Starting the ALA Freedom From Smoking Program

[Trooth]

I am starting the program which can be found at http://www.lungusa.org/. Module 1. I want to quit smoking. I promised after I got through 3 months of my other recovery that this was next and I am going to make my first serious attempt at stopping. January 21st appears to be my quit day (3 weeks from today). That should prety good, I have a trip coming up the week afterwards. If anyone else is in the program or wants to join me, let me know...

[Trooth]

I am going to use this thread for my program. We are supposed to post on the board, but it is huge and the software is horrible. For module 1 I am supposed to post the following:

My name,
Fears of quitting,
Reasons to quit.

My name is Jason, I like using trooth on the boards. I first used it in a game I played as my alias. It represents a lot of things and was pretty cool to use to talk smack to my opponents ("You can't handle the trooth") ("The trooth will set you free")... Plus as you can see with the last part, it also means a lot to me spiritually. Two scriptures always stuck to me. "And you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free." "Jesus said, I am the way the truth and the life..." So there you go, my real name and my aka.

My fears. I know the cravings. I get them and they are strong. This will by far be the most difficult thing I have quit. I am scared that when I am at my friend's house, or at work, or elsewhere I will be tempted to bum a cigarette, thinking just one will be ok.

Why I am quitting. Health, finances, and appearance. We all know the health problems. Cancer, heart disease, respiratory problems, smoking is bad mmmkay. Finances, right now I am spending around $60 a month on cigarettes. That is $720 a year over 20 years that $14,400 enough for a car. Why spend it on something that is killing me. On top of that health insurance and life insurance is more for a smoker, and illnesses from smoking are expensive. Finally, appearance. Face it smoking is unattractive. It stinks. It is unhealthy and that is unattractive.

I hope that others will get some inspiration from my posts as I work the modules .

[Trooth]

Module 2...

Smoking is a habit. Module 2 suggests that we try and calculate how many times that we have strengthened this habit. Here goes for me. On an average of 10 puffs per cigarette, 15 cigarettes a day, 365 days a year, and 8 years for me. I have strengthened my habit 427,200 times. Each puff strengthens the habit. I was a bit amazed to see how much I have put into smoking.

Why did I do this again? Oh yeah, because my friends did it. Monkey see, monkey do. Time for me to quit being a monkey.

[dotcom]

good for you trooth! sounds like youve got a good program for quitting smoking going! ill be praying for you!

[Trooth]

Thanks for the support I will need it. Nicotine by far has always been my strongest chemical addiction.

[AvieG]

Good onya, Trooth. Acording to my quitmeter, I have 1day, 18hrs and 8mins free of nicotine. I feel absolutely lousy, BUT this is because I have a bad chest infection, so stopping off ciggies is coming very easy just now, because of the chest infection. My hard time will be once the infection has cleared and I start feeling better.

[Trooth]

From what I have been reading, the worse day is around 3, but then it gets better. I have gone 5 days before, just becuase I was out of town and didn't want to smoke around niece and nephew. It was really hard for me, but it got a little easier that 4th and 5th day, so hang in there.

[nana]

Hey Trooth
Love that AKA. I am in FFS smober for One month, three weeks, three days, 12 hours, 31 minutes and 39 seconds. I also came over to this site for my AA recovery. Great going on those mods...they really work...I can attest to that. 40years 2&1/2pks per day. The support on both these sites is phenominal. Work it and you can quit.
Best to you! Keep It Simple!

[Trooth]

I am on module 3 now. I am tapering until I get to my cold turkey day. I have also switched to lights. I can quit, and I will quit. I don't want the health complications, I dont want to spend my money on it, I don't want the smell and unattractiveness from it.

[Trooth]

I am moving on to module 4 now. I have 2 buddies who have quit smoking, one quit new years, and one has not been smoking for 6 months. My parents don't smoke, and a number of my coworkers don't. Them along with the people on this board are going to be my support group.

January 21st is my stop day. I am going to do it.

I have found that I smoke when I wake up, I generally smoke 3 in the first 2 hours, I also smoke in the car. I smoke after I eat. All in all, around 10 cigarettes a day. My next step is going to illiminate smoking in my car. I am going to do that tomorrow. No more smoking in the car. That should cut out at least 3 cigarettes. Plus with it being so cold right now I wont be tempted to just smoke outside.

I mostly smoke when I am bored, so I am going to just get up and walk around for awhile. I need to do that anyway where I work at a desk all day. I am also going to keep some carrots at work to munch on when it gets bad.

Module 4 comes in with my quit day, so I am going to continue to do my exercises from module 1 - 3, and prepare myself to quit for this next week and a half. I will be on here more often.