Congratulations on your decision to quit smoking. It is one you will never regret!
Try to use the gum only as a last resort. You don't want to trade one addiction for another! Use it, for sure, if you are at wit's end and it's a choice between it and smoking, though!
The most important thing you can do right now is to educate yourself on what nicotine does to your body and mind. To that end, I highly recommend Allen Carr's “The Easy Way to Stop Smoking.” This is an easy and entertaining read. Here is a link to a free PDF version of it:
As well, read the sections on this site, and read the blogs, responses and pages of folks you think might be helpful. You might visit whyquit.com and quitsmokingonline.com for the good information contained there.
The idea is to change up your routines so the smoking associations are reduced. Drink your coffee with your OTHER hand. If you always had that first smoke with your coffee, try putting your tennies on right out of bed, going for a quick walk, then taking your shower and THEN your coffee! Rearrange the furniture in the areas you used to smoke so the view is different.
You need to distract yourself through any craves. You can take a bite out of a lemon (yup - rind and all), put your head in the freezer and take a deep breath of cold air, do a few jumping jacks, go for a brisk walk or march in place, play a computer game. Don't let that smoking thought rattle around in your brain unchallenged. Sometimes you need to quit a minute or an hour at a time. You will need to be disciplined in the early days to distract yourself when a crave hits. Don't let that smoking thought rattle around your head alone. Get busy! Here is a link to a list of things to do instead of smoke if you need some fresh ideas:
The conversation in your head in response to the "I want a cigarette" thought needs to be, "Well, since I have decided not to do that anymore, what shall I do instead for the three minutes this crave will last?" Then DO it. You will need to put some effort into this in the early days, but it gets easier and easier to do.
Stay close to us here and ask questions when you have them and for support when you need it. We will be with you every step of the way!
So happy to welcome you to this magnificent group os very supportive ex smokers! Do you have a quit box set up? It might contain items such as a list a reasons why you are quitting, a list of things to do besides smoke (refer to this liast as often as you need to for those moments when you are craving. Ther items like your phone buddies, etc. There is a list of items on this site although I'm sorry to say I can't point out where.
Read, read and then read some more. Stay close tothese blogs even write at least a daily blog yourself.
Drink plenty of water with lemon to keep yourself from becoming dehydrated and to reach for instead of those awful things. Speacking of which if you haven't already, rid your home, car, office etc from all things smoking.
Welcome, Jim, so glad you are here! This is a great community, very supportive. The things that have helped me the most are doing the reading on addiction, having a Quit Kit handy with all the things I gathered to help distract me from smoking/thoughts of smoking, blogging, and reading blogs - seeing how the people who did it are still doing it!
You can do this! Don't smoke, no matter what, and Don't Quit On Your Quit!
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