Threesome Anyone?

~Three Days ~ Three weeks ~ Three Months ~
Good things often come in threes, but so do our challenges sometimes.

It’s always been my theory that there are three initial stages to quitting tobacco:
* 3 days for the nicotine to leave your body.
* 3 weeks for the habit of and desire for lighting up to become less invasive.
* 3 months to feel as if you’ve freed your mind and body from the evils of this addiction.

I’ve done each of those before, but as I said in my first post, I’ve never made it an entire year… That is my newest goal, but first I have to make it one more day!

In the past, my down fall has always been thinking;
“I can handle just one… “
In reality, just like an alcoholic’s addiction, one is never enough.
One will always lead to a pack then suddenly I’m back to a pack or more a day.

I’ve made an additional commitment of three other changes over the next 30 days:
* Exercise twice a day.
* Limit my sugar intake.
* Deep Breathing Exercises.

The last one is easy – deep breathing as a tool to control the anxiety I continue to feel is all I seem to do. As for the exercising, so far today I’ve walked to McD’s – Twice! (For me, weight is not going be an issue, BTW…) as for the limiting sugar intake, I actually don’t think this is going to be as hard as I originally thought. Without my cigarettes I’m not drinking nearly the coffee (two sugars) or soda I usually do. (How much sugar do popsicles contain, I wonder?)

I think it’s absolutely ridiculous (our word for the week) that I am going through all of this once again...

Yesterday I made mention of AA and their philosophy of one day at a time – they also have one other saying:
It’s easier to stay sober than to get sober!
Of course this is going to apply to remaining nicotine free also.

But Hey -- 72 hours since my last smoke ~
I’m a third of the way there!