3 Days & Excited

[ryansa40]

Good afternoon everyone,

My name is Ryan, I am new here....it's been three days since I've had a cigarette and I am pretty excited about it. I find myself often admiring those who don't smoke and thinking to myself how different my life would be, funny how things change over time; when I was young it was the other way around.

I don't necessarily crave a cigarette, I crave the moments I used to regularly have when smoking. Examples are coffee on Saturday morning with a cigarette listening to the morning birds - I can still have that mediative moment without a smoke (thinking about a yoga or tai chi on Saturday mornings). When my husband comes home we usually sit outside and share how our days were while we both smoke  - I'm thinking about taking up cooking classes so we can have easy gourmet dinners, talk then. I mentioned to him the other night I have always wanted to play the double bass he excitedly said I should do it, I think I'm going t pursue it.

The big one, I have wanted to be Physician Assistant ever since I was U.S. Navy Hospital Corpsman. I have been pursuing it for years, the prerequisites. I think it's finally time to accomplish one of my biggest dreams.

I'm amazed at how one little thing like smoking really effects your entire life.

Btw, husband and I are quitting together.

[kristen-9-7-15]

Hi Ryan!  Glad to see you made it to the cool hangout spot!  Someone will be along shortly to give you links to great reading material!  I highly recommend the Allan Carr book. 

Great job on 3 days!!

[TerrieQuit]

Good for you both! It's great to have a quit buddy! Congratulations on 3 smokefree days! and pursuing your dreams is a great idea! Hang in there!

Terrie  6  months

[YoungAtHeart]

Welcome to our community!

It sounds like you have a good handle on what it takes to relearn your life as an ex-smoker.  Everything you are planning is spot on!

The most important thing you can do right now is to educate yourself on what nicotine does to your body and mind. To that end, I highly recommend Allen Carr's “The Easy Way to Stop Smoking.” This is an easy and entertaining read. Here is a link to a free PDF version of it:

http://media.wix.com/ugd/74fa87_2010cc5496521431188f905b7234a829.pdf

As well, read the sections on this site, and read the blogs, responses and pages of folks you think might be helpful. You might visit whyquit.com and quitsmokingonline.com for the good information contained there.

The idea is to change up your routines so the smoking associations are reduced.  Drink your coffee with your OTHER hand. If you always had that first smoke with your coffee, try putting your tennies on right out of bed, going for a quick walk, then taking your shower and THEN your coffee! Rearrange the furniture in the areas you used to smoke so the view is different.

You need to distract yourself through any craves.  You can take a bite out of a lemon (yup - rind and all), put your head in the freezer and take a deep breath of cold air, do a few jumping jacks, go for a brisk walk or march in place, play a computer game.  Don't let that smoking thought rattle around in your brain unchallenged. Sometimes you need to quit a minute or an hour at a time.  You will need to be disciplined in the early days to distract yourself when a crave hits.  Don't let that smoking thought rattle around your head alone.  Get busy!  Here is a link to a list of things to do instead of smoke if you need some fresh ideas:

https://excommunity.becomeanex.org/blogs/Youngatheart.7.4.12-blog/2013/02/25/100-things-to-do-instea...

The conversation in your head in response to the "I want a cigarette" thought needs to be, "Well, since I have decided not to do that anymore, what shall I do instead for the three minutes this crave will last?"  Then DO it.  You will need to put some effort into this in the early days, but it gets easier and easier to do.

Stay close to us here and ask questions when you have them and for support when you need it. We will be with you every step of the way!

Nancy

[JonesCarpeDiem]

Click on my cat Hoggie and read my page?

[freeneasy]

Congrats on your wise decision. You will find that your coffee will be just as good without a cigarette. Keep it going one day at a time.

[djmurray]

Hi, Ryan -- I'm so glad you found us!  I have been at this site for a little over a year, and after smoking for over 50 years, I celebrated my first year quit last week.  It's great that you're quitting together with your husband, and if it helps I have a few observations.  First of all, DEFINITELY read the Allen Carr book.  It completely changed the way I thought about smoking.  Come here often.  Commit to a daily blog, which will keep you focused on the non-smoking part (because when we quit our addicted brains are screaming, cajoling, begging and keeping us thinking about smoking -- so we might as well be thinking about all the good reasons NOT to smoke). 

I've reached a few conclusions in my own journey here.  Take what you like and leave the rest.  The bottom line is that a successful quit is based on education, attitude, acceptance and determination.  Education:  Once you've learned the truth about this addiction it's much harder (for me impossible) to go back to smoking.  Rather, it helps us unlearn the connections we had with smoking.  Attitude:  Your attitude or mindset is key to whether your quit feels like torture or feels like something very doable.  If you feel deprived, if you feel sorry for yourself and just use willpower to get through not smoking, it will be torture (and you'll read more about that in the Carr book).  But if you have the attitude that smoking is nothing and you are willing to go through the discomfort that is generally associated with quitting, then you can be a happy quitter.  I am definitely a happy quitter!  Acceptance: If you can accept that you will have craves early in your quit and sometimes later in your quit than you would imagine, and don't fight them but observe them and say "Yeah, I don't do that anymore" and find something else to do you won't have as many craves.  It's true. Determination:  This is tied up with the willingness I mentioned.  You have an addict's brain, just like the rest of us.  Your addict's brain will whisper to you, scream at you and plead with you to come back.  There will be times when you find yourself thinking "oh, what could it hurt to have just one."  That's your addiict brain trying to entice you.  Determination is your ability to say NOPE -- Not One Puff Ever.  

So welcome to EX -- we're a wonderfully supportive group who've been there done that or are being there doing that right now.   There's no better resource than a good support group to get through the initial discomfort of quitting.

You can do this!

[JACKIE1-25-15]

Congratulations on 3 days smoke free.  You have come to the right place.  If you do the work you will have success.

[Starlite]

Hi Ryan Congrats. on 3 days. woohoo and yipeee, I am on day 2 and wish you and your husband the best. Go for those dreams girl.

[lois2]

congrats to both of you, hang in there. nope