Progress

Ron has spent three weeks at 15 cigarettes a day. I like the idea of pausing the program until he feels confident about moving forward. The B vitamins are helping him, as I suspected. They help improve his mood and boost his confidence and delay smoking when he has one in his mouth. A few days ago he said he was ready for 14 a day. It has been tough for him and I think he has dipped into the next day's pack twice already. He realizes that doing this makes the next day tougher so he's careful to only smoke one or two. Seems like the first few days after the reduction are tough for him. Then he gets the hang of it and it becomes a little easier and gains some confidence. He says that phone calls are tough for him - he unconsciously lights up a smoke during long conversations. I think he's engrossed in the discussion and simply forgets about his program. I think that realizing the problem is the first step. Soon he'll realize he's reaching for a smoke and at that time he can consciously decide if it's time for one yet or not. Keep up the good work Ron. You're making it happen, capt'n.

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

Ron had a tough week this past week as far as smoking goes. I think he dipped into the next day's pack nearly everyday. We are going to spend another week at 15 smokes a day. He needs to feel confident in order to move on. Yesterday was the first day of his second week at fifteen and he did great. At 6:00 pm he still had 5 smokes left - 2 of those were smoked in the middle of the night. Lately, he's been waking up a few times a night and he'll smoke then.
I was worried that if I started this blog it might throw him off track by focusing on him. He doesn't like to be the center of attention. What he doesn't realize is that he's not the main attraction because this blog has no followers, so he's safe. Seems like we can't spend too much time talking about smoking or quitting because the more that subject is brought up, the more he craves a smoke. So I try to keep quiet and I'm not going to mention this blog to him anymore.
A few days ago I ordered Ron some B vitamins. These vitamins are great. You stick them under your tongue and let them slowly dissolve. It can take up to an hour for them to completely dissolve. My thinking was that this would give his mouth something else to do and might help postpone his next cigarette. He'd also be getting the complete range of B vitamins which will help improve his mood and confidence. I'll let you know if they make a difference.
Man, I hope this plan works.

Let's Do This Thing!

I'm beginning to believe that the most important thing in life is attitude. Attitude is everything. We can choose to have a positive attitude or a negative one. The negative one keeps us stuck, unhappy, and blind to the beauty around us. A positive attitude can create change, improve health, and make us and others around us happier. Ron is going to quit smoking. We are not stopping until he does. If one week turns out to be particularly hard for him, we'll stay at that amount of cigarettes for an extra week in order to give him the confidence to move forward. I think this plan makes sense. We will gradually wean him off of nicotine and he will simultaneously change his habits, gently.
Ron's at 15 cigarettes a day.

The Countdown Begins

My husband has been smoking since he was 12 years old. He's 45 now. I can remember about a half dozen times where he tried to quit. The most successful attempt lasted three months. He was using one of the nicotine gums on the market, along with tons of Big Red chewing gum. He chewed so much and with such a vengeance during those three months that he hardly had the desire or energy to chew his food. His craving for cigarettes didn't diminish during those months. He felt angry, irritable, unfocused, and then finally defeated as he became a smoker again. He's tried the nicotine patch, the patch and the gum simultaneously, and cold turkey. And he's still smoking.
Over the years I've given a lot of thought to what approach he could use to quit. I might have come up with the solution - a gradual weaning. Here's my plan:
We started with a base number of cigarettes. My husband, Ron, smokes about a pack a day on average. So week one he got one pack a day. He had to force himself to remain aware of when he smoked and how long it had been since his last smoke - so he could pace himself and make sure his pack lasted all day.
The next week he got 19 cigarettes a day. I'm not a smoker but I imagine that one less cigarette a day is pretty easy to adapt to. One week after our start date, I wrote the number 19 on my calendar. The following week I wrote in 18 and I took 2 cigarettes out of each pack for that week. And so it goes. He's down to 16 cigarettes a day and doing great.
When he buys his carton of cigarettes he hands it over to me and I get all the packs ready for him. We've got a special drawer in the kitchen, one of those long, skinny ones, just for his smokes. When I took out 5 cigarettes from each pack, I ended up with 50 extra cigarettes - which is enough for 3 more packs! I started to write the day of the week and the date on each pack with a sharpie to keep the drawer of packs better organized. Of course, since each carton contains 10 packs and each week only 7 days, you'll have a decrease in number of smokes per pack somewhere in that carton. I keep some of his empty packs/boxes to reuse and stuff them with the spare cigarettes I have to create new packs. They are a little beat up but he doesn't seem to mind. I also scribble out the old date and write in the new one.
I hope I didn't make this sound more confusing than it is - a gradual, consistent weaning that hopefully will be barely noticeable. I'll keep documenting his progress over the weeks. Maybe if you want to try this idea, post your progress in the comments section so we can follow and support your effort!