Day 271...my my my how time flies.

[luvztheway]

Wow, less than 100 days left until I reach the 1 year milestone.  Wow knew I could make it this far and remain confident in my ability to stay quit. 

I want to share my story with any newbies who may be struggling or wanting help mapping out a plan.  I'll stary with, if you don't feel ready, you may not be so a plan is even more important for you than others who've already committed by setting a date.

Decide to become committed.  This may not come overnight and likely won't for most of you but if you are intent on bettering your health, then I'd strongly urge you to consider it a bit deeper than you may have to this point.

Once you have committed, set a date.  A minimum of one week out but I'd suggest two.  This plan will take time and you must be prepared to take baby steps. They'll help more in the long run than just jumping right off the ledge. 

Consider your options for help.  There are many out there including pills, patches, hypnosis, ariculartherapy (sp?), to support groups and online communities like this one.  Use these tools; not just one but several of them, they are there to help you and you're going to need help in order to free yourself from the nicodemon.  (I love that term because it really puts a face to the battle you are fighting within.) 

Practice the term NOPE (Not One Puff Ever), this acronym has actually helped me get through a few tough cravings that came on unexpectidly after about seven months being quit.  Keep this one in your hip pocket for those times you're not prepared with any of your other tools. 

Now for the details of that last two weeks before your quit date.  These are not scientific by any means so do what works for you.  Starting two weeks prior to your quit date, take a day to two days to eliminate those most important cigarette's to you.  I mean, think about what are the times you MOST ENJOY a particular cigarette.  Is it the first one in the morning, the one in the car, the one after a meal or some other time?  If you are anything like me, you smoke from a half pack to a pack or more per day and while you enjoy all of those times to a degree, there are those times you have thought about and wondered "how will I ever make it through a day if I don't have a cigarette...right when I wake up; or after I have lunch; or while I'm drinking.

Now that you have decided which are your favorites, rank them.  1-14 if you have that many.  If you do have 14 (more than half a pack's worth) then each day eliminate one of those favorites and the following day eliminate one more...keep stacking those up until you go a full day without any of your favorites before your actual quit date.   This way, you've eliminated all of your favorite times to smoke before you've actually reached your quit date.  As you may have figured out by now, doing this will prepare you to be more successful then you would be if you were giving up all of those favorite times at once.

For myself, there were four so I did it over a week rather than two weeks, again, my advice is to make a plan that works for the amount that you smoke and the amount of smokes that are your "favorites".  My plan went like this.  Most favorite - 1st morning cigarette, day 1, no more smoking right when I get out of bed. Next favorite, the car - Day 2, no smoke right out of bed and none in the car - eliminating the time I'd smoke the second cigarette of the day so now I had to wait until I got to work or even worse, first break!

Next favorite was the after a meal smoke - Day three, no smoking immediately following meals.  So now I'm four days from my quit date and I must wait more than six hours after waking to have my first smoke.  This was roughly 1/3 of the day...gone!  And so it went, now I wasn't smoking until afternoon break around 2pm then not again until after I was home around 5:30.  I'll admit those first few days I likely smoked more than normal in the evening but it didn't matter because those weren't important cigarettes to me and if I can make it six hours, I can make it longer 🙂

Day four, was time to eliminate break time.  I knew this one would prevent me from smoking for the entire day until after I was home from work and I wasn't certain I was ready.  However, it was a bit easier than I assumed it would be and very likely because I'd already gone six hours so what was a few more? 

Days 5-7...I am a drinker, this one was the last of my favorites but I knew I'd need some practice.  It sounds completely horrible and I wouldn't recommend three nights of drinking in a row to anyone, let alone a soon to be ex!  However, I knew myself and I knew I'd need more time to conquer this one than the others.  AND I knew, I wasn't going to be quitting drinking anytime soon...baby steps, let's get a year of this under my belt, incorporate regular exercise 4 or more times per week then work on drinking next year.  (see, more planning.)

By day 8, my first day completely quit, waking up and not smoking was a breeze, heck, I'd done it seven times already.  And the rest of those times went just the same.  They came and went and I didn't even pay attention to them because in my mind, I'd already given them up.  No big deal.  Now the focus was on staying quit...NOPE, NOPE, NOPE.

I hope these tips can help at least one person.  Feel free to read the rest of my posts from the past 271 days.  What you will find is that this blog post made it sound simple and you'll see, it wasn't.  I had hiccups in the road of life but I dealt with them head on knowing the entire time that having a cigarette wasn't going to help anyone in the longterm.

Have a great Tuesday everyone!

Luvz