Falling off the wagon
This weekend was a failure. I lasted about one and a half hours into my Friday night out with friends when I relented and smoked a cigarette. Then, I decided to order a beer.
Seeing as my resolve was broken, I continued to drink on Saturday night as well and smoked all weekend. Bad news.
As always, I’m putting a positive spin on the weekend and seeing what I can learn from it. So far I’ve come up with:
There is never “just one cigarette”
Whenever I’ve tried to quit before, if I smoke “just one cigarette” I always end up smoking for a day or more afterwards. Then, I have to go back through the first couple of difficult days when I stop smoking again.
When I do resist the craving for nicotine, it generally subsides within a few minutes and I forget about it. If I’m going to be successful in quitting I need to remember this.
I feel great when I don’t smoke or drink
The last couple of weeks I’ve felt full of energy and quite healthy (even though my diet hasn’t been great, nor have I been exercising). Yesterday, I felt lethargic and de-motivated, due to smoking and drinking all weekend.
Cigarettes are never as good as you hope
For the non-smokers I guess this is a bit like McDonalds - you are starving and haven’t eaten fast-food for ages and you pass a McD’s. Imagining how great a delicious Big Mac & Fries will taste, you decide to treat yourself to one. What you actually end up with is a mediocre burger and some limp cold fries with too much salt on them. And a bad stomach half an hour later.
That’s kind of what happens when I give in to my nicotine cravings - the cigarette always tastes bad and makes me feel crappy.
So, I am back “on the wagon again”. No more drinking for the rest of June. No more cigarettes - ever.
Photo by tinacris.
Comments (3)
Trish
June 17th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
Maybe if you got an electronic cigarette with zero nicotine for nights out it would stop you from getting a pack of cancer sticks.
It’s always harder when you are out socialising and especially if your friends smoke. You would think it would be easier with smoking bans but congregating outside for a cig is more fun than when we were allowed to smoke in bars.
Good luck
Foggety
June 18th, 2009 at 12:02 am
I always feared the drinking element of smoking! However, I never gave up drinking when I gave up smoking although I would recommend you have a few drinks at home before you throw yourself onto the mercy of a session with friends.
Darren
June 18th, 2009 at 9:26 pm
Thanks for the comments.
Trish - I’m lucky enough to have a lot of non-smoking friends. For now, I’m going to stick with patches as I’m conscious of not replacing the habit of smoking with anything else (such as nicotine inhalers or the like). If I relapse though, may try other options
Foggety - haha, for a minute I thought you were saying have a few drinks and then go and drink even more with my friends. Figured what you meant on second reading, nice idea.
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