Post Punk Kitchen Forum

today is my first full day. it's almost noon here, and i haven't had a cigarette since yesterday around 4pm. it's not too bad right now, i bet it will be later.
the cravings are hitting me in waves.. i am going to bring salty licorice to school and keep my fingers crossed. i can totally do this!

i will be checking in here every once in a while, telling you guys how it goes. support would be much appreciated. i have done this before and it stuck for 10 months, so i am planning on doing that again and keeping up with it for good.

YAY!

i bought licorice and made it to school without falling in. if i make it home again, today will be fine! and tomorrow i'm with my niece, so i think i will do okay then aswell.

i can do this! I CAN DO THIS!

You can do it! Just take it one day/hour/minute at a time.

good luck!

Well done.
Just avoid triggers for a while (not an anti-gun recommendation, although probably a good idea anyway...) especially alcohol and caffeine if you use them.

I just quit 5 weeks ago and now am going strong!

What I always tell myself is that every cigarette you don't smoke makes it easier to not smoke the next one and its true! Now instead of thinking about smoking 20,000 times a day I only think of it 1,000 times a day.

The first couple weeks are the hardest but you can do it!

Yay! You can totally do this, go you!

You can totally do it! Good luck smoothie!!

Well done! It should loads, loads easier the longer you don't smoke.

i fell in. i smoked one after school. now i know that is the hardest time, while getting off school. i think i will get on the phone with someone every time i get off, and use another entrance for a while :)

still totally into this. i want to be an ex-smoker!

Do NOT let that send you back to where you were before, okay? That was one little slip, and it's okay, but you can't go back to smoking.

My suggestions:

Shake up your routine. It's routines or stressful situations that trigger us the most. Eat something different for breakfast or go OUT to eat. Start exercising. Have a plan of what you want to do after school and imagine yourself NOT smoking while you do it. The different exit idea is excellent.

I heard that sometimes the easiest times to quit smoking is when you are on vacation or visiting someone or someplace that makes it the easiest to quit for this very reason. I've quit many times, and I've found this to be true.

But you don't have to be on vacation to make it easy on yourself. You need to change things up, have support, and tell yourself how STRONG you are for doing this very, very difficult thing.

I'm rooting for you!

You CAN do this! It's not easy by any means, but there are TONS of ex-smokers out there (I'm one of them!) and it is possible.

Good for you, smoothie! I had a hard time quitting years ago, but I eventually did and it stuck! I remember drinking a ton of tea. For some reason that gave me a tiny bit of a nicotine-like buzz that wasn't like the coffee buzz that would make me want to smoke.

Good luck, smoothie! You can do it!

I heartily endorse your switching to licorice.

Don't ever tell yourself "ZOMG! I can't smoke for the rest of my life!" That's so discouraging. I broke it down into tiny increments, tiny as they needed to be. Even if it's: "I won't smoke in the next minute," or "I won't smoke in the next ten seconds!" And then hopefully, when that moment passes, the craving will be manageable and you can distract yourself from it. I kept doing that over and over.

You can do it! <3 <3 <3

That's awesome advice too! I found it oddly comforting to keep telling myself "look, I'm just going to quit so I know I can do it, and then I can start smoking again". It sounds weird but once all of the physical cravings are gone, you can revert back to knowing that you did it for good!

Good luck. Even though you had one minor slip up , I'm really impressed with your awesome, kick asparagus positive attitude about it all.

I'm currently on Day 4 of no cigarettes and beginning the first 2 hours of my "adventure" I've been a raging, moody, insane bisque. All I've been doing is complaining about all withdrawal effects. I really admire you for not being a negative crasshole like I've been. Great job :)

Go smoothie! I have no advice, just support.

You can do it! The first week or two was the worst for me, but once you get through that it's about a million times better.

Good for you!

One thing that helped me was minty gum - whenever I would have a bad craving I would stuff my mouth full of minty gum. It seemed to help.

Good luck with it. A mind game that worked for me was when the urge would come up, I'd procrastinate thinking about it for a set amount of time. So if I wanted a cigarette, I'd say "Ok, I'll come back to entertaining that thought in 30 minutes." By then, the craving would feel much easier to dismiss. Years later I still get nicotine cravings every few months, but it's a cycle that is longer & weaker every time around. Also, getting pissed off at mustards getting rich off my premature death. Also, Jolly Ranchers. Also, not drinking for a couple months.

When I quit, my MD suggested that I have my LAST ONE, and make it a ritual. They're like a friend, who is very, very bad for you, and it helped me to actually say goodbye, and personally destroy the last one in the pack.

The next step was harder- trying to avoid places where people smoked, where I could buy them, even giving up certain foods (like coffee) that I associated with smoking. It even strained friendships because I couldn't hang out with friends when they were smoking, and they were kind of snippy about it, like I thought I was better than them.

I kept my hands busy with a yoyo, and ate untolds amount of candy.

I am 10+ years smoke free, and in 10 years, you can say the same thing- Good Luck!

Rock on, smoothie! I'm cheering for ya!

Wishing you lots of luck! I am starting to want to quit again. I'm tired of spending money on cigarettes, smelling like smoke, and being a slave to the habit in general.

you can do it, smoothie! i'm still in the process of completely quitting smoking, myself. i've not had a sober cigarette in several months...but anytime i have an alcoholic beverage i fall off the wagon almost immediately. (it's also hard because my boyfriend still smokes, so they're readily available when i want one.) you can do this, though! i did a step-down process in the beginning, where i'd allow myself X number of smokes a day for a week, then split that in half, week by week, until i was down to none. i don't think i even went the full number of weeks - once i was smoking fewer than 5 a day, i didn't really want to smoke anymore.