intoxicated yoda

@JudiMDSorry to hear of your diagnosis. Wishing you a successful treatment and a speedy recovery. Believe in yourself and you can successfully quit smoking. There are good people here who will freely give you the benefit of all their experiences to help you. God bless.

@Sunnyside I know this won't make sense, but...when I give in to the coffee/caffeine cravings it makes the cigarette cravings much much worse than having both cravings at the same time. Keep in mind i'm not suggesting anything other than for me it seems giving into one addiction opens the flood gates and all the other addictions start demanding their fix as well like spoiled brats throwing a tantrum in the grocery store.

It's been quite a week. Been staying pretty strict on the no carbohydrate policy. The only "cheat" I've had was about a half tablespoon of ketchup on my burger patty last night which didn't seem to cause any problems but I just didn't feel good about having it. The bigger story is that I've stayed away from coffee/caffeine 100% since either Saturday or Sunday. Surprisingly it hasn't been that bad yet as far as withdrawal. I'll count Sunday night as 1 week off coffee. The headaches seem to be fading and I've been able to go to bed at a reasonable time and stay there. I might not be asleep but at least I can force myself to not get up so when sleep does come I'm not on the couch with a some type of screen shining in my eyes. Sugar cravings seem to be getting quite a bit less. I'm finding out that I may have an issue with pork. I ate some country ham that I had made on Monday and a couple hours later I had some heart palpitations, then I had some bacon today and had the same reaction. I'll wait a couple of weeks and try some again since I haven't been that long off of the coffee but it's looking like I may have a problem with the histamines in pork. This is a turning out to be a bittersweet journey. I ditch one bad habit and 2 more things pop up that I didn't even think could be a problem. I may find out I'm just too f^^%ed up to fix in one lifetime.

1. walk it...arrrrgh ye mateys!!!

00

welcome back to the train @Sunnyside. no shame in falling down. only shame is if you don't get back up. you'll be much wiser this time around.

@KELI think part of quitting is letting go of the past which can be quite traumatic. I still have moments where I wish I could go back in time which I think is pretty normal, but cigarettes are not time machines so I am learning to bear the full weight of that depressive moment without the crutch I believed was in the cigarette. You are doing fantastic. The rainy days help us to appreciate the sunshine that much more. Have a blessed day, Karen.

In the long run you will be much better off. Take a seat and enjoy the ride

@gum_addictI tried nicotine replacement therapy with the patches and all it did for me was make me want to smoke even more. I have a friend whose ex girlfriend quit over 5 years ago with the gum and she is still chewing it. She considers herself successfully quit even though she is always on the verge of smoking again to get off the gum. It can be a vicious cycle if you let it. If you are looking for advice mine would be to quit the gum as soon as you can...but you already know what you need to do.

congrats Sal and Mrs. Sal on getting through that first month. teamwork makes the dream work. y'all stay strong.

Congratulations @KEL you are doing great!!

congratulations @catlover impressive quit is that.

@LindaGet well soon

@Gus you are producing results. you are almost 11 months quit and that is the most important result!!

@jillari have tried decaf. I seem to react very similar to both with the only difference being the decaf doesn't make my heart flutter as much. @Krisi have tried tea as well and to be honest i'm just not a fan of it.

bale the hay

gonna crap a few thoughts out here tonight since the board seems kind of slow and I need to stay close to the process. I'm actually struggling a little bit tonight. That nagging gnawing feeling just won't quite ever go away. I wonder if the chemicals in the cigs affects the thyroid very much? I'll have to look up on that and see what I can find. In the meantime, breaking the associations is seemingly getting easier. I'm not really consumed by thoughts of smoking so much, it's more a physical feeling in the back of the throat or the pit of the stomach. I still can't break myself away completely from coffee which might be my problem. I've reduced it by a lot but I can only seem to leave it alone for a couple weeks max then I cave back into it. Other than that, the plan to get my weight back under control is seeming to work. I weighed myself a little while ago and I was at 189 and my lowest weight was 186. That was starting from 199.5 on 12/26 so that is some pretty good progress I think. 10 to 13 pounds gone in a little over a month and I cheated 4 days. Cheat days on the this way of eating is not something to look forward to though. A few moments of mouth pleasure leads to a few days of real suffering...sounds like another addiction I know. Joints are getting better since I've been able to start working out. A typical routine is 1 set of 10 regular pushups. 3 sets of 25 inclined pushups. 5 half pullups and 3 sets of 50 wall pullups. 2 sets of 20 squats and hold an asian squat for 30 seconds 3 times then a 10 to 30 minute walk. I still want to do the Qigong but I've got to make some room for that. As my joints improve and the weight goes down I'll be able to get a little more aggressive on the workouts but for now slow and gentle is what is called for. If anyone wants to start doing a very gentle workout I would recommend Hampton at hybrid calisthenics on youtube. He's got some great things you can do regardless of what level of fitness you are at and its free and requires no equipment. Give him a look and support his channel if you like what he has to offer. Tomorrow I try again to get through the day coffee free. It tastes so good going down but the physical reactions I get make it not worth it. Not gonna beat myself up if I give in since I'm quitting a lot of things already but it's got to go sooner rather than later. Anyhow, I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and remember, a goal without a plan is just wishful thinking.

@Doreensfree I've known a few ladies that were addicted to tubular meat products so I don't think it's rare

@Doreensfreei think the most important thing is what do you react to. If you don't get any bad reactions to those things then roll with them.

@reciprocitycongrats!! 5 years is an awesome quit.

Nicely done Kate and thanks for being an inspiration to those of us following you.

pout and cry

you can do it @gum_addict you got a great start and a great quit going