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Share your quitting journey

Tomorrow I'm starting again

cookiemonster00
1 4 67

I was supposed to stop smoking today, but I didn't. I woke up, had coffee with Paul, shopped a bit for the items you'll see below, and afterward found myself walking into the store for cigarettes, my mind completely absent from the motivated thoughts that were present yesterday after my first hypnosis session. As my quit-smoking coach at WorkIt Health said, "I am glad that are picking yourself up and starting again. Set backs can be part of the game." And so it is.

This journal (which will continue for 30 days) is part of a couple steps I'm taking to restart the process of quitting again. Some other things I did to prepare today -

1. Bought melatonin to help me sleep at night (therefore I won't lay awake, just me and the cravings)

2. Printed calendars for May and June to physically mark off each successful day before sleep.

3. Printed a list of rewards provided by my WorkItHealth quit-smoking coach (see below). I'll do one per day at 3:00pm.

Take a bath
Read a book
Do a solo dance party
Make a gratitude list
Unfollow negative people on social media
Watch something funny
Turn off your phone for an hour
Declutter a room
Watch an inspirational documentary
Try a new recipe
Go for a drive
Rearrange a room
Call someone
Send a card
Say “no” to something
Say “yes” to something
Take a nap
Use a coloring book
Make a cup of tea...It can’t be a self-care list without the mention of tea
Do Workit exercises
Set up a chat with your coach by clicking here

This is it for now. I also start exercising tomorrow, something I've neglected but I know significantly helps distract me from the annoying thoughts that appear when I try to quit. Exercise also helps me viscerally feel the benefits of moving toward a healthy lifestyle, something that can be hard to conjure out thin air when cravings start drifting me toward old habits on autopilot. I'll admit, it's a bit embarrassing to be journaling like this - but I want to set the expectation now that this next effort to quit smoking is public and watched (to help with accountability), and also to give me somewhere to write on daily basis (to process the wacky emotions and the weird self-defeating tendencies that pop up virtually every time I've tried to quit smoking).

Thanks for reading friends! 

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