blonde poker forum

Hello and welcome.

Sit yourselves down and make yourselves comfy.

This diary has been inspired by reading the fabulous diaries of Mr Prew and Mr Cooklin.

Whilst they both are clearly in a literary sense John Keats to my Dear Deidrie i shall give of my best!

I hope that getting my ramblings and thoughts down in print will help steel my resolve.


The journey along the road to tar ravaged lungs began 21 years ago when i was just 14.

I remember watching both my mum and dad smoke when i was a kid although my mum never inhaled which i never quite got really surely whats the point of that?!

Then there was the Sunday afternoon ritual of me with my dad staggering ( him obviously i was only 12 ) back from the rugby club with him telling me every week without fail that under no circumstances should i ever consider smoking as he'd wished he'd never started. Which kinda made sense as his mornings were spent emptying the contents of his lungs before tootling off to work.

Still to no avail i was young and worse than that i was a rebel.

I always hung around in an older crowd because i was cool ( lol yeah right )

One day i was offered a cigarette and thought why not i remember vividly coughing and spluttering my way through that first weed only to feel very very ill at the end of it to the point of  turning a nasty shade of green and emptying the contents of my stomach several times.

Still not to be put off one must look cool at 14 musn't one! I grew to tolerate it i can honestly say hand on heart i have never truely loved smoking.

I even devised a novel way of hiding the cigarettes from my parents by wrapping the packet of fags and the matches in an old freezer bag so they were waterproof and hiding the in the bushes. I really thought i was the bees knees! every angle covered.

I had a good friend John who is 12 years older than me and i first met him through the local snooker club where he was manager. We share a great love of national hunt racing and i remember very early on we organised a trip to Uttoxeter on one very cold and very wet Thursday. There were four of us going and John duly arrived to pick us all up. Now his car was a very old very rusty ford escort which i had heard him refer to as the " ash mobile " but did not know why. Well i kid you not that car was 3 inches deep in fag ash interspersed with about 2 million of Bryant and May's finest. I being young and hip! thought this was great but it wasn't great news for one of the party because they didn't smoke and were duly left behind under John's golden rule of " if ya don't smoke you ain't getting in ".

Sorry for the digression.

I never really thought about the damage smoking was doing to me during my twenties as i had a very active job so even though i was on twenty a day i still felt very fit. Although its hard to compare because i cannot actually remember how i felt before i started smoking because thats the trap i guess it creeps up on you so gradually you think its normal.

I tried briefly to give up before my son ( aged 6 ) was born but to no avail guess my heart wasn't truely in it.

Now though at 35 i have a hatred so fierce of the dreaded weed that its gonna put me on life tilt if i don't sort it.

I sit in the garden of a morning smoking the first one with my mug of tea and i dispise myself for doing it because it seems that no matter hard i try i cannot control this urge to smoke i don't need to do it hell i don't even wanna do it but i am doing it and could not figure out why and i'm sure the weed is contributing to my anxiety.

I am a physical wreck i take no exercise at all and feel terrible most of the time which is particularly bad because i don't even have the stamina to play with my son when he comes to stay. Its time to take control i feel.

So having tried various other methods i obtained a copy of Allen Carrs imo excellent book the easy way.

Having read it 5 times now to digest and understand i'm now ready for action so to speak.

I have one Lambert left and i'm going to smoke that then that is it over end of finito.

I just thought starting this would help me achieve my goal.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

As would any exercise advice bearing in mind i do not do any at all and would win olympic gold in the most unfittest man race.

If anyone else has any giving up stories, how hard was it withdrawal symptoms etc then i'd be grateful if you'd share them here.

I'll post regularly on how i'm doing etc.

Let the weed kicking commence

no point in me giving you any advice, but good luck!!!

gl!

good luck

One of the few problems I've never had!

Yessssss. Another diary.

Its in the lounge though .... Good stuff :)

and good luck in kicking the habit pokefast

have fun mate :)

Good luck becoming a non-smoker.................did the same thing myself nearly 9 months ago via Allen Carr and the only bad news is I look 9 months preggers from eating all the pies.

good luck. best thing I ever did was giving up smoking.
make sure you fill the void with something healthy from day 1.
regular, increasingly strenuous exercise and a decent diet and you won't recognise yourself in 12 months.

