# still not smoking, but getting jittery...



## FierySquidFace (Nov 10, 2009)

So I'm on day 9 now with absolutely no ciggarettes. I'm doing good, and pretty proud of myself, but I'm getting moderatly intense cravings, pretty regularly now. Also a bit crabby/jittery at times. When the cravings are at their worst, I try to drink alot of water, and excercise my **** off. And of course staying busy with training throughout the week helps, but the cravings are getting more intense, and the jitters are coming more often now... trying not to cave here...

Any advise on how to stay strong in the face of nicatine adversity?


----------



## Bill Mattocks (Nov 10, 2009)

FierySquidFace said:


> So I'm on day 9 now with absolutely no ciggarettes. I'm doing good, and pretty proud of myself, but I'm getting moderatly intense cravings, pretty regularly now. Also a bit crabby/jittery at times. When the cravings are at their worst, I try to drink alot of water, and excercise my **** off. And of course staying busy with training throughout the week helps, but the cravings are getting more intense, and the jitters are coming more often now... trying not to cave here...
> 
> Any advise on how to stay strong in the face of nicatine adversity?



What worked for me was to give up.  Well, kind of.

What I was when I felt the craving the strongest, I said, OK body.  You want a cigarette, fine.  You win.  But first you have to do something for me.  You have to wait two minutes.  If you still want a smoke in two minutes, we'll go have one.

The urge, when it hits, is never more than a minute long.  If you can hold off for two minutes, it passes.  That gets you to the next one.

It's not an easy battle.  Took me over a year before I stopped dreaming of smoking, waking up thinking I had just smoked, even tasting cigarettes in my mouth in the morning as if I had just had one.

Hang in.  It's tough, but worth it.


----------



## FierySquidFace (Nov 10, 2009)

Bill Mattocks said:


> It's not an easy battle. Took me over a year before I stopped dreaming of smoking, waking up thinking I had just smoked, even tasting cigarettes in my mouth in the morning as if I had just had one.
> 
> Hang in. It's tough, but worth it.


 
that's wild man. thanx for the encouragement.


----------



## Carol (Nov 10, 2009)

A guy I work with quit cigarettes by keeping cans of Polar Seltzer in the fridge.  He said whenever he would get an urge to smoke, he'd crack open a can of seltzer instead, and that would usually push off his cravings for about 2 hours.  Sounds odd....but he's been smoke-free for about a year now.

It may help if you throw yourself in to something you enjoy.  I think on another thread you mentioned you're a bass player?  Maybe playing some more music will help, or keeping your mind engaged by mentally stepping through some Primus or Rush bass lines (or something else you like) when the urge to smoke grabs you.

Keep fighting the good fight.  I'm sure its not easy, but you're a strong fellow and we're all cheering for you.


----------



## MA-Caver (Nov 10, 2009)

taking a claw hammer to your fingers ... smashing them *everytime* you think you're about to give in to have a cigarette... usually works... 

Seriously... I'll be trodding down that path myself here soon... (oh HUSH on the "why not NOW??" okay)... so it's tough but do-able.


----------



## Bill Mattocks (Nov 10, 2009)

FierySquidFace said:


> that's wild man. thanx for the encouragement.



Just wait.  If you were a heavy smoker like me, your body will do some interesting stuff.  You haven't started coughing yet, but you will.  And you'll cough up some science fiction stuff.  I'm talking museum exhibits.

And your mind will start f'ing with you like crazy.  You'll finish an assignment at work, and your brain will say "Wow, that was great, you did a great job, let's go have a SMOKE!"

And your brain will say "Wow, you're at the two week mark, man, that's the end of the physical addiction part, let's celebrate!  Let's go have a smoke!"

And if you have friends who smoke, stay the hell away from them.  I mean it.  One night out with the guys and you're done, back on the cigarettes again.  You can't stop yourself, no one can.

Just wait, your body and your brain will start messing with you, and they'll get really sly about it, too.  You'll see.


----------



## FierySquidFace (Nov 10, 2009)

Carol Kaur said:


> It may help if you throw yourself in to something you enjoy. I think on another thread you mentioned you're a bass player? Maybe playing some more music will help, or keeping your mind engaged by mentally stepping through some Primus or Rush bass lines (or something else you like) when the urge to smoke grabs you.
> 
> Keep fighting the good fight. I'm sure its not easy, but you're a strong fellow and we're all cheering for you.


 
good call. thanx lady!


