Had another good day I think. Got lots of my work done and didn't spend too much of my day wondering when I could have a cigarette. That happens you know. You quit. Then you start thinking about rewarding yourself for quitting. Like as soon as I get this done, I'll go have a cigarette because I've gone almost 2 weeks now. Then it dawns on you that it's not about that.
It's not the same as trying to lose weight. Where you cut back your calorie intake and exercise then reward yourself every once in awhile just to keep from resenting the entire process. It is so far from that it's not funny.
You really have to keep yourself from believing in the cigarette as a reward and come up with something else that you can do for yourself other than smoke. I haven't quite figured what that thing is yet. I don't usually deprive myself of my wants, so there's not much that's going to be a "treat" per se. If you have any ideas, let me know. And no this wasn't directed at anyone or meant to say that dieting was easy. This was just a thought I had yesterday about performance vs reward.
Ok, I'm going to stop there and head home from work. What a gorgeous day today and a Friday to boot.
Will post day 14 tonight. A milestone.
Interesting Facts:
As teenagers, what most of us thought would be a brief rebellious experiment was quickly transformed into a powerful lifelong chemical addiction as regular nicotine feedings soon became mandatory. New studies confirm that for some it only took a couple of nicotine laden cigarettes before the shackles of slavery started to close.
What seemed like innocent stealing of a little more of our brain's primary reward neuro-chemical soon resulted in dopamine pathway de-sensitization and up-regulation. Two, five, eight nicotine fixes a day. When will enough be enough? "Tomorrow, tomorrow" or "I love being addicted" became our lifetime cry! Welcome to the realities of true chemical dependency. A world built upon lies.
Smoking Cartoon of the Day:
Day 13
I have now stopped smoking for 1 week, 5 days, 20 hours, 4 minutes, 58 seconds. At 5 minutes per cigarette I have increased my life expectancy by 1 day, 36 minutes, 13 seconds.
- Cigarettes Not Smoked: 295
- Money Saved: $88.57
- Future Value of Invested Savings: $187.21
In My Lifetime
| Number of cigarettes I have smoked: | 251,850 |
| Total amount I have spent on cigarettes: | $75,555.00 |
| Forgone interest earnings on money spent: | $99,115.28 |
| Total cost of my past smoking: | $174,670.28 |
i admire you more than you can possibly know and your strength and determination and sharing your feelings in a blog have given me strength to work at a new way of eating....not using it as a crutch or thinking that i cant live without fewer calories or god forbid and extra candy bar....ty for being there and for sharing, i know that its not something you typically do, there must be a reason....you are a motivator....giving others the courage and strength to try and do what you are doing...without even having a clue....
ReplyDeletei not longer use food as my reward, thats what i mean to say, lol, i just should say that huh
ReplyDeleteThank you Denise. I know you have just as hard a time with food as I have with nicotine. I'm sure there is a correlation there as well. I am proud of what you are doing and how hard you are working at making changes. One step at a time. Hugs
ReplyDeletethis is about your journey..i just need you to know that its making my journey better and easier....getting strength from you..ty
ReplyDelete