More than 24 Hours :)

So, as of 9:30 am this morning I have been cigarette free for 24 hours! A whole day. That really makes me happy. I have only smoked for three years, so to me that made it a little easier.

In just this year, both my aunt and one of my uncles have quit smoking. My aunt used Chantix to quit and my uncle just quit cold turkey. She had smoked for 20+ years, so I was really excited for her when she finally made the decision to quit. My uncle had smoked for about 10 years, again, being really happy for him. Especially because he just quit cold turkey. I don't think I would have the will power to do that. I chose to do Chantix like my aunt.

Chantix is a smoking cessation pill that helps you wean yourself off of cigarettes slowly. It starts out with .5 mg pill once a day for three days and then you move on to .5 mg pill twice a day for the rest of the week. After that week, you start to take a 1 mg pill twice a day and continue on for about 12 weeks or for however long you feel that you need it. It sends signals to your brain receptors telling them that you don't want or need nicotine. It makes cigarettes taste and smell terrible. I got used to it though and continued to smoke. Chantix is known for some side effects such as depression, weight gain, vivid dreams or nightmares, and fatigue just to name a few. I know those all sound terrible ( to me they were..more on that later), but in the long scheme of things it's worth it to quit smoking.

However, I felt that Chantix and I just weren't working. Yeah, it made the cigarettes taste bad, but I could still smoke one. Actually, I could only smoke half of one, good for me! The pill helped me gain 4 pounds which I'm pretty pissed off about. I have some body issues and this just wasn't something I wanted to deal with. It also made me sick when I started taking the higher doses. I actually threw up the other night at work because of it. That was the final straw for me. The same day I quit smoking was the same day I quit Chantix. And I already feel a little bit better. Now it's all on me. I ran out of cigarettes and just promised myself not to go buy another pack. The end.

Now, more to the back story that helped me quit. I had already said I was going to quit sometime this year, but wasn't quite sure when. I was just going with the flow and I would quit when the time felt right. One day I was at lunch with somebody very close to me when they told me that they had lung cancer. That was my moment. I told them that I was going to quit. Now, there lung cancer is very small and they have amazing odds. It still made me really sad hearing all that. That's my motivation right there.

This is a list of things that happen to your body so long after you quit smoking. I have to say, I feel like I have more energy since that time yesterday. I don't know if quitting smoking is the reason, but I'm gonna pretend and say that it is. lol.

For more information on quitting there are many things you can do. Talking to your doctor is a good start. you have to do this if you want to get on Chantix because it's prescription only. There's a lot of good websites to help you quit. www.quitsmokingsupport is a a good site that I found. As is www.smokefree.gov. However, the most important thing to remember when quitting is always ask for help from family and friends. Anybody that puts you down for trying to quit isn't a friend. They're an asshole.

So...go ahead and quit. You'll feel so much better. I encourage you to think about it. Come here for help and encouragement if you want it. Just take the time to think about it at least.....and all that good stuff =)