Quitting smoking cold turkey

I want you to copy and paste the line below into you favorite search engine.  ctrl-c ctrl-v
Go ahead I will wait......


How long does nicotine stay in your system

Did you do it?  Good. Okay, now multiply the number of days for your case by the amount of money you spend each day on smokes.  For example  five dollars times 28 days equals 140 dollars.  Now add a fat little bonus for quitting;  In my case 110 dollars.  One month after quitting I spent on myself 250 dollars because I quit smoking.  Something else about quitting smoking is since you are not going to the store to buy smokes you are not buying a soda and a snack either.  Bottom line, quitting saves you more than just the price of smokes.

Okay.  You have a reason.  You have a start date.  You have the supplies you need.  Now you have a goal of how much money to spend on yourself at a point in the future.  Now let's talk.

One condition that almost everybody can relate to is having their wisdom teeth removed. We have four teeth that have to come out.  The question is how many at a time?  One.  Two.  Four.  Each tooth has a unpleasant factor of X.  So if you have one wisdom tooth out at a time you have spread the ordeal out to be 4 times X.  Or 4X.  If you elect to have two at one time You cut in have the time the ordeal will last to become 2 times X.  Or 2X.  If you have all four removed at once you reduce the ordeal to one weekend.  Or to put it another way 1 times X.  Or simply X.

Quitting smoking cold turkey is the having all the teeth out at once.  If you decide to use the nicotine replacement therapy, or if you decide to take the pills you are choosing to spread the ordeal out.  You are making the process become 2X or 4X.  Each of the soft landing methods eventually end with the cold turkey step.  They just make the step a step and not a leap.  Sooner or later a smoker has to break the bonds of nicotine and your addicted body is going to fight you.  HARD.

I have heard of people who have had heart attacks and babies with no pain.  Heard but not seen.  I have read peoples accounts of quitting smoking who said they did not have withdrawal pain.  God bless them.
Me,  It was real hard.  I would not say it was the hardest thing I have ever done but it sure was not easy. 

If you decide to quit cold turkey please be aware that several factors will be against you.  I don't want to number them because I will not remember all of them.  I just want to point out some.

• No soft landing.  You are giving the dopimine lady her walking papers.
• Extra hard cravings.  No patches or pills
• You will not be pleasant to be around.  The secretary will not go quietly.
• You will have to avoid your normal life for a while.  Don't tempt yourself. 

There will be positive things too.

• This is the quickest way to get nicotine out of your system.
• After a week things will get easier.   

I read alot about how low the percentage of people who quit cold turkey is.  I sort of understand that 5 or 10 percent of people are successful with the cold turkey method.  I have another percentage for everybody to choke on.

                                                      100%
The point I want to make here is sooner or later it all comes down to the cold turkey phase.  One day each and every person will have to have that first day with no help.  At some point you will have no help or crutch.  No smoking.  No help.  Just you and willpower.
The cold turkey method is blunt.  The cold turkey method is harsh.  The cold turkey method is the least expensive method.  The cold turkey method is the final stage.  Why not make it the first and only stage?  It ain't easy.  If you read enough people's stories you will notice that the day that they finally went without any aids quitting got a lot harder.  These people stretched out the process by weeks.  True the leap became a step but the trip was lengthened.


Well that's it.  I cannot think of anything else.  Cold turkey was not the way I wanted to quit, but it was the method I had chosen for me and I would not want it any other way.

Quitting smoking

We talked about smoking.  We talked about quitting.  Let's talk about quitting smoking.

The number one item is a reason.  This is non negotiable.  There are some rough times ahead and the childish "because" is not going to cut it.  You are going to have periods of time where setting fire to the end of a smoke is going to be the only reason to exist.  You will be willing to journey great distances and spend whatever money is necessary just to have a smoke.

Smoking is so sub-conscience that you engage without any thought at all.  When it becomes a conscience act it becomes all consuming.

You must have a reason that will not become insignficant in times of trial.  And believe me the times will come.

A heart attack, a stroke, a parent dying, wheezing at night baby on the way.  A real reason.....that you will believe in.

Next comes preparation.  You must pick a quit date.  At first I thought this to be silly but I have come around.  The act of quitting is a tough mental battle and a concrete start date is something you can point to a calander and grasp.
Also a quit date will be when the preparations end and the battle begins.

You will need to have things like hard candy, popcorn, gum, and toothpicks around when your quit date arrives.  I would recommend a trip to the library and a hobby store.  I bought myself a kite.  It is not an activity I normally engage in and it gave me many hours of activity in the first week.  Make sure you have the food you need so that a trip to the store will not be in your future.

