No One's Hero, 1 am 0, the Fool. (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} 4_4_4) wrote,@ 2008-10-07 07:35:00 |
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Quit Club
Rule #1: You do not talk about Quit Club.
Rule #2: You do not talk about Quit Club.
(It dawns on me now that the reason the first two rules of Fight Club are as stated is to assure that the members do talk about Fight Club; thus, spreading the club and gaining the following which allows for the ultimate outcome of the movie.)
Confession: I am an aspiring nonsmoker.
When I hung out with Nscafe the other day, we talked about my desire to quit smoking. I was wondering if I ought to quit cold turkey, or gradually wean off. It was Nscafe’s opinion that I would be better to quit cold turkey, as he felt this better fits my personality. And, while I tend to agree that I can be an ‘all or nothing’ sort of person—it’s the Libra in me, ‘natch—I think it is best to adopt the alternate strategy. I mean, I’ve quit smoking several times before only to return, and this time I’m gonna’ do the Costanza thing—the opposite of what I think. Sure, I could quit cold turkey, and Nscafe is right in his hypothesis that I can always find reasons to smoke, but on the other hand, I can also find reasons not to smoke!
So here I am in the process of cutting down in order, ultimately, to cut-off completely.
Yesterday I had five cigarettes, and today I have had six, but perhaps with the likelihood of one more.
So five and possibly seven. Normally I would smoke upwards of a pack a day—certainly twenty or so.
I think this might be the way to go this time around as already I am observing things about myself in relation to cigarettes. For instance, I read about how the chemicals generate a short term fulfillment, but actually create a chemical need to smoke over the course of about thirty minutes. I have observed this in myself, and because of the knowledge am able to see the chemical trick and move beyond it.
The biggest step, i feel, is not smoking first thing to start the day—as Kari noted, it resets the baseline of my being. So instead of smoking two cigs with my first two cups of coffee, I have cut that out completely, and will continue to do so. My initial goal being to smoke only one cigarette from waking to finishing work, where normally I would have from seven to ten smokes from the time I wake to the time I get off work. Today I only had two, and it wasn’t as hard as I might have thought.
A weird thing was that when I actually was smoking my first cig of the day, a person about to enter the store said to me, “tobacco will kill you,” to which I could only respond, “I know.” It was an interesting synchronicity considering the position I’m currently in, and so I had to ask him after he was on his way out: did you say that to me as a sort of reflex or did you have some sort of intuition?
Turns out he had quit about two weeks ago. So we chatted briefly about the evils of smoking.
I know this time around I am going to succeed. I can see how the nonsmoker in me is gaining power while the smoker—even though remaining satisfied—is losing ground. So yeah, I may not have quit cold turkey today, but I have an intuition that this time I’m gonna’ do it: I’m gonna’ show how sometimes a quitter can also win.
Rule #1: You do not talk about Quit Club.
Rule #2: You do not talk about Quit Club.
(It dawns on me now that the reason the first two rules of Fight Club are as stated is to assure that the members do talk about Fight Club; thus, spreading the club and gaining the following which allows for the ultimate outcome of the movie.)
Confession: I am an aspiring nonsmoker.
When I hung out with Nscafe the other day, we talked about my desire to quit smoking. I was wondering if I ought to quit cold turkey, or gradually wean off. It was Nscafe’s opinion that I would be better to quit cold turkey, as he felt this better fits my personality. And, while I tend to agree that I can be an ‘all or nothing’ sort of person—it’s the Libra in me, ‘natch—I think it is best to adopt the alternate strategy. I mean, I’ve quit smoking several times before only to return, and this time I’m gonna’ do the Costanza thing—the opposite of what I think. Sure, I could quit cold turkey, and Nscafe is right in his hypothesis that I can always find reasons to smoke, but on the other hand, I can also find reasons not to smoke!
So here I am in the process of cutting down in order, ultimately, to cut-off completely.
Yesterday I had five cigarettes, and today I have had six, but perhaps with the likelihood of one more.
So five and possibly seven. Normally I would smoke upwards of a pack a day—certainly twenty or so.
I think this might be the way to go this time around as already I am observing things about myself in relation to cigarettes. For instance, I read about how the chemicals generate a short term fulfillment, but actually create a chemical need to smoke over the course of about thirty minutes. I have observed this in myself, and because of the knowledge am able to see the chemical trick and move beyond it.
The biggest step, i feel, is not smoking first thing to start the day—as Kari noted, it resets the baseline of my being. So instead of smoking two cigs with my first two cups of coffee, I have cut that out completely, and will continue to do so. My initial goal being to smoke only one cigarette from waking to finishing work, where normally I would have from seven to ten smokes from the time I wake to the time I get off work. Today I only had two, and it wasn’t as hard as I might have thought.
A weird thing was that when I actually was smoking my first cig of the day, a person about to enter the store said to me, “tobacco will kill you,” to which I could only respond, “I know.” It was an interesting synchronicity considering the position I’m currently in, and so I had to ask him after he was on his way out: did you say that to me as a sort of reflex or did you have some sort of intuition?
Turns out he had quit about two weeks ago. So we chatted briefly about the evils of smoking.
I know this time around I am going to succeed. I can see how the nonsmoker in me is gaining power while the smoker—even though remaining satisfied—is losing ground. So yeah, I may not have quit cold turkey today, but I have an intuition that this time I’m gonna’ do it: I’m gonna’ show how sometimes a quitter can also win.
