Well, look at how everything around here is looking so purdy. Well, in two days I will have 8 years under my belt. Hard to believe it's been that long. I remember first quitting and counting every single day and celebrating the small milestones.
And to be honest, to be successful, and really not put a lot of pressure on yourself, set a goal at first for a week. Give yourself a little present. A new candle perhaps. Set your next goal for a month. Again reward yourself. Every time you hit a milestone, give yourself a high five and maybe a piece of cheesecake chaser.
It may seem like an impossible task, but talking from experience it can be done. I was a puffing steam engine before I quit. I fell off quite a few times until my brain finally said, you know what, I'm done with this. I'm sick of the yellow fingers, the smell of burning filters because the ashtray was overflowing, and wheezing every darn night.
Start off slow if you can't go cold turkey. Use the tools on here to track your cigarettes and find out why and when you smoke. You will see a pattern emerging as time goes on. Do this a month before your quit date if you set one. I never did. I had a habit of setting one. When it came time to quit, I'd find some excuse not to do it. Oh, I have too much going on. I have problems with my child. I'm too stressed right now. I could write a book on the excuses I had.
So to whoever is reading this, I say to you, pick up yourself, set a plan, get on the horse and ride this quitting trail. There's lots and lots of articles or blogs written on here, myself included, that chronicle their quitting journeys. I blogged a lot in my first two years. It helped me to get my frustrations, aspirations, epiphanies on paper for others to ponder. I'm rooting for you. Stick with it and you'll be an EX-smoker in no time !!!
