Day 10 of Not Smoking…

Today will make day 10 of not smoking. I used the program Smoker Reducer Quit Smoking Program to quit smoking gently instead of going cold turkey (and having a stress attack from nicotine withdrawals).

So far it seems to be going well. I still crave a cigarette every now and then. It’s not horrible though. I keep myself busy with reading or making some recipe or playing online.

The bad side to Quitting

I figured I would tell you the bad stuff first then I’ll share the good parts.

Bad part #1: OMG! The headaches! I keep getting headaches. I think it’s partly because my sinuses are clearing out, partly my blood sugar going crazy (mostly unrelated) and partly from withdrawals. I was pointed to a video on tapping and gave it a try. It actually works! Okay, so it’s not 100% gone. But I will take 99% gone over a raging headache any day!

Here is the video 

Tapping for headaches

I will say that I really don’t think her headache was a 9… but pain is subjective… but still, 9 is rather high. But I did the tapping and it does help.

Bad part #2: OMG! I am HUNGRY!:  Since I quit smoking, I found my appetite has come back in full force. Yea, I didn’t miss being hungry all the time, but it’s better than smoking.

Bad part #3: Getting in touch with my emotions: Since I no longer have the ability of running outside to smoke as a way of avoiding my emotions, I am actually getting in touch with them. That means I kind of have diarrhea of the mouth.

Now the good side of quitting smoking! 

Good part #1: Getting in touch with my emotions: I know, I know. This was a bad side… but it’s also good. I am being much more assertive now and saying what I really think rather than keeping it all bottled up inside. On the days I don’t just start spouting off my thoughts and I spend a moment thinking about what I am going to say, I feel down right assertive and it’s making me feel rather good about myself.

Good part #2: I can breathe! I feels good to breath again without all the smoke and toxins in my lungs. My kids are even breathing easier and I don’t smoke inside. So this is an added benefit!

Good part #3: I am saving money!: Without smoking, I am saving about $30 a week. YOUCH! That was an expensive habit!

Good part #4: I can taste my food! Not saying I couldn’t taste it before I quit smoking, but it tastes so much better now. Which makes it really hard to quit buying coffee shop coffee but at least that is a cheaper habit than my smoking.

SO, how many of you have quit? And if you quit, what changes did you notice?

Smoker Reducer Quit Smoking Android App: It Really Works!

I have tried to quit smoking several times since I moved and nothing seemed to work. I didn’t want to be cranky with my children so I would continue smoking. I tried reducing the number of cigarettes I smoked but it never really seemed to help.

Smoker Reducer Quit Smoking Program

I tried several android apps but they didn’t seem to be as successful as I had hoped. They assumed you were quitting smoking cold turkey. While they offered great suggestions, games to play and Facebook updates, they didn’t make it any easier to quit smoking and only made me obsessed about cigarettes.

Then I found an android app called Smoker Reducer quit Smoking Program… and it’s FREE! I downloaded it expecting the same type of app as I had downloaded before. But this one turned out to be a lot different.

Smoker Reducer Quit Smoking Program: set up

When I first opened the program, it asked for the time I first smoke a cigarette during the day and what time I go to bed. I thought this was a little weird but I entered it and then put in how many cigarettes I smoke a day, the price of a pack of cigarettes and the number in a pack.

It said it would assume I had already smoked some that day (since I downloaded it in the middle of the day) and then set up my smoking schedule.

Smoking schedule? Well, this is new!

I looked at the smoking schedule and it had me smoking a cigarette every 52 minutes. Damn, I smoke a lot! I decided to be cooperative and waited to see what would happen. 52 minutes later I was a little shaky and felt like I was crawling out of my skin when my notification went off.

I checked and it said I could go smoke… or I could “bank” the cigarette and smoke it later. I picked “Smoke cig” and headed outside. For the rest of the day, I smoked about every 52 minutes.  say “about” because by the end of the day, I had 3 in my “bank”.

I also got an achievement for starting the program. WOOHOO! I love achievements!

Good Morning minus one!

The next morning I woke up and immediately went to the Smoker Reducer Quit Smoking app. It was all ready to set up my schedule for the day. I was curious what would happen to those banked cigarettes too. I touched the circle on the screen and it got me started for the day but took away one cigarette.

So day 1 I smoked 15 cigarettes and day 2 I only had 14 cigarettes and the my schedule was 1 hour and 10 minutes apart. I should tell you now that my days aren’t always normal days. I go to bed at different times. I could change my bed time each morning to adjust my cigarette schedule.

