Ya know - After 3+ decades of smoking

[Marthe48]

29. Cinnamon red hots

When John and I quit, we each ate a bag of those a day. I also would go out to the far end of the yard after dinner almost every night for the first few months, and cry my eyes out. We both stopped eating the candy a few months after we quit. We both gained weight, we both lost weight. It really helped to stay away from smokers. We were on the outs with both sides of the family, and by the time we patched things up, the smoke annoyed us, but didn't tempt us. lol

I prepared myself to quit, the last time, but creating a mantra and repeating it to myself daily for almost a year before I quit. (I want to quit. I can quit.) And also repeated to myself that I was giving myself health, not denying myself cigarettes. After I got through the worst of withdrawal, and I felt tempted, I asked myself if I really wanted to go through it again?

We put the money we spent on cigarettes into our savings. If you don't care so much about your health, quitting does improve your standard of living.

We got to lecture our kids about smoking. I smelled smoke in their car and pointed out that they had brought pictures of damaged lungs from school to show us, to help us quit, and watched us suffer as we quit. My younger daughter said it was her cousin who had smoked in the car. I reminded her that she and her sister told us constantly how they hated the smell of smoke, and yet, she allowed her cousin to smoke in her car? So we had fun making sure the girls didn't smoke.

I chewed a lot of gum, too. I learned how to make the wrapper chain and that gave me something to do with my hands.

If you don't have something to do with your hands, maybe you can find a hobby that keeps your hands busy, like knitting or even makework-stringing beads, coloring (those adult coloring books really do help stress!)

You can do it. Hang in there!