Quitting Smoking- Day 2: $$$ saved to Obama!

Again, I (xph) am using my girlfriend's account to post this diary.  Tomorrow I should be able to use my own.

As an extra motivator to help me quit smoking I am donating the money I save by quitting to Barrack Obama-  MY FUNDRAISING PAGE.

I made it through what for me is the toughest day- DAY 1!  Thank you everyone that responded to my diary yesterday with words of encouragement, advice and past success.  It really did help me get through that first day.

I am taking up precious diary space with this for a few reasons.  First, using the money I save to give to Obama really helps me- and if anyone else joins in it will multiply that effect.  Second, the support and encouragement really makes a difference.  Also, I would love to help motivate someone else to quit smoking.  Finally, I'd also love to encourage someone else to give to Obama.  Go past the crease if you aren't bored to death already.

I'm going to keep writing because the act of writing itself helps get me through! :)

Like I said, the main reason for this is to give the money I save to Obama.  It would be appreciated if anyone else pledged to the duel cause of me quitting smoking and Obama getting nominated.  However, I would really love it if someone else quit smoking and decided to donate what they were saving to the Quit Smoking for Obama Fund! :)

If you've been thinking about quitting, maybe this is the motivator that will work for you.  It honestly is helping me so far!

Here is where I stand so far.

$25 initial donation in lieu of quit-smoking-aid.
$5 from me for smokeless day 1!
$1 from my fellow bartender for day 1.

$31.:)  (My next $25, and my co-worker's first $5 will go in after day 5)

MY FUNDRAISING PAGE.

Thanks again for the support all.  This is fun and is really helping me out!  And for those of you that find this annoying- SORRY!  :)

•  Tips? I'm a quitter :) n/t

  by xph on Sun Jan 13, 2008 at 08:13:54 AM PDT

  •  This is great for your health

    and quitting smoking didn't hurt either.

    by captainlaser on Sun Jan 13, 2008 at 08:17:29 AM PDT

  •  Think of it this way

    You need to take good care of yourself because you are important.  You have to help change the world this year.  I'm looking forward to tomorrow's diary.  

    by myrealname on Sun Jan 13, 2008 at 09:15:25 AM PDT

  •  Wow xph!

    You're a real quitter. And it's very inspiring! Keep on posting these diaries. I'll make sure to look out for them. And keep up hope. We're with you.

    Take care.

    by Populista on Sun Jan 13, 2008 at 09:54:17 AM PDT

    •  Hey Populista!

      You have been a major inspiration to me over the past few days.  Assuming you really are 14, your diaries are incredible.  Heck, even if you are 64, they are wonderful reading.  Thanks a lot for the words of encouragement.  

      Keep up the great work!  Yes We Can!

      by xph on Sun Jan 13, 2008 at 10:17:24 AM PDT

      •  Yep I am

        Glad to be an inspiration to you. Any way I can cyber-help I will.

        Keep up the fight!

        Yes we can!

        by Populista on Sun Jan 13, 2008 at 05:14:26 PM PDT

•  I'm quitting right now.

  I can't give right now but I wish I could. I'm with you though.

  I'm using Chantix and it's very effective but kinda screwing with my body. The cynic in me feels like there's a battle between Philip Morris and Pfizer over my body and wallet.

  Good luck kirari!

  -fink

  by fink on Sun Jan 13, 2008 at 08:16:35 AM PDT

  •  Good Luck Fink, and TY! n/t

    by xph on Sun Jan 13, 2008 at 08:21:25 AM PDT

•  I quit 23 years ago

  and I am still clean. It can be done and it is not that long before you will be unable to even imagine starting again.

  by global citizen on Sun Jan 13, 2008 at 08:24:15 AM PDT

  •  P.S.

    Obama quit smoking and look how well he is doing.

    by global citizen on Sun Jan 13, 2008 at 08:25:43 AM PDT

•  Congratulations!

  I wish you the best of luck & health.  And I love your idea of fundraising for such a good cause.  You should let the Obama campaign know about this -- especially since he also quit smoking.

  by madame defarge on Sun Jan 13, 2008 at 08:25:02 AM PDT

•  GO XPH!

