Dear Diary, I accidentally quit smoking...

So about a month ago i bought a thing of the Nicorette mini lozenges just to see what they do, and if they helped with cravings. I have been about a half pack/day smoker for the past 14 years or so. If I'm being completely honest, I wanted to know if they were strong enough to substitue cigarettes while flying. I've missed more than one flight because I left the terminal on a layover to go smoke, and didn't make it back in time for the connecting flight.

So I purchased the lozenges and started using them with cigarettes, and I found that they did in fact help with the cravings. within the first few days I had completely cut down on the number of cigarettes/day, from about 10-15 to around 6-8, plus the lozenges. I think the main reason for this was simply that I was paying attention to when I wanted to smoke, and when my body NEEDED me to smoke, instead of just smoking out of habit.

So I proceeded like that over the next 22 days, slowly decreasing the number of cigs a day. Until the 23rd day, I went to smoke that first cigarette of the day later in the evening, and as I was marking it down in my log I realized that I hadn't smoked a cigarette since 7:30 pm the night before. So I said frick it, let's just see if I can go until the next morning. Morning came, and then I said that evening, and so on. and now, come 7:30 tonight, it will be 7 days smoke free for the first time since I was in college.

The reason I'm writing this is because I'm curious about those who have quit a habit, and how many weeks it took for them to not want to smoke/dip/etc? Because I realllly miss smoking. I always thought after the first week or so you'd slowly stop thinking about it, and I'm not finding that to be the case.

I'm still obviously not nicotine free, as I've been using around 4-6 4mg lozenges/day. Thinking I'll switch to the 2mg lozenges in a couple of weeks. This whole ordeal has been both easier, and harder than I imagined if that makes sense. I have never even attempted to quit smoking before and I started this process without any intention of actually quitting, but mainly to see if the lozenges work, and they do but they aren't nearly as good as my camel lights.



Other observations over this period:

- I noticed it was easier to take deeper breaths after about two weeks or so of cutting back, but since then I don't feel any significant changes, even after stopping completely. Though I do feel better in the morning when I wake up.

- Never really had any trouble sleeping, but I've also made sure to workout everyday to wipe myself out

- Keeping a log on my phone of when I smoked every day, and when I've used a lozenge has been really beneficial. And I recommend smokers/dippers do this even if they just want to cut back.