasn't any other way to quit. My grandpa told me he would go to work and put a ludens cough drop in his mouth when he got the craving for a cigarette. Was he successful in quiting long term?
Yes ! He had been a 2 pack a day smoker for 45 years. Yet, he quit smoking without the internet, without a smoking buddy, without forums, without nicotine replacement gimmicks. Quitting smoking is more a state of mind. I've been successful several times in quiting smoking. My problem is I just couldn't keep a quit. All along I was sabatoging my quit and didn't know it.
Blowed a 46 day quit. Blowed a 4 and a half month quit. Blowed Several 3 week quits.
I now know what caused me to relapse on all those quits. Sure, I already knew that I could never take another puff. I already knew that. In spite of that. I blew it anyway. You have to come to a state of mind that you absolutly hate cigarettes. If you fantacise about smoking you are probably going to fail.
One piece of advise and then I will be finished for the day.
Don't Tell Anyone That You Are Stopping Smoking !!! Most of these so called forums will tell you to tell the family, friends, etc. That the big stop smoking day is coming. This is pure garbage. If you tell your friends and family that your quitting. This doubles the pressure on you. Not only are you battling the cigarettes. Now you know that you will be a big failure in the eyes of your friends and family if you fail. and you probably will fail.
It's much more fun not to tell anyone. Only you know that you are stopping. And if you blog the bloggers will know.
Set your own quit date. Don't tell anyone your quitting smoking. When your quit date arrives stop smoking. See how long it takes anyone to notice that you aren't smoking anymore. You've made a game out of it. and took some pressure off yourself. After a few days someone will probably notice that you aren't smoking and will ask you if you've quit.
Answer them however you want. I usually just tell them I haven't stopped smoking. I just don't smoke out in public anymore. Or I don't smoke in the house anymore. You can come up with a lot of reasons. Make it fun !!!!!! Don't tell anyone you've quit smoking until you've been quit for a minimum of 6 months.
The statistics are not good. Less than 10% of all smokers who quit smoking relapse within the first year. Don't you be one of them. When you put out that last cigarette. Make a promise to yourself that you will never smoke again. Then don't mope about it.
REad Allen Carrs Book. The link to it is in the other posts. That's all for today.
