You can stop smoking! Welcome back to your detailed quit smoking plan, and congratulations on your decision to stop smoking. If you are seeing the second part of this series without having seen the first, you may want to find it.
Full Day 1
Since you were able to excrete most of the nicotine in your body already, your physical craving is significantly less severe than it would have been if you had smoked right before having gone to bed. Your actual 'habit' of smoking in the morning, though, is another story. You may find yourself reaching for cigarettes automatically only to remember that this is the first day of the rest of your life not smoking!
If it's a weekend and you have no prior commitments: Lethargy is a common symptom when you first quit smoking. Feel free to stay in bed! If you really have nothing to do, you're just begging for self destructive idle time, anyway. You have the right to baby yourself when you're sick, and to stop smoking is to deal with a life threatening illness from which you owe it to yourself to claim your freedom! If it's within your power in the first 24-48 hours, take time to recover!
If you have to go to work: In your process of telling your co-workers of your plans to quit smoking you will have been able to identify the non-smokers who are encouraging you to stop smoking for good. Find them at breaks and lunch, and adopt their non-smoking habits. When break time comes, keep your affirmations strong by changing – yet still acknowledging – the proclamation your desire to have a cigarette. Say out loud, "I am having a temporary craving that will pass;" or something along those lines...Never, "I want a cigarette," or "I need to smoke," or any other self defeating affirmation.
Your stress level (obviously) is likely to be high on your first day after you stop smoking, so try to be extra mindful of the way you interact with those around you.
Around the hour you quit on the previous day, you can expect the corresponding time frame to deliver you a serious rush of anxiety and tension. This could only last anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours, but the most likely scenario is that it may continue for a couple days. It will pass! You do not have to smoke. Taking measures with a natural stop smoking treatment, or another smoking cessation aid will help make these symptoms much less severe.
Beware: If you smoke at this critical juncture, you could lose all willingness to even try to quit smoking for weeks, months, or even years! The disease of nicotine is cunning, baffling, and powerful; and it will go to great lengths to prevent you from giving up tobacco. If you've made it this far, hold on; because it WILL get easier.
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During your normal every day actions during which you used to smoke like drinking, talking on the telephone, or flipping through channels with the remote; start using your ex-smoking hand for these activities so it's not sitting there doing nothing while your other hand is completing all the work. This may sound insignificant, but it's actually a quite effective tool in the battle against smoking addiction.
Day 2
Argh! (No, seriously) You are all but guaranteed to be going crazy with fiend for a cigarette. While the actual cravings don't last long, your nerves are going through a restoration process that is a natural part of nicotine withdrawals; which means that – even when you're not wanting to smoke necessarily – you are just in a state of discontentment and aggravation because of the discomfort and shortness of temper caused by the depletion of dopamine, endorphins and other naturally produced chemicals that smoking took over for your body.
Your brain, nerves, lungs, and every other organ in your body that was affected by smoking (there are many) are all learning – just as you are – to adjust to life without cigarettes. They will heal, but the process is not comfortable. Do not let it be your reason to give in. You can stop smoking!
Day 3
Generally, the feelings of anxiety are still somewhat strong, and they may or may not be starting to disappear. Hopefully, you are still carrying around your list of your reasons not to smoke to which you need to refer every time you are thinking about lending the power back to your nicotine addiction. You are at the most stressful part of your journey, and everything will start to get easier from here, so stay strong and don't give up!
Day 4
Finally, things are starting to return to normal. Your body will begin to regulate its production of vital mood stabilizing chemicals that it once produced all on its own before nicotine interrupted the process, and your coping abilities should be starting to bear a more civilized nature. Your appetite will be out of control. Allow yourself to indulge, but don't go overboard and remember about the healthful snacking!
Day 5
Personally, this day for me has historically been rough. It's a type of comfort zone in which you are in grave danger of relapse. Do not mosey on over to a smoking co-worker or make a sly plan in the morning to meet up with a friend who smokes for lunch or another affair, either! Again...Cunning, baffling, and powerful! Don't let your disease fool you!
Day 6
Hopefully, at this point of the game you are adjusting nicely to life without cigarettes. Your senses have possibly returned to a degree you hadn't even realized was possible; and your lungs are definitely feeling better. Your cough, however, may have been getting increasingly worse at this point. That's normal, and it could last for the next few weeks. You may be able to minimize the side effects with a homeopathic stop smoking treatment.
Day 7
Congratulations! This is a huge milestone in your journey! Today is the day that your brain finishes the process of creating new habits! Everything you do will get easier and easier from here on out! You're not out of the woods, yet, though, because your disease is still at work trying to convince you to start smoking again. Be aware of its attempts throughout the day to convince you that you can have just one cigarette or even one drag...You can't!
Even if you are able to stop with one drag or one smoke the first time, that will give you permission for the next time; then that will give you permission to smoke again until you've increased your level of smoking to that which is just a bit more cigarettes in a day than you were smoking before you quit. Some of the tricks your smoking addiction will try to play on you include:
Going to the smoking section at work
Making plans with a friend or family member who smokes
Engaging in behaviors that are conducive to smoking (going to bars, drinking excessively, etc.)
Encouraging you to stop a complete stranger you see smoking outside as you're leaving the supermarket or eating establishment to ask for a cigarette.
2nd Week
Stay vigilant in your guard against your disease, and start enjoying life without smoking. You will quickly realize how much money you're saving. Many smokers like to reward themselves with a teeth whitening kit or a special shopping spree with the money they are no longer spending on cigarettes. You deserve it! You've accomplished something very difficult that will undoubtedly add years onto your life.