Well i gave up five years ago and haven't missed it at all.......I did use a good hpnotherapist though but he was worth every penny and I wish you every success with your challenge............

The diary will help you some but it will also remind you of being an ex smoker

oh and which rugby club.
I like all these diaries it makes us feel like more of a family that care about each other and I reckon that can only be a good thing in a society that doesn't seem to give a toss.

gl man, i found it hard to give up but I'm glad I did ldo


http://startingstrength.wikia.com/wiki/Starting_Strength_Wiki (http://startingstrength.wikia.com/wiki/Starting_Strength_Wiki)

Diary of a dirty,filthy ( soon to be ex ) smoker.
« on: Today at 03:47:26 PM »

hows the 1st 3 hours gone?

 if your not smokin put an entry into your diary whenever you would have had a smoke??
always better to do something different to take yr mind off it


btw GL
                                                                                                         

It was Bedworth rugby club not very good but riotous pre season,end of season well any part of the season tours really!

Why only last season some newbie failed to blow out his flaming Zambucca before digesting! the nurses sorted him out though  ;)

I like these diaries too, not everyones cup of tea granted but they do somehow give a sense of belonging i find.

So far so good i feel slighltly elated this morning.

Like a huge weight is off my shoulders tbh.

Took myself out of my usual regime of lighting up whilst kettle is boiling just made my tea and did the washing up instead!.

My wife was delighted by this and apparently there is a pile of ironing under the stairs  ;carlocitrone;

Ah, welcome to my world my friend.I was very active when I quit smoking..every little urge was fought by picking up the "Flash wipes" and cleaning the house...spotless so it was :)...I am used to not smoking now so don't clean as much anymore.

lol yes i can see more and more advantages to this quitting lark.

i may soon be able to ( for the first time in married life ) actually be in brownie point credit oh the power.   ;mexicanwave;


I've just completed an extremely irratable trip into town to drop off the wife for her fornightly beautifying session though she does not need it apparently its good for the soul!

Buses everywhere there were. Is there a need honestly for having 5 buses not even a quarter full all travelling the same route?. are west midlands travel being run by billy blindman?

Still never lost my temper and remained calm throught the ordeal still got the afternoon see who can park in the most stupid place competition down the school to come though.

So far so good starting to feel a little light headed now but nothing major to report.

Its a bit like open the box as to regards the withdrawal symptoms as you never know quite what your gonna get!

Now then where's this iron thing or more importantly what does it look like?! ;shame;

Also a little tip..carry a bottle of water with you everywhere you go and take sips of water regularly..not only good for you but it also surpresses the urge to light up, believe it or not.

when the cravings kick in and while sipping water (good tip) lots of deep breaths. As well as the nicotene, the body misses those long deep intakes af breath, even though it used to be a poisonous one.

Thanks guys sound advice.

A friend told me i'd need to drink at least 4 litres of water/fluid a day! something about your body needing it because it working harder to expel the years of filth?

Does he not know i'm on a meter ffs!

sneak out late at night and fill your bottles from there outside tap then stick em in your fridge  :)up

Day two is upon us wet and miserable where has the summer gone?

On the plus side an excellent sporting weekend awaits us with the open and the test match ( Mrs Poke is delighted ) but as i keep telling her its only once a year!  ;popcorn;

And tomorrow my best mate goes away for the weekend for his wedding anniversary so we are going to brick his front door up.

So plenty to be keeping me occupied over the next few days at least. Then i'm hoping to start grinding my omaha challenge on monday. Need to keep busy as long as i do i'll be fine.


Had a bad start to the day today tbh as i've had half a roll up  ;ashamed; which was good in one way as it reminded me how foul the things are.

That occured around 6am but i have resisted the urge since. I knew early morning would be my biggest challenge and so it has proved so far.

