Martha, I very much appreciate your message! Last night I told myself I’d at least hold off until today and today I feel much better. I had a small tiff with my family last night and was frustrated, which had me thinking smoking would make me happier. I knew it wouldn’t really, but wanted to all the same. 
I’ve been working hard to acknowledge my cravings as just what they are and choose what I’ll do instead. I think that’s helped a lot. 
I hope you have a wonderful Sunday. Again, thank you so much for writing. It really makes me happy to wake up and read an encouraging message.

Jenny

I'm happy to send encouragement -- and I hope you feel proud of yourself for your victory last night!! Hang in there:)

Martha

Jenny!!!!-

       I LOVE everything you wrote! And I did have my last cigarette early yesterday morning! So it has been 24 hours since my last cigarette I am proud to say! You were right January 7 was a great day to quit!  
 

       My friend used to have nicotine lozenges, but then he got addicted to those. I understand why you suck on the cinnamon candies instead of the lozenges. Crosstitch project for your daughter’s music teacher. Sounds like it’s going really well. I’m glad you have been able to put time into it! When I had six months, this forum helped me so much.
 

          And I think you living in California is very interesting. Try and remember the name of the burger place ha ha unfortunately my roommate Bob bought a pack of cigarettes yesterday. He’s just not ready I guess. But I am a bartender and I work at California Pizza kitchen (what a coincidence!)  I made sure when I got out of work I did not buy a pack of cigarettes.
 

        So how many days do you have now? Is it six?I’m so proud to have one day you have no idea. I hope we both stay quitting through this journey and I like how you compared going back to cigarettes like going back to an abusive person.

        There are so many great articles on this forum but I hope you get back to me later today so you’re three hours behind. I remember when I communicated with the girl from France I think she was like six hours ahead? So it’s almost 6 PM here. It’s 3 PM in California. What did you do on this Sunday? I am a huge patriots football fan and unfortunately they lost their game today, but I’m not letting that make me pick up a cigarette!
 

       Hope to hear from you soon and very proud of you Jenny! Xxoo Erika

Hey Nircelaj5...

Congratulations on your first day nicotine free! I think you will do amazing! I might find cinnamon candies to suck on as I am addicted to the lozenges and it is my goal to eventually be free of them. Sorry fir the short post. I'm at work but just wanted to pop on here quickly to say... WAY TO GO GIRL!!! You' ve got this.

Erika, that’s SO great you got your 24 hours!! Congrats! Funny you work at California Pizza Kitchen I think I’m gonna have to do some investigating to find the name of that burger restaurant. Hmmm, we used Uber to get there, so I bet the address is in my husbands Uber history! Ha! There’s hope!!

I think I’m finishing day 5 today. Last night was a bit rough and I had a few strong craves today, so I’m hoping tomorrow is better. 
With the time difference, I’m often here at 8 or 9 pm, when most people are in bed. Bummer your team lost the game. It sometimes amazes me the things that will make me want to go lose my quit. I once wanted to go buy cigarettes because I overcooked some noodles.  

I took a small nap today, which seems to be happening frequently the last few days. Our area had a really bad storm and so many people lost power last night. Ours stayed on, so we’re thankful. My mom and brother lost theirs and it still wasn’t back on this afternoon, so they came over to cook some food and chat for a while. Then they went home before it got dark so it wouldn’t be too hard to get inside the house. 
We have another storm coming in tonight, so I’m happy I’m not trying to go outside every hour! 
 It’s awesome of you to go for it on your own, with Bob not being ready yet. I know that when I watched a friend quit, it lit something under me (No pun intended, but it made me laugh when I read it). I was mad for a while, since I missed her going outside with me, but I eventually got to the point of quitting and I know her quit helped me get there. 
I hope your evening went by well and that your Monday goes great! I’m getting a simple procedure done on my back tomorrow and hoping it makes a huge difference. It won’t last long, but if it helps, we’ll plan to do something less simple done soon.

Hope to talk more tomorrow! I’ll make it by before 8 pm this time

Jenny

Wow Martha!  Everything you said is so true and so powerful.  I try and think back to those first days and have probably blocked them out of my mind.  But changing my mindset was just so true and absolutely key to my success ... I no longer felt like I was giving something up.  I was overcoming my addiction and hit it head on.  I prepared myself whether it was ice water, deep breathing, going for a walk or just hitting the sack.  As Gloria (from Jul 2018) said, we were warriors and put on our armor and went to battle.  Great advice!

 Love love love what Gloria said! Truth! Thank YOU for all you do:)

Martha

     Thanks for the great response Jenny! 
 

      Good luck with your back procedure! I hope it goes well and helps you! So as I wake up on my day off today, I now have 2 days!!! I’m so proud of myself! My son’s 13th birthday is February 19th so I want to give him a month (plus a few days more) of me quitting cigarettes as a partial birthday present! He hates that I smoke and begs me to quit!!
 

       When I quit for 6 months he was so happy! 
 

xxoo Erika

You son will love you you for this quit.  Because you quit, he may never smoke at all.  So you are not just quitting for yourself but for your family and all those who look up to you.  Some you may not even be aware of.

Good for you.  Well done! You are well on your way to a solid foundation to build your new smokefree lifestyle for you and your family and friends.

CONGRATS !!! 

Erika,

yay for 2 (almost 3?) days!! Your son will be so thankful you’ve quit. I don’t think you could give him a better birthday present than that! My daughter (17) looked me straight in the eyes recently and told me she wanted me to quit. I could hear the emotion in her voice and it was really hard to hear. I don’t think she’s at the point of believing I’m staying quit, but we’ll get there, I’m sure. 
My back thing went well. It helped with my back pain, so I’ll get scheduled for the next thing in a month or so. It’s been a really, really long journey and I’m ready for something to help for longer than a couple weeks. 
I still had a few times today that I thought of going to buy cigarettes, but not being able to drive because of sedation helped with that. I think the next few days will be hard for me since we’re visiting family next weekend and I could rationalize having just 4 days to smoke, knowing I’d quit again for the trip. One day at a time is hard sometimes! 
Did you work today? I’m attempting to make homemade pasta tonight. I already used 5 cups of flour instead of 3, so I added another and the recipe is now doubled. Wish me luck getting through the rolling part! I may enlist the help of one of the younger people in the house.

Jenny