image Double High Five for your Double Green Achivement Carol!
You are coming closer and closer to accepting that you not only should be but also want to be An Ex-Smoker. You've come far in two months of dedicated recovery and I can assure you that the rest of the road gets easier to travel day by day. I wanted to write you today to share two things that really helped me see what I'd been doing to myself during all those years of nicotine use and why.
What astounded me was reading the truth of nicotine addiction here - this whole addiction problem comes down to a fairly simple chemistry solution. Nicotine is a chemical compound, a naturally occuring poison defense of the tobacco plant. By an absolute quirk the nicotine molecule fits like a key for a lock in the pleasure zone receptors of our brain which are designed to release several enzymes (dopamine, seratonin, adreneline) that alter our brain chemistry & our mood. That is how the stuff addicts us by ginving a false sense of contentment or pleasure. But what also amazed me was that since nicotine is a base alkaline type compound it is negated at a quicker rate when we introduce or induce acid into the equation. Alcohol is acidic - nicotine is depleted quicker when it is consumed therefore we intake more nicotine more regularly (all of us know we used to smoke more when if drink)as well as strong emotions being acid producing events in our body chemistry. That is why when we were sad, angry, distraught, fearful, or even elated we needed to smoke more nicotine to keep our level of nicotine at a 'normal' level and prevent withdrawal anxiety from making us uncomfortable for at least a few minutes more ....until our nicotine concentration level dropped again and we needed another dose. image The process is a vicious circle which we have now put to rest by pledging to break the cycle by refusing nicotine re-entry to our body / blood / brain. We didn't 'stuff' our emotions as much as our emotions caused a change in our blood chemistry. Better living through science. We stay clean of nicotine and in not too long of a while we adjust back to our true normal brain function. We then begin again to live comfortably free physically while we re-adjust or psychological attachment to the constant pleasure inducing 'pay attention' events our brain recorded while we were active users of this self- deceiving drug we forced ourselves to consume.
On the waistline front...... let me just say, I increased one (nearly two) pants size before I realized it was up to me to control that part of me as well. It wasn't easy but it was simple as well to take back control of me by adjusting my eating and exercise activity. I'm pleased to tell you that all that I'd added is now long gone. I feel great and you can too by deciding daily that you and only you can determine how you'll live for the rest and potentially best of your life. And the best first thing we do for ourselves is to decide that no matter what we are far better off by choosing daily to never take another puff.
Enjoy your journey Carol, it's a wonderful ride full of daily discovery if we choose to make it so.
yqb - Joe J Free 33 and a half times green by choosing each day to ntap.