Jesus Set Me Free - A Month Without Nicotine

What motivates you to be a better person? What drives you to recover from addiction? For me, the belief in a greater power most certainly helps. In the beginning of January I posted about my new years resolution. This was to quit smoking cigarettes for good. I have to say, if I can do it, so can you.

I haven't kept tabs with my recovery process as much as I wanted to, but I'd like to announce that I am free of cigarettes for 4 weeks (1 month) now.

I never imagined that I would get here! I've been one moody guy around my family, and they haven't made the quitting process easy at all!

The biggest and most important milestones that are the most difficult to achieve, are within the first 30 days. As you can see below, the list of achieved milestones is pretty lengthy. Now that I've gotten to a full month, the next big step isn't for another three months! This means that there won't be much updates til then, and to be honest, I'd be OK with forgetting about it. It means that I'm fully healed and have moved on to bigger and better things as opposed to blogging about a past addiction. That sounds great, past addiction.

So where does my belief in Jesus fall into play? Prayer. I most certainly prayed for at least a year with the desire to quit smoking. It wasn't until this time around that I really put it in his hands. It's also crazy how relevant today's verse of the day is.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  
shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, 
or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Romans 8:35 (KJV)

It's been a tough month for sure. The anxiety, the depression and the battle of withdrawal really hit me hard but I have overcome this thanks to prayer. Jesus gave me the strength, Jesus set me free.

Now that I have finally quit, not only are smells coming back to me, but I've also realized that I remember things, events and songs from when before I smoked. It actually feels weird getting a flashback like that. I feel more energized for sure, and I almost feel like the movie Limitless. While it's not on such a massive scale, I've certainly cleaned up a bit and have organized my life a lot more then what it was before.

I'd say that smoking cigarettes is a destructive habit. It made me very lazy over the years and I have a lot to make up for it. If you are reading this and are suffering with an addiction, you too can quit! I think with prayer, anything is possible, so if you haven't tried it, then you can't say you've tried everything.

Here are the milestones I've passed:

20 minutes after quitting:

• My blood pressure has returned to normal
• My pulse rate has returned to normal.
• The temperature of my hands and feet have returned to normal.

8 hours after quitting

• The Remaining nicotine in my blood streem has fallen to at least 6.25% of normal peak levels, a 93.75% reduction.

12 hours after quitting

• carbon monoxide level in my blood has dropped to normal
• oxygen level in my blood has increased if not hit normal levels

24 hours after quitting

• My anxieties have peaked in intensity and within two weeks should return to near pre-cessation levels.
  Note: I've definitely feeling anxiety all day but I am doing a pretty good at keeping busy and keeping calm (Thank you Jesus!)

48 hours after quitting

• Damaged nerve endings have started to regrow
• My sense of smell and taste are beginning to return to normal. (I am definitely starting to smell smells that I haven't picked up on for many, many, many years and these smells are giving me flash backs from when I wasn't a smoker)
• Cessation anger and irritability will have peaked. (Boy HAS IT EVER! I can't tolerate the kids right now and I am getting very frustrated very easily.)

72 hours after quitting

• At this point, my body should be 100% nicotine-free. Most of the junk should have passed through my urine and I have begun to have a peaked intensity for withdrawal symptoms. This includes restlessness and crave episodes. On the bright side, breathing will be easier and my lungs functional ability will start to increase.

5-8 days after quitting

• During this time studies show that I had about 3 crave episodes per day. I'd say I had a lot more then that

10 days after quitting

• Crave episodes can go down to about 2 per day. I never noticed a difference, I just tried to keep myself busy with other things

10 days to 2 weeks after quitting

• All it takes is 10 days. Once you get to this point, the physical addiction is 100% gone. Blood circulation in gums and teeth are now similar to that of a non-smoker.

Latest Milestone:

2 weeks to 4 weeks after quitting

Cessation related anger, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, impatience, insomnia, restlessness and depression have ended. If still experiencing any of these symptoms get seen and evaluated by your physician.

• As you can see, I have not updated much on my quitting smoking. I've indeed had a lot of anger, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, impatience, insomnia, restlessness and depression.

• It's been one of the toughest months I've had to deal with, but luckily there were birthdays and fun times along the way, so it made life much easier. It was hard not smoking while standing on the frozen lake during my snowmobile adventure

Plasma suPAR is a stable inflammatory biomarker predictive of development in diseases ranging from diabetes to cancer in smokers.

• At 4 weeks, these levels should be down to the "no longer significantly different from someone who has never smoked" range. This is really good.

Recovery never felt so good.

Next Milestones

3 months

• My risk of heart attack will have started to decrease and my lung function will have started to improve further. This is an ongoing process, the longer I go without cigarettes, the more improved lung function I achieve I have plans to start jogging and getting cardio workouts in soon.

• My blood circulation has gotten much better, walking is easier and any chronic cough should now be gone.

Thank you for reading, Steemit friends! God bless and I hope you all have a great month of February. It's the month of love so grab your partner and hold them tight. Let them know you love them!

@bitfiend