only backgroundI'm a wife, mother and grandmother. I'm opinionated. I contradict myself frequently. Most of all, I love my kids. I believe in them. I fight for them. They're weird and wonderful. If you want to know more, here's a bunch of other stuff from my old site.
I’ve been smoke free for one week. Hard to believe.
I’m going for longer periods of time without the nicotine gum. For the past several days I’ve waited until I could feel the urge, the craving, for nicotine. Then I’d chew some gum and pay very close attention to the craving receding. That’s been good for me because I know the gum is helping and I’m aware of the physical hunger.
It has also made me aware of the habit of smoking and those times when I feel like reaching for that cigarette because my hands want it. There are fewer of those times now but I still get that need to hold a cigarette, put it to my lips and inhale. Being aware of it is half the battle.
Yesterday I found a fake cig called End It. It has a cigarette taste when you inhale on the tip of it but it has no nicotine. I’ve used it once and it seemed to help but I doubt that I’ll use it much. As soon as I suck in on it, I realize that I don’t really need it and that it’s just a habit that I know I can break. It’s just another tool to use temporarily and sporadically.
I have to admit that I’m surprised that this hasn’t been more difficult than it is. I think the difference this time is the prayer. Those few times that I’ve really craved a smoke, I’ve prayed for strength to resist Just For This Minute. I guess it’s kind of like any addiction - you have to chose to say NO right now, to this cigarette. When you think about an hour from now or tomorrow or next week, you get overwhelmed. But choosing to not smoke right now, just this once, it much easier to handle. I guess I’m applying Nick’s 12 step program to this, since I’m kicking an addiction, too. Hmmm…. 12 steps for nicotine withdrawal. I need to make a mental note of that.
And now I’m wondering when I’ll think of myself as a non-smoker rather than a smoker trying to quit.
- Posted in:
-
- Comments (5)
- Trackbacks ()
Congratulations… you are now, for this minute, a non-smoker. And I bet that in the next minute you will also be a non-smoker. Just string a bunch of those together… that’s what a non-smoker is.
You’ve been a non-smoker for about 10,080 minutes. Way, to go!
Very proud of you! I am sure that the prayer makes all the difference.
10,080 minutes, huh? That sounds better than ONE week or SEVEN days.
Yes. The prayer really gets me through the difficult times. I wonder why it took me 47 years to finally believe that prayer would help - with smoking and so much more. I guess I’m a slow learner. (or just stubborn)
[...] 18 hours of being smoke-free, I was still preparing to fail. It took a full week for me to realize what I had been doing, subconsciously, to get to that point. After 25 days, I was able to see the positive effects of [...]