On Friday, I was out with some folks for happy hour. I came to find out that a couple who are happy hour regulars (I just met them a couple weeks ago) had also recently quit smoking. Naturally, we started talking about our experiences quitting smoking. The couple was two weeks into their quit and the husband said "It sucks!" He is on the patch.
I remember quitting before with the patch or gum. Quitting that way always felt awful. Just chronically edgy with a non-satisfied feeling. At two weeks (about my limit for patch quits), I would feel so lousy that I would say screw it and buy a pack.
Anyway, I told him that I was somewhere near six weeks with my quit and that I went cold turkey. I'm psyched that these new friends of mine quit, but I told him about my experiences with NRT and how bad they were, and that I'd much rather got through about a week of nastiness, then to be in a constant state of withdrawal. I feel his pain.
So yeah...my nicotine-free life goes on! Getting through the day is no longer a real challenge, save for those moments where I sort of feel like something's missing. Even that feeling is dulled in intensity. I acknowledge it and move on. In hindsight, those pangs last all of a minute at most. When I stop to think about the consequences of giving in to that little pang and how 47 days of hard won work and the million little victories therein would be for nothing, it immediately steels my resolve. I should say reinforces it. Especially now! My quit chugs towards a thousand cigarettes no smoked!
I think what's more profound than dealing with these tiny moments in my day where having a cigarette seems almost like a good idea, are the increasingly long stretches where smoking is not even on my mind at all!
Cheers to a million more little victories.
1 month, 2 weeks and 2 days smoke-free! 953.48 cigarettes not smoked! $293.19 saved!
I remember quitting before with the patch or gum. Quitting that way always felt awful. Just chronically edgy with a non-satisfied feeling. At two weeks (about my limit for patch quits), I would feel so lousy that I would say screw it and buy a pack.
Anyway, I told him that I was somewhere near six weeks with my quit and that I went cold turkey. I'm psyched that these new friends of mine quit, but I told him about my experiences with NRT and how bad they were, and that I'd much rather got through about a week of nastiness, then to be in a constant state of withdrawal. I feel his pain.
So yeah...my nicotine-free life goes on! Getting through the day is no longer a real challenge, save for those moments where I sort of feel like something's missing. Even that feeling is dulled in intensity. I acknowledge it and move on. In hindsight, those pangs last all of a minute at most. When I stop to think about the consequences of giving in to that little pang and how 47 days of hard won work and the million little victories therein would be for nothing, it immediately steels my resolve. I should say reinforces it. Especially now! My quit chugs towards a thousand cigarettes no smoked!
I think what's more profound than dealing with these tiny moments in my day where having a cigarette seems almost like a good idea, are the increasingly long stretches where smoking is not even on my mind at all!
Cheers to a million more little victories.