Up in Smoke

I started my quitting smoking program on Thursday, 16 December 2021.

I allotted myself 10 cigarettes a day for one week.

Thursday I smoked 8 cigarettes.

Friday I smoked 7.5 cigarettes.

If I keep going in this direction, I will definitely beat my scheduled quit date of February 14, 2022. I hope I do.

I may not even need a nicotine replacement.

I'm eating a lot of popcorn and drinking a ton of water. I have (non-nicotine) chewing gum I can munch on, too. I've been drinking so much water I can taste my kidneys.

I have used this method of quitting before. It worked for 3.5 years. In 2012 I had a breast cancer scare. Something showed up on my mammogram. I had to have a biopsy. Everything turned out ok. No cancer. But it scared me. So I set about to quit smoking.

I did the same as I am doing now. Setting a quit date. Tapering the number of cigarettes I smoke. Drinking tons of water. Keeping my hands busy by playing a lot of video games.

Brushing my hair. Brushing my teeth. Taking walks. Going out to play with the goats. These are all activities I can do when I start craving a cigarette.

In 2013 when I was quitting I allowed myself to gain as much weight as necessary to quit smoking. I gained over 50 lbs (27 kg). I cannot allow myself to do that this time. I'll try to eat more carrots and less bacon. I do have mushrooms growing that I can cook to taste like bacon. I'll try to eat more fruit and less chocolate. Carrots. I'll try to eat all the carrots and sunflower seeds I can get my hands on. Currently, I'm munching on popcorn.

It's getting to be about time to go milk my mama goat. So I'll end here.

Thanks for reading and thanks for bing my quitting buddy.