Starting Step 2 in my journey begins

So after completing all those Step 1 exercises for this online program I am a part of I received an email at work that I am officially on to Step 2. Again, more exercises for me to complete before going on to the next level which is suppose to be my official quit date. There are 8 Step 2 exercises instead of the 4 I had in Step 1 and they all require even more thinking and a quit smoking contract for myself. Hmmm...interesting! I haven't answered a single question yet, but I will. Like I said I do plan to do this the right way. Making this successful is important to me even if I still feel like my ass is back in school.

Day 7 (Monday) I woke up and decided to officially use the Quit Smoking app that I downloaded to my cellphone. I used it a couple days last week just to see if it was an app I really wanted to use and I found it be actually very helpful. So this morning I uninstalled and then reinstalled it and began monitoring my smoking habit. For the first two days I record each time I have a cigarette, how much of an urge I am having at that time, and how stressed I am. In return, it gives me the amount of time since my last cigarette. By the third day it begins to minimize the amount of cigarettes that I should smoke (I put that my normal is 12 cigarettes a day) and gives me a graph of how close to that goal I am. I must admit that recording my urges isn't really hard for me, but the amount of stress is a little more difficult. It would help you to know that I discovered that I am not always as stressed as I thought I was. That could be a very good thing once my quit day arrives. Bottom line is that I do like this app and it's one I would actually recommend. My short-term goal is to see if I can at least cut down from 10-12 cigarettes a day to at least 8 by my quit day. Monday and Tuesday I didn't do so bad to be honest. The most I actually smoke was 10. Even through my trial run of the app I never smoked over 10 even when I was highly frustrated, so that is a good short-term goal I think I will excel in.

I have also put together a Quit Smoking notebook (well more like binder). It will include everything I need to read and do during my Tobacco Cessation Program. It has my personal Tobacco Report, Step 1 and Step 2 introductions, the recommended readings provided by the program, and each of the exercises I am asked to complete. I am still unsure how I am doing to keep my diary on a daily basis. Not sure if I want to use the composition notebook I already put together or use copies of dairy pages I created to go along with my exercises. I might just use the notebook to make it easier on myself.

Day 8 and Day 9 I must say have been somewhat of what I would consider very challenging days for me when it comes to smoking and stress. Well more today than yesterday. I suppose it's a good thing that I ended up a tad sick. Yesterday I woke up perfectly fine, but by 10 am I started to feel like I was getting a slight fever, head was pounding, felt a slight dizzy and light-headed. I tried so hard to hang on until 5pm. Couldn't do it. I only left an hour early and came home to lay down. Going to sleep earlier than usual helped to cut down on how much I smoked that is for sure. Today I stayed home because I felt like complete crap when I woke up. Being sick and staying asleep for most of the day also helped with me cutting down...that is until I had to get my boys from school. Let's just say it wasn't a pleasant experience. Not only am I still feeling like crap, but my car battery goes out on me while on the interstate. Had to call my husband and my sister-in-law to help out. Having to sit in that car while I waited for someone to come by and help me was so hard. I was pissed off for one and in like 3 minutes I smoked at least 2 cigarettes. Then a gentleman pulled up and assisted in giving me a jump which I thought was absolutely nice of him since most people just look and drive by. I think we waited for about a half an hour before my sister-in-law showed up with my boys. In between that time I think I smoked another 2 or 3 cigarettes. I did try to do something else other than smoke, but I realized that I didn't have a single thing in my car. Not a book to read or a notebook to write in. Again I had way too much idol time, but I realized that if I wasn't planning to quit I wouldn't have considered looking for these things in place of smoking. Good thing I suppose. Mentally I am becoming aware of my triggers and ways to handle them. It also let's me know that before Monday, January 14, 2013 (my official quit date) I need to 1. go to our storage and get myself a book not matter how buried deep it is and 2. keep the book and paper in my car at all times for situations such as this. Hmmmmm....I think I just figured out my first two short-term goals to add to Step 2: Exercise 1. Sweet!

I think the closer to my quit date I get the more I am willing to share my experiences with everyone. One of my exercises includes listing my support team. I wonder if I can list my blog readers? I know to most of you it really isn't all that exciting to hear about my journey, but I do find it very helpful to me. In fact, I might start working on articles/posts to my other blogs. My poor business blog has just been in limbo for way too long. Need to start getting that back on track. Anyhow, meds are kicking in and it's off to bed for me so I can get back to work tomorrow. There will be a lot of work to make up for.

Thanks for reading today!!! Good Night!!