Quitting Smoking

Still Not Smoking - Day 15

Every single day, my quit gets easier and easier. I barely even thought about smoking today, and was tempted only once last night. Ironically, I ran into the girl who gave me the last cigarette I ever smoked. She was sitting at Slabtown, a smoky bar right down the street from my apartment. It was kinda funny. The only reason I quit smoking was because that bar didn’t sell cigs behind the counter. If they had, I might still be smoking.

New Years Resolution to Quit Smoking?

Considering that it’s Halloween and New Years is a full 2 months away, you’d think I’m a bit early, right? Wrong. The perfect time to quit smoking is when ever you run out of cigarettes. New Years resolutions suck because of all the anticipation, anxiety, and the way you mentally build them up. This year, do not make a resolution to quit on Jan. 1. Instead, quit first, then make a resolution
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NicVAX - The Nicotine Vaccine

While surfing around various quit smoking type sites, I stumbled across a post on the CancerBlog about a new experimental quitting vaccine. The post was abit old (June of 2006), so stumbling around a bit more I found the following links:
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Day 12 - Quitters Hell

On day 12 (or 13, as today would be), I learned something new. Quitting smoking makes significantly reduces the severity of hangovers, despite the quantities of booze consumed. Why is that?
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Day 10 - The Joys of Not Smoking

We played some trivia last night at La Merde (Attached to Portland’s Famous Montage Restaurant), and I was ready to choke the shit out of my favorite amputee friend, mostly because he was chain smoking at a rate I had never seen him do, which is comparable to how I smoked. But then…I decided to tough it out. That makes it that much closer to my goal of acting like a non-smoker.
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Day Eleven, The Choice Not To Smoke

True to my masochistic tendencies, I dove straight into smoky bar nights. After a nice dinner with Nicole’s family, my friend Kyley called me up and said they were going to a new bar that opened in town, and that it was a non-smoking bar.

A word about Kyley - That guy was almost as bad of a smoker as myself. He was so high strung that he’d crush the filter while inhaling the entire cigarette in 5 drags. Total freak. When I heard he quit smoking
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Testing My Quit Smoking Limits: Visiting a Smoky Bar

Last night on our walk to Trader Joes Nicole and I stopped at Wimpy’s (along Portland’s NW 2st Ave). It wasn’t the smokiest, but there were enough people smoking inside that I had to see it and smell it. We only stayed for one drink, I had my usual Maker’s Mark on the rocks, she had a glass of Chardonnay. I was able to smell the smokiness far more strongly, and I can see why non-smokers hate it. Back when I was smoking, it was a welcoming smell, a sort of “Yes, a smoking comfort zone!” sort of thing but now I found myself chewing on a straw, which is what got me through from days 2-5 when I was in Seattle.
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Quitting Smoking & Becoming an Anti-Smoking Nazi

One thing is for sure: Ex-smokers become the biggest anti-smoking Nazis once they have successfully quit.
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Smoke Free for 1 Whole Week!

That’s right. I have been smoke free for over 7 whole days, or one week. For a smoker like me, that’s monumental. I took my unplanned cold turkey quit and rode it out. So far this week, I have managed to go out, drink plenty of booze, coffee, and not even alter my patterns too much and actually feel good about quitting smoking.

How did I make it this far?
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Ex-Smoker or Wanna-Be? Day 6

The beginning of a new week, and I haven’t purchased a pack of cigarettes in 8 days. After a successful weekend, I’m feeling like 1.5 billion dollars. Hell, at least like $40.00, which is what I have saved since quitting smoking. I decided to not do any work for a few days, and man, am I paying the price. I spent like 3 hours sifting through 3 days of email (90% spam that got past the filters).
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