9 months

I received a notice in my email today that I had gotten a comment on this blog. For a short moment I actually thought to myself "where do I know My Smoking Files from?" Oh, Duh.

So much has been going on since I last posted here. I am coming up on 9 months of being smoke free, and right now it's feeling pretty good. I have tough moments here and there, but they are so much easier to get over and move on from.
My one weakness since I quit has been food. I went from comforting myself with cigarettes to comforting my self with chocolate chip cookies, instant flavored coffee, and soda. Today I start giving up that stuff. I have gained about 30lbs. because of it, so I have a lot of work to do.

One piece of quit smoking wisdom I can share from all of my experiences with quitting smoking is that I am so much less stressed out when I am not smoking. I truly think that smoking causes more stress than it helps; it creates the stress that keeps you smoking. When I am stressed now, which happens a little less often, I can deal with it, move on and forget it. It is so very freeing. Also, I have so much more free time.

The only real problem that quitting smoking has caused for me is that I lost my drive and motivation to be creative. It seems that every creative bone in my body shriveled up and died. I am hoping that when I get my food and exercise issues dealt with I will have more energy and maybe be less depressed and get my creativity back.

It can only get better from here.

I have been quit for 8 Months, 4 Weeks, 21 hours, 44 minutes and 23 seconds (270 days). I have saved $703.41 by not smoking 3,250 cigarettes. My Quit Date: 8/28/2008 1:32 PM