----------



## FierySquidFace (Nov 10, 2009)

Bill Mattocks said:


> Just wait. If you were a heavy smoker like me, your body will do some interesting stuff. You haven't started coughing yet, but you will. And you'll cough up some science fiction stuff. I'm talking museum exhibits.
> 
> And your mind will start f'ing with you like crazy. You'll finish an assignment at work, and your brain will say "Wow, that was great, you did a great job, let's go have a SMOKE!"
> 
> ...


 

well, I'll look forward to that... :barf:  Fortunantly, I don't have alot of smoker friends, so don't have to worry about that so much. when did you start to feel better?


----------



## Azzy (Nov 10, 2009)

Bill Mattocks said:


> Just wait.  If you were a heavy smoker like me, your body will do some interesting stuff.  You haven't started coughing yet, but you will.  And you'll cough up some science fiction stuff.  I'm talking museum exhibits.



Through a full spectrum of colours...

The easiest way I found to quit was to get sick. Nothing worse than going for a smoke when you have the flu and relatively your cravings don't feel as intense.


----------



## MA-Caver (Nov 11, 2009)

Azzy said:


> Through a full spectrum of colours...
> 
> The easiest way I found to quit was to get sick. Nothing worse than going for a smoke when you have the flu and relatively your cravings don't feel as intense.


True... plus the cigs taste like crap.


----------



## still learning (Nov 11, 2009)

Hello, Keep up the good job of quitting smoking..!

In Hawaii a pack cost about $9.00 today because of the added "taxes"..
..wherever you brought before...look at the "saving"  .....keep saving and buy a new Martial art uniforms for the rewards of stop smoking..!

..and or buy this book?   ...The Handbook to Higher Consicous..by Ken Keyes...May change your life...and make you a happier person...learn to life in the here and now...!

Aloha,    ...Judo is good too!


----------



## Jenny_in_Chico (Nov 11, 2009)

Squiddy, remind yourself that *women hate the taste of cigarettes on a man's breath.*

Non-smokers = hotness

Smokers = not so much


----------



## Jenny_in_Chico (Nov 11, 2009)

MA-Caver said:


> taking a claw hammer to your fingers ... smashing them *everytime* you think you're about to give in to have a cigarette... usually works...


 
Now see, *that* was funny.


----------



## FierySquidFace (Nov 11, 2009)

Jenny_in_Chico said:


> Squiddy, remind yourself that *women hate the taste of cigarettes on a man's breath.*
> 
> Non-smokers = hotness
> 
> Smokers = not so much


 
I know, it's a discusting addiction. 

But I've already been fighting my brain, day in and day out for months now, so the nic-fits are just one more little enemy to add to the battlefield in my mind. I was losing the overall battle everyday at first, but now I'm to the point where i win sometimes. 


Still, over the past 10 days the cigarette enemy has turned from 
this::hammer:    to this: :biggun:    lol. no worries though. 
compared to my other mental enemy, the nicotine fiend is miniscule. I can beat that little f***er... maybe one day, I'll win the war.


----------



## Bill Mattocks (Nov 11, 2009)

FierySquidFace said:


> well, I'll look forward to that... :barf:  Fortunantly, I don't have alot of smoker friends, so don't have to worry about that so much. when did you start to feel better?



I started 'feeling better' after about two weeks.  I didn't quit craving cigarettes for about two years.  Sorry, it's an addiction.  Takes a long time.


----------



## xfighter88 (Dec 18, 2009)

Stopping any habit is rough wether smoking or overeating. You are doing the right thing by posting on the forum as it helps to keep you encouraged and accountable.

Wish you the best.


----------



## Steve (Dec 18, 2009)

FierySquidFace said:


> So I'm on day 9 now with absolutely no ciggarettes. I'm doing good, and pretty proud of myself, but I'm getting moderatly intense cravings, pretty regularly now. Also a bit crabby/jittery at times. When the cravings are at their worst, I try to drink alot of water, and excercise my **** off. And of course staying busy with training throughout the week helps, but the cravings are getting more intense, and the jitters are coming more often now... trying not to cave here...
> 
> Any advise on how to stay strong in the face of nicatine adversity?


I smoked a pack a day for 14 years and quit unsuccessfully about 10 times before I quit for good in 1998.

I've thought a lot about the difference over the years and I'll tell you what I think (for what it's worth). The physical cravings and withdrawal was the same every time I tried to quit, but the big difference is when I quit for good, I immediately shifted my self image. The day I quit for good, I was a non-smoker. I didn't identify as a smoker anymore. I wasn't an ex-smoker. I was a non-smoker. 

