First day not smoking

[j34]

Well this is the day for me, I officially quit smoking! Yipee. Any suggestions on what to do with my hands,some suggestions I got was to switch up my hand when talking on phone , or reading,any more that can help please?.....

[kathyjo]

raw carrots, celery, straws, swizzle stix, anything that will aid in your "hand to mouth" fixes.
Congrats on your quit! You are embarking on the best thing you will ever do in your life : )
Another thing to do is to keep typing; sending e-mail or writing yout thoughts in your journal. You can always clean out the closets and scrub the floors but that doesn't sound so fun : )

Keep me posted : )
Kathy Jo

[elwoodsf]

In addition to Kathy Jo's response, whose helped me a lot too, I had to stay off the phone for the first few days. This was a huge trigger for me as this is when I smoked a lot. I sit in a different chair now. One of the students I work with - in high school - is always chewing on straws. I asked her why and she told me she was quitting smoking. So I chew on straws now too. Not good for my TMJ but smoking is not good for my life. Keep posting, journaling, sending emails out, whatever it takes to make it through. I am at day 11 today. It gets easier in some area's and different in other areas.

You can do this. Keep me posted. You are an inspiration for all of us in this forum.

~ El

[kkb19]

Congratulations!  Did you use any "aids" to help you quit?  I had quit once in the past, and it's back on my radar to quit again.  Some tips I am familiar with are to drink water from a straw-which helps with the "hand to mouth" problem, of course chewing gum-but that can hurt your jaw, and one thing that keeps me from smoking as much now when I am relaxing and watching tv is to do some kind of needlework-even cross-stitch which is really easy to learn, or crochet or knitting if you know how to do those-if you don't maybe you could pick up a book for beginners and teach yourself.  That keeps your hands and mind occupied and prevents the urge to eat too.  One of my aunts also does embroidery on flour sack towels-they are very cute and make great gifts too!  You can google online for patterns.  It's just awesome that you quit-it gives me hope!