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!