This shift completely changed how I approached cravings. I no longer dwelt on them. I was ready to quit. Instead of entertaining an internal dialogue where I had thoughts about how much I wanted a smoke, I just moved on. "Oh man, I could use a smoke. No. I'm going to be good. I can do this. But man, just one and I'll make it through the rest of the day. No... can't cave. But man, oh man. I'm so stressed out right now. One to calm my nerves. One isn't going to hurt me. I'll just recommit after." Etc, etc... until you inevitably talk yourself into a smoke. Sound familiar? When I quit for good, I just... didn't do any of that. Wasn't an option. I'd crave a cigarette, acknowledge the craving and then... no big deal. I'd move on. 

It's like being hungry... or working out even when you're tired... or taking out the garbage even though it's raining and you're nice and warm in your chair. You just do what you have to do. Coffee is instantly not associated with cigarattes anymore because you're a non-smoker. A beer isn't part and parcel with a smoke because... you don't smoke. 

I've never really tried to articulate this before, so I'm sorry if it doesn't make sense. I guess what I'm driving at is, if you're really serious about quitting smoking, you have to just cut this crap out. This is probably counter to what other people think, and if you choose not to listen, it won't hurt my feelings.   But, I'd recommend that you don't post about it. Don't look for support from outside. Just decide for yourself that you're now a non-smoker. Period. You no longer smoke. That's something you did.  For you to be successful, you have to be committed and it has to come from you.  No amount of external support will make you quit smoking if you can't do it on your own.  

Regardless of how you choose to go about it, I genuinely hope you do it.  Good luck. I really hope you're a non-smoker now.


----------



## Tames D (Dec 19, 2009)

Hopefully this will give you some motivation to remain a non smoker: My father in law was told on Tuesday that he has level 4 lung cancer. There is no question in the doctors mind that it is smoking related. He's 66 years old.


----------



## Flea (Dec 19, 2009)

Tames, my sympathies.  I hope he can have a good prognosis.

I've never smoked, but the most dramatic quitting practice I've ever heard was to save up all the butts from one's final smoking days in a big coffee can.  Then when that craving hits, _force_ your face down in that can.  It's supposed to be a nasty reminder of what you're leaving behind.

Happily, quitting smoking is one thing I know very little about.  I wish you well though.


----------



## seasoned (Dec 19, 2009)

I quite smoking over 40 years ago. The day I made Shodan, (1st degree) I stopped and never started again. It was the hardest thing I ever did, but after quiting 3 times before that, the black belt did it for me. Mind you I was smoking a pack a day, and my wind was down the tubes. I had all the excuses in the world before my black belt test, but after, I could not let lower ranks take advantage of me, in my oxygen deprived state. Hang in, you can do it. As Bill said, about two years is what it will take to somewhat kick the urge. I also got into running and weights, and you can't do all of that and still smoke. Not effectively, anyway. Good luck.


----------



## Gary Crawford (Dec 19, 2009)

I smoked for 29 yrs and 8 months and tried to quit for the time I started. What finally did it for me was chantix(and a lot of want to). I did do something for the last month before I quit that I believe helped my success.  I made my self wait at least 30 minutes after eating to smoke. I figured that was the toughest urge to overcome. I was offered Chantix by the V.A. and jumped on the opportunity. After my 1 week taking it and smoking, I almost quit on my stop date( I had two) but the next day, I was done with smoking. A week later I went to my favorite watering hole and ordered a beer.  I had  few beers in a bar where mostly everybody was smoking and I knew right then that I could do this! There is a price,crazy dreams. Not nightmares,but just crazy stuff. I finally lost it out of exhaustion after the 8th week and had to stop taking the Chantix. The biggest difference in day to day life I noticed was not only not having to pay for cigarettes,but not having to go to the trouble of buying them,making sure I have them,making sure I have a place to smoke,time to smoke,do I have a lighter? Where did I leave them,,ect,ect. I now can't believe that I ever smoked.


----------



## Twin Fist (Dec 21, 2009)

I started smoking Oct of 85 and quit Oct of 09

thats 24 years

Chantix is what worked for me.

I am not gonna front, i MISS them

but i aint gonna do it


----------



## Steve (Dec 21, 2009)

Twin Fist said:


> I started smoking Oct of 85 and quit Oct of 09
> 
> thats 24 years
> 
> ...


Most people quit and get cranky.  You quit and became LESS cranky!  .  Seriously, though, keep it up!


----------



## Twin Fist (Dec 21, 2009)

thanks Steve


----------



## chaos1551 (Dec 31, 2009)

I quit smoking after ten years.  The thing that helped me quit was thinking ahead to how I would honestly feel after smoking.  Also, I more or less quit drinking for a few months to keep my inhibitions about me.

