Started this morning with a pang for cigarettes. And then applied my 'wait 30 minutes' approach. I would say the experience was pleasantly uncomfortable. I say 'pleasantly', because it was uncomfortable but manageable. It also went strongly against the habit I've formed, so I know it can help in breaking it.
This might sound stupid to someone who has quit smoking cold turkey, but I felt like I was unable to do that yesterday. It was too uncomfortable and it completely threw me off mentally. I never expected it to not be uncomfortable, but the levels I experienced would render me useless in terms of my work and I just can't have that. After some reading, I set a reduction schedule for myself, where I systematically decrease the amount of nicotine I ingest. The point isn't to keep smoking just for the sake of smoking, but getting those levels down to a point where I can take the discomfort enough so that I'd get through one whole day without cigarettes.
Considering my quantities from the recent past, I settled on a maximum of 30 cigarettes a day for the first week. I will also wait 30 minutes in the morning when the first craving hits and I will not smoke cigarettes after midnight. For the second week, it will be 27 cigarettes, 45 minutes in the morning and no smokes after 11.45 pm. And so on. Pushing the time will force me to deal with 'not smoking' in time segments that I can handle. The morning's are also especially important, because I need to be able to start my day in a way that's not dictated by cigarettes.
From my reading, people described success by starting to limit the hours they would allow themselves to have cigarettes. Since 'never' remained out of reach for me but 30 minutes was doable, I will build from there. In their experiences, people also described that having reduced the number of cigarettes to a fairly low one, the addiction became so ridiculous for them (because they were often deliberating 'when' and 'where' they would smoke their 3 or 4 allowance) that they gave it up completely.
As I'm writing this, I also must add that if this reads like 'rationalising' then please tell me. I haven't got any experience with trying to quit smoking, so maybe I'm deluding myself. All I know is that I need to find a way to get to one whole day without cigarettes - 'never' becomes easier after that, because then I can go one day at a time. Since the point really isn't to keep smoking, at some point I will try the one whole day again when I've gotten to a lower daily dose of nicotine.
I will also have to 'disconnect' coffee and cigarettes some weeks in. You would very rarely find me drinking coffee and not having cigarette. And if I feel like drinking coffee causes cigarette cravings that are overwhelming, I will simply quit drinking it if that makes cravings more manageable.
It's obvious that this topic is what's been on my mind today - nothing else to report, really.
End of Day 187. I did not drink today.