Another Month
by
Nate H.
Posted in: Blog Posts in Quit smoking
Yesterday, I made it 3/4 of a year without smoking anything! I feel great, physically. I've been riding my bike to work. I've begun to lose weight and not smoking is not really a struggle for me at all. When I'm stressed, I don't feel any need to reach for a cigarette. It's pretty wild, this whole retraining process. I'll see you in anothe...
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A Mini Test...Passed...!
by
Nate H.
Posted in: Blog Posts in Quit smoking
This evening, I went over to my friend's place -- where we do all of our homebrewing. It's also a place that I've smoked a lot of cigarettes and drank a lot of beer. I knew it'd be a test for me, meaning that it would induce a crave. It did. A couple times, while we were walking around outside, looking at a place to grow some hops, I kept th...
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Feeling OK...
by
Nate H.
Posted in: Blog Posts in Quit smoking
Again, while walking my dog, I had the strongest of my cravings. Today, it hit me harder than yesterday. It was a much more intense urge to smoke. I had a brief moment of anger at myself for trying to quit. Yet, the deep breathing exercise also seems to be my best cure for the strong crave. Also, every time I drive somewhere and I don't smo...
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Morning Number 2...
by
Nate H.
Posted in: Blog Posts in Quit smoking
(36 hours in) I slept MUCH better last night than I did the night before. However, I woke up feeling a really strong urge to have a cigarette. After a grapefruit an english muffin and a cup of green tea, the craving went by the wayside. One more down... What I'm noticing two days into this quit are: I'm not as light-headed as I was yeste...
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Sloooow Day...
by
Nate H.
Posted in: Blog Posts in Quit smoking
(20 hours in) This afternoon was painfully slow... Noon to 4:30 seemed like a whole freakin' day. I've stayed strong and am happy to have gotten through that tough stretch. In that time, I had about two strong cravings. Those couple of minutes when your mind starts fixating on that craving for a smoke are painfully long. A cup of green tea...
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Space Shot...
by
Nate H.
Posted in: Blog Posts in Quit smoking
By the time I got out to the woods to walk my dog, I was feeling thoroughly cotton-headed. For the first 1/4 mile or so, I felt a bit like I was high, which isn't entirely unpleasant! While walking, I tried a few deep breathing exercises where I would inhale slowly and deeply through my nose and exhale slowly through my mouth. After five or s...
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Morning 1...
by
Nate H.
Posted in: Blog Posts in Quit smoking
(12 hours in) I tossed and turned for a while before getting up this morning. I was listlessly thinking about this new course I've set out for myself. There's a whole new routine to get accustomed to here and it isn't going to be easy. On any other morning, I'd be sitting outside right now with cigarette and coffee in hand. This morning, I...
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A final thought for the night...
by
Nate H.
Posted in: Blog Posts in Quit smoking
Over the past couple years, I talked myself out of trying to quit smoking because I live alone. I always felt that I wouldn't be up to the task to do this myself and keep myself strong. "If only I could meet the woman of my dreams , she could move in and she could be my pillar of strength." There's all kinds of weird logic in that thinking. ...
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The Last One
by
Nate H.
Posted in: Blog Posts in Quit smoking
Well, I just finished my last cigarette. To dissuade myself from scrounging around for a half-smoked butt, I emptied out my old, trusty jar o' butts into the same bag I used to clean the cat's litter box and have cleaned out the jar and put it in the recycling bin. I'd be lying if I told you I wasn't feeling anxious right now. But, it's also ...
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And so it begins...
by
Nate H.
Posted in: Blog Posts in Quit smoking
...Well, it doesn't really begin here. I'm about to quit smoking. I bought my last pack of American Spirit Mediums on Saturday and am down to two cigarettes. Both will be gone by the time I go to bed. Tomorrow, I'll wake up and start posting about what I'm going through with my nicotine withdrawal and the tons of other associative stuff that...
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Morning of Day 9...
by
Nate H.
Posted in: Blog Posts in Quit smoking
Not too much to report this morning. I did wake up with a bit of a headache, though. I still have it. It's not a major thing. Just a little pain over my right eye. I still can't tell if I'm coming down with something, or if my respiratory system is just working really hard to clear itself out. I'm definitely hoping for the latter! My st...
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A Bit of Smoking Math...
by
Nate H.
Posted in: Blog Posts in Quit smoking
Don't know why I started thinking about this, but I decided to grab a calculator and figure it out. Let's say an American Spirit takes, on average, seven minutes to smoke. After ten years, I know that was my average! And, I smoked a pack a day. On average, I was awake for about 16 hours a day. Therefore, in an average day, I would spend 140...
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Morning of Day Eight...
by
Nate H.
Posted in: Blog Posts in Quit smoking
Week two has begun and I feel great, this morning. I really dig the morning coffee again. Each day, I am increasingly amazed that I am going through this process. I still have a lot of smoking thoughts that may last a while, and a few of those instant craves that hit like an electric shock and vanish just as quickly. Last night though, I was...
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I DID IT!
by
Nate H.
Posted in: Blog Posts in Quit smoking
That was a quick two hours! I made it a week! Reading back over posts from the first three days, it is amazing that I was counting off hours and 72 seemed like a month. I gotta give myself a pat on the back: I'm feeling good right about now!
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Glory Week Is Two Hours Away...
by
Nate H.
Posted in: Blog Posts in Quit smoking
... From Being Over! And then week two begins... Dang!!! To celebrate, I'm drinking a homebrew and catching up on things that have piled up a bit as I've concentrated on my quitting for the past week. Whatever weird little bug/glitch that gave me the aches/chills last night has not hit me tonight. I feel really good. Today was a very good...
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12 Hours to Go...
by
Nate H.
Posted in: Blog Posts in Quit smoking
...To One Smoke-Free Week!!! I'm a little confused about why I've felt so lousy the last couple of nights, and I haven't had the wherewithal do a ton of research on it. It's almost like smoking messed with my internal thermostat, which makes sense because it messed with just about every other one of my body's systems. This morning, I feel 1,...
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A Trigger-Filled Day
by
Nate H.
Posted in: Blog Posts in Quit smoking
I felt like crap this morning until I got myself a substantial breakfast. That seemed to do the trick... My cough has grown steadier. It all might be a ruse though, if I'm coming down with a cold... I headed down to Dan's and got a brew done. But the important thing is that I let myself have a few beers throughout the day. I faced down my ...
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Day Number Six...
by
Nate H.
Posted in: Blog Posts in Quit smoking
I do NOT feel good this morning. I don't know how much it has to do with smoking though. Last night, about an hour before I went to bed, I started feeling a little achy run-down. As I was falling asleep, I was shivering and cold and having bizarre dreams. The one I remember is that somehow, someone had booby trapped my bed and I got my foot ...
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Hanging In There...
by
Nate H.
Posted in: Blog Posts in Quit smoking
In a couple hours, I will have made it through my fifth day without a cigarette! Obviously, a week is a big milestone, but I'm pretty amazed at the six days. The last couple especially... I woke up feeling great today and went for a walk in the woods with a friend of mine. However, after running a couple errands, I was starting to feel a bit...
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The Fifth Day
by
Nate H.
Posted in: Blog Posts in Quit smoking
Man, I crashed out hard last night. I think the energy I expended dealing with the stresses of yesterday...not to mention six hours behind the wheel. Sleeping has really started feeling good and restful. This morning, I woke up feeling really good and totally recharged. There's not a whole lot else to report this morning. Oh...one sign that...
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