Quitting Smoking Again – Day 1: Will it take this time?

Posted on October 26, 2007
Filed Under Healthy Living, Quit Smoking |

Yes, again! The last time was 2 weeks ago, and it lasted a whole day and a half.

But here we go once more – cold turkey. For the record, this pack+ a day habit has spanned well over 35 years, and I’ve actually “quit” many times – once for about a year.

Decided I’d do the odd post about the journey, partially to keep me honest, perhaps to vent from time to time, and maybe so other smokers might be inspired to give quitting another try.

Smoking

I’m not using any “stop smoking aids” this time. I’ve tried most everything on past attempts including patches, gum, that Wellbutrin drug, sunflower seeds, plastic stir sticks, positive thinking, and even prayer. I’ve had success with all of them too.

In fact many years ago, had significant success with a combination of patches and prayer. The praying worked so good, I stopped the patches after a couple days and never thought about smoking again – stayed quit for over six months – PTL! But one day I just felt like starting again, and it was downhill from there.

Yep, that was pretty dumb, but I’ve read that many smokers actually beat the habit, then start again. Maybe it’s some subconscious thinking that having quit once, we can do so anytime – wrong!

So why quit now? Mainly because I’m starting to feel the accumulated effects more significantly. Things like serious loss of energy, shortness of breath, and chest pain/tightness, have a way of getting ones attention. Finally decided I’m too young to feel this bad, and I’ve likely gambled with smoking for too long already.

The one new thing I did this time, is take a look at a book my wife got me called “The Easy Way To Stop Smoking”.

Now if you’re a smoker, your initial reaction to that title was probably like mine – something along the lines of a very skeptical “yeah right”.

But I eventually thumbed through it and the fact that the author, a guy named Allen Carr, said he quit a five pack a day habit, cold turkey, without any withdrawal, got my interest. Said he never wanted another cigarette – and he’s been quit over 20 years now.

Well that was fairly compelling, and I ended up reading the book through twice. It’s a good read and had a different focus than most other approaches to quitting tobacco. It explained that smoking is basically nicotine addiction, but then went on past that to teach how quitting successfully starts in the mind, because it was the mind that actually got us hooked.

So anyway, I’ve once more quit smoking. My last cigarette was about 14 hours ago, last night before bed – actually the wee hours this morning.

So how do I feel? Well, perhaps a little anxious, but having gone all morning and then some without a cigarette, that’s not too bad.

Of course this first day is no doubt helped by the “smoke your brains out” approach I used last night. That’s where you sit down and chain smoke until you can hardly breathe, then go to bed. The idea is to make ones last memory of smoking an unpleasant one.

So today I’m just happy I can still breathe, and quite frankly, don’t want a cigarette right now. Will keep you posted on the saga.

Next quit smoking post: Day 6

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Quitting Smoking Again – Day 20: Making Money : Eyes On Living March 6, 2008 3:53 pm

[…] you read my first post about this quit smoking journey, you’ll note that the success I’m having so far, immediately followed a failed attempt 2 weeks […]

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Quitting Smoking Again – Day 1: Will it take this time?

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