One Week!

Seven days. No cigarettes. Not one. Not even a puff.

That may seem like no big deal to a lot of people and I know that I've pretty much devoted the whole week to yammering about not smoking...but this is a huge thing for me. I've been trying to quit for years. Usually I could do it for about 3 days before relapsing, with all the resulting frustration and guilt along with the bonus of an increase in the amount I smoked. It was a vicious cycle that I could not figure a way out of, and it was killing me.

Something clicked this time. I don't know what or how, but something is different about this attempt. Oh...there are still the urges, the temptations, the self-rationalizations; but it doesn't seem to have any power over me any more. At long last, I feel like I have control.

And....if I can control this....I can control other things about my body as well.

Adding Up

I really like the quitmeter thingie that is on the top of my blog here. I've always believed that if you don't have some way of tracking a goal, you may as well call it wishful thinking. The meter is an ongoing reminder of progress...real progress...especially for those times when it doesn't seem that I'm making any difference at all.

I look up at that quitmeter this morning, my sixth since my latest attempt to quit smoking. I'm facing the trial of going through the weekend. I'm facing increasingly intrusive thoughts of rationalizing smoking again. I get worried. Then I study on the meter. Nearly $50 saved. Well, that's good, but it's not like I'm impoverished and those nicotine patches and cinnamon toothpicks cost money too.

200 plus cigarettes not smoked.

Whoa. That's a carton. I went through a carton in five days? Two hundred cigarettes. Two hundred butts. Somewhere around a thousand times I inhaled smoke into my lungs. When did I become such a heavy smoker? Why did I let it go on for so long?

Here Come De Judge

I finally get a chance to use my abilities, expertise, and talent to the fullest at my job today. There is to be a chili cook-off in my department and I'm to be one of the judges. This might be a good thing because I love chili. It also might be a bad thing because I love chili....and my standards are pretty high. Kansans seem to have an aversion to spicy foods. For instance; what they call flaming hot salsa here in Kansas, they use in Texas to rub on a baby's gums to soothe them when they are teething.

I've also noticed that the chili in this neck of the woods seems to be very heavy on beans and light on the beef. That's not necessarily bad. I actually prefer my chili con frijoles. I'm not smoking today, so my senses will be sharper than usual and there won't be any unfortunate lighter accidents as I perform my judiciary duties.

Tell Me Lies.... Tell Me Sweet Little Lies

Okay. I've completed three days without smoking. I've saved around $30 that I would have normally spent on cigarettes, which about covers the cost of nicotine patches for a week. My teeth are clean and my breath is nicely scented thanks to all the cinnamon toothpicks I've been chomping on. I can actually smell things again and can take a deep breath without feeling like my lungs are going to seize up on me. My smoker's cough is fading. I have more O2 in my blood and have a bit more energy during the day.

This is a dangerous time for me.

It's dangerous because all the immediate ill effects of smoking are fading and I only have memories of what I liked about smoking. This is the point when I start talking to myself and...when the addict voice talks...it lies.

and oh the lies I can lie to myself

"Go ahead and have one. You don't have to completely stop. If you just have one or two cigarettes a day, that will make it easier to quit. Well, (insert name of friend) smokes and they are perfectly healthy. You can smoke tomorrow because it will be a stressful day. Smoking keeps you from overeating."

and on, and on, and on.....with the always lurking whisper from that addict voice inside of me; "no one will ever know"

I've discovered that in this stage of the quitting process, I can find a lot of excuses to relapse. Everything from being stressed to being bored, they all sound good. The only way I've figured how to fight against those sweet little lies is to mentally shout "YOU LIE!" every time they pop up in my brain's self dialogue.

It's working for me so far.

I may start having to yell it out loud if my inner liar gets more persistent. That should make for interesting times at work.

Substitutes

This is what I put in my mouth three or four dozen times a day rather than a lit cigarette. It actually works pretty well for those especially tough times; like driving, talking to people who are smoking or smell like smoke, after a meal, watching TV, being on the computer, reading, sitting, standing,....come to think of it...just being awake. Hot little cinnamon toothpicks seem to do the trick and allows me to get past that momentary urge to light up a cig; and, really, the urge only lasts for a second or two.

I have a two tube a day habit now.

Counting Flowers on the Wall

The hard part, the really hard part about giving up cigarettes, is not so much giving up the cigarettes as giving up everything you've always done with cigarettes....or at least getting use to doing them without smoking.

Take mornings for instance. I'd always start my morning off with coffee and a few smokes. Now, I just have my coffee and stare dumbly into space while my right hand makes automatic movements to grab a non-existent pack and lighter. I drink coffee, I want a cigarette. I don't drink coffee, I want a cigarette even more. I want one if I check my email. I want one when I write on my blog. I want one if I read the paper. I want one when I turn on the TV. Thank goodness Captain Kangaroo is no longer on the air in the morning.

This is what makes giving up this particular addiction so difficult. If you've smoked for years, cigarettes become entrenched in virtually every aspect of your life. Take the cigarettes away and you're left with a lot of holes in your day and each and every one of them is a pit to fall back into relapsing. The real work in recovery is filling those holes...quickly. Leave them there for long and they will refill themselves with what use to be there. That is a fact that I've learned from the experience of several prior attempts.

Now, don't tell my I've nothing to do.

Monday Cat Blogging

 

I Have Way Too Much Free Time

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Boss Day

Okay...so I know that I often complain about my workload and the supervisor that gives it to me but, in actuality, I'm quite fond of both my job and my boss. My boss is pretty demanding. She expects a very high level of performance and, though it irritates me at times, it has made me excel in my profession. She also is probably one of the hardest working individuals in the agency where I am employed. My little domain of responsibility is puny compared to what she has to keep track of. I try to keep that in mind when I feel overwhelmed with my job. My boss has never demanded that others work harder than herself.

