Joanne! Good for you! Stick with it. When you pull it off, you'll be very proud. I'm sure all this has been mentioned above.... drink lots of water, take a sip when ever you feel like lighting up. Cave to sugar cravings, but remember you can get hooked on sugar too. Sleep all you need (good to listen to your body). Have gum to chew. Licorice root is supposed to be good for cravings. You chew it, it's sweet and it is supposed to help level blood sugar.
Take it easy. Let your body go through the process, just keep thinking how much better you'll feel physically and mentaly when it's all done. Go for little sprints or long walks.
GOOD LUCK - hang in there!
Actually, Matrix, I got sick a lot for the year after I quit. Your lungs are weak with healing and a little raw. And the toxicity of the smoke seemed almost to kill off some of the bugs.
JoanneD - hugs heading your way. The fluids and rest are a real key to helping your body in the early days of detoxification. Take care of yourself and come back and bitch at us - we understand that particular bitch.
Hi, little k...
That's interesting. I got bronchitis and colds quite often when I smoked, and one time the bronchitis actually turned into pneumonia. After the pneumonia (which made me weak for a year after I had it) I quit. To be clear, I never smoked after I was diagnosed with the pneumonia. Have only had bronchitis maybe 2 or 3 times in the 22 years since. Have a major allergy to cigarette smoke and can't stand to be around it, though.
You just never know what them dang ciggs are doing to you!
"You just never know what them dang ciggs are doing to you!":
But it ain't good - keep holding out Joanne!
Keep it up, 'tis well worth it.
I "only" smoked 10-30 ciggies a day for about a decade (most of them handrolled and unfiltered), and did manage to kick, more or less, a couple of years ago, after sucking down a pack in about four hours along with a painful number of 7&7s in a bar on Halloween. Just didn't buy a pack the next day, and was pretty much quit at that point. I had to stay away from the bars for a while, though, and I drank oceans of green tea (a little bit of the feel-good effect from the aroma and the caffeine without getting so wired that I needed the smoke break to calm down) in the days that followed.
I still smoke one or two cigarettes a month, and they can be around the house and I don't go back on the wagon, so I'm probably not a completely addictive personality, but it was still a little rough. I feel better, though -- and I've saved a lot of money on both ciggies and on the ducats I don't drop in bars now ('cuz the smoke-filledness of them makes them less appealing now).
Good luck. People I'd known for a long time were absolutely shocked that I don't have to pop out every half an hour for a smoke -- it's very doable.
