Day 107

Hey folks

So I've gone for apple just as Zoe has gone for HTC. Maybe now that we've both stopped smoking we can make a career as phone critics. Now that I'm getting more used to the apple I reckon I could put up a pretty good fight but as an HTC user I know that Zoe would have some pretty good comebacks.

As far as the world of non smoking goes...

Nothing much to report this week folks. The project that was annoying me is officially over. As part of that I had to train a group of folk I know. That's never good as other trainers are the most pig ignorant bunch you'll ever meet. However they are now done and I hopefully wont find myself in that position again anytime soon. The fact that I got through the last eight weeks or so without smoking means that I can confidently predict that I'll never smoke again because, if I can resist against that provocation I can resist against anything.

A few weeks ago I talked about getting ripped off. I mentioned that my car needed breaks and that everyone wanted to charge way over the odds or do work that I didn't need. Well now it's me that has to look stupid as, the garage that did the breaks said the the discs needed done as well, turns out they weren't lying and now I've got to put my car in again. I'll have to pay for yet more breaks and a new set of discs. Bummer. Wouldn't be so bad if I hadn't felt so clever about telling them just to leave the discs.

Well I genuinely haven't much to add tonight so I'll sign off and update during the week. Cheers folks

T

Day 100

Yep you read it correctly....100 a century. 100 days ago I decided to start a blog about quitting smoking. At the time it was by no means certain that the blog would actually involve my quitting smoking. It was more about what would happen if a committed smoker did an experiment with Champix.

85 days ago I actually went for the first full day in at least ten years without a single cigarette. 9 days later on 24/02/10 I caved and smoked a cig. It's now more than 60 days since I smoked. I did not smoke at all during March or April and am now half way through May. It looks like I'll never smoke again.

So what's it like? Well Champix is supposed to make you not want to smoke and to find it sickening when you do. That didn't work for me. I didn't stop enjoying smoking and I actually found it pretty hard to quit. Anyone that thinks quitting with Champix is easy is kidding themselves in my book although, since starting this site, I have found people who thought it was easy.

Thirty odd years of smoking did not and have not dissapeared over night. In the early days it's actually hard to describe how painful it was to not smoke. Even now it rears it's head when I least expect it. That said I actually quit Champix after just six weeks and just carried on not smoking.

So what's stopping me? Giving up was shit and I really don't want to have to do it again. Not coughing till I get a headache or feel faint of a morning is pretty good too. Loads of folk say their skin gets better but I'm afraid mine looks worse and has done from the minute I stopped. I keep thinking it will get better but so far it hasn't. I also haven't felt the need to join a gym or take up jogging although last week I was out with the dog a couple of times which was quite nice. Will I live forever? Doubt it. Maybe I wont die of smoking though.

So now I'm cutting down on the drink too. Last week and this week I've pretty much cut out drinking on the school nights though I'm as bad as ever at the weekends. If I keep it up I could end up even healthier. To be honest cutting down the drink is more about money than health but it's got to be worthwhile.

The course that pissed me off so much last week is out of the way. Not my finest moment but good enough. I've got the same again with some of my colleagues this week and then that's gone forever. Good riddance.

This week I've also caved in and ordered an iPhone. Being a total geek I had tried to avoid the iPhone thing. Three or four years ago I got a Sony with handwriting recognition and satnav. It was almost a PC. Two years ago I got an HTC with windows mobile and a working version of office. It was a PC. I kept saying to iPhone users how everything they could do I could also do. Thing is it's getting to the stage where I'm trying pretty hard to keep up. That is, to keep up with what the average iPhone user is doing. The clever iPhone users are doing so much more. So now folks....I'm going to be a clever iPhone user and show everyone what can be done.

It's worth mentioning before I finish.... Zoe who I link to is still stopped smoking but, like myself, has stopped taking Champix way before time. Poet who I also link to is also now comfortably in to her second smoke free week and is beginning to find it easier. Stopping smoking is possible folks.

Speak again during the week
T

Day 92: The dark days are over

At 9pm tonight I was looking out the window and it was still daylight.

