Evening, folks. Today is the five-month anniversary of GUS.
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 thinking about quitting, please -- join us!
The GUS Library at dKosopedia is organically evolving, and stocked with free-range information: quit-smoking links, helpful GUS diary writing tips, and the GUS Buddy List.
From the comments below, shari notes Polonium (Po, #84 on the periodic table) as an element that occurs naturally in tobacco.
In the last five months of not smoking, I have saved over $1150 in cigarette costs. Normally, I would have smoked 3,703 of these bad boys over a five-month period.
So the Windows Quit Time meter tells me. It's free, reliable, and lightweight, at 832 KB. And of all the shameless flatteries, the WQT meter says that I've added ten days to my life. I'm not sure how it figures that one out.
Example of great stats on a WQT meter:
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At five months off the smog, I admit to still missing the emotional shield that cigarettes once provided me. If you were to ask me as a smoker why I did it, this would have been my number one answer. A smoke as a buffer is the reason that they worked for me. This is a big misconception of mine, that smoking a cigarette is better for my emotional health than dealing with issues free of chemical crutches, and letting success (or failure) and muscle memory do the rest. But this misconception can be taken apart.
If I am taking on an enemy, I am better served to battle when I know its nature. You will find proponents of this argument from sources as disparate as Robert McNamara and Robert Bly. So for me to make a clean emotional break from cigarettes, I didn't need to realize the dire consequences of this habit. We all know that smoking causes lung cancer and emphysema. This is obvious.
The core of my rock of a habit had to be chiseled to bits by asking myself, "How do cigarettes work for me?" Know thine enemy, dance with the shadow.
I used cigarettes:
To deal with anxious, tense, or confusing situations.
Nicotine is a stimulant.
To hasten the arrival of buses and trains.
To make restaurant food arrive faster. (h/t, aoeu)
Ascribing magical purposes to one+ cigarette-per-hour habit.
To appear tough.
Because nothing says "tough" like ingesting carcinogens!
To reward myself after finishing a monotonous, multi-hour task.
Talk about monotonous. Offering myself the same exact thing, a cigarette. Again and again. How about an apple, or a brownie, on occasion?
To steer around writers' block, and (ill-advised metaphor) help to fire up ideas.
More magic that I would have sooner credited to a cigarette, than to myself.
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Of course, these are all silly things to justify a habit that is out to kill my ass. But as I used these non-truths repeatedly, to where such weak justifications became an organic part of my thinking process (itself a malignant growth), such is it my job to deprogram of these false ideas.
Also, the Nicorette helped me to quit, too. But how you quit is up to you and you alone. Include your physician as well, if this applies.
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... and GAS:
The Great American Smokeout is this upcoming Thursday, November 19. First started in 1977, this event was built on the simple concept that anyone can quit smoking for 24 hours. Anyone! That means you.
However, if you are a still-practicing smoker who wants to quit and needs some time to plan for it, check out GUS 1.5. It's nothing complicated. Just a group quit date that is planned for Tuesday, December 15. And as bgblcklab1 said in his latest diary, you are free to quit either the weekend before or the weekend after, if it helps your chances. Either way, quitting smoking is an excellent gift you can give to yourself.
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Happy 5-month anniversary to GUS, where:
Current members of the GUS team! Please post a comment in the butt can if you would like your name added to the GUS Buddy List. Welcome to new GUSsacks jbou, Missys Brother, and smeesq!
1BQ, 3rdGenFeminist, Abra Crabcakeya, addisnana, AfroPonix, amk for obama, andsarahtoo, Anne933, aoeu, arcadesproject, Archie2227, ArthurWolf (in memoriam), assyrian64, awkawk, bamablue, barnowl, bgblcklab1, Bike Crash, BirderWitch, bleeding heart, blue husky, Blue Intrigue, bluestatedem84, BoiseBlue, Brahman Colorado, breedlovinit, BrowniesAreGood, bsmechanic, burrow owl, Cen Den, Chocolate Chris, ChurchofBruce, coppercelt, dadanation, dangoch, demkat620, Dexter, DiegoUK, Dingodude, donnamarie, DRo, droogie6655321, duckhunter, EdgedInBlue, Everest42, Fineena, fishhawk, Flea, flumptytail, FrugalGranny, Garrett, gooners, greylox, gchaucer2, Geiiga, grndrush, High Tide, Im a frayed knot, Indexer, indyada, Interceptor7, inventor, itsbenj, Jahiz, JamesEB, jbou, Jeffersonian Democrat, john07801, jmadlc55, johngoes, Jyrix, jvolvo's Mom, jwinIL14, kai99, kailuacaton, Kelly of PA, kestrel9000, khloemi, Khun David, Ksholl, labwitchy, Lady Kestrel, ladypockt, langerdang, LarsThorwald, Last Starfighter, Laurie Gator, Lipstick Liberal, litoralis, lmdonovan, luvsathoroughbred, maggiemay, magicsister, marknspokane, mdemploi, michael1104, Mikeguyver, Minerva1157, MinervainNH, Missys Brother, mskitty, nannyboz, ncsuLAN, Nick Zouroudis, notgivingup, one pissed off democrat, Ordvefa, OverTheEdge, paige, PaintyKat, parryander, Pennsylvanian, phrogge prince, Positronicus, post rational, psycho liberal, PvtJarHead, red mittens, revelwoodie, Rex Manning, rkex, roadlion, rosebuddear, SallyCat, Sark Svemes, seenaymah, Scrapyard Ape, sgary, Shahryar, sheddhead, smartcookienyc, smeesq, snorwich, spmozart, SpotTheCat, Tay, theatre goon, triciawyse, trueblueliberal, Turn VABlue, Turtle Bay, uc booker, Unduna, Unforgiven, Vacationland, webranding, weelzup, Wes Opinion, willy mugobeer, Wood Dragon, x
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