The 1 Month Milestone

I meant to post this on Sunday but have just been too busy. I have now been a non-smoker for a whole month!! Still waking up earlier and starting my days fresher but still feeling more tired earlier at night. I have looked on some forums and apparently this is normal. I suppose my body will eventually adjust to not having the nicotine stimulant and my daily cycle will return to normal.

Some very good news this week is that a close friend of mine has been inspired to stop smoking as well, I spent some time trying to explain to him on the phone how easy I had found it and he read this blog and took the plunge. He is at the moment preparing to stop, very important if you want to succeed, you must be mentally prepared. Hopefully in the next week or so he will, for good.

Apparently now I have been stopped for 1 month my body will benefit in the following way

Appearance improves – skin loses its grayish pallor and becomes less wrinkled

Hmmmm, spending less on the face creams then, another saving :)

If you are stopping or thinking of stopping smoking DO IT, don't wait, make the decision today and just go for it.

The Fresh Start

Matt Godson is a clinical hypnotherapist who has developed a ONE HOUR stop smoking program, called The Fresh Start Program. Matt's program works by changing your attitude towards smoking, it removes the fears that every smoker has about quitting, the fears of suffering intolerable cravings for the rest of your life. That fear is actually founded on a myth, you will not suffer cravings for the rest of your life, the cravings go away quite quickly, I can vouch for that, and are very easy to control. Most of the cravings of a smoker are not physical they are based on how the smoker percieves smoking, once this perception has been changed the cravings are insignificant. You can check out Matt's program here.

The Fresh Start Program

He has a great FAQ section that I suggest you read first and he offers an 8 week full money back guarantee so what have you got to lose.

Stop smoking, start living.

Still Going Strong

Now into my fourth week as a non-smoker I am starting to feel the benefits of stopping smoking. I used to be terrible at getting up in the morning, after a supposed good nights sleep I would be lethargic, sluggish and coughing and spluttering. After just three weeks I have lost the cough and I am waking up fresh and ready to start my day. I have been arriving at work earlier, getting more done and reducing my work stress, spending more of my days being productive and positive, again reducing the total amount of stress in my life, and I used to think cigarettes did that.

My son has stopped being suspicious that I am smoking in secret, I haven't, but he was so used to me doing so that he found it hard to believe that I had finally stopped. After three weeks of sniffing my clothes and checking my pockets he has accepted that Dad has kicked the filthy habit and he no longer has to nag me.

Here is a little advice from someone who inspired me in my cause to quit smoking, Allen Carr.

No Smoking Day 2009

So here we are again, another National No Smoking Day and this is the first one that I have not sneered at, from behind my smokers defence. Hopefully today will start new lives for a lot of smokers and send them on their way to becoming non-smokers. There are plenty of resources, help and advice here No Smoking Day. Even if you are not from the UK the No Smoking site still carries a lot of helpful information even though it is targeted at the UK for events and other lists. If you do decide to stop smoking today then the very best of luck to you in joinging us non-smokers and remember the following reasons to stop.

1 For better health
2 For more money
3 For more energy
4 To prevent premature ageing
5 For whiter teeth
6 For lower stress levels
7 For an improved sense of taste and smell

But above all why pay money to choke yourself?

Two Weeks In

Last night I celebrated my second week as a non-smoker. This has been much easier than I thought but I have had time to reflect on the last two weeks take as objective a view as possible as to how I have behaved and how I've felt.

Each time I have tried to stop smoking before, when deprived of nicotine I have been irritable, nervous and had disturbed sleep. This time I have consciously monitored these symptoms. The irritability has manifested itself, but in very short episodes and easily controlled. The nervousness has not been evident at all, in fact I have felt quite the opposite and been very confident. My sleep was disturbed for perhaps the first couple of days whilst the nicotine left my body, since then I have slept like a log.

The cravings are almost gone now, they occur very rarely and with less and less intensity each time, still on guard though now until the end of the third week when they are pretty much supposed to stop.

All in all I have had a very easy time quitting smoking, changing your belief is the key, seeing through the brainwashing and seeing cigarettes for what they really are, then it really is easy.

Wednesday March 11th is National Stop Smoking day here in the UK for those that want some info or support the No Smoking Day website has a really supportive forum, sign up here Stop Smoking Forum and if you decide to stop on Wednesday don't do it because you feel pressured into it, don't do it because your friends or your partner try to convince you to, do it for you and only you.

Anyway below is this years promo for No Smoking Day, enjoy.

The Alcohol Challenge

I don't know about you but I always associated drinking alcohol with smoking, this is also the experience of all the smokers and ex-smokers that I know. I always smoked more when drinking, especially on a night out. The taste of that first beer would send me reaching for my cigarette packet and lighter and, if at home out into the garden I would go. If out with friends I would go out into the designated, banished smokers area.

Last night came my first real alcohol challenge since becoming a non-smoker, I had the opportunity to take an evening out and relax at home with a bottle of wine. This would normally involve several trips to the garden but last night I breezed through the challenge without even a slight pang for a cigarette. Don't get me wrong, smoking did occur to me several times, it still does several times a day but how I deal with those thoughts is what has made the difference. I no longer look a cigarettes as a complement to a glass of my favourite beer or wine, I see it as something that destroys the enjoyment, ruins the taste and interrupts conversations with friends.

I no longer see cigarettes as enjoyable, because lets face it they aren't, what is enjoyable is realising that they aren't and rejecting them.

The Fragile Time - Know Your Enemy

The start of week two and so far all is well. Common opinion puts the the length of time that Nicotine cravings remain a problem at between 5 days and 3 weeks. This is the fragile time, the time when an acute craving may sway the recent non-smoker back to the old and dark ways. This is the time that you need to know your enemy, which is of course Nicotine.

Nicotine is one of the most addictive drugs known to man, some studies have shown it to be more addictive than Heroin or Cocaine, yet Nicotine escapes the public outrage shown at these other drugs. Nicotine gives an almost immediate "hit" when ingested and then starts to leave the body very soon after, creating a craving for the drug all over again. Over time increasing quantities of Nicotoine are required to satisfy the craving leading the "casual" smoker to increase their intake over time. It is this very addictive quality that the recent non-smoker must remember and take heed of whenever an acute craving takes hold. It is easy to believe that having just one cigarette will be okay, you have come this far, and surely just one will do no harm. Alas just one will do harm, the cycle of nicotine addiction will start all over again and the smoker becomes trapped as they were before.

Ride out the fragile time, it doesn't take long, there is NEVER just one.