Up until 2008 we always lived in flats. Big nice comfortable flats but flats. Places where it's hard to park your car and people argue about whos turn it is to do what. In the winter of 08 we moved to a house. Don't get too excited we didn't win the lottery or anything but with the worlds banks in crisis we did punch a bit above our weight and moved to a semi-detached house with garden space and parking space etc. Last year was all about making said house a home and was a bit like hard work. This year we get to see the fruits of some of that work. Our garden that, as recently as Easter, was covered in snow is now a spring wonderland. Tulips, daffodils and loads of other yellows and reds and blues. Add a bit of sunshine and it's hard not to be happy.

Yep, I'm hell of a glad I stopped smoking when I did. It somehow seemed easier to cope with feeling like shit when the weather and the daylight and everything else were also like shit.

It's the first of May. That means that there have now been two complete months this year where I didn't smoke. Two and half if you count that I started stopping in February. Do I miss it? Well certainly not the way I missed it when I stopped. The way Poet and Kath miss it now. I wouldn't wish that on anyone and guys it will get easier. Nope I miss smoking a bit. Like Zoe said on her blog I sometimes go several hours and then notice that I haven't even had a pang. I think I miss smoking because I really wanted to smoke. Yep, I liked the smelly stuff. So, if no-one was looking and no-one would ever know, would I go back to it? No. I find it hard to believe myself but here's the thing:

I like not coughing
I like that I can get out of the house faster in the morning
I like that I don't need five minutes before I do anything
I like not being short of breath
I like being able to drink a whole pint at the bar (two or three if I want)
I like that no-one can imagine how I managed to quit. They think it's some sort of magic

The office I've been working in is in the middle of bloody no-where. As a result without cigs as an excuse there's very little reason to leave the building. At first that depressed me a bit but now I just go out and walk to end of the car park and back. It's something that all smokers understand. You need to get out every so often.

Now that I think I can pretty safely count myself as a non smoking success I'm beginning to wonder how to develop this blog into something else. I've quite enjoyed blogging.

I plugged in a piece of software called google analytics on 03/04 because I thought it would be interesting. Well I absolutely wasn't wrong. I have always had a counter at the bottom of the page but it only measures each unique IP address that visits and nothing else. Analytics does so much more. Analytics tells me that 456 visitors hit on 1662 pages in a month. Someone from Japan read 19 pages in one visit whilst there is at least one regular visitor from Australia, two from the states and several from Canada. That's in addition to those who have actually set themselves up to follow the site.

With that sort of reach on the world I'd like to carry on blogging. Any ideas for a new blog welcome....

T

Quitzits

Yep....they are called quitzits. Once you know that you can search on that term and you'll find that the acne that is driving me nuts is one of the not so well kept secrets of giving up smoking. Giving up smoking that is and not any medications.

Lots of people suggest that these nasty little gits are the results of the badness (not sure if there is any chemical definition for this toxic nastiness)escaping however I prefer the rationale that: Smoking drys your skin. Over the years your skin starts producing more and more oils to defend itself from your constant assaults. It then takes a wee while after you've stopped for your skin to calm down on the over production hence the spots. For some folk they can last up to a couple of months (but no one seems to be harmed by them so not like cancer or emphysema or anything like that that you get with smoking)

This astonishing peice of research was yet another happy outcome of my favorite stalking software that I've spoke about on several posts now. As well as giving you the numbers that go to your blog and what locations they are from it also has other stuff like how they got to your page i.e. Google or blogger etc. Once you know how they got to your blog you can even find out what the search term that got them there was. Someone got to my blog via a google search for Chantix spots. Cool.

Even better I then tried this search which led me to quitzits. Even even better a search for quitzits led me to this blog which is fantastic and makes me feel distinctly uncool. Unfortunately this guy quit back in 2008 so it doesn't update but it's the best non smoking blog I've come accross. i also cut and pasted the video below from it. It's a bit on the long side but well funny. Enjoy the vid then go to the blog...



The blog is at: http://quittingsmokingagain.blogspot.com