Hang in there, tobascobobcat.

Made it threw a WHOLE WEEK and have not slipped once (I have come very , very close). Biggest problem I have now is sleeping as I really don't sleep much but that should pass. The stupid feeling is also leaving and I can follow conversations and perform simiple tasks now, some that required concentration of at least 10 minutes. Thanks for the help and keep up the good work.

I also have had cases of insomnia. Before, I've always prided myself on being able to sleep anytime, anywhere. I absolutely hate lying in bed watching the clock.

I sleep much better? Bizzaro-smoker:) I haven't slept well in well over a decade. This last week it has been easy to fall asleep once in bed, before it would take hours. Whether or not this trend will stay or is fleeting we'll have to see, but I like it so far.

Melatonin can help. Your brain produces it when it's bedtime anyway. It can help with falling to sleep. It seems to have no lasting effect, like some relaxants have.

I think you guys all deserve congratulations for making it past your first week (yes some of you longer and some of you shorter0!

Melatonin gave me crazyass dreams! It does this to alot of people so be forwarned. I'm not kidding at all, some were really neat, some were terrible nightmares. I have spoken to others with similar results.

I'm a day and a half in... Just woke up yesterday and didn't want a smoke bad enough to stop on the way to work to buy a pack. During the day, I thought "do I want a smoke" hmmmm... "am I quitting?" Then I read this thread. Opportune timing, Joel.

I'd said to myself a few times in the past month or so "enough, I'm done with this coughing, stuffed head smoking crap" but hadn't 'decided' to quit. I was just over a pack a day, but it really messes w/ my sinuses and upper resp. tract to smoke. You don't realize how much, though, until you stop and the distress goes away...

This is one of those swings that come along every so often that provides the initial impetus (w/o premeditation) to stop. I think Supe alluded to a similar phenomenon that happens to him.

What really helps is that my smoking buddy at work is out today ... I find I'm most tempted to smoke when I'm bored, so it's the slow periods of the day when I'm antsy that I'm most likely to crave. Oh, and when they show someone lighting up in a movie, it's almost Pavlovian that I'll reach for the pack as well.

Congrats to all those who have gone before me. I quit once before for a couple of years, and I think after the first 3 days or so, it gets a lot easier ... except for those situations where you'd subconsciously have fired up, those take a while to get over.

JP

how many Pelicanites still on board?
I count 7: 125shifter, HughA44S, K911SC, Lendaddy, Overpaidslacker, Parralleltangent, Tobascobobcat.
Have i missed anyone?
Anyone else joining in?
A collective 3 cheers for facing this difficult challenge head- on. http://www.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/161.gif http://www.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/161.gif http://www.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/161.gif

Hey O-Slacker, thats the way it was for me - saw the thread and decided to hit it. Starting my second week and still clean however everyday is an adventure!!!!!! One morning - can't sleep, next morning - can't see, next morning - my guts hurt but all that is better than what could happen.
Keep pressing -

Hugh -
Exactly. I'd been on the fence about it, waiting for one of those brief episodes where I just felt like stopping ... and it aligned with this thread.

Thing is, I don't really want to quit smoking ... more often than not, I enjoy a cigarette. But I really should stop, and why not now?

Had a couple of nic fits today (weird feeling -- like my chest is hollow and then my chest/arms/hands feel slightly flushed) but nothing bad. The worst is going to be the ride home from work; that's the tough smoke to skip.

Didn't sleep too well last night (or too poorly, for that matter), but no other pathological issues. :D

Not even too cranky ... yet. The combination of LI driving and no cigarette might be explosive, though.

JP

You are right on.
I take that stuff when ever I go to Japan to take the edge off of the jet lag / time change. Problem is : none in the house. I'll pick some up later if this persists.

Still smoke free. I didn't even have cravings last night during the 5 hours I spent in the garage. The beers were disappearing out of the frige pretty quick.

Still smoke free here as well. Today was a bit rougher than the last 7 for some reason... a little irritable and more intense cravings.

I'm going to spend some time in the garage tonight and see how it goes without the customary smoke breaks.

Thing is, I don't really want to quit smoking ... more often than not, I enjoy a cigarette. But I really should stop, and why not now?


O-Slacker, that is a great quote and exactly how I feel!!!!!!!!!! The problem is I would enjoy chewing tobacco right up to the time I have some sort of cancer and have tubes sticking out of me. Best to all!!!!!!.

