I quit by tapering. I smoked 2-1/2 packs a day (yeah, I know, ugh) and cut back slowly until I was at 5 cigarettes a day. At that point, I quit. I smoked my last cigarette while having a cathartic apology talk with someone I had wronged, put the cig out and never smoke another one. I will tell you that the withdrawal was worst on day 12 after quitting. After that it wasn't so hard. For a while I dreamed about them, and would crave them at certain times. But it got easier. It's been 19 years now since I had a smoke. I don't miss it at all now.

You can do it!

i am currently smoking 1/3 of a cigarette per hour. in a week or so i'm gonna cut down to 1/4 per hour. after that it will be 1/4 every hour and a half. then after that will be every other hour.

last time i quit, i quit for 31 days exactly. and i had intense cravings the whole entire time. by the time i went back to smoking, i had been feeling for a week like stabbing every smoker i see and stealing their cigarettes.

LOL. I understand. On my day 12 of quitting, I hid in my bedroom and told everyone to leave me the *H* alone for their own safety. Ha. They did. It's not that the cravings ended for me after that day, but they got better.

I'd say find what motivates you. Get mad at the cig companies for making a product deliberately addictive. Get mad that cigs cost, what, $10 a pack now? Add up how much that was costing you a year. Think of when cigs held you back (for me, I couldn't keep up with my friends riding mountain bikes- they were older than me and I should have been able to keep up). Obviously your health, and being there for your family. Maybe all of the above, I don't know. My mom smoked for 40 years and then she got a diagnosis from the doctor that she had the beginning stages of emphysema and *bam* she quit. Just like that. She said she didn't ever care if she got cancer, but she didn't want to suffocate to death. Her great uncle and her uncle both died of emphysema and those images stuck with her and she didn't want to go that way.

Keep up the good efforts, you've got this.

I'm peaved that as normal as I thought I was and the envisions of my reactions I thought I'd have...I was wrong. I didn't cry when I got engaged and I didn't cry or even "LOVE" any dress I tried on so far. 6 months from walking down the aisle and I might be wearing a bed sheet and call it a Toga theme.

I am beyond aggravated and frustrated that I cannot reach Onederland! I stalled all of February and these past 5 lbs have been THE hardest 5 lbs to take off since I started last year. It's like some cruel, cruel joke being played on me right now. I have been OP, exercised my butt off, walked to Timbuktu and back and what do I see on the scale.....the same pound bouncing back and forth. I know plateaus or stalls happen, but dammit they're not supposed to happen to me this long I have watched people come and go out of threads I'm on only to move onto the next "decade" thread. I've been in the current thread longer than anyone now and it's absolutely discouraging. I mean is karma after me right now or something?? WTH?
I am so afraid that these pounds have been soooo hard to get off that to reach my goal will take like 5 frikkin' years at this rate!
Whining is over......now back to my usual jovial self

I've been anxious since yesterday. I had two nightmares, messed up my entire bed jerking around, and then woke up an hour early and couldn't fall back asleep. My nerves were still bad a few hours ago so I went to the gym and I'm still tense. I just gotta ride it out but it's uncomfortable.

And I'm still having fiber/water related trouble. I'm trying to up my water and fiber intake but I feel so blech.

The excitement of the initial fast weight loss has worn off. This has now become work......no, this is a battle. The 10 pounds of "water weight" that came on in an extremely bad eating week are coming off at glacial speed.

Just in a bad mood, too much on my to do list that is just BORING, and generally grumpy. I want a glass of wine (maybe that should be whine?), but don't want the calories.

This, too, shall pass, but I want it to pass NOW!

i'm sooooo busy this month ....i knew march would be busy but omg...

last weekend had a training all friday night and all of last saturday....i spent sunday catching up on all the laundry, bills and grocery shopping that i didn't do on saturday

this week i'm preparing my program for spring break, when we offer full days of childcare...i'm one of the ones in charge, we're expecting 60-70 students, and i'm swamped...this is on top of my normal work stuff

today i'm helping shop for the snacks...two carloads worth of food purchased and hauled on site....tomorrow i have work meetings all evening after work...friday i work, do a school thing with my son, go to meetings, go back to work til 6 p.m., pick up my teenager and then take my younger son to a school carnival

next week is spring break....need i say more? it's one of the busiest times of the program...

and the last weekend of march is a big technology event going on, which i'm also helping lead, because i'm on that organization's board of directors AND it's my younger son's birthday party AND it's easter weekend

coffeeeeee.....

I'm still anxious...

It comes and goes. I think I feel this way because I'm "in a relationship" but we haven't really cemented the feeling of being in one. Day one, I almost found myself flirting with someone just out of habit. I had to stop, hit delete on my message, and remind myself that I'm taken.

I'm trying to slip into my normal gf behavior and so far, the reception has been positive. I think he's just nervous. He contacted me first the past two mornings, this morning calling me "pretty girl", so I'm just trying to relax. It's been almost 2 years since I was committed to someone, I'm so rusty!

I'm still having trouble with my digestive system though. I am pretty sure I got enough fiber yesterday... I drank more water, I ate plenty of food, and still nothing. I feel like I'm carrying around at least an extra pound just from this. It's frustrating.

Cranky today that onederland seems like a million years away. Told my husband last night that the first 100lbs now seem like they came off in no time, this last 20 to onederland is torture. /pity party over

I want to change my stupid profile picture to one that says 20lbs lost instead of 15!!! I had to change it back to TEN with a regain, am FINALLY 1lb past the earliest plateau I have ever seen, and I am sick to the teeth of looking at that "15lbs lost" picture every time I post!!! I mean, losing 15lbs is great, but ENOUGH ALREADY I AM SICK OF LOOKING AT THAT THING!!!!!!!

/rant

Argh!!! There it is again!!! GO AWAY!!!!!!!!!

I'd love to rant until I'm blue in the face, I really would. Being in early labor but not progressing with any speed for the last few weeks has made me crabby.

So I'm giving a big boo to my hormones and really sore body that just needs to have this baby, because its making me less able to blow things off that don't matter.


And big hugs to everyone quitting smoking - that is NOT easy. But just take it one choice at a time (not unlike weight loss, I'd say).

I'm coming off the high of grad school acceptances and starting to realize what a hard decision I have ahead of me, particularly when the school I was most excited about didn't give me any merit money, despite interviewing me for a full ride fellowship. Grrr!!!

My boyfriend said I've been acting bitter lately. Which, I have noticed that we've been getting in fights in the morning lately. It might be due to the fact that lately, he's being a debbie freakin downer and making fun of everything that I want to do, like it's stupid.

He's not following through on anything lately either. Maybe I am to. Ugh.