Day 4 of quitting smoking is just about over! I’m excited to be at this point though I know its just the beginning. I had a few tough urges today, mostly sparked from stresses at work. At one point I could feel the beads of sweat building up on my forehead.

It can be tough not to run out for a cigarette at work as I have smokers who sit around me and have to contend with that fresh cigarette smell all day. Sometimes the smell is a turn off and makes me not want to smoke, other times it smells refreshing and leaves me drooling. In addition I have to deal with walking through a cloud of smoke every time I enter and exit the building as there is a large group of smokers who seem to always be outside having one.

Since I’ve quit smoking I’m starting to cough up all kinds of nasty stuff from my lungs, the so-called “coffee grounds” or “black shit”. I am feeling a lot better now than I felt when I was smoking. I have a lot more energy, I’m more focused when thinking, and I just feel better overall. I actually think that stopping smoking has helped with my anxiety as well. I’ve suffered from mild anxiety for a few years and have noticed that since I stopped smoking the anxiety has subsided quite a bit.. I don’t take any type of medication for the anxiety, I’ve always learned to deal with it so maybe smoking played a role in it? I guess I’ll have to wait and see for sure but it is yet another positive result among many. I am also noticing a huge increase in my sense of smell and taste and this is awesome. Do you remember what it was like to smell the rain? or the smell of spring/summer? I remember smelling these things years ago and completely forgot about it until today. Its really crazy how many different things change when you quit smoking.

Stay tuned for Day 5 tomorrow!

I have to say day 3 of quitting smoking hasn’t been too bad. I had a few urges earlier in the day but nothing crazy. Stay tuned to see what tomorrow brings.

Here I am at Day 2 and am now over 24 hours cigarette free. Some of the changes I’m experiencing are feeling lethargic, extreme energy bursts, and feelings of hunger.

Yesterday was an interesting day…

My girlfriend and I fought on and off all day, nothing physical of course, pretty much every time one of us had a cigarette urge. I’m sure it would have been hilarious to see from afar because we were arguing over the silliest of things- and then apologizing minutes later which only made it more comedic. I ended up feeling very lethargic half way through the day and ended up napping for a good 6 hours and woke up again around 10 PM. I continued to experience urges, really strong ones at times, throughout the night. I ended up eating a few snacks and passed out again at 1 AM.

I woke up this morning at 5:30 AM and decided I was going to hit the local coffee shop and then go for a ride in the car. I ended up driving to a town I grew up in and drove around to all of the places my friends and I would hang out; a little walk down memory lane. I got another coffee while I was out and then came back around 8 AM. So far I’ve done a lot of work on the website and am just sitting around waiting to see what the day will bring next.

A lot of people might be wondering how I can hop and the car and drink a coffee when I just quit smoking. This is important because for smokers and ex-smokers alike, the two times we always had a cigarette was while we were drinking a coffee or driving a car.

I believe its very important for people quitting cigarettes to keep their habits the same. Don’t try to make any changes to your life other than quitting cigarettes. There are a ton of things in life that are triggers for smoking, the key to quitting cigarettes is to learn new coping mechanisms for these triggers. Once you’ve trained yourself to use a new coping mechanism when there is a trigger you will naturally cope with it using the new method and you will lose the thought of craving a cigarette. With that said, my method for quitting cigarettes involves maintaining all aspects of my life with the exception of smoking cigarettes. Sometimes I will get close to my triggers so I can train my body to not have an urge to smoke from a trigger. For example, coffee is a strong trigger to make me want to smoke, so when I quit smoking I make sure I drink a good amount of coffee. I fully expect the urge to smoke with the coffee and I learn to cope with it until I no longer get the urge to smoke when I have a coffee. Sounds simple, I know… though it is easier said than done.

That’s my rant for today . Leave comments below and be sure to check in tomorrow for Day 3 of my “quit smoking saga”.

Today is Day 1 in my attempt to quit smoking. This is not my first attempt to quit smoking just another attempt at giving up cigarettes for good. I’ve only been smoking now for two weeks, prior to that I was off cigarettes for two months, prior to that I smoked for a month and prior to that i was off cigarettes for three weeks. As you can see it has been quite a constant battle with quitting cigarettes. The longest time I’ve been able to quit them for was one year. I wish I’d never started up again after being clean for a year but for some reason I thought I’d be able to put them down again easily and as smokers around the world know, its just not that easy.

So here I am, Day 1 of quitting smoking again after two weeks of smoking approximately one pack each day. My body is screaming right now, I hate this part of quitting cigarettes. I feel like I have a devil on each shoulder, both telling me to hop in the car and grab a pack of smokes at the convenience store. I can’t give in though… I’ve done this before and I know what to expect; 3 days of constant urges and anxiousness, then 3 months worth of random hardcore urges to smoke that are the toughest to get over… Ah! I wish quitting cigarettes was easier.

My method for quitting is cold turkey. I’ve tried the gum, the patch, Wellbutrin(Zyban), and Chantix and none of them worked for me. I feel like the gum and the patch just made me more addicted to nicotine as I could physically feel the nicotine in the gum and patch making me frigidity and anxious, nothing I ever experienced with smoking a cigarette, and when I went back to smoking from the gum & patch I smoked more! The prescription anti-smoking drugs didn’t work either, in fact they just messed me up more. Both the Wellbutrin and Chantix did not work well, Wellbutrin made me feel weird and Chantix made me go insane! I was on Wellbutrin for 2 days before I started to feel strange and stopped taking it, not sure if it would have helped me quit smoking as I stopped taking it so quickly. I was on Chantix for 2 weeks but had to stop taking it because it literally made me insane. The first 3 days of Chantix were great, I lost the urge to smoke and was on cloud nine but then things started to change. I became completely unstable emotionally and started to become depressed and angry. I would flip out over the smallest things and could not control myself at all. I actually ended up quitting a great job due to the instability caused by Chantix. So my recommendation is to quit smoking cold turkey, no quick fix is going to get the job done.

I’m sure today will be a crazy day as its not just me who is quitting cigarettes, but my girlfriend is quitting again as well! Yikes! I’m definitely in for a hellish day. That’s all for now, be sure to check in tomorrow for Day 2 of quitting smoking.