Bucket Lists 2013

This year is just about up. It went by fast. Really fast. I wish I could go back and list all the memories and the big events that took place this year but sadly, my life is just about as exciting as watching a Kansas City Chiefs game. I know tomorrow is New Years but I am going to do this a little early. You can read my 2012 bucket list here. Calling it a bucket list isn’t the wisest of things. I am not dying. Go read up on my resolutions from last year and when you get back, I can tell you how it all went. I wonder how many I completed and how many fell through. Go ahead and read it.

Quitting Smoking

Have you heard about the nun that was told to quit smoking or leave the convent? She can’t decide which habit to kick.

It may be too early to tell but I am going to work on one of my bucket list items. I am going to try and finally call it quits on smoking. I have smoked for about 12 years. It doesn’t matter how long you or I have smoked. Smoking is addictive. I’ve quit before or as an old manager of mine put it,

Took a break.

He’s right. I took a break for 6 months before a large account for work landed in our laps and I was reaching again for a smoke to relax me during those hectic days. I shouldn’t have went back to it. I should have stayed strong and went with being a non-smoker again. Here I am. It’s about 2 years later and I still smoke. I am not a chain smoker. I don’t smoke packs a day. I can smoke up to 10 a day. It really depends on what I am doing. If I am drinking, then yes, I will probably smoke more than I should. If I am working all day, I will smoke less. It all depends on what I am doing and where I am. 

Courtesy of http://www.holgerappel.com/

I put this on my list on said I will quit. I said I will smoke that last cigarette and hopefully get to being active and doing more than just playing video games or when drinking sends me to the hospital. It was Monday. I had a few cigarettes left in my pack. I had more but the Chain Smoking Cryptkeeper came by and asked to buy a few. I had three left at one point. I thought of running to the store and getting another pack and then making that pack the last one. I didn’t go. If I did go, I would have to keep buying myself “that last pack”. 

I took a nice hot shower and planned on making a nice meal for myself. I open my pack and see that all I have left is one. 

Just one cigarette left. I made sure I got everything out of that final smoke. I puffed and puffed till there was nothing left to smoke. Inside, I ate my dinner and headed to bed shortly after. I wasn’t having much of a craving that night but the next morning, the cravings were there. Driving to work will be an issue. I smoke when I drive to work and have certain spots that I light up. I know it’s bad but when I drive to and from work, I am a chain smoker. That’s the only time I smoke more than I should. I will have one when I leave home and when I reach a certain spot (same spot each time) going to work, I light up another one. The same goes with when I head home. I light up when I leave work and when I reach a certain spot (different spot on way home) on that drive, I light up again. You can see why driving is going to be hard. To keep my mouth busy, I chewed on a pen as I drove. It was something. I didn’t have gum or candy. I grabbed a pen and just chewed away to keep my mouth busy during my first and final (hopefully) smokeless drive.

It has only been a day and a half since I quit smoking. Today has been a little iffy on the smoking. Right now, as I write this post, I am craving a smoke. I really want to get a quick puff just to get that quick sense of relaxation. If I do that, my goal will be void. I can’t go about with having just one here and there. It’s one or none. No more smoking. I had a few drinks last night and was proud that I had no craving. I have it today. Candy works. I bought some candy the other day and that craving I am having is getting an, ‘mfs’ from me. 

I purchased an app from the Apple App Store. It’s a quit smoking app. I’ll possibly do a review of it later. You can purchase it for $6.99. (Quit Smoking Now with Max Kirsten) I am going to keep you all updated from time to time about my status on smoking. I will let you know if I am staying strong. I’ll let you know if I snuck a smoke in or not. I will follow up with a week, a month, six months, and etc…

What about you. Are you quitting? Did you quit? What tricks did you use to quit? Gum? Use the patch? Me, I am going cold turkey. I am calling it quits and hopefully I can start exercising some. I will be able to use the bike I bought that never gets used. I bought it to get healthier but shortly after that, things went to shit. That’s when I quit smoking. That’s when I wanted to be healthy. But trying that, led to me getting attacks. I am going for a second round. This time I will win. I will soon be an ex-smoker.