Oneistoo

Congratulations on our two weeks, Quit Sis. :) Let's go for two more. :)

Awww....thank you! I really appreciate all your support. It means the difference between victory or failure. Thank you. :) :) :)

You are both so sweet for caring. Yes, yesterday was crap, and I'm glad I'll never have to do a day 14 again. I also managed to eat two tubs of ice cream. And go to the gym twice. I think Laura also said it, that without all you guys on QT I would not have been able to keep this quit. Thoughts about running down to the convenience store and buying a pack, smoking it all and then quitting again, still try to seduce me. Rob put this paradox so well, "I'm one bad decision away from ending this discomfort." However, it also brings opportunities and Joel talks about them in one of his videos. Basically, the act of having to reject the temptations to smoke, if done in a way where you consider not just the cigarette but also everything that goes with the cigarette, reinforces your quit in a very strong way which will help you long-term. I guess I have plenty of opportunity to do just that! I'm just immensely grateful that I found QT. I have no doubt that I was led to it.

From Rob: I can COMPLETELY relate to how you're feeling right now - I feel the same. I'm one bad decision away from walking to the supermarket and ending this discomfort. But... I know this from reading on the forums: 1) The bad feelings are temporary. They pass. Ive felt crap and fabulous all in one day. Now is bad, tomorrow is good. 2) The bad feelings come fewer and far in between. 3) Cigarettes caused this feeling. If you smoke again, this feeling will be caused again. Imagine a year from now two versions of you. One that smokes still, and one who has come out the otherside a happy and confident non-smoker, who looks back on smoking as quite a strange and foreign thing that doesn't make much sense anymore,

From MasterGardener: When I get those thoughts that just won't go away, I have taken comfort from everyone here who promises that it WILL get better. As they have all said to me at one time or another, who could stay quit if it stayed this bad?

The only people who crave forever are the ones who keep smoking

13 things to remember when things get rough: http://consciouslifenews.com/13-remember-when-life-rough/1172177/

NOPE

Thanks guys....here's another one I don't want to forget (it's yours, Marti): smoking caused this...not smoking will end it And obviously, if i smoke I'm just perpetuating it all. There are a lot of very good quotes in Laura's SOS today that I want to copy over here tomorrow.

Hugs to you, Laura, I've had an unpleasant day too. You're getting excellent advice here. So glad we have this board!

Thank you guys, I need to hear this, and please keep it coming. I think I'm a bit low on the self-esteem quota lately. I'm at an in-between stage in my life - studies (undertaken at a mature age) are over and I am looking for a job. I guess uncertainty is pretty stressful. And yes, it is tempting to just go buy a pack of cigarettes.... but that won't get me anywhere. And I'd hate to suck that nasty stuff into my lungs that are beginning to heal. Besides, I know that a thousand cigarettes will not be enough for me, an ocean of cigarettes will not be enough for me. I'll eat some ice cream instead, says Miss Rapidly-Approaching-Blimp-Size.....

Uh-oh, I came close to smoking today, or closer than I have been at any point during this quit! It was just a thought that kept coming into my head, that I could just smoke a pack and then quit again right afterwards. My rationales for staying quit somhow seemed to recede colorlessly into the background, and the "why not smoke" thought was all HD color and shiny. It's a bit blurry to me now, how I got rid of it. I told it that it was a lie. I meditated. I went to the gym. I bought avocadoes and ate one. I'm glad I'm now stronger for having experienced this. :)

NOPE, NOPE, NOPE and NOPE!

What a beautiful cat! :)

I think it's just so hysterical about those pants!!! I may have to borrow your pants sometime, Marti. I have to feel compassion for other smokers who smell. Otherwise I would not be able to live with the thought that I once smelled like that, too. That of course doesn't mean that I *like* the smell. I quite frankly think the psychopathic tobacco companies have changed the formula and in their attempts to make cigarettes even more addictive they have inadvertently also made them smell worse. They DID NOT smell like that in the past, and I'm not romancing.

I'm plenty happy to pay the price of leaving the tortured person I was behind! I HAD NO IDEA that nicotine was the silent culprit, or rather how my state of constant nicotine withdrawal made me nervous and unbalanced. It explains so much in my life. I can't believe I even PAID for this. I feel a lot of compassion for myself these days. What a bum deal to have been so heavily addicted for so many years. I'm going to be more caring with myself in the future. And it helps a lot to have the company of QT in my corner. HAHA on your pants! Even funnier that you can't see just how huge they are. :) Ooops, I just double-checked them....they're back to their original size.

Wow, one month! Congratulations! Awesome job....the first month is the hardest! :)

I want to tuck this here because I think it's funny: Step Zero: "This shit has got to stop!"

As Marti says, "Each bad day/trigger etc you face down strengthens your quit and gives you ammo to wipe the next similar thought out quicker." In my previous quits, those discussions with myself about whether I should smoke or not smoke took about thirty seconds then I would go buy a pack of cigarettes and chain-smoke them. Sometimes I would try to quit again the next day, sometimes it took a few days before I could start a new quit, sometimes it took weeks or months. I spent an enormous amount and time and energy on this....but I didn't really notice it, I think, because it had become everyday life for me. When I relapsed and lit up the first cigarette and started chain-smoking, it felt very much like I was refilling something. It wasn't so much smoking as fueling up. Now that I've seen and read Joel I understand that this was actually what was going on. But what disturbs me more is that it somehow unhooked me from everything, mentally and emotionally. I became unconscious, in the best Eckhart Tolle understanding of that concept. I was somehow floating in my own little bubble, unconnected to reality and to who I really am. I think now perhaps I am able to more clearly observe myself acting and thinking as a nicotine drug addict. Before, I was not able to look at myself from the outside because I was too immersed and unconscious. The trick, I think, is to not let what you see scare you and make you smoke to forget about it, but just face it calmly while you figure out what to do with the new information you now have about yourself. It's good to be with understanding friends here while you're doing that. There is one aspect of the 12 step program that works like magic if you let it, and that's the surrender part of the program. Stop trying to control your addiction, stop fighting it; instead, surrender and give your power to something greater than yourself to take away your addiction. In some miraculous way this opens up recovery and healing, and takes away the white-knuckling. Almost as soon as I did that when I quit drinking ten years ago it flowed easily and the minute I did that for my smoking, I found Quit Train and Joel Spitzer, and I have now been quit for 13 days, the longest I have been quit in nine years. And it has not been that bad....actually, it has been infinitely easier than the constant and exhausting war with myself over whether or not to inhale deadly substances into my body.

NOPE here!

This is great, from Doreen: Somewhere deep in my memory....I had a life where smoking meant more to me than anything.... Now...anything is more important than a smoke.... There is only one way.....n.o.p.e.......

Well, you must be somehow on the mend when the only cravings you get during the day are for CANDY! :)

Happy birthday!!!!! Must feel great to have a smoke-free birthday! :)

Welcome to a great place and a nicotine-free life! :) I use 100% licorice lozenges from the pharmacy. They're not candy, they truly are just the boiled down extract from licorice root. You have to be a hard-core licorice lover to like them. Bonus: no sugar, starch or anything. Deep breathing is great, too. I'm on day 13 today, and I love the way my breathing has gradually improved (I honestly didn't think there was anything the matter with it while I was smoking, but I was obviously deluding myself). Today, without effort, I feel as if each breath I take pulls air all the way into my lower abdomen. Pretty awesome!

Uh, well put. I'm borrowing this line from SanDar: Smoking is the biggest lie ever. You get absolutely nothing from it but a craving for the next one.