On my tenth day of a smoke free life :)

tikkamark

How’s it going folks just thought I’d share my experience with ye,if it helps one person I’ll be happy!

To start with il explain where I was and where I now am,I started smoking like an idiot at 18 purely and totally due to constant peer pressure from my mates because I didn’t smoke I was constantly asked why I didn’t and would I have one go on go on the usual crap until I eventually slipped while on a night out....one turned into two then the following day had another then low and behold the chain was started.

I was smoking almost always amber leaf rolling tobacco in the silly thought as there was less tobacco in them as a regular cigarette they weren’t as bad on the lungs...foolish but that was my way of thinking!
I’m 31 now and just decided two weeks ago after starting to get a bad enough weeze in my breathing cycle+bad breath and stink of smoke in my van actually heaps of reasons way too many to list!I was going to do it totally cold turkey as I’m 100% against fighting a nicotine addiction with more nicotine.

The other thing I realised was I actually didn’t enjoy cigarettes anymore I was purely smoking for the sake of smoking...very slowly destroying my lungs just purely for a horrible habit.

I explain my reasoning to my fellow workmate who used to join me for a smoke several times a day and it dawned on him too that he was going to join me both supporting one another in our new path to the way things were before we started our filthy habit.

The first few days were sheer torture I won’t lie I actually thought about them nearly constantly for the first week the constant mind games as to why I should just have one and I’ll be grand and the mind torture would be over!
The last few days have been easier I must admit I’m still thinking of them a lot but not all the time and I can be around other smokers without any temptation.

My thinking from this point on is i went through way too much to slip back for “just one drag” il power on and the rewards already are fantastic like my sense of smell coming back and I can take a big deep breath without any wheeze,my taste buds are actually tingling due to them coming back too!

If only I knew back when I was 18 how hard they are to give up Id never have touched them but the point I’m at now I’m fullly committed to a smoke free life as I’m never going through the hardship of quitting again!
I’ll keep updating this thread to help ease my mind and to possibly help others in the same scenario too!

wally1990

Fair play !

I'm on day 14 and admittedly I wasn't a big smoker I did a year of everyday smoking and then social smoking

Weirdly enough I never thought of myself as addicted

My point is believe in yourself because it's as much as a habit as in the mind

Keep yourself busy , take up hobbies and break any habits

Best of luck

Your body and health are your wealth

tikkamark

Oh yeah forgot to add I’m using a free app called ,since I quit, it’s very basic it just tracks how many cigs I haven’t smoked-how much I’ve saved and the date I became smoke free.
It’s great motivation for the bad times the cravings are strong I just visualise all the cigarettes that I didn’t smoke lined up in a row and picture the amount of tar and ash out of them all it definitely helps me!
The other thing I’ve started is rewarding my credit union account with €50 every Saturday for the week I didn’t smoke it’s also a great incentive to keep strong!

tikkamark

wally1990 wrote: »

Fair play !

I'm on day 14 and admittedly I wasn't a big smoker I did a year of everyday smoking and then social smoking

Weirdly enough I never thought of myself as addicted

My point is believe in yourself because it's as much as a habit as in the mind

Keep yourself busy , take up hobbies and break any habits

Best of luck

Your body and health are your wealth

Thank you Wally I too thought I wasn’t addicted until about 2 days after I quit then I really realised I was definitely addicted,they say it’s as addictive as herion and I can completely get that from the amount of people that fall back into the trap after years of been off the fags!
I do a bit of cycling as I really enjoy being out in the countryside so that’s another incentive to pack it in

Calibos

Its as much if not more the habit rather than the nicotine that we're addicted to I've discovered. I've been vaping for 5 years and a few months ago started stepping down the nicotine levels all the way to Zero nicotine juice. Absolutely no withdrawls from the nicotine. I was nicotine free for over 2 months without issue and happily vaping my Zero Nicotine juice and finally ran out of it and decided it was time to give up the Babies Soother which was my Vape.

I was crawling the effing walls within hours everytime a trigger happened where I would usually pick up my vape for a few pulls....

tikkamark

Calibos wrote: »

Its as much if not more the habit rather than the nicotine that we're addicted to I've discovered. I've been vaping for 5 years and a few months ago started stepping down the nicotine levels all the way to Zero nicotine juice. Absolutely no withdrawls from the nicotine. I was nicotine free for over 2 months without issue and happily vaping my Zero Nicotine juice and finally ran out of it and decided it was time to give up the Babies Soother which was my Vape.

I was crawling the effing walls within hours everytime a trigger happened where I would usually pick up my vape for a few pulls....

I think it’s 80% habit 20% nicotine but habit can be tough to break...the first week for me was seer torture I actually felt dizzy at times with cravings I think that was the nicotine withdrawal’s hitting hard,some of it with me was actually foolish but the nicotine doing the thinking-I was worrying how I’m going to get through certain familiar situations that I always used to have a fag but as the days went by and I actually find myself flying through all the situations where I thought I’d need the fag!

I’m on my 14th day tomorrow completely nicotine free and feeling honestly brilliant the cravings are few and far between now and don’t last very long at all.
My sense of smell is coming on brilliantly the last 3-4 days and I’m finding myself way more productive where I used to have a fag and think about doing something I now just go and do it....I even find the days at work flying by now without taking about 6 smoke breaks!
My teeth are starting to get a shade or two whiter already and gums are looking healthier too.

So far the positive’s massively outweigh the negatives of quitting

fussyonion

5 months smoke-free here and I can vouch for the teeth thing; smoking left stains on my teeth but since quitting, they've disappeared and my teeth look great.

I've had no cravings; I quit August 4th, used a vape sporadically for a few weeks and came off that. Everyone around me is baffled by my lack of cravings but I'm thrilled.

tikkamark

fussyonion wrote: »

5 months smoke-free here and I can vouch for the teeth thing; smoking left stains on my teeth but since quitting, they've disappeared and my teeth look great.

I've had no cravings; I quit August 4th, used a vape sporadically for a few weeks and came off that. Everyone around me is baffled by my lack of cravings but I'm thrilled.

You are so lucky not to have any cravings!
I have said to myself if I start to struggle for whatever reason I’ll vape 0mg liquid to simulate smoking but not the actual nicotine liquid as on a previous quit attempt I was using a e-cigarette and I found as soon as I started running low on the liquid my cravings would go bonkers and if I couldn’t get the liquid I’d just end up smoking the real thing!
But today marks 14 days totally nicotine free and I feel great

fussyonion

Well done tikka, you're doing fantastically x

Oliviageorge

Keep it up.