I'm an IDIOT - give me a DUNCE CAP

I'm doing much better, myself. So far, no real slip-ups. The easiest way for me to prevent slips is to have a pack of cloves or something else I don't like around. Then, when I'm stressed and "need" a cigarette, I look at them and go ewww or I go out to smoke one and take like 2 puffs and put it out. I hardly even think about them anymore. Hardest part is when I'm at my parents house, because I'm used to sitting around talking with my mother and smoking. I go to a sci-fi convention every year, it's at the end of November, and I'll be smoking then, but only at the con. I spend most of it in the smoking lounge, hanging out with friends. But after that, any cigarettes I have get crushed and thrown into the garbage. I quit once for 8 months because of a boyfriend... well, when boyfriend dumped me, I went right back to smoking. You can't quit for someone else.

Yup. It's the things we're used to doing while smoking that make it hard. It's like quitting drinking, and going to a bar to hang out with friends - and not being able to have one. It's just weird.

GO MARCY GO! GO GO GO! ...can't think of anything cute that rhymes! Oh well...

Laurie, I'm ready whenever you are. how about this is day one for us both? we will be there to shame shame each other on the slips and pat the other one on the back when we get thru one day with out one. I am quitting for me this time!

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for all of you who are trying to quit! and Laurie I am so glad you are keeping your house smoke free! Hey, maybe I can pay you a visit I don't let people smoke around me as I won't be a passive smoker (I am very polite and nice about it though!).

For the New Yorkers I found this link:
http://www.nysmokefree.com/

You can even win $1000 for quitting (other than your health and better quality of life that is )

More useful links can be found here:
http://directory.google.com/Top/Heal...elp_Materials/

Thanks, Anne! And Barb - you got it. I had another puff today.... ....so I guess I'm 99.8% smoke free today. Hubby has to quit by cutting down - and we got stuck on a long car ride together. So I had a puff. But I'm O.K. with that - I'm still not submitting to the "habit" of smoking - just the nicotine addiction. (Although I AM on the patch! It's just the 21mg ones really bother my skin, so I use the 14mg patch). ...and it was, really, just one puff.

Barb - how often did you smoke? It didn't sound like it was regular...

Barb, I need you! I hate to disappoint you (and me and everyone else), but I have bad news. I fell off the wagon. Or however you say it.

Yesterday morning we had to head into NYC, which means up at 3:30am. But this morning things were rushed - we forgot about the extra time we'd need because of Munchie and various things. We didn't eat breakfast home (also bad) and rushed out the door.... I forgot to put on a patch and had none with me. I guess I had no resolve - and smoked with Gary in the car on the way in (generally about a 2 1/2 hour drive).

We had to drop off some info downtown before a 9:00 meeting - but two hours isn't enough time to be worth heading up to the office (which we're trying to avoid anyway - they want us to sign papers we don't want to sign), so we sat in a restaurant and ate not healthy food. I had a cappuccino (I stopped drinking coffee - several years ago?) - and a cigarette. It's like I just walked into all my bad habits from years ago. I probably had close to 10 more during the day.

I woke up this morning and felt like I was DYING. At least I have the patch back on today and haven't even had a puff - but WOW was that a bad one!

Send me bonks! It's just so weird - I feel like I must have a mind made of putty or something. I fight in my mind - I don't want a cig, I don't want a cig - but just thinking about it makes me want one! So I ask for one, and Gary says - you DON'T want one. You've been doing so good.... and I say - believe me, I want one. And I light it - knowing I shouldn't do it - knowing it's going to make me sick - knowing I'm going to "pay" for it - and it tastes like sh*& - but it feels like heaven! It's a terrible drug, and I make myself sick for being so weak. It makes me feel like a turtle that wants to crawl up in my shell and not come out. It's shameful - and it's worse even having to tell you about it.

you're fired! ok, you fell off the wagon, get back on and for goodness sake quit smoking! Tell Gary you'd apprecite it if he didn't smoke in the car with you, or around you for that matter.
I started to smoke when I was 14(ok revealing my age now), that was almost 20 years ago. I smoked all the time, I got it down to a half a pack towards the end, but I just couldn't bring myself to let go f the only thing I had left in my life that I could count on.
I'd been through a divorce, bankruptcy, miscarriage, and another guy who was emotionally abusive.(after the hubby that was physically abusive) so it was my crutch. the thing I could count on to be there (so to speak) everyday. but then I got my act together and found a good man(who has faults but then again what man doesn't? LOL!) and quit for him, ok mostly quit, but I haven't had one since the very beginning on November I think? but trust me it's taking it's toll and I can feel the cravings constantly. I've taken to chewing lots of gum again. mostly something I can blow bubbles with and that helps. I alsway have at least two or three different kinds of gum in my car and purse. I also have some in each coat both pockets. I think I've traded one addiction for another. but this one wont' kill me unless I swallow it and choke. why don't you try that? My s/o thinks I am a gum head cause I get into the car, start it and open a stick of gum, it's taken the place of the cigarette, ya know what I mean?
well now that I've bored you to tears, I'll give you one more "quit or I'll find you and kick your butt!" and leave you alone about it.

THANK YOU. And I'm 40 in Feb. I started smoking at 14 too.

I've been good today, and Gary's not smoking around me any more.

THANK YOU AGAIN!!!!!!

Try the gum idea. if you leave it where you put you cigs and keep a pack in your purse and some in your car, well let's just say it helped me tremendously. but a caution, if you become addicted to gum like I did, you'll get nervous if you run low, at least I did. it took over my cig cravings and now I am 99.88888888888899% smoke free.
WE CAN BEAT THIS THING LAURIE!!!!!!! (and for the record you dont look anything like a 40 year old LOL!actually you look alot like a kitty from your picture under your name LMBO!:laughing:.)