  You can do it!

  by Tara the Antisocial Social Worker on Sun Jan 13, 2008 at 08:54:49 AM PDT

•  quitting smoking is way more important than...

  who you support in this election cycle!  It's giving yourself the gift of life for hopefully a really large number of election cycles to come!  Get it done, dude.

  by popeinthepizza on Sun Jan 13, 2008 at 08:56:35 AM PDT

•  You Are Doing Great!

  n/t

  by cassandra m on Sun Jan 13, 2008 at 09:38:04 AM PDT

  •  Cassandra

    Great to see you supporting health.

    I am in despair.  After getting mercilessly flamed last week, my lasted diary suffered something worse: only 5 comments.

    I think I was really on to something, but then, of course, I digressed into long allegorical context message which lost many readers.  Tragic.

    Sorry to butt into cigarette diary (ha, ha, joke, get it ;) ?  But I know you are a compassionate sould and may even think of maybe taking a look at my um, er, how do I say it, um, "blogging epic."

    I know this isn't your old Aunt Kossie's blog, but I'm trying to expand genre - or is this false hope?

    Anywho, as we say here in "The Big O" [Omaha]

    See you soon!

    Tom

    by Tom0063 on Sun Jan 13, 2008 at 11:35:09 PM PDT

•  Watch the nicotine-caffeine connection

  I've posted this before, but I post it whenever I comment on a quit-smoking diary, because it can very well be the difference between success and failure.

  Biochem researchers have shown that nicotine roughly doubles your body's ability to metabolize caffeine and the other stimulating xanthines found in coffee, colas, chocolate, and tea.  

  When you quit smoking, it is as though you doubled your consumption of caffeine virtually overnight.  Most smokers have above-average sensitivity to the anxiogenic properties of caffeine and its relatives (though they may not realize it, since it has usually been so long since they lived caffeine-free).  Caffeine-sensitivity is an important part of why they became smokers in the first place.  Much of the nervous tension that comes from quitting smoking is actually the result of this overnight doubling of your body's effective caffeine load.  Not all of it, but much of it.

  To accomplish a stimulant-neutral cessation of smoking, you must at least cut in half your consumption of coffee, colas, chocolate, and tea.  (Imagine the difficulties of people who instead increase these things in compensation -- they may end up with a four-fold or even greater effective increase in nervous stimulation.) In fact, you may find it easier to quit them than to cut them in half.

  I quit smoking many times before the final, permanent quitting over 20 years ago.  The difference on the last time was that I quit smoking AND caffeine on the same day, taking Advil round-the-clock for a week to prevent the caffeine-withdrawal headaches I had experienced other times I quit caffeine.  And I have to say it was really easy -- or so it seemed in comparison to my other experiences quitting smoking.  I didn't even get the headaches.  I'm not saying anyone else's experience will be as easy as that was for me.  

  But to give yourself a fair chance, at least cut that caffeine consumption in half.  And seriously consider cutting it out completely, because contrary to conventional wisdom, there's never an easier moment to quit caffeine than the one when you quit smoking.  When it comes to nervousness in smokers, caffeine is the gas pedal and nicotine is the brakes.  If you've had both of them floored, it's often best to take both feet off at the same time.

  (Yes, quibblers may correctly note that nicotine is autonomically stimulating -- for instance, it constricts your vessels and likely raises your heart rate.  But it is also a potent soother of certain anxiety responses in the brain, which is what makes it so addictive.  And so the gas/brakes analogy does hold up.)

  by Alden on Sun Jan 13, 2008 at 09:56:49 AM PDT

  •  Thank you so much for this comment.

    I've tried to quit plenty of times in that past few years.  I've always increased coffee and candy (chocolate).  Always thought, I'll work on that next, for now I'll just focus on smoking- 1 thing at a time.  Yesterday I drank a ton of coffee, and was definitely on edge.  Today, I exercised after posting this diary.  Haven't even finished my first cup, and am much more interested in water right now.  I'm definitely not as tense/anxious.  And, even before reading this, coffee didn't sound too appealing.  

