Day 11

Ok, I spent the last few days trying to work out a different schedule. 


The smokers at 10:30 still walk past but I don't go out with them. I am going to bring food to the office and see if eating here will help for a while. Today I made it all the way until my after lunch craving with out a significant urge to smoke. I even skipped the 2:30 smoke, and I am working through the 4:30 urge while I type this  ;) 1 smoke during the work day will be a huge step forward... 


I have noticed that when I do smoke it isn’t as… “good”… the first drag is still awesome, but that might be because it is getting longer and longer between smokes, but the end of a smoke is easier to put down and not want another one right away… I even caught my self crushing out a smoke with several drags left on it… a big deal when you know your quitting and will have to go a while before you light another one.


I am going out to the Tilted Kilt tonight for a friends birthday… lets see how I do. 

Yes, it is as awesome as it looks... 

Day 8

The list:
Drinking
10:30 AM when some fellow smokers walk by my office to take a smoke break
Noon when I am driving to lunch
1pm when I am driving back from lunch
2:30 -- I don't knows I just had a huge craving yesterday, lets see if I get it again today
4:30 when my day is coming to an end and I am just killing time till the office closes.
5 pm when I am driving home
After dinner... and I mean all night after dinner
I knew I did most of my smoking between 5pm and bed time but I didn't think I smoked quite this much!?

I drive my kids to school everyday so I bet that’s why I don’t have a morning craving for a smoke, and we do not smoke in the house so that must be why my car is such a trigger....

Now lets see if there are any easy ones to drop from the list.

Day 7

Ok so I totally smoked a lot over this holiday weekend. But there was much alcohol to be consumed and my will power was quite low… good thing I was still in my first week of “Smoke normally”

Today I start keeping close track of each cigarette and trying to identify triggers that cause me to smoke. I will need to look back at these in the coming weeks and see if I can over come them or if I have to make changes to my daily routine that will help me  not have to face the challenge to begin with. I think it is safe to say that the following image was a significant trigger!

Why are smoking and drinking so intertwined in my head?

Day 4

I can tell the medicine is starting to kick in.

One of the major side effects are “Vivid dreams” Most people I talked to described very dark and disturbing things… for me it seams to be more along the XXX type of vivid ;)  I would go into more detail about it but they don’t allow that kind of content here on Blogger  ;)

Day 2

Today is the day where I am supposed to come up with all of the different reasons why I am quitting. First I would like to say that I hate that it is called quitting… maybe ill start calling it cessation like the commercials. Quitting just had such a negative connotation.

Let’s see, there are the health benefits… lower medical costs, increased immune system yadda yadda yadda… But that doesn't ring loud for me, I have been as healthy as an ox my entire life, and on my last physical a few months ago my Dr said the only thing off in my blood work was that my Vitamin D was low… And I looked into it, it is only low because the medical community recently raised what is considered “good” to a number that is above the levels 75% of the US population has! Bastards.

The truth is, at $5 a pack and breaking through the pack a day level (with some help from a mooch friend and a wife that only smokes my cigarettes) I have better things to do with 30 – 40 bucks a week… Especially with gas prices getting so high, so mostly I am about the money money money.

Ok, well not TODAY....

I am starting a new medicine called Chantix that is supposed to help me quit. Lets see how i do.

Is it odd that i am starting on a Monday?