Barb - I've tried gum, I'm just not a gum person. I use mints. I've also got a new trick. Instead of thinking about NOT smoking each time I get a craving, I imagine that the cigarette I want is just a flaming stick of fire - it would burn my fingers, my lips, my throat and my lungs. All of a sudden - I don't want it so much anymore. That seems to be helping (and I think that Gary's not smoking in the car anymore helps too!!!!!!)

So far, no puffs today.

I wasn't a gum person either but giving up cigs the first time I tried gummy bears they were my fav and well if you eat three pounds in one day you are bound to dislike them REALLY quick! anyway I chose something with less calories and tried the gum. It worked very well I might say and just so you know, no puffs for me either today. that'll make it roughly 19 days or so without one.
CONGRATS TO YOU THOUGH! You're the real hero today!

This may sound silly but I found a really good way to help.

I get strips of paper (usually from an old magazine) and role them into inch long tubes, I then dampen them and bite small peices off. It stopped me smoking (although I still roll paper now and again when I get nervous) and I saved a fortune

Okay I'm mad, lol

I've managed another puffless day! YAY!

Thanks for the suggestions. When we quit last year, I gained 20 pounds - actually a little more. Who knows what I was chewing on? Everything, I guess! LOL!

At home, I'm chewing straws! Out, I've got the mints. But the imagery stuff is REALLY working for me. Like I said, when I find myself craving a cig, I just imagine it being a red hot rod of flame, and I imagine the burning in my mouth, throat and lungs, and it really sends the craving packing. I don't know where I came up with this one, but it's working!

And Barb - congrats to you!!! 19 days is GREAT!

Well, don't do the happy dance for me. I fell off the wagon hard core last night.
I was exteremely stressed and so my girlfriend and I went out well she had quit smoking and was craving one really badly so she bought a pack and well, giving in to peer pressure(yeah she really broke my arm on that one) I fell off the wagon onto my head. Let me tell you, I feel like I was hit by a truck today and I only had two small drinks with an even smaller amount of liquor in them. My head hurts, my throat hurts, my lungs are killing me, I feel like I want to die and the sadest thing is, I should've known better. I can't believe I let the thrill of the moment take away all my brains. I am NEVER going to do that EVER again! I didn't even smoke all of them. out of the four I had, I think I smoked about half of each if that. But still that's no excuse.. so boinks all around for me, just not on the head, it hurts. Rocket is trying to help my head by head boinking it for attention. or maybe he is boinking it cause he knows mom was badddddddddd......... NEVER AGAIN I TELL YOU!


I almost forgot...CONGRATULATIONS TO YOU! I wish I had the willpower to do that yesterday...Keep up the great work!

well, it was a bad health weekend for me. Was at a convention, had a lot of fun. Smoked most of a pack of cigarettes over the weekend, but no ill effects from those yet. Went off my diet as well, so we're going back to the 1000 calorie diet for each day we were off. Mostly it was the 6-7 drinks I had over the course of the night, I woke up sicker than a dog, head the size of Canada, and just feeling rotten. Spent the day in bed, made Mike go get my registration for next year. Finally got down some chicken noodle soup, and we're heading to bed now (although I slept off and on all day) at 8 pm. Haven't felt the effects of the cigarettes so far, had other things on my mind. But I am not smoking afterward, none today, and no more probably until Thanksgiving with my mother.

Well sorry I wasn't around yesterday to send bonks! Isn't it amazing how our head can be so darn fickle? And our stupid bodies send us these mixed messages - GIVE ME NICOTINE. yet... THIS SMOKE IS KILLING ME. Ugh. or AAAGGGHHHH!





OK. Enough bonks.

Meanwhile, I'm still hanging in there! It's that flaming rod of fire.... It's a flaming rod of fire.... It's a flaming rod of fire....

ok you be strong for the both of us. I have just about given up. there's a fine line now and it's wearing thin, it's called work.
I've been written up for not making my staff do "detailed" cleaning and can be fired over this. I've gotten the labor, paper and food costs DOWN and the general cleaning is fine, but I've been written up for details!? tell me this isn't a crock of s**t. I'm so stressed out that I've lost the four pounds I gained back. I'm now down to 120 from not eating because my stomach is in knots all the time. I can't take much more of this. I don't know what to do. I can't get my management staff to clean how in the he** am I supposed to get my regular staff to? and NO I can't fire anyone over this, all I can do is threaten them with no raises. OOOOOO! that'll scare them, don't ya think?
I am about ready to just quit. If I didn't make so much money with my benefits, I'd have been out of there a LONG time ago!
oh well I guess for my xmas present I'm getting the axe. I'm about sick over this. what can I do now? just sit and wait for them to fire me? I hate my job! sorry I REALLY needed a shoulder to vent on..

Barb, that's what we're here for. Bi*%& away.

I'm so sorry to hear about the troubles at work. Sounds to me like all you can do is have a chat with the staff - there really isn't much else for it. Is this something they're already supposed to be doing? Do you have the authority to threaten to dock their pay instead of just threaten no raises? Have customers been complaining or something? And did you get the chance to point out what you just told us (about lowering costs)? One would think that in this kind of environment especially, that that would be important. It sure might prevent the axe, no? I certainly think you should respond to the warning (or whatever it is) in writing, and point out the cost stuff. Just wait until some of the anger has abated....

I'm pretty good at this kind of stuff, so if you want help writing, just e-mail me.