Pre-Quit Day 4: Getting Closer, and Feeling Proud of Myself!

     These Pre-Quit Days have been going quickly. I'm super surprised that the days have passed by like this. I know that when you're having fun the days go by very quickly but, I wasn't expecting the days to go quick. They would go by slowly. However, I'm making the last attempt at quitting fun. I'm getting closer, and I am confident that I can do this. Especially, with the tools I have in my toolkit.

Pre-Quit Day 4: Getting Closer, 

and Feeling Proud of Myself!

    With everything that I've learned in regards to quitting cigarettes. I'm becoming confident that I can do this. I think that in the last couple of attempts, I didn't really learn so much from them because I wasn't being consistent with them. I would always put myself down for having "just one", and this time I won't let myself have "just one" after the date and time in which I have told myself I wouldn't smoke.

    Today I want to focus on getting ready for this quit, and part of that is coming up with rules for the quit. Rules that won't allow me to have just one, and to stay consistent with my quit. This way I'm able to not smoke at all, plus not be tempted to do so. On top of consistency, there is also setting boundaries with yourself regarding smoking. I've already said to myself that I will not smoke another cigarette in the house, and when I come in I won't have my shoes on. I've been pretty consistent with this and it's been helping me set the mood and boundaries that I need for my quit. What about other people who smoke around me? Well, everyone's been pretty good with smoking outside so the house has become a smoke-free dwelling. Which is good for me in many ways.

    I know that when I do quit, it will be for food because I'm finally ready to be free of the addiction, and to be honest, when you're ready to be free you finally will set those boundaries, and make the ultimate choice to be consistent with it. For me to get here, it took a lot of attempts that helped me realize what I am trying to work for right now.

RULES FOR QUITTING, TO STAY SMOKE-FREE

1. Be Consistent With Yourself: Being consistent with yourself not only helps you fight the urge to smoke but it also helps fight the mental cravings. You need to be constantly on yourself positively saying to yourself "I'm not going to smoke, it gets better with each urge I fight", someone told me that so I'm going with it. The next one is "I don't need to smoke, nor do I have to, I set up a goal for myself and I'm going to be consistent, I'm going to quit smoking one way or another". This is the one that helped me when I quit for those three days and then went back to it. Consistency is the key to fighting the urges.
2. Don't be hard on yourself: Never be hard on yourself if you smoked during your quit. Just write it down, and then continue with the quit. Tell yourself that it happened, and then go back to your quit. It's ok to have a relapse and acknowledge that you had the relapse.
3. Reward yourself when you succeed: For every cigarette not smoked reward yourself with a pat on the back, write this down so you can see that you've beat the urge to smoke. Write down what worked, and then write down how long the craving lasted, this way you can see the craving go away slowly. Later on, I will have something simulated in another post with all of the related links mentioned in previous posts.
4. Have Fun with it: Having fun with your quit not only helps you beat cravings but the more you have fun with it you'll be able to bypass the craving with ease in the present and the future. One day you won't even realize that you have ever smoked, well that's my hope.
5. Don't just say to yourself "I'll just have one": Don't tell yourself that you can just have one because one leads to another, and so on and so forth. So tell yourself that one will never be enough and just work through the craving and make it fun for yourself.
6. Don't smoke after meal Times: Avoid smoking after meals, when you smoke after meals you'll set yourself up for failure this goes with the last rule. I know it's hard but it's best to work through the cravings and, again make it fun.
7. Hang out with smokers when they're not smoking: Don't avoid your friends and family who smoke. Don't go to the smoking area with them while they smoke, this will surely be a failure and just another attempt. Instead, wait for them to come back in, then you can continue the conversation where you've left off. This will help you in many ways not to fall back into smoking.
8. When you're having a craving do something else: When you have a craving, write this down. Go and find something else to do that includes your hands. Like crocheting, or anything else that includes the hands. Chew gum or use candies to help you get through the cravings.
9. Write down every trigger when it happened: Writing down each trigger will help you come up with why you smoke. What triggers you to want to smoke? How does this affect you, and why does it affect you? And any other information you need to know. Like date time, the trigger etc.
10. Set boundaries with yourself: You need to establish some boundaries with yourself. Setting clear and concise boundaries will help you beat every craving and can help you through your quit. It will also help you with consistency as well.
11. Do not vape, Vaping leads back to smoking: Vaping has nicotine in it, and vaping will lead back to cigarettes. I've been there and done that. The nicotine that's in a vape is not enough. To be honest it's fueling the addiction instead of helping it. You will surely go back to cigarettes because of it.
12. Follow A tight-knit schedule: Instead of sitting around go out and do something like walk the dog, go take a class that you have always wanted to take, build a schedule that you don't really have time to have a cigarette or just go and do something so you're not thinking about it.

My Quit Day 4

    Today I want to end this blog with my Smoke-Free app writing. I'm starting this because the missions have started asking me to do certain things. Today's mission was to write down as many reasons as I could for my quit. Why am I doing this? What do I hope to gain? Here are my reasons to quit smoking:

• To live a healthy life.
• To be able to gain weight.
• To have money saved for future expenses
• To be able to run with my dog, and to not feel out of breath.
• To be healthy for myself and my dog.

Dee