Hi everyone. It's been a while since I've been on here. I'm still quit and feeling great. I have not had any real desire or temptation to smoke other than a fleeting thought here and there where I'd think, "oh, this is where I would have liked to hag a smoke in the past" and that is usually followed by a thought of how awful it would be to smoke again. Not the specific act itself, but the return to dependency, sneaking around, smelling awful, needing to run out for a smoke before and after doing EVERYTHING. I feel so much more stable as a nonsmoker. I went through a phase for about two months where I got into this carb fest thing. Every night for two months in the spring I sat down after the kids went to bed and had two beers and a couple of bowls of salt and vinegar chips while watching Netflix. Well, the result was that I gained back about 8 of the 15 pounds I had lost.... Though I still have the gained muscle from working out the last ten months, I put fat on top of it! I realized that carbs are kind of addicting. Not as seriously as nicotine, but it was there. I craved those two beers AND the chips. I really looked forward to them and when I consumed them, it was with that same sense of abandon that I used to smoke at night. I was starting to mimic the same type of behavior, but with a less awful substance. But, I am a true believer now that carbs are mildly addictive. I put that habit to rest about a month ago (after watching all 8 seasons of game of thrones on Netflix over those two months). Since then, I have started to lose some of the gained fat, I have slept better, and I wake up feeling better. The trouble I have is still trying to figure out what to do with myself in the late evening. I've started to read more at night. I also have been going to sleep earlier. As I get closer to the one year mark, I can't believe it has gone so fast the last 100 days or so. Those first 200 days seemed so hard. The last 130 days really have been easy as far as not smoking. While I have had some disappointments as far as my career this year, failing to get two promotions that I had angled for, I remind myself that this year has been a huge success in my life because I don't smoke!!! I am almost at 11 months now. This is definitely the longest I have gone without smoking since I started up again after a two year quit when I was 23. In other words, it's my longest quit in 21 years. I'm looking forward to getting to one year in September and then getting to a full calendar year without smoking when this year closes out. The last calendar year I went without a single cigarette was 1997! One thing I love is going hiking these days. I never feel winded.
Well, I'll check in again when I hit the one year mark! I feel assured I'll get to it and that's a great feeling to have 🙂
