Pilates, anyone?
GUS (Gave Up Smoking) is a community support diary for Kossacks in the midst of quitting smoking. Any supportive comments, suggestions or positive distractions are appreciated. If you are quitting or even just thinking of quitting, please join us! We kindly ask that politics be left outside.You can also click the GUS tag to view all diary posts, or access the GUS Library (the archived version for now). Want to make sure you never miss us? Follow (♥) the GUS tag to keep GUS in your Stream and easily find the link to the latest one. It's just that easy! A message to ALL quitters (and would-be quitters): You don't have to avoid GUS if you have a failed quit. We won't give you a bad time or nag you. We consider the failed quits as "practice" for the real quit.
I’m a week in, and I keep looking at my stop smoking app. I rarely get credit for things I don't do, so I am delighted to get feedback. Plus it helps keep me focused on the positives of this process. I am told a week out from not smoking that I haven't smoked 140 cigarettes nor spent $49, & have saved over 11 hours of time that would otherwise have been otherwise been spent smoking. I am also told about the many positive health changes have occurred, too, such as return to normal heart rate and blood pressure.
So at times, I have stared at the app, because I feel a bit undone, but don't want to go back to smoking. The patch & nicotine gum have helped, but the psychological addiction will take some time to dissipate, because like any substance, it has been a friend for every scenario imaginable.
I smoked in part because I believed it soothed me, helped me with anxiety, & was at times relaxing; possibly even made me a better writer. Given that, I have had to find new ways of coping. So far, movement has been my friend. I started Pilates, and have found it has helped my mood and energy level. This is a good thing, as I have been “a bit” on the “edgy” and irritable side.
I have had the benefit of participating in a smoking cessation class led by a nurse tobacco addiction specialist & a health educator. When I started the class, I was still smoking, as were all the participants. Over the course of four weeks & eight classes, we learned more about cigarettes, tobacco addiction, and our individual smoking behaviors. We each identified our personal reasons for wanting to quit. Shame was left at the door, as we also learned new coping strategies to use in place of cigarettes.
Now, I am just a little more than three weeks out, and am beginning to feel a bit calmer. I have noticed that I don't feel as though I'm “missing” something anymore. That is not to say I don't have cravings, I'm just not preoccupied with smoking all the time!
This time around, my third “formal” plan to quit, I realize that my past relapse experiences can help drive my success, rather than serve as a source of self defeat and shame. In the past, I have gotten to three months and been derailed by stress & “family drama." As I've come to learn, both are an inevitable part of life. I would always have an excuse to keep smoking, if I kept turning to cigarettes when life became more difficult, so I needed new ways to cope with old problems.
As mentioned above, one of the things I turned to was Pilates. Although I was usually able to keep up in class, I was always a bit fearful of overdoing it- maybe even of having a heart attack (while I was still smoking) as I would get short of breath during some sessions. It took awhile, but about two weeks after my last cigarette, I was in the middle of a class, when I realized I was not working hard to breath. In fact, movement, breathing, & timing were coming together.
For me, this seemingly small confluence of events seemed huge, as it was evidence my body was beginng to repair & heal itself. This news was perhaps even better than the feedback that I keep receiving from my smoking cessation app which now tells me it's been 23 days, 13 hours and 52 minutes since my last cigarette, I've saved $165, haven't smoked 471 cigarettes, & saved 1 day, 15 hours….more time to do Pilates.
