Quitplan

It's day 7 and my craving right now is driving me insane. I know if I head down to 7-11 to buy a pack of cigarettes or tobacco, all that I went through in the past 7 days will be wasted. I want something sour instead. Something like tamarind (imli), or sour plum bubble tea (without the pearls). Or bharri bhindi (lady fingers filled with Pakistani spices). Or just SOMETHING. I licked a lemon but it didn't help. I want SOMETHING.

Quit Attempt #45645

Today is day four since I quit smoking. After two days, I had immense withdrawal symptoms, such as persistent coughing and chest pains, body ache, a mind-throbbing headache, loss of appetite and well, cravings of course. I felt like I was dying. I ended up having a fever and intense weakness - and those are terrible things to go through in the middle of the night in a foreign country when there is no one to look out for you.

A smoker buddy came over yesterday and I ended up buying a whole pack for him, stealing two cigarettes from it in the process. These two I shared with two people who spent some time with me in the past two days, puff by puff, to help stop me from going back to smoking (by being forced to buy a whole pack when I can just do with a loose cigarette to fight the urge).

I think my appetite just returned today as I had my fourth meal a while back.

Actually, most people would suggest (and rightly so) that I phrase it as "an attempt to quit smoking" (in the first line of this post) rather than "I quit smoking". When it has been nine years since you've been trying to quit, it's quite normal for people to be uber skeptical.

But it's nice to have a person or two who believes in you. *smiles*

Lies

Ideal Conditions for Quitting Smoking

If you really must quit, as I'm sure you reconsider often, you need the following conditions to make it happen:

1. You're out of cigarettes completely. This means you have checked all possibilities of finding some tobacco, some cigarettes or any form of nicotine in your house. (Beware: This exercise can involve going through hundreds of empty cigarette packs lying in the corner of your room to find that one cigarette.)

2. You have absolutely no money to buy cigarettes. Yes, that means you have no cash, no money in your bank account, and all your credit cards are maxed out. Oh, and you can't borrow either (all your friends are broke).

3. You can't bum a cigarette off of a friend. That may be because you're in a foreign land with no friends, or because all your friends have gone to visit foreign lands. Or worst case scenario - you have lost all your friends. Whatever the case, getting a cigarette (or any form of nicotine) from any friend is just not an option for you.

4. You have a girlfriend or wife or mother or father or brother or sister or daughter or son or a good friend - just ANY loved one who can give you moral support as you whine about your endless nicotine cravings and withdrawal symptoms day and night. (This blog does that work for me - haha!)

5. You are able to become excessively busy with useless or useful activities (it doesn't really matter). That way, you get minimal time to 'miss' smoking. Of course the urges are still there.