I also got an achievement for saving money. By not smoking that ONE cigarette a day, even if I only smoked one less cigarette a day for the next year, I would be saving $215! Okay, I never thought of it that way before. Damn. what could I do with that much money?

As of today, I at 9 cigarettes for today. My schedule is 1 hour and 32 minutes apart.

Knocking them out one by one: The Cons

There isn’t much to put here actually. I am not going crazy with rage, crying or dealing with migraines. I am not walking past every cigarette staring and drooling. The withdrawals aren’t nearly as bad. I can actually function!

I do eat a lot more but I am not sure that is a con. I need to eat better and eat more but I don’t. My appetite is coming back slowly.

I will gain weight. In fact I have gained a couple pounds. Am I freaking out over it? Nope. It will come back off once my body realizes I am eating regularly again.

Boy I get sleepy! Since tobacco is a stimulant (and a depressant…) when you are cutting back, you will feel more tired that usual. That’s okay! Be prepared for naps though.

Knocking them out one by one: The Pros!

The hardest part for me is the first 3 or 4 cigarettes. I REALLY want to smoke by the time my notification goes off saying I can go smoke. But by the end of the day, I am not even thinking about my next cigarette.

By knocking my smoking habit by one cigarette a day, I am gently getting my body used to not having the nicotine without the horrendous side effects. I don’t feel angry at all, I am not ready to scream, I haven’t burst into tears and bawled uncontrollably. I just get a little antsy right before it’s time to go smoke.

The program doesn’t try to guilt trip you when you go smoke. It doesn’t make you view pictures of cancerous lungs, people in iron lings or anything else like that before you go smoke. It’s not trying to make you feel like sh*t for doing something you are addicted to. It just sets your schedule and reminds you that you can go smoke.

Although today I woke up with a tiny headache that Motrin took care of, I am not curled up in a ball in a dark room with a debilitating migraine.

My appetite is coming back! Even with all the stress that I am going through, my appetite is returning. I feel a little more lively most of the times… although I do have moments where I am just freaking SLEEPY!

I sleep better. I noticed that I am falling asleep a little easier. I am not sleeping sounder because of my back pain, but I am falling asleep better. If my back wasn’t waking me up, I would be able to tell you if I slept soundly. Anyone want to chime in on that?

I feel better! I can actually breathe a little easier now too. I don’t feel horrible about myself when I go smoke because “I should be quitting”… I am smoking BECAUSE I am quitting. That mindset is a actually pretty freeing for me!

How much money am I saving?

The Smoker Reducer Quit Smoking App shows you how much money you are spending and how much you are saving.

When I started, I was spending

• Day: $4.39
• Week: $30.73
• Month: $133.50
• Year: $1602.35

Holy Nicotine Addiction!

Now, at 9 cigarettes a day, I spend

• Day: $2.63
• Week: $18.41
• Month: $79.98
• Year: $959.95

That’s a decent difference! In case you don’t want to break out a calculator, that means I am saving

• Day: $1.76
• Week: $12.32
• Month: $53.52
• Year: $642.40

By next paycheck, I will not be smoking! So as a treat and celebration, I am taking the $30 I would spend a week and buying something for my kids and myself. Can you imagine what I can do with $1602.35 that I will save in a year???

How about those lungs?

I should point out that the Smoker Reducer Quit Smoking App does have a picture of lungs that look like a smokers lungs under the statistics tab. At first I was like “meh, it’s a quit smoking app. I figured it would be here somewhere.”

Then on day 2 I was waiting for my next cigarette when I noticed a statement at the bottom. It says that the picture of the lungs in the program isn’t a statement of how your lungs are, it’s representation of your progress. Over the days, I have noticed that the lungs are pinker and look healthier. So as I progress, the lungs will eventually look like healthy lungs.

Update is coming!

In about 10 days, I will be posting an update to let you know how my progress is going!

So I had an idea…

I was sitting here thinking about how dull a housekeeping blog can be. You start out with routines you do daily, weekly and all that good stuff. Then they give tips and motivational speeches.

It’s always the same with variations from site to site. Some are more laid back while others are like the housekeeper Nazis. But one things is always the same… it gets boring.

So I had this wonderful idea for my Gimp and Limp Club blog. I decided that each week I’ll be hosting scavenger hunts that work on the honor system and the winner gets $5. I am poor, I can’t afford much but I wanted to have prizes.

Over the next couple of weeks, I am going to find gift cards to buy for $5-$10 so there will be a choice of prizes. And I am hoping that once a year (or twice) I can give away something REALLY cool but I have no idea what that will be.

