One Week Down: Day 8

Well holy shit guys, it's officially been one week!

I have not had a single puff of a cigarette in a week.  I'm sticking with the plan (took a blogging break over the weekend), and things are going amazingly well.  I, for one, am a little shocked.  My mood has stayed positive, I've been able to overcome the cravings, and I'm not even relying all that heavily on the gum. 

I still have the thought, "I want to smoke a cigarette" at least ten times a day.  For the first few days, I would pop in a piece of gum if the thought stressed me out.  For the past few days, I've learned to instead just trick my brain.  I dismiss the option and immediately think of something else.  98% of the time, the craving is forgotten almost as quickly as it appeared.  If it isn't, I chew a piece of gum. 

There have been a few weaker moments... I went to a concert on Friday with a prominent smoking section in the back, and at one point I did go outside just to smell the second hand smoke.  Kind of a pathetic/gross moment, but then the band started playing a song I loved and because I wasn't in the middle of a cigarette, I was able to just hop up and go right back inside.  So that was cool.  Another weak moment was on Saturday, which turned out to be a stressful evening for me personally.  I was hanging out with a friend who smokes and at one point requested that we sit down and she have a cigarette just so I could smell it.  I went as far as to hold a lit cig in my hand, and even without smoking it, I felt a little bit of that calm and security just for having it.  I almost took a drag, and then I imagined having to fess up that I had caved on this blog and to my friends and family.  Also, the smoker friend I was with was really encouraging and probably would have felt guilty if she had let me smoke.  Accountability works, y'all!

Some more good news: my foot is finally almost totally healed!  I had stepped on some glass while barefoot in my house about two months ago and had to go to the ER to get it taken out.  My foot hadn't fully healed in the meantime, and last week I noticed that it looked like there was still a piece of glass stuck in the bottom of my foot.  I was able to pull it out on Saturday morning, and I feel a million times better already.  So I'm planning to get back on track with my running this week, which is one more reward I can redeem. 

I have heard rumblings that after a certain amount of time you start hacking up junk from your lungs.  Has anyone experienced this?  What's that about, when does it start and how long does it last?

Status: 8 days smoke free!  $0 donated to my anti-charity; fabulous feeling foot; about 3-4 pieces of nicotine gum/day.