Well, last night had all the makings of a test ...
A buddy who could win the "Most Prolific Cigarette Mooch of All Time" award showed up to play some Tiger Woods 2004 on the X-Box (aside: awesome game).
He walks in and announces, as though he's invented a cold fusion process that cures cancer and teaches rhythm to the white: "Mark the date and time, I brought cigarettes!!" Obviously very proud of himself.
"Good timing Gomez," says I, "I stopped."
"You can't stop, I'm just starting up again!" My friend, who looks out for me, ladies and gentlemen.

So, through 3 rounds of "golf" (about 2 1/2 hours) AND a trip to White Castle for dinner (I'm not taking this "health" thing overseriously...) and 2 1/2 hours at the local ginmill -- NO smokes, even though I was drinking and my wingman was going out (it's NY) to smoke. A couple of minor cravings, but it was more for the company/camaraderie.

It occured to me that 5 of the last 6 women I've ... been with ... I've met/picked up while outside having a smoke -- it's a bonding experience. So I'm not ruling out ever having a cigarette again... :D

On our way home, Gomez asks how I'm doing it, how it's so easy (it's not really that "easy"...).

I said "I know this sounds kind of perverse, but it's easy to stop, knowing I can just start smoking again any time I want to."

Didn't feel tired until 4 am, and felt the effects of the booze much less than usual last night; obviously chemical changes are taking place, but nothing too bad.

Further good news ... my smoking buddy at work is out sick again today... the stars are in alignment.

Congrats to all who're past the week mark. I think your chances of success triple or quadruple if you make it that far!

JP

Test? Are you kidding? You just ran the smokers gauntlet. Congratulations!

Here, here. With friendly peer pressure, dinner, drinks in a bar you have hit most of the things that would lead a person to light one up. Only other thing you could have tested yourself with is having sex. Or is a smoke after sex a fable?

Regardless, good on you for staying the course.

with me, the hardest part of quitting was after sex. I got over the after a meal urge...but after sex? I still want to light up. And it's been over a decade since I have. Light up a cigarette, I mean...;)

Any pre-weekend reports out there? are there still 7? anybody slip up?any true confessions?

Today was tough but I made it. You ever have one of those days where nothing goes right? My highlight was that a vender that we purchased $360,000 worth of turbine blades from wouldn't return my call about a screw up they made until 8:00 tonight and they were still trying to get out of it. Mistakes happen, I realize that, but it's how you handle the mistake that determines if you stay in business. Oh well, tomorrow can't be worse, can it?

Still going strong here. Starting to go through the overconfidence stage. You know: "I got this sucker, hell I could even have one every now and then and not get hooked again" Ofcourse this is not true.

Going to the casino tonight, we'll see how that goes.

Hadn't seen the grilf in a couple of days ... last night we're on our way out to the ginmill (I'm driving), w/ a stopover at Seve's:

We join the conversation in media res:

G: (a bit incredulously) "so, you haven't had one cigarette?"

JP: "No. Not one." and I tell her about the other night - the "gauntlet" -- thanks, Moses and Gary. ;)

G: (genuinely impressed, especially knowing personally all the characters involved) "Wow. I'm proud of you."

At this point, we pull up in front of 7-11 and she is running in to get whatever it is she is getting.

G: "You want anything?"

JP: "Yeah, marlborolightbox" I say, joking, to her back as she gets out of the car.

Two minutes later, she comes out of Seve's, gets in the car and nonchalantly hands me the pack of smokes and starts gnoshing on the roll she bought.

JP: (smirking hard): "And what am I supposed to do with these? Didn't we just cover this?"

G: "Oh, crap. Sorry."

They sat in the car, untouched all night (by me -- it turns out she, who quit 2 months ago, snuck a couple). This morning I gave the rest of the pack to my smoking buddy at work. Breaking the news to him yesterday -- his 1st day back after being sick -- was the hardest part. :D

Yesterday (Thurs) was the first day I really felt cranky. I knew why I felt cranky but didn't want to feel uncrankified ... I just rolled with it. Must be similar to PMS.

Joel -- good luck at the casino, on all fronts.

JP

You want the bad news? That was no accident.

Strange as it sounds, when a smoker quits, his smoking friends feel betrayed. They frequently will do small things to undermine your success.

