So I had a major setback. I went to Vegas on 09/28/2014 with my GF. The night that we got there, I went out with my GF and her sister to a little dive bar her sister frequents. As we started drinking, they both started smoking. Yeah, you can see where this is going. I bummed one, and within an hour, had bought a couple of packs. And that was all she wrote. I've been smoking for the last few weeks, and pretty heavily. This started quite the little cycle of destruction. I was a bit down that I had failed, started feeling sorry for myself, blah blah blah. I was drinking to excess damn near every night, which made me not bike in, which pissed me off, which made me drink, which made me smoke more. I was doing so well!!! Grrrr. Anyway, I got sick of feeling sorry for myself, and finally got the balls to post here and accept the deserved face punches. However, just being a complainypants suffering from excusitis is not how I roll (at least not for long). So that's where I was as of Friday.
Now where am I? Well, I smoked my last cigarette about 2 hours ago. Last night I took some ZzzQuil and some melatonin so that I could fall asleep a bit after 8. I also ground my coffee, and made sure that the delay brew was enabled on my coffee pot. I set out all of my clothes, and packed my panniers (totally forgot my shoes though, now all I have is SPDs). This gave me enough sleep to wake up a touch earlier than usual. I had two cups of
Bulletproof Coffee (video) while slowly waking up and starting to move around. I got dressed and hopped on the bike, giving myself the first opportunity to try out my super awesome new headlight (since the sun didn't rise until 7:21 this morning)(SPOILER ALERT: It was awesome!!). I arrived at work after an awesome 9.3 mile ride, and then promptly started clearing some of the damage I've been doing to my lungs by coughing uncontrollably for about 5 minutes. Then I smoked the last cigarette I had. I was very mindful every little bit of it. Everything that I thought I liked about smoking, I paid attention to. The taste, the feeling of inhaling the smoke, the smell, and the effect of the chemicals (the 'rush', if you will). I wasn't that impressed. I tried to remember how I felt for the months before, with better lung capacity, etc. I didn't bring my wallet or any cash today, so even if I feel like giving in, I'm more than 40 minutes away from my money, and another 5 away from cigarettes. I'll check in once I get done with work and get back home. I'm pretty sure I've got this, and I guarantee that I will not fall into that trap again.
To those of you who originally participated, but may have slipped up, remember: we have just over two months left in this challenge, and that is plenty of time to get back on the right track. I could use you here, and I'm certain that being here will help you too.