Re-invent yourself.  Most smokers, if not all, have a smoke first thing in the morning.  In the time before the quit date keep putting off that morning smoke latter and latter in the morning. 

Now start power walking first thing in the morning.  Walking needs to become your new morning ritual.  It is healthy and you don't smoke while power walking.

Avoid smoking triggers.  Some people just have to have a smoke with that morning cup of coffee.  Drink something else for a couple of weeks.  Some people just have to have a smoke with that beer.  Avoid drinking for a couple of weeks.  This is two examples of smoking triggers there are many others.  In my personal life I had a morning ritual of making coffee and taking the dog outside to get the paper.  I altered that.  The dog has finally accepted the new routine.  Be ready to either avoid these things or be prepared to realize what is happening and catch yourself.

Lastly, give yourself as much time as you can.  Make your start date a Friday that you have off and take the next week (or two) off.  Put as much time between your start date and the next time you resume your routine life as you can possibly can.

Quitting

We had a brief chat about smoking and how that lead to an addiction to nicotine.  Now let's talk about quitting.

The dictionary has two definations that apply here (1) discontinue: put an end to a state or an activity, and (2) foreswear: turn away from; give up.

To see ourselves without smoking is not such a hard thing.  To actually become smoke free requires a most difficult journey.You cannot turn away from smoking without pain and tribulation.

The commitment to quit is not to be made lightly.  What you are about to go through needs some thread to hang on to.  Having a smoke is so easy compared to riding the craving out. 

Some call it will power.  It does not matter what the name is.  You will have to stay the course.  You will have to become a quitter.

So.......are you ready to quit smoking?  Are you now?   You are going to give that hag secratary her walking papers.  Congratulations.  If you are someone who has smoked all their adult life you are fixing to make life a great deal better.
You are going to turn off the feel good chemicals that nicotine puts in your system.  Your body is not going to like that.

Smoking

Let's begin with smoking.

I wear coveralls and a hard hat at work.  If the east pump quits and you need the west one give me a call.  If the transfer line is plugged and you want it cleared give me a call.  If you want to know what happens when you ingest smoke I am not the one you need to be calling on.

If you want to know about dopamine and neurotransmitter reactions in the brain you better call some one else.  (Google)

I have seen commericals on TV where a cute animated critter encounters some kind of smack down due to the medication that is being sold.  Well I am not selling anything and quiting smoking is not cute or pretty.

There is, however, somewhere in the brain a sterotypical secretary who is in charge of the amount of dopamine in your system.  I do not know where she sits but I know very well her duties.  She detects that dopamine levels are low and she sends a memo to the brain to smoke a cigarette.  If you step outside and have a smoke she is happy and releases some dopamine.  However, if you are in the family car tearing down the interstate and cannot light up for a couple of hours she sends memos to the anger center, the angst center, the nervous center and on and on utill she is notified that smoke is entering the lungs.  Even then sometimes she will not release the dopamine until a second smoke is lit.

You my friend are addicted.  Face it.  That is the word....addicted.

Think back to a time before the sterotypical secretary had a job in your brain.  When all the dopamine you needed was released by riding a bike down a hill or when a pretty girl smiled at you.  Then for some reason lost to time you inhaled the smoke of a cigarette and coughed your damn lungs out.  Why did you ever have the second one?

Ok so you are now a smoker.  You have you favorite Nicotine Induction Mean (NIM).  Cigarette, cigar, cigarillo whatever.  You now work for the  sterotypical secretary.  When she says jump, you jump.  Cool huh?  That sterotypical secretary is really good at her job.  She keeps the dopamine level just where she thinks it should be.  It's cold outside...tough.  It's raining outside....tough.  Your baby is about to be born...tough.  You don't really have enough money to buy you smokes....tough.  That hag is one mean cookie.

Where are we now?  You are young and you smoke.  You may think it is cool, or you may think it makes you look and act older.  Now that you are older how do think it makes you look and act?  That secretary has more of a hold on you than you realize.  The feel good hormones run through your body and you cannot any longer do certain things as well or at all.  You my have a wheeze when you breath or lack the ability to run.  You may have health problems or are scared that you may get them.  Friend, that fear is very, very real.

I said earlier that I am not the one to ask how the compounds react in the chemistry of the body but I do know that you are addicted and if you are reading this you are ready to end it.

Cold turkey pointers

There are as many ways to quit smoking as there are people on the planet.  So many people ask what is the best way to quit smoking.  I do not know if I can answer that question.  I can tell you what I went through when I quit smoking cold turkey.