    I'll keep an eye on the caffeine factor, now that I realize that may add and not detract!  Thanks again, very helpful!

    by xph on Sun Jan 13, 2008 at 10:13:38 AM PDT

    •  Increase Your Cell Minutes

      And call your friends and family during those normal times when you used to grab a cig.  

      Also, try going for walks or other exercise with the girlfriend.  I remember it being an amazing transformation going from an unhealthy smoker to a healthy nonsmoker.  

      I always like to chart my progress, so I used something like this

      The following are the benefits of quitting smoking that follow are in accordance to the timeline before which the smoker has quitted smoking like:

         * After 20 minutes - Smoking causes increase in blood pressure. This high blood pressure is very harmful as it increases the danger of heart attack. But as soon as we quit smoking the risk minimizes and blood pressure rate becomes normal.
         * After 8 hours - Nicotine and carbon monoxide levels in the blood are greatly reduced; oxygen levels in the blood return to normal. The chances of a heart attack start to fall.
         * After 10 hours - Carbon monoxide (CO) level becomes half after 10 hours of quitting smoking. Carbon monoxide is one of the major pollutants that produce bad effects on cognitive skills and health. It also affects the oxygen, which is one of the most vital substances, which are necessary for survival. When the carbon monoxide level is high, it decreases intake of blood from lungs, which can lead to many serious problems. We increase our energy levels by smoothing the passage of oxygen as we restrict the carbon monoxide level by quitting smoking.
         * After 24 hours - If you successfully completed 24 hours, it is a marvelous starting, for the chain smokers that provides them strong bearing power, less level of tiredness after exercise and quick recovery.
         * After 48 Hours - When move to 48 hours from one whole day, it gives us a totally new experience as nicotine is removed from their body, which earlier has resulted in bad side effects by causing stomachache, vomiting and it also develops the probability of hypothermia.
         * After 72 hours - Bronchial tubes begin to relax; energy levels increase. Breathing becomes easier.
         * After 2-22 weeks - After 2 to 22 weeks of quitting smoking you will get rid of bad circulation and also of numerous other disorders like slow cold feet, skin healing, peripheral vascular disease (PVT), and Raynaud's disease.
         * After 1 year - After you quit smoking for 1 year, you will reduce the risk of heart attack to half. According to the studies conducted in U.K, smoking results in around 20,000 deaths due to heart diseases (Smoking and Heart Diseases).
         * After 10 years - After reducing the danger of heart attack our good habit of quitting smoking results in minimizing the danger of lung cancer to half.
         * After 15 years - After 15 years person who once was chain smoker leads a healthy life as a normal man who has never smoked. At last the good habit has repaid back.

      by phidda on Sun Jan 13, 2008 at 01:40:42 PM PDT

•  Way to go!

  It'll be very, very worthwhile.  Both quitting smoking and donating to Obama. :)

  by Troutnut on Sun Jan 13, 2008 at 10:06:10 AM PDT

•  What a great idea.

  I'm sure Obama (who just recently quit smoking himself) would strongly approve. Keep it up!

  by the new on Sun Jan 13, 2008 at 01:18:42 PM PDT

•  I'm a Quitter

  for 4 year and 7 months.

  Keep it up.  One day at a time.  Just keep telling yourself to make it through this commute, after dinner,  etc. w/o smoking today.  It adds up.

  Good luck.  

  by phidda on Sun Jan 13, 2008 at 01:34:06 PM PDT

•  Combining Passions is Excellent

  Harnessing your desire to quit smoking to your desire to see change we can believe in realized is a great strategy.

  You sound like a very smart person.

  My big thing now is breaking my lethargy habit through daily exercise.

  I haven't quite figure out how to chain it to Obama, though, but you've inspired me to think.

  Any suggestions anyone might have would be much appreciated.

  Plus, I have a big disappointment in life:

  I poured all my heart and soul into my last diary (which you can access by following my profile link), and I only got 5 comments!

  My previous diary had been flamed by over 100 people, but the silence when I have written something I think is really good is almost worse.

  Anywho, as we say her in "The Big O" [Omaha] time to be getting to sleep for another week of working to produce Obama wonders.

  by Tom0063 on Sun Jan 13, 2008 at 11:30:37 PM PDT