First day of the rest of my life

The Irish Riddler

Bit of a dramatic title but will go with it for now.

I had my last smoke 24 hours ago and no worries.

I am a 10 benson a day, 20 on a weekend/night out smoker.

My motivation is to get fit and healthy and so its the old reliable. Tried to quit a lot of times over the last 10 years with gum and inhalers but didnt like either and always cracked on the Saturday night.

I put on the 25mg 16 hour nicorette patch this morning, went to a party this evening, had a couple of beers and didnt have a single craving all day. So far so good. Will get back jogging in the morning.

Bit early to get hopeful but the patch worked wonders today.

Do I need to put it on different parts of the body to avoid desensitiving myself?
Anybody experience of what you feel like when you stop using the patches after 2-3 months and have zero nicotine days? Is it as tough as quitting the smokes cold turkey?

Will use these 25mg strength patches for the next 8 weeks and start to decrease the dosage.

Keep her lit!

The Irish Riddler

On to the third day and not a single craving surprisingly. The other times I tried to quit I had bad enough symptoms and had a very short fuse. The patches seem to be doing the job for me so far.

The recommended course in the instructions is 8 weeks on my current strength patch and another 4 weeks on a lower strength patch. I will probably do the full 12 weeks to maxamise my chances and carry a patch in the wallet for those moments of weakness.

The Irish Riddler

I'm looking for a link to a site that shows the timelines after quitting for repair of damage to certain parts of the body and decreasing chances of various illnesses. Thanks.

StickyMcGinty

The Irish Riddler wrote: »

I'm looking for a link to a site that shows the timelines after quitting for repair of damage to certain parts of the body and decreasing chances of various illnesses. Thanks.

http://whyquit.com/whyquit/A_Benefits_Time_Table.html

Good motivation

My advice would be this - when you go off the patch, stay off the patch and get that nicotine out of your body. Right now you're dealing with the mental stuff and leaving the physical withdrawal till later which is fine but you need to nail the physical side of things sooner or later. If you can do 3 days without nicotine then it's 99% out of your body and things will get a lot easier

readyletsgo

Your doing great T.I.R.!!!!! Keep with the patches if you feel they are helping! You will just stop using them one day as apposed to doing the full 12 week course, thats what happened to a few of my friends who used them too.

I am using the NiQuitin tabs, only 3/4 a day. Day 8 for me here.

Best of luck to you!

The Irish Riddler

The extra vivid dreams are an interesting side effect.

Was off the patches for about waking 12 hours and felt the fuse getting very short which is unlike me so put the patch on for everyones sake when I got home.

Day 3 over and zero cravings but I'm eating more than usual along with getting my nicotine so there is no reason for the horrors to set in I suppose.

The Irish Riddler

At the moment I'm just concentrating on breaking the habit of lighting up after dinner, on breaks, with a cup of tea, between rounds, while walking from a to b, waiting for the chinese, to relax after an hour or two of focused work, after a bar of chocolate ect, ect, ect

The Irish Riddler

I have heard that smoking results in a pale grayish complexion. Is this solely caused by nicotine or are other chemicals a bigger factor in this?

How soon after quitting is this aspect healed would you say?

username123

The Irish Riddler wrote: »

How soon after quitting is this aspect healed would you say?

Within 10 days my husband mentioned to me that my complexion looked a lot better. A friend who doesnt know Ive quit also mentioned it to me and my brother in law (who also doesnt know) told my husband last week that I was looking very fresh faced.

Im currently Day 19.

The Irish Riddler

Thanks gorgeous. When you see physical effects like that so soon it really brings home how harmful they are. Are you using any nicotine supplements?

username123

The Irish Riddler wrote: »

Thanks gorgeous. When you see physical effects like that so soon it really brings home how harmful they are. Are you using any nicotine supplements?

No, I went cold turkey. I was really ready to quit, Id hated it for a few years and Id cut my intake down to under 10 a day in the past 2 years, plus not been smoking in my house for years either. It had become the one thing I wanted to change about myself for a long time. The strongest emotion I had in the first few days of quitting was relief.

My teeth looked better within around 7-10 days as well - the ongoing build up of nicotine was stopped so each brushing was actually removing what was there without it going back on. Gums look healthier too.

The Irish Riddler

Went for a 6 mile jog this morning for the first time in about a month. The difference after 5 days is huge.