There was no magical click in my mind the time I succeeded quitting (opposed to the umpteen other times I had tried) but in my failures I would tell myself that I will never quit quitting.

Opposing the pure evil of nicotine became a little easier each day.  Standing up to my addiction finally became "easy" after at least two years.  To this day I still crave (how any deep addiction will affect) but I always think about how I would honestly feel.

I used a trick that I wouldn't recommend for everyone: at very hard times when I didn't care how I would honestly feel, I would go to a smoke-filled bar, order ONE beer and drink it.  By the time I was done and left the joint, I felt much more at ease (second-hand smoke).

In the end it is sheer willpower.  Where there's a will there's a way.


----------



## Slav (Jan 10, 2010)

I was a smoker before I went in for sport too and I gave up this habbit just for the sake of the trainings. It is extremely harmful for the heart to combine smoking with excercises and I was told that it's better to choose either one thing or the other. 

Maybe my advice is very simple but I did so. At the time when I had a great desire for a cigarette I told myself: you'l not be able to train if you smoke now even one cigarrete. The most difficult thing for me was to overcome some patterns of life connected with smoking (e.g. smoking while talking to someone or during lunch breaks at the university) but in fact it turned out to be just stereotypes. I almost guarantee that after 2 months you'l not want to do it and after 4 months you'l almost forget about cigarettes


----------



## celtic_crippler (Jan 10, 2010)

Stay strong brother!

When I quit back in "97" I just stayed busy and dealt with the oral fixation by sucking on lemon drops. LOL

Training your butt off is a good alternative to smoking and a great distraction to get your mind off of it. 

In general, it takes about 2 weeks to get over the worst of the cravings. It may take a little longer to overcome the oral fixation. For that you can just chew gum or suck on rock candy (like lemon drops lol). 

My advice is to take advantage of the dojo and channel that energy into training whenever you can. 

For me, that worked and eventually the cravings went away, but my skills got a lot better because of them LOL 

Good luck! You can do it!


----------



## shane (Mar 25, 2010)

My friend this is a good that you are smoking yet . smoking is very bad for the health and fitness , the smoking reduce the stamina and your energy levels


----------



## OnlyAnEgg (Mar 26, 2010)

Hang in there, sqid.  I'm making you my inspiration!


----------



## Spanky (Mar 26, 2010)

Squid,

Congrats on quitting!

I know what you're going through, I smoked for several years.  Nicorette gum, and the fact that my wife & I were expecting our first child helped me quit fast.

Isn't it funny how you can smell cigarette smoke a mile away now?

Take care.


----------



## Shawn-San (Mar 28, 2010)

Congrats
... and keep up the good work.
I smoked for 12 years and what finally did it for me was just my sheer willpower to do well in martial arts and succeed. I got to a point where I was seriously fed up with spending all that money on cigarettes.

Things to remember:
- You no longer are spending your hard-earned money on something that is giving you cancer.
- You no longer are staining your teeth, burning your clothes, etc.
- You no longer are decreasing your life-span by five minutes each time.
- Your clothes no longer stink of carcinogens and other chemicals.
- You can finally build up your cardio and keep up with your peers.
- You can finally breath better.
- You can be free from addiction.


----------



## psyon82 (May 17, 2010)

Shawn-San said:


> Congrats
> ... and keep up the good work.
> I smoked for 12 years and what finally did it for me was just my sheer willpower to do well in martial arts and succeed. I got to a point where I was seriously fed up with spending all that money on cigarettes.
> 
> ...



Good things to remember right there! I'm not a heavy smoker (a pack every 2-3 days), but I am slowly weaning myself from them (max is 3 per day). My goal is to give them up completely after I test for black belt next week. This is an annoying habit to try to quit. I lost count on how many times I've "quit", but I know for sure this will be my last time. Good luck to everyone trying to quit and congratulations to everyone who  has.


----------



## Kyosanim (May 20, 2010)

FierySquidFace said:


> So I'm on day 9 now with absolutely no ciggarettes. I'm doing good, and pretty proud of myself, but I'm getting moderatly intense cravings, pretty regularly now. Also a bit crabby/jittery at times. When the cravings are at their worst, I try to drink alot of water, and excercise my **** off. And of course staying busy with training throughout the week helps, but the cravings are getting more intense, and the jitters are coming more often now... trying not to cave here...
> 
> Any advise on how to stay strong in the face of nicatine adversity?





Nope no idea, but stay strong buddy.


----------

