Day One (Again)
We cheated last night. A cigarette or two but I’m not going to beat myself up about it because this is day three after all and one or two is still twenty-eight or so less than normal. I packed what I call my “substitute cigarette” bag this morning with snacks galore. If I so choose I can eat yogurt with Grape Nuts, popcorn, Cheetos 100 Calorie Snack Pack, fresh cherries, celery sticks, baby carrots or Gummy Bears. Oh, or pastachios. Frightening isn’t it? I also clipped back on the pedometer to see if I will make the goal of taking 10,000 steps today. Hard to do in an office environment, here it is 3:30 p.m. and I have 6,382 steps to go.
The really great thing about quitting this time is Carrie and I are really trying to do this together. We laugh about how much we want a cigarette. We went to a party last night and upon realizing that we arrived way too early to make an entrance we decided to stay in the car and “fake smoke”. Carrie offered me a drag of her invisible cigarette but I turned her down, preferring instead to fake smoke a whole one of my own.
So here I am back to square one on this nicotine free, smoke free, tar lung free quest. Wish me luck.
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Monday, January 07, 2008
Day Two and Counting
Carrie and I have been away for the past week. A nice relaxing trip to the mountains filled with good food, laughter, stories, jokes, cocktails, cozy fireplaces, snow, sledding and shopping. We rang in the New Year with the knowledge that when we returned to reality we would quit smoking (again). We were supposed to come back last Wednesday but decided to stay an extra three days. I can’t help but wonder if it was a subconscious effort to put off the inevitable promise we made to ourselves.
Here we are however, day two of no smoking. This time around has not been as hard as the last. In lieu of cold turkey we decided to give the patch a go (again). We woke up yesterday with patches on the bedside table, urgently sticking them on lest we begin to crave a cigarette in our first three minutes of being awake. As on any other Sunday we went downstairs to have coffee and read the paper but that was not about to work. Sunday paper reading/coffee time is when we would sit and smoke. And smoke. And smoke. Then after the paper was read and we drank enough coffee to shake like leaves we would settle in for a trashy television marathon and you guessed it, smoke.
Yesterday was an entirely different animal. Most of the paper went unread as we took the Christmas tree down, rearranged furniture in the living room, cleaned out the fridge, did laundry, went to the grocery store for low cal snacks to satisfy our oral cravings, bought work out clothes (because we know we will feel so much healthier sometime soon) and generally did anything to keep our minds off of smoking. A couple of pluses to this non smoking thing:
1. We can sit inside restaurants instead of freezing our butts off on the patio just so we can smoke.
2. Our clothes don’t stink.
3. Our house doesn’t stink.
4. Our lungs just might heal before either of us gets lung cancer.
5. Next New Years we might be able to walk down the driveway at high altitude without feeling like we need an oxygen tank.
Hopefully this will all stick and we will both kick the habit for good. I hate setting myself up for disappointment so all I will say at this time is I’ll try.
Carrie and I have been away for the past week. A nice relaxing trip to the mountains filled with good food, laughter, stories, jokes, cocktails, cozy fireplaces, snow, sledding and shopping. We rang in the New Year with the knowledge that when we returned to reality we would quit smoking (again). We were supposed to come back last Wednesday but decided to stay an extra three days. I can’t help but wonder if it was a subconscious effort to put off the inevitable promise we made to ourselves.
Here we are however, day two of no smoking. This time around has not been as hard as the last. In lieu of cold turkey we decided to give the patch a go (again). We woke up yesterday with patches on the bedside table, urgently sticking them on lest we begin to crave a cigarette in our first three minutes of being awake. As on any other Sunday we went downstairs to have coffee and read the paper but that was not about to work. Sunday paper reading/coffee time is when we would sit and smoke. And smoke. And smoke. Then after the paper was read and we drank enough coffee to shake like leaves we would settle in for a trashy television marathon and you guessed it, smoke.
Yesterday was an entirely different animal. Most of the paper went unread as we took the Christmas tree down, rearranged furniture in the living room, cleaned out the fridge, did laundry, went to the grocery store for low cal snacks to satisfy our oral cravings, bought work out clothes (because we know we will feel so much healthier sometime soon) and generally did anything to keep our minds off of smoking. A couple of pluses to this non smoking thing:
1. We can sit inside restaurants instead of freezing our butts off on the patio just so we can smoke.
2. Our clothes don’t stink.
3. Our house doesn’t stink.
4. Our lungs just might heal before either of us gets lung cancer.
5. Next New Years we might be able to walk down the driveway at high altitude without feeling like we need an oxygen tank.
Hopefully this will all stick and we will both kick the habit for good. I hate setting myself up for disappointment so all I will say at this time is I’ll try.
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