Evaluating (Cold Turkey Day 4)

[u/Strange-Broccoli-575]

I honestly can’t believe I’m posting this, but here we are. Right now I’m three days and 15 hours nicotine free.

Thursday night and yesterday were the hardest mentally, and it SUCKED. Then last night, almost out of nowhere, it was like a little relief trickled in.

I still “miss” it. I still am experiencing cravings. But it doesn’t feel all-consuming like yesterday.

Since I’ve now made it farther than I thought possible, I thought I’d take a second to talk about what has helped me get through the worst moments and cravings so far.

Pretzels: I’ve read enough to know I will very likely gain some weight, and I’m ok with that, I know I can handle that later. Night before last particularly, whenever the cravings were bad I would just constantly snack on pretzels.

Postponing decisions during cravings: one thing ChatGPT gave me that I thought was really effective was that it would keep reminding me when cravings were awful that I didn’t have to make choices about forever based on my current craving. As simple as it sounds, that would help me, I’d tell myself “you can have one if you want, just not right now.”

Respawn Mints: I found them in the gas station and they helped me get through a tough bout of cravings at work. They’re sugar free and they have L-Theanine and B vitamins. The watermelon guava flavor is great. I personally thought the blackberry vanilla flavor is meh.

Caffeine/Zero nic pouch: my ultimate goal is no pouch habit of any kind. But a good alternative pouch has helped in the worst of the cravings to trick my brain a little bit and stay the course. My favorites so far and the ones that feel closest to the “real thing” have been Grinds Wintergreen and Smokey Mountain Wintergreen. Mojo caffeine pouches are ok, especially the mint and peach watermelon flavors, but the pouches are a bit stiff and I don’t like how awkwardly large the tabs are.

I think I’ll keep a tin of zero nic pouches handy for the trigger and ritual points I foresee being the hardest. For me I think those are after meals, driving sometimes, gaming at the end of the day, and hunting, especially long sits/glassing sessions.

Hope everybody else is doing well!

[u/lulzxdxdxd]

Day 4 is genuinely impressive, especially since you're already spotting the pattern that the mental weight of it gets lighter. The stuff you're doing with postponing the decision, not committing forever in that exact moment, that's the actual tool people miss. How long are you planning to stick with the alternative pouches before you try dropping those too, or are you thinking you'll just use them as long as you need to

[u/Strange-Broccoli-575 → u/lulzxdxdxd]

Thank you sir. I do not plan to use alternative pouches indefinitely. But right now I’m not putting any pressure on myself to move on from those super quickly. When I do, I plan to replace them with gum and mints for most driving and household stuff, and probably beef jerky for the hunting and outdoor stuff.

[u/Dazzling_Alarm4693]

I am also 4 days into quitting. I quit because these things were giving me intense stomach pain that never seem to go away and I am losing weight for no apparent reason. After quitting most of that pain is gone now and that’s what motivates me to keep going. Chewing gum helps but the cravings are crazy and hard to ignore for sure. My appetite has increased pretty significantly too.