Post #352,111
12/18/11 5:12:45 AM
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The twitching and crying only lasted a couple of hours
Last cigarette was Friday night, 10ish.
I was getting "snippy" around 11AM Saturday. M(junior) swears she hates me and would rather see me dead than speak to her. Looks like I'll be getting the silent treatment for a while. On the other hand, I got to say something that I've held back for a while, and used the nicotine twitches as cover.
At 10PM last night the full body twitching kicked in, all groups of nerves firing at random or so it seemed. I clawed up for a bit, both hands and and feet.
I declined any alcohol to get me through this. I figure the better I remember the less likely I will to have to do it again.
Now it seems to be over, at least on the physical side. Sure, I gotta watch out for habit issues, but that's mind control, not physical need.
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Post #352,112
12/18/11 6:18:11 AM
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Good show
I stopped smoking back in 2004.
One of my better decisions this life.
I was a complete shitty bastard for about a fortnight, and then it was if I never smoked in the first place.
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Post #352,113
12/18/11 8:56:05 AM
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Excellent.
Remember - "I choose not to smoke."
Good luck!
Cheers,
Scott.
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Post #352,114
12/18/11 9:55:26 AM
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Glad to hear it!
Good luck.
Regards,
-scott
Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson.
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Post #352,115
12/18/11 11:30:12 AM
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I found giving up smoking real easy.
Don't know when I quit - it just happened.
Of course, the only thing I smoked was Dannemann Valenca cigars, hand rolled in Brazil by escaped Nazi war criminals - they looked like a long reefer.
The Dannemanns were the only thing that could compete in flavor and harshness with the dried grape vines I smoked as a child. Cigarettes? Blaaaah!
My last few Dannemanns got eaten by insects. Today I generally keep a big cigar on hand for when I have a real bad cold - it helps with the nasal passages.
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Post #352,117
12/18/11 12:30:19 PM
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Good show.
Its easier to resist the longer you go. So, you are over the hump...
Just watch out for those triggers... those will getchya!
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Post #352,120
12/18/11 1:08:27 PM
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Probably right about the alcohol.
I quit about 25 years ago and I had to quit drinking for the first few weeks because I had an automatic habit of open a beer, light a cigarette. I don't remember being particular nasty while quitting, but my wife can tell stories that beggar legends... In any event good luck with it. I still don't think I feel any better for quitting but it's a LOT cheaper I still have a pack of Parliaments in the freezer that I bought for 98 cents; I quit when it threatened to go over a buck a pack. And I don't really remember how I felt a quarter of a century ago since I have an entirely new set of afflictions, but it was probably for the best.
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Post #352,124
12/18/11 9:56:28 PM
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Excellent move
Probably the best decision I've ever made was quitting. Actually, marrying my current wife was the best, this was a close second. December 2003, hard to believe it's been that long now that I think about it. Had a few grumpolufagus days (my son's term) the first month or so, been smooth sailing since.
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Post #352,125
12/18/11 11:00:13 PM
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I quit on my fiftieth birthday
...and was up to a couple of packs of Camel unfiltered per day by then. I still miss the lovely morning dance of nicotine and caffeine, which sent the IQ soaring and imparted excellent work habits well into the afternoon, but I do not miss ciggies as such (I dream occasionally that I've broken the fast, and in the dreams this is always attended by a crushing sense of self-loathing and remorse). Nicotine withdrawal was never going to be fun, but how much less so it would have been endured in tandem with a debilitating respiratory ailment!
Note, incidentally, that there are some long-term side effects attending this act of self-denial. For example, your clothing may shrink.
cordially,
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Post #352,129
12/19/11 8:23:59 AM
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I was lazy
and never took it up in the first place. Never liked the tasted of it.
"Chicago to my mind was the only place to be. ... I above all liked the city because it was filled with people all a-bustle, and the clatter of hooves and carriages, and with delivery wagons and drays and peddlers and the boom and clank of freight trains. And when those black clouds came sailing in from the west, pouring thunderstorms upon us so that you couldn't hear the cries or curses of humankind, I liked that best of all. Chicago could stand up to the worst God had to offer. I understood why it was built--a place for trade, of course, with railroads and ships and so on, but mostly to give all of us a magnitude of defiance that is not provided by one house on the plains. And the plains is where those storms come from."
-- E.L. Doctorow
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Post #352,176
12/20/11 2:39:21 PM
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Great Minds ... again
I had, on two occasions, ditched the monkey for 7-9 mos. stretches, giving lung cilia a chance to regenerate and keep the place clean(er.)
Having tapered down my Nixon-catalyzed voluntary addiction to maybe 1/2-pack/day of least-toxic--also filtered through an efficient tar trap:
the happenstance of delaying a bit too long the disinfection of a shopping cart
--led to an early-Oct. bout of the Popular upper respiratory disease, as transmitted by the thoughtless shoppers
who wipe nose and then grab a cart handle.
No interest in the active ingredient.. ensued for maybe ~ a week; no cold-turkey unnecessary suffering,
after which I merely counted the $/day,
converted to # of food/hungry feral cat, present and expected in any next.
Worked for my simple mind-stuff. RIP 1968-2011 not-too-effective Escape from Maudlin Murica
... and all that cha cha cha.
(A recent test-hit off an addict's burning cylinder confirms: mostly the cough reflex barely tickled, but not, I Want One of Those).
So far so good.
[..said, as: a one is "just passing the 17th floor"]
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Post #352,177
12/20/11 2:57:15 PM
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Keep it up!
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Post #352,205
12/21/11 7:16:11 AM
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Phase II - the gym
It's been about 5 years since I spent any time in the gym.
In the old days I was going for weight loss. Now I want endurance and cardio.
Day 1 was Saturday, 8 hours since last smoke. I lasted 4 minutes on the elliptical machine, and 10 in various other stuff, and I was done.
Day 2 was Monday. 12 minutes on the elliptical, 15 on the other machines.
Day 3 was today. 28 minutes on the elliptical, 20 on the others.
In the old days, I was going for fat burn, which meant LESS pushing and simply burning slowly. When going for cardio, you are supposed to push harder so your heart is getting pushed. But the damn machine doesn't pick up my heart rate from my fingers (covered with thick burned callouses) so I've got to get some type of monitor.
Ok, I think I have another 30 minutes of expansion, but I've hit my stride.
M watches me. She gets annoyed. She believes in no more than a 20% increase in time or weight when adding. I simply haven't hit my baseline. I'm very careful, and then add in 50% chunks until I hit stress, then back-off so I can have a difficult but not impossible 10 reps.
After 10 reps (the last couple not easy), I'll get up and walk around very quickly for 20 seconds, then get back to the machine to do it again. Works out any kinks that showed up.
Back in the apartment, I'm speeding along from the adrenaline and want to go back for another hour. Uhoh, I feel the addiction kicking in.
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Post #352,220
12/21/11 10:52:31 AM
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:-) Be careful though.
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Post #352,227
12/21/11 3:15:45 PM
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Well yeah, but only after I hurt myself
Left foot is a little hmm spidery.
Pulse of pain that follows the center out to the toes.
It goes away when I'm wearing my sneakers. I guess I need the support.
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Post #352,242
12/22/11 2:55:13 AM
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Take it easy
At your age, any damage you will take a long time to heal.
There's no rush.
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Post #352,247
12/22/11 6:24:36 AM
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Yup
Today's a day off.
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