Living Free

Well, it's 10:38pm!  That means I've officially gone 3 weeks without having a single, solitary puff on a cigarette.  (I did stand downwind from Paul one afternoon and breathe deeply...does that count?)  It hasn't been absolute torture, but it hasn't been easy.  Strangely enough, the worst cravings didn't hit until last night and this afternoon.  And let me tell you, they were ROUGH.  I suffered through it, drank LOTS of water, and managed to ride them out. I have to confess I did partake in a little retail therapy to help ease the pain (more on that in my next post).

So, I've gone 3 weeks.  I smell better, my bank account is happier (well, until I went shopping, again, more on that later), I no longer have the terrible pneumonia cough, I don't get twitchy every 1.5 hours....  That's about it for the perks.  As far as the drawbacks go, being a non-smoker is BORING.  I sit in my little cubicle 9 hours a day and it's really starting to get to me.  One hour runs into the next and at some point I've lost all track of time.  Or, I find myself making up excuses to run down the hall, or stop to talk to so-in-so, or I go to fill up my coffee.  While the excuses help pass the time, they do little for my productivity.  I'm working on that.

As I said, the worst part about not smoking is the boredom.  Not because I'm the type of person that needs to be constantly entertained, but because I'm the type of person who EATS when I get bored.  Not bueno.  Since Thanksgiving I've packed on 7-8 pounds and I'm pretty sure most of it is right on my gut!  That means that my fat jeans all fit again, and I'm miserably bloated. I finally curbed my eating toward the end of last week, but I still feel like it's out of control.  I make a point to step out and walk for 20 minutes every day at work, but I have no energy left to exercise when I get home. I expected to bounce back from this bout of pneumonia with no issues, but it seems I am just EXHAUSTED all the time.  The fact that I'm even awake right now is impressive. I'm about 1 click away from signing up for Weight Watchers again.  It's been too long since I've been to the gym, but my workout buddy moved away and I've lost my motivation.  I'll get this under control soon, but this transition is the pits!

Quick sum up on life so I can go to bed:

• My hubby starts his new job on Monday.  WOOHOO!
• The cats are driving us crazy, as usual
• We did a little interior decorating on our bedroom.  Began as an awesome project, turned into a mild disaster, but I think I may have straightened it all out. (That goes along with the retail therapy blog)
• I finally finsihed my statement of goals and submitted it.  It's poorly written, but at least it's DONE!
• To celebrate my new beginning as a non-smoker, and because I've been growing my hair out for the past 6 months and was sick and tired of feeling 'vanilla'...my hairdresser and I decided to have a little fun.  That's right...RED.  (For the record, I don't like this pic at all...but it's the best I've got! )

So here's to new beginnings!  Have a terrific Thursday everyone!