Happy Smoke-free Saturday Night! I always smoked so much more on the weekends because I wasn't tied up at work where I could only have a few a day. Weekends were "smoking like a chimney." One ot the triggers that held on the longest was getting in the car after shopping anywhere. For a long, long time every time I did that I would be saying "yeah, but I don't do that any more." I pretty much play Bingo every Saturday night, and the women I go with aren't smokers. But on the two breaks they take each evening while we play I was outside huddled with the other smokers -- whether it was zero degrees outside, raining -- you name it, I NEVER missed a smoke break. (And I have to say I picked a perfect time to quit because I've probably smiled a thousand times thinking how nice it is that I don't have to be out in the bone chilling cold we've had this winter (and are still having today).
I've found the perfect way to give up Crystal Light and Diet Sodas and drink water. I've always had my flavored drinks in a very large Big Gulp and drank through a straw. When I put water into that container it was awful, because I was expected a sweet taste and it wasn't there, so water tasted "empty." But I knew I should be drinking water, so I bought some bottles of it, and I realized that I actually liked water when I drank it ouf of a bottle, and not through a straw!! So I've ditched the Big Gulps I've been using for the last 20 years (I'm not kidding about that) and since I'm drinking about 100 ounces of water every day I realized I don't want to be single handedly responsible for ruining the environment with all my plastic water bottles, so I've ordered a filter (that should arrive tomorrow) and I purchased a couple of 32 ounce reusable water bottles (one for home, one for work) and I'm having no trouble at all giving up the sweet drinks with all the chemicals and preservatives in them. Awesome!!
In this program that I'm doing through my employer, they encourage participants to identify their Core Values so that we can live truer to ourselves as we move into eating differently. The core value that first came up for me was Health. That would NEVER have been my answer prior to quitting smoking. In order to maintain the fiction that smoking was okay I (and I suspect most of us) had to NEVER think about health. Or doing anything to make myself healthier. In fact, I had to convince myself that I was healthy and that smoking wasn't going to have any effect. Of course, being told I had COPD and smoking for over two years (I looked at my medical records, and it first came up at the end of 2012) I had to be in some pretty serious denial because no one can call having COPD being healthy.
I am constantly astounded at how much happier I am, how much more competent I feel, how empowered I am by this quit. I wish I could convey to every newbie how wonderful it is to gather all these blessings and like yourself so much better.
So happy smoke free Saturday to all -- I love every one of you.
Sweet dreams!
