Begin, begun, be what?

[DonnaMarie]

My quit is not going so well. It's all on me and I know that. My drop dead date is still October 1, but I'm going for long stretches at a time without smoking. Doing a lot of soul searching and reading Carr's book. I'm rereading "Why is it so hard to quit" right now. I'll get it done, but sort of embarrassed, and wanted to let y'all know what's happening out here. I'm changing my quit date to October 1 and if I do go 24 before then, I'll change it back. 

Still reading!

[Fee33]

I love this it's so helpful I'm like avoiding all my friends and they r like where have you been I'm like y'all smoke I am so weak to cigarettes right now an I am not testing the waters to find out if I miss them. Ex member here woohoo!!! 

[elvan]

I told my friends that my quit had to come before anything else and I found that they really respected that and did not smoke around me...after a while, they were not as supportive since they felt I should be "over it"...I am never going to put myself in a position where I am stuck sucking up someone else's waste products.  I have enough issues that I inflicted upon myself.  I am not going to allow anything else to damage my lungs.  Without this site, I would have folded and I would either be on oxygen 24/7 instead of just at night, or I would not be here at all.  For me, it was that close and always WILL be.  

Ellen

[DonnaMarie]

Ellen, I could become very dependent upon this site, and I think that's a good thing. You all are here 24/7 and I feel comfortable being me and whining about quitting, I mean about starting my smoke-free life again. I'm such a serial quitter and I'd like to be a serial nonsmoker. I don't want to keep quitting. I want to take hold of my fresher breath and better lungs and just run with it. 

Like you, I have other things to bitch about or to at least worry about that have nothing to do with smoking. I'm not my ailments; I'm me, but as long as I smoke, I am a smoker and I don't wanna be. 

[elvan]

DonnaMarie‌ I spent just about every waking moment on this site when I first started here and I am still here pretty much every day. It's a great site and there is ALWAYS someone who has been where you are or someone who is right behind you...we have all been there, there is no way out but through and there are no shortcuts...if there were, one of us would have found them a LONG time ago. It's one day at a time and when that's too long, it's one hour or one minute or one second...just know that the craves will come and go whether you smoke or not, seriously, the craves pass.  At first, it seemed like one long constant crave, like smoking was the ONLY thing I thought about but I didn't DO it!  There were many times when I wasn't sure I could do it but then I remembered that I didn't have to try to do it all at once...I also got down on my knees and prayed for the mental obsession to be removed and lo and behold, it was.  I still had to work my quit, I still had to pay attention to what I was doing and not put myself in harm's way but it was no longer a constant obsession.  I am so happy to be on this journey now, I have been taking one day at a time for three years and 8 months and 10 days, but, hey, whose counting?  I seriously had to look that up, I know my quit date but wasn't sure about the months and days whereas, at the beginning, I wrote down my day number every single day after I did the evening dishes.  It was a good feeling.

Turkeys can be smart and not cold.../blogs/SkyGirl-blog/2013/11/15/be-a-smart-turkey-a-very-timely-repost-eh 

Best,

Ellen

[Fee33]

I'm so proud of you elvan 

[DonnaMarie]

Hall's cherry flavor "cough" drops are in a bag next to my laptop. 

I don't even remember how I found BecomeAnEx.org, but I'm so glad I did. My turkey is cold today if you get my drift, at least it has been for an hour. 

I'll only use the cinnamon sticks if I have an urge to puff (the behavior). I'm blogging on my own site and mentioned something that I found on Ex today that really rang true to me and that I'm holding onto for the remainder of today:

Imagine that, letting the thoughts come in and hang out. Processing at its finest. 

First goal is to continue to remember that I'm doing something wonderful, not something awful, that there is no reason to smoke. None. Bear with me while I keep telling myself that. 

[JonesCarpeDiem]

got a cough?

Perhaps you could call those cherry drops "crave arresters?"

[cpsono]

You can totally do this.  We have all been where you are and by coming here, you will get the best support possible.  A couple of things I did when I first quit.  1)Slept a lot, because you can't smoke while you are sleeping.  2)Get up and walk around or do something when a smoking thought comes into your head and 3)Keep your hands busy-play a computer game, knit/crochet or do any craft you like, do a crossword puzzle-whatever you can do to keep your hands busy.  That was a good one for me b/c one of the "habits" associated with smoking is having something in your hand(a "prop").  You CAN do this and a HUGE congrats on making the best decision for your health.  Best wishes and I will see you around here!   CP 850 or so days-I've gotten to the point where I lose track of my days which means I'm not even thinking about cigs anymore and you will get to that point too, HONEST!

[freeneasy]

Confidence is key. Afterall you're in control. Day one is most important... then day 2....ect.ect. One day at a time. Refuse to lose (your quit). Believe in yourself. Knowledge of addiction and how to quit is what gives you confidence.

Learn How to Quit Smoking (and Make it Stick) 

[elvan]

Begin, begun, be FREE!