Not feeling too bad today a bit tired as i didn't sleep too well and a little bit irritable  ;grr; which according to my wife is normal behaviour   ;nemesis;

Managed to drink my 4 litres of water ( well orange squash ) yesterday so i'm expecting to be picked for the olympic piddling team along side Snat now.

46 seconds i managed this morning a new personal best.


My only dilemma is what should i be eating? as i don't want to get fat ( ter ) i've never had a great diet but now i'm very conscious of not putting on too much extra poundage.

Thanks to all who have offered support so far it means a lot.

Ah, the old morning cigarrette. That's the one you really have to cut out mate. what I found works is, again, drinking water in the morning and also having some sort of breakfast. I am not a breakfast person really and a fry up is of course bad for you (and makes you want to smoke even more...or it did for me anyways) but try eating an apple instead of having a cigarrete. You won't get fat, you'll get some vitamins and you won't have the urge to smoke all that much.

Also start the 100 push up challenge thing, you will actually feel better if you have your morning cuppa, the apple..do a few push ups and all that sort of stuff..you'll be much less likely to be inclined to have a smoke as you feel fit as a fiddle for doing those things (even if you're not).

1oo push up challenge?

and don't beat yourself up....it is not about success and failure purely life change......more to follow

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=34646.0 even I've started it..and I'm beyond lazy.

Muchas Gracias

yep, when I've given up in the past I've found mornings and after meals the worst time.  First off, get rid of any tobacco in your house, then you can't have a roll up first thing in the morning.  If you've actually got to go out and walk to the shop and spend a small fortune on tobacco, hopefully that will give you enough time to talk yourself out of it if you get the urge again.  When I gave up for a couple of years a while back I started off by getting myself a packet of those foul herbal things you can get from health food shops and had one of those when I got really desperate, I also had an inhalator which I dragged on a couple of times a day.  Between the two of them, it made dealing with it either, and I think it was only a matter of days before I stopped needing to use them.  Keep it up!

the most important cigarette of the day to go with out is the first one   :)

Sorry for no updates yesterday but i'm afraid the wheels have come off for the time being.

I'm currently in the middle of trying to clear my name on another forum which has not helped. after being called a thief and a cheat over a staking issue accusations which are hurtful and inaccurate.

Hope to be back on the wagon soon but i'm not in the best of moods atm.

if you wait for a stress free life to give up, you'll always smoke.

There will always be an excuse to keep smoking and put off quiting.

not asking for a stress free life just not the shite i've had to put up with these last 48 hours

but smoking will have no bearing on that aggro going away. It won't even make you feel better about it while you're smoking.

I battled with it for years so I understand, but if everytime you face adversity you turn to your fags for comfort, you'll never get off it.
Have your say on the other forum then never go back. Then chuck your smokes away.

Or don't. up to you. Good luck if you try again.

You are right adam and thanks for the kick up the arse.

Suprisingly fags didn't help the situation!

i'm back on track now hopefully.

well done.

you have to reprogramme your thinking.
You are a non-smoker in a bad mood, not a smoker who doesn't have a fag in their mouth.
The first few weeks are the hardest. Everytime you fail to give up, you are setting yourself up for another first few weeks.

Are you using anything? I used patches in the end. Will power alone wasn't enough.
Just two patches should be enough. One over each eye so you can't find your smokes ;)
seriously, a trip to the chemist might be worth thinking about

Cannot say how much the sticky thing helps - even if you're not putting the cartridge in - have known more people give up using that in conjunction with a patch than any other. Keep going and good luck

The main thing is that you try to bounce. There is nobody who is perfect. Do not beat yourself up. Just remember all the positives you were feeling when your mindset was one of an ex smoker. It is no different to me and the food except that nicotine is the most addictive of drugs..........do not give up on giving up. If you keep trying you will succeed and it will be yet nother inspirational story from the lounge. For me I have faced my demons from last week, I have bounced. Still get cravings but I guess I always will only they will not be as bad as time goes by.......the same for you mate, we are side by side kicking the shi'ite out of our demons..........oh and I need to get back on the 100 press up challenge