Monday, December 15, 2008

Cold Turkey for X-mas.



I haven't been online much lately, this for several reasons. One of the reasons is.. I quit smoking!
I was trying to avoid situations where cigs were needed the most. I have to admit that actually every situation where I was allowed to smoke was a reason to smoke.
But the worst situation was when I was using computers - more than 10 hours a day, one cig after another. You can imagine I was smoking a lot!

I've already tried to quit last year - but that failed. I was going nuts after two days and a cig was my only relief. Sad, isn't it?
After my failure last year, I decided to smoke less. I didn't allow myself to smoke in the house anymore. So everytime I wanted a cig, I had to go outside, or smoke in the garage.
This actually helped a lot, I didn't break my own rule and smoked only the half of what I used to smoke. Even when I was using the computer, instead of having 6 (or sometimes more) cigs in one hour, I only had to go outside 2 or 3 times an hour. (I know, I know, it's still a lot).

After a couple of months (last week), I was wondering what I was actually doing. This was just silly and I had to stop that.

My own rule to go outside for a smoke worked like I charm and I never broke that rule. So why can't I make my own rule to quit smoking?

So, last week, I smoked my last cig and that was it.

I'm not using any nicotine replacement therapy aids like gum, patches or inhalers. No medications either like Zyban to reduce the craving, no hypnosis, acupuncture.... whatever. Just quit smoking Cold Turkey.
The only thing I used was a book (no, I didn't smoke it) by Allen Carr - "Easy Way To Stop Smoking". As a matter of fact, it is easy if you believe it!

It's already more than a week I quit smoking and I have to say - it's going pretty well. I've tried to avoid computers as much as possible in the first couple of days. Now I'm "facing" computers again and I don't really feel the "hunger" for a cig. The only thing is - I still feel the need to stand up 2 or 3 times in an hour to go outside. :-)
I'm like Pavlov's Dog - but then I remember the famous quote by Yoda: "You must unlearn what you have learned".

Anyway, I'm glad I quit smoking and I'm sure I won't fail this time.

Happy Holidays!!