Quitter’s Log 11/30/11

3:30 PM and I’m running close up to the 48 hour mark. It’s kind of tense here, I can feel the twitches sneaking into my eyes and fingers. Pretty soon I’m going to look like Tweek Tweak from South Park.

Here’s a bit of what cooked up on Day Two:

Five people now know that I’ve quit the smokes. I almost made it six on the bus to work. A stranger boarded the bus at the Franklin stop and sat next to me, as they do. His tobacco sent was wafting into my nostrils; clearly, he’d been smoking while waiting for the bus. Smoking was my personal favorite activity to do while waiting for anything, but particularly the bus. So my first thought was that I only had one choice. I opened my mouth to say, “Hey. Sit over there, Smokey. I’m a quitter.” But I refrained, mainly because I’m not that rude, and also I didn’t mind the short bust of nostalgia. Can we have nostalgic episodes about something from only two days ago?

I did tell my mother this morning. A more appropriate person to tell, I know. She said “congrats!”, then, and here’s the important thing, she told me one of the things she did when she tried to quit smoking was see a hypnotist. Wait…. What?! I have a difficult time sewing together that image. But then again, she was in college at the time. I guess I did weird things in college too, like start smoking.

Last night and this morning has made clear at least one thing. The strongest and most consistent trigger rears its creeping head while I am in transit. I typically would smoke from the bus to work, work to the gym, gym to the bus, bus to the house. That’s a lot of cigarettes! And while preparing myself for the strength to defend against Smoke Breaks, I foolishly allowed myself to be surprised by the intense craving that hit when I left work yesterday, and then drove to Elk River. And then drove home from Elk River. And then to work this morning. Oh, pain.

But I survived, and my lungs stayed clear. (At least, no tar was added…on this day.)

47.5 hours without nicotine. Straight baller. My trainer gave me a tip that I think has helped with the restlessness. Today, rather than remaining at my desk when I would have stepped outside, I stepped outside sans cigarette. I’ve been walking around my building instead of lighting up. This might be the key to my success at Cold Turkey: replacing one habit with another, rather than simply being minus one habit.

So here we are. I’ve got some shakes, some jitters, a tiny pit of paranoia and what I think I’d call nervous chewing. But it’s worth it…. Right?