So happy boss day, Lisa. You don't even know about this blog so you'll never know that a primary reason I stay in your department is because I believe it's the best in the agency... and that's largely due to you.

Monday Cat Blogging

A Parable

I was with my wife this morning doing a bit of shopping at the local Walmart. I know, Wally World is not the socially/politically correct place to go; but I'm a working stiff who can't afford Whole Food Nation or the Gap. So, if you think I'm a bad liberal for shopping there, bite me.

Anyway...whilst I was wheeling out my cart of stuff to the parking lot and grumbling why coffee was over eight freaking bucks a can, I noticed a couple of young girls fighting over a balloon. Their mother was stashing bags of groceries in her car and the girls were really starting to go at each other.

"Lemme hold it!"

"No! It's mine!"

"But I wanna hold it too!"

"Mom!"

Mom turned to the girls with that look of soul shriveling fury that only a mother who has reached her limits can generate. Without saying a word, she reached over, grabbed the balloon, and let it go. The girls just stood there with their mouths open watching it drift away as the mom ordered both of them into the car.

There's a moral there, but I'll let you figure it out yourself.

It's What I Do

I have a lot of people ask me what I do for a living. It's really hard to talk much about my job, mainly because there is a lot of confidentiality involved. No...I'm not a secret agent or brothel madam; I just deal with people and the things I deal with are rather personal. What I can say is that I try and help others. The video below is probably the best way I can describe a typical work day without giving any details of what I do during the day. I go from place to place and attempt to keep bad things from happening to complete strangers. Most of the time, like the guy in the video, I'm perceived as something of an asshole by those who don't understand what I'm doing and why and that I probably saved them from disaster.

It's what I do.

...and I wouldn't do anything else

I Love Coffee

I really do. I've been drinking coffee for as long as I can remember. When I was a kid, I'd mix it up with creamer and sugar and always thought it was a great treat. Now...before you go off on my parents for letting me do this, keep in mind that it's probably a much better option than soda pop. Plus the caffeine most likely tamed my ADD tendencies without the need for the amphetamine pills they throw at every kid these days who show the slightest hint of being energetic.

Later on, I rejected the cream and sugar to take my coffee straight up black. I loved the flavor. I loved the smell. Even in the Navy, where the coffee was usually strong enough to take the paint off a bulkhead, I drank it by the gallon. Wherever I have lived, the one appliance that I considered a necessity of life was a coffee pot. If I was broke, I bought coffee over food....in fact...there were times I used coffee to kill hunger because I didn't have any food.

I love coffee. I've tried to limit my consumption by drinking tea once in awhile. I like tea, but it just doesn't do quite what I need. I've tried de-caff but it tastes terrible and my brain isn't fooled one little bit, usually giving me a grand headache until I deliver the real stuff.

Coffee rules my day.

Monday Cat Blogging

Just What is it that I Really Want?

From the time we are born, we all want things. At first, it's pretty simple. You want to be warm. You want to be fed. You want to be dry. Not much but I think it's the start of a life-long path of confusing what we want most with what we want at the moment. In the beginning, it's all the same. Later on in life....it gets complicated.

Try an experiment sometime. Ask a kid what they want to be when he or she grows up. You'll hear some lofty goals and enthusiastic passion that you won't find in many adults. Now, take that same kid to a candy store and ask what they want.

Different answer.

Instant gratification. It's not necessarily a bad thing. Biologically, it's a good survival instinct. Those that take advantage of opportunities when they come across them tend to have a better chance at surviving. Not so great a thing when what you want at the moment interferes with what you want the most. Eating lots of food when it might be a long time before the next meal..good. Eating lots of food because there is lots of food...not good.

This is a problem that I deal with almost every day. The decision as to whether I want something now or maintain what I want the most; which may take a very long time to obtain, if ever. Success is the continuation toward a goal with the knowledge of what must be traded in day to day desire. Do I want a piece of pie or do I want to have a flat belly? Do I want to watch my favorite television show or do I want to be physically fit? Do I want a cigarette or do I want to have a healthy life?

What do I want the most?

Who Needs a Life?

I am beginning to think that the primary duty of a supervisor is to delegate their work load to others. At least it seems that way to me. When my team is down several members, our supervisors leap into action and assign us to cover the shortfall. When reports on their departments have to be in ASAP my supervisors selfishly remain at their office for an extra five minutes past quitting time to write an email instructing me to get them done yesterday.

I'm drowning in paperwork....mine and that of my supervisors in my management heavy agency.

Is it the weekend yet?

$100 Winner

Monday Cat Blogging

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Road Trip from Jay Sheer on Vimeo.

Now Comes the Hard Part

It's been my experience, based on the several times I've tried to quit smoking, that the first few days are surprisingly easy. Well.. maybe easy is not the right word, but certainly bearable. What makes it bearable for me is using nicotine patches. You can say all you want about how I'm just substituting one nicotine delivery system for another; but the patches deliver a far less amount of nicotine during the day than with all the cigarettes and without all the smoke. Plus, it stabilizes my mood so that I don't wind up getting fired or divorced. The most important thing that the patch does; however, it to keep me from getting cigarettes and lighting up "just one...or maybe two". If I don't put a fresh one on first thing in the morning, I will "put it off" and I will smoke before the day is over. So my ritual in the mornings has become exercising, showering, patch; with no opportunity to think about it or let my mind create any of the excuses that seem to be perfectly reasonable at the time.

After the first few days though....man! I get brief and very intense cravings periodically through the day. They only last a second or two but make me almost want to cry because the are so powerful.

I'm hoping that will pass.