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Cinnamon Gum: Natural Quit Smoking Aid

April 15, 2009 in smoking | Comments

It’s been roughly two weeks since I smoked my last cig, the cravings are constant and at times powerful. Now I’ve read in the past cinnamon gum can help when you’re quitting, so I picked up a few packs when I was over my flu and getting back to work.

Crazy thing is, it seems to be working! I think this has less to do with cinnamon per se, and more to do with finding a way of displacing the habitual / ritualistic nature of smoking. When I crave a smoke, I pop a piece of cinnamon gum. Could just as easily be a dog biscuit I guess, but I’m going to stick with the gum for now.

The nicotine is gone from your system really quickly when you stop smoking, the habit is the real killer.

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A Catalyst to Quit Smoking Successfully

April 3, 2009 in smoking | Comments

Everyone knows it’s hard to quit smoking. If you’re mentally prepared to quit, you honestly don’t want to smoke anymore, then you’re already more than half way there. If you’re trying to quit for something or someone else, you’ve got an almost insurmountable task ahead of you.

Sometimes all you need is a fortuitous catalyst. The last time I was very successful at quitting I’d recently started mountain biking competitively, so the incentive was there to have working lungs. Breaking my leg in an unrelated act of stupidity put a stop to biking long enough for boredom to start me up smoking again. I’ve quit a couple of times since, but haven’t been very successful at staying that way.

Way back in November of last year I’d started thinking it was probably soon time to quit smoking… again. One of the main reasons I’ve been putting off quitting for so long this time around is the feeling this is probably my last real chance to quit. If I pick it back up again this time, I’m screwed. I’ll be a smoker for life. Enter my latest fortuitous catalyst:

sosickAfter a couple of days feeling so horrible I couldn’t even contemplate smoking, it occurred to me this was the perfect time to give it another go. Instead of looking forward to feeling repaired enough to light up, why not look for reasons to give it up again? And then this old article bubbled up to the top of the traffic charts at b5media’s newly redesigned destination site, blisstree.com. Seeing the immediate benefits to your body in a very short time after finishing your last smoke was pretty cool.

So check out the article, and look for a catalyst in your life to help you put down smoking. I’m not saying you should strip down and stand naked in the cold spring rain, or lick the hand holds on the subway ride home this evening… but if you’re looking for a good chance to get enough of a break from smoking to make quitting easier, consider getting sick ;)

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3 Reasons I Haven’t & 3 Reasons I Really Want to Quit Smoking

November 19, 2008 in smoking | Comments

  1. I like it! When I’m not standing in the freezing cold, or up to me knees in water, I just plain enjoy smoking. I’ve put down and picked up my smokes a number of times now, and I always find it easiest to stop smoking over the winter months.
  2. I need it when I’m drinking! Ask any smoker who drinks socially, there’s something akin to a strong nuclear force which binds your drink of choice to that smoke you can’t put down. In fact I’ve known people who don’t identify as smokers to light two or three up during a night of drinking.
  3. It’s bloody hard! The biological addiction to nicotine may pass in 3 days if you’re quitting cold turkey, but that’s never been the hard part for me. It’s all about the psychology of the habit.

No Smoking Sign

  1. I hate it! Yep there’s definitely a love/hate relationship for me and smoking. As much as I love a good smoke, I also recognize the power it has over me, which is why I want this winter to be the last time I quit smoking.
  2. I’m almost 35! I used to be really physically active, cycling was a passion both road and trail. Even if I’ve always had a bearish build, I knew I was good for cardio. Since entering the white collar work force my level of exercise has been on a steady decline. At one point I promised myself to be in a gym and have that extra padding turned to extra muscle by the time I turned 30. I’m 3 years past that point and even if discovery of bear culture has shed a lot of body image issues, I know I need to be paying attention to my heart and smoking certainly isn’t helping there.
  3. More Money! Even though I’ll probably never really register the extra cash on a day to day basis, $2000 a year has to help somewhere.

Smoking is a funny habit. You know it’s bad, you hate the smell, the way you feel in the morning, that each cig you spark up is another nail in your coffin. Yet there you are standing in the rain grabbing that quick smoke between lunch and heading back to work. Crack ain’t got nothing on this shit. If I don’t quit soon and for good I feel like I’m never going to put out my last smoke. So I set out to chronicle what I aim to make my final, successful attempt to quit smoking for good right here on my blog.

Got a quit smoking story or something to say on the topic? In the process of quitting now, or want to join me on my journey? Leave a comment and let’s talk about it.

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