Giving Up Smoking

What a hellish weekend. All work and no play, high stress levels and too much temptation around me. It’s been pure torment and giving up smoking seems to be getting harder rather than easier.

After them breaking last week, I’m really missing the electronic cigarettes ” href=”http://rcm-uk.amazon.co.uk/e/cm?t=smokersstop08-21&o=2&p=8&l=as1&asins=B0017PK05M&md=0M5A6TN3AXP2JHJBWT02&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr” target=”_blank”>electronic cigarettes and hope that my new battery and charger arrive in the post soon.

I’m using step 2 Nicorette patches at the moment. They are 10mg patches which is about the equivalent of 10 cigarettes a day which is what I smoked most days. They were fine at first but today I woke up with a sore throat, coughing and feeling as if I was starting with a cold.

That often happens when you stop smoking. I sometimes think that it’s the badness coming up out of your lungs, that’s what it feels like anyway. I decided to buy some oranges at work for the extra vitamin C having read once that you should up your vitamin C intake when you stop smoking. I also remembered from previous stop smoking attempts that I could never enjoy a cigarette after eating an orange.

Unfortunately for me the produce delivery was late by at least 6 hours and hadn’t arrived by the time I left work. No oranges but I got some vitamin C tablets.

It’s a good idea to peel an orange and save segments in a polythene bag in your fridge. When you feel like a cigarette eat a segment and besides doing you good it keeps the craving at bay for a while.

I’ve been getting worse with the munchies too. I was talking to a lady last week about quitting smoking and she told me that she had used nicotine patches to stop several times over the years but had started again because she was putting on too much weight.

Putting weight on is one of the main fears of smokers who want to quit. It isn’t the act of stopping it’s the aftermath, the wanting something to put in your mouth, something to mask the bad taste either from the patches or junk coming up out of your lungs.

Trying to diet at the same time as stopping smoking is always a bad idea, but if you accept that you are going to need substitutes for cigarettes then it’s best if you keep yourself in good supply of substitutes that you like and aren’t going to threaten your weight. Orange segments as I stated earlier are great, grapes another good healthy option that won’t make you fat.

If you like Tic Tacs they are pretty good too. They come in handy sized tubs for you to carry in your pockets and are only 2 calories each. I prefer the spearmint flavour, they help to keep your mouth fresh and don’t look as bad as chewing gum at work.

People around you don’t always help either. My workmates keep asking me if I’m going outside for a cig and reminding me. I don’t go on the tills much but when I do nearly every customers buys cigarettes. Somebody left nearly a full packet of cigarettes outside the office all weekend. It was difficult walking past them without borrowing one. I stopped myself because I knew that if I borrowed one I would buy a full pack to replace it and then I would be even more tempted.

It’s one day at a time really and every time you get through one it’s one step closer to your goal. I hope it will be easier when I get back on the e-cigarettes, it certainly felt easier with them.