Anyway, if you want to play along, go check it out!

What Color is my Parachute? RAINBOW!

After my last appointment to the doctor, it finally all hit home. I might be MMI'd for my work injury. Which means they have done everything they can. Which is BS because they keep denying everything I want to try. But I digress... So now I am fully thinking about what else I can do for a career.

They keep asking what my back up career is. THIS WAS my back up career. Before I met my husband, I had planning on moving to Florida and joining the Ringling Brothers and Barnum Bailey Circus Clown College and then traveling with the circus as a circus clown. With kids, that's not happening and I would totally not be able to do all the fun stuff that clowns do, so that is out of the question.

So I broke out the book What Color Is Your Parachute? 2012: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers and the workbook that goes with it. I originally bought it as a guide for my homeschooling children when they hit 11th grade. But I figured I would use it on myself. After going through a few activities, I thought "My parachute is the color RAINBOW!" So now I am working through my activities to figure out what I can do at home.

I thought about some things that would actually make money. Being a prostitute and a drug dealer are out of the question. I don't want to blow up my house or end up in jail for life. Writing is a definite idea! Now, if only I could figure out how to make blogging lucritive for me! I'll be researching more.

Google now has affiliates where I can put ads in the actual blog post. But I haven't figured out how to actually add them to the post. Now watch... there's going to be 20 ads show up for a parachute. It's not showing up in the post so I have no idea what I am doing. I also have amazon associates through a friends account that we set up for a business we started YEARS ago. She's not using it, so I am. I can add ads from there like this



They actually make that??? Okay. Anywhoodles, I can start posting relavent products in my posts. I did that with the books I am using (up there about the book and workbook). But that works only if someone wants to buy something. So she was telling me about this astore and I have been messing with it. I'll let you know when I figure it out.



She said I should put the rainbow bracelet ad on here cuz she likes it LOL. There it is... I so WANT ONE OF THOSE! Anyway, so I am thinking more now about how I can make money from home. Maybe I'll have massive yard sales... NAH! That would be too much for me.

Any ideas? LEGAL ideas?

3 Reasons to Quit Using your Microwave. By Guest Blogger, Kate Croston

     If you are anything like most people nowadays, then you use your microwave for everything you cook, practically. You use it to defrost the meat for dinner, heat up the soup for lunch and even cook the turkey bacon for breakfast. You use your microwave to reheat leftovers and warm your children’s hot cocoa. Why wouldn’t you? After all, it is much faster, cooler, and easier than using the stove or oven. Well, I will give you three reasons to stop using your microwave.

1. Taste – Things cooked in the microwave just taste different. It is a fact. If they didn’t, then why don’t you microwave your steak? Or your hamburgers? Meat in the micro comes out chewy and flavorless. The same goes for lots of other things, but you’ve forgotten what they are supposed to taste like, so you no longer notice. Try cooking things on the stove for a while and see if they don’t taste much, much better to you.

2. Diet – A microwave is quick. That means you can make and eat a lot of food any time your heart desires. When you are bored, when you are in a hurry, or when you just don’t want to think. Those are the worst times to be eating because you are not making healthy meal choices at those times. But what if you had to put a little more effort into your food? Wouldn’t you eat better if you had to plan dinner in the morning so the meat could defrost naturally? Wouldn’t you eat a lot more fruits and veggies if you didn’t have a micro meal ready to pop in? Wouldn’t you cook balanced meals if you had to use the stove instead of whatever could be thrown in and eaten within minutes? Wouldn’t you eat less when you are bored if you actually had to prepare it? All these decisions add up to an unhealthy lifestyle that can be changed by removing just one element.

3. Health – Last but not least are the health issues. Yes, we have talked about diet, but what else does a microwave do beside cook fast? It cooks with radiation. No, I don’t think it is going to give you cancer or anything, at least not at normal exposure rates, but can it really be healthy to eat all that food that has been irradiated? Now, it is not like it is cooking with x-rays or gamma rays or is going to make you turn green, bulk up and start smashing things, but it is something to think about. Why not limit your exposure to as much as you can, right?

Just some food for thought. If you are addicted to your microwave, then try a little break from it. You may find out that not only can you live without it, but your life is healthier, happier, and a little tastier.


Author Bio:
Kate Croston is a freelance writer, holds a bachelors degree in Journalism and Mass Communication. She writes guest posts for different sites and loves contributing home internet service related topics. Questions or comments can be sent to:  katecroston.croston09 @ gmail.com.