I'm still hanging in there. I haven't decided if I'm going out tonight or not, which would be my first "night out" without smoking. I've been feeling just a little below average mood-wise for the last couple of days, but not too bad.

Speaking of smoking friends, my buddy John comes over a couple of nights ago to help with my 86 Jimmy... seems it has a worse case of floor rot that I originally expected - fun. John's been pretty good about stepping away from me when he lights up a smoke lately. At one point, I jokingly said "Gimme one of those" and he refused. Good man.

Later after he'd left, however, I found one of his sitting atop my tool cabinet. Whatta wanker. Guess it was a test. Knowing John pretty well, I am positive he wasn't trying to sabatoge me... he was testing my resolve and would've chastised me if I'd have caved. I scored a 90%. I actually picked it up and lit it, took one drag, and it tasted like a$$. I promptly snuffed it out, broke it up and tossed it in the trash. I was a little sorry I'd even taken a puff, but at the same time I was happy that it tasted bad to me and I didn't want any more of it, as I had expected (and hoped).

FWIW, I am fairly certain a smoke wouldn't taste "bad" to me right now:) If only.

Moses -- you may be right, and I appreciate your candor. However, she recently quit (she has a smoke now and then when we're out drinking... but that's quitting to me) and has been on me, gently, to quit.

I said that I'd quit when the 930 was done. It was supposed to be done last March, but wasn't done until Sept. Woo-hoo, right? More time to smoke.

Well I picked up the car ... and kept smoking. Her comment, not delivered snidely or with any superiority bullshyt: "you were going to quit when you got the Porsche?" I said, "yeah, it'll happen. sooner than later". And that was that, more or less. She quit when I said I would and hasn't been a PITA about it.

I think she honestly just went into autopilot mode when I asked for the smokes - it was part of the routine -- Seve's on the way to the bar, get smokes (maybe a Red Bull) and we're off.

Kevin -- yeah, after being away from the smokes for a while, that "first" one tastes awful, and you wonder how you did it for so long.

JP

looks like we are missing reports/confessions from 3: HughA44S, Tobascobobcat and K911sc.
Who will be the first dropout? Congrats on a successful week you non-smoking Pelicanites!

JP - yeah, I knew that already and don't intend that puff to be my "first" one :-). I guess I just needed the reassurance that they really taste like crap and make that my memory, instead of remembering them as relaxing smoky goodness.

TRUE CONFESSIONS????????????? - Sorry but there are none. I have had some real cravings and came damn close to folding but haven't crashed yet. We are in a very busy period at work and I have had to tell some of my co-workers to watch me so I don't go non-linear on some people from other offices. I do need to come to grips with my basic personality which is I get addicted to stuff and things. This is not the first addiction I have had to deal with -- the key is where to channel the energy. I am good for now!!!! and over confidence is a killer.

JP, good on' ya.

I have only had ONE butt since June 26, 2003. A Newport, smoked inside a traveling after hours club, where I told them my name was "Raoul Duke."

Cutting back on drinking helped me cut out smoking, I gotta say.

Fortunately there are still a few vices left. . . anyone got a '66 911 for sale?

Involving the co-workers was a good idea. They can keep an eye on me when the wife can't and be just as severe. Still on the wagon. Nothing intersting to report I guess.

whoa whoa whoa ... everybody slooooow down here ... nobody is seriously suggesting cutting back on drinking.... Let's not get crazy.

Thanks, Kos. :D

JP

Not me. Attempting to make up the difference for the others.
Many reasons to party for Steeler fans this years.
Now I smoke meat on the grill instead of tar bags.

K911SC, Lendaddy, What's up? any cigarettes/true confessions?

Nope, I'm clean. Got back from the casino about 5:00 this morning, that was a serious test. Sitting in the poker room for 7 hours sure brings back the urges! Anyway no smokie, no winnie either:(

For the first 4-5 hours I enjoyed the second hand smoke, then it got annoying.

You guys make my life sound boring. Just hanging at home with pregnant wife.

no tabasco, it is not hanging, you wre bonding

lendaddy, didnt you play the Jets game also? Thats hardcore. Good job!

Id never thought about it until I read the post, but there is no way I could play a game and not smoke. Its a good thing I quit doing both.

True Confessions
 

I dropped the ball earlier. Had one after the Pitts - Jets game. I'm back on board now.
Shhh..don't tell the wife.