Hi,
hope your quit is going well. I am like you - a busy mum with stressful times. When are there never stressful times?! lol. But if you think about it, you managed just fine with stress before you started smoking. And all of the non-smokers out there cope with their stress just fine. It's not the stress that's the problem. It's beginning re-educating yourself to cope with stress in other ways. (Can I recommend yoga? I have started a class and if I can be relaxed at the end of it, anybody can!) Work on figuring out what your alternative methods are going to be.
Can I also say, the old NOPE thing - I like it, I understand it, but it doesn't seem to work for me. Kind of like when you go on a diet and tell yourself you can't ever have chocolate. Right away, it's all you think about. Instead, I look on it that I can have a cig. any time I choose to. It's just that I'm choosing not to. (And hope to continue not to for a very, very long time!) Somehow, that removes the "deprivation2 element for me. There is none.
I think one can also work on the mind set. You know that "God this is going to be so hard, so tough" mindset? Throw it out. Don't let it in. Tell yourself you are LUCKY. You've quit an awful, foul habit that made you stink and was costing you money and your life. Those friends of yours who smoke at lunch? You know damn fine that in their hearts, they will envy you your quit like mad. I know because I've been there - I'm sure we all have. When we still were smoking and we would meet up with somebody who had stopped. Didn't we envy them their strength of character, their willpower? Didn't we always wish we could be like them and we could quit too?
Well now, you have!!!!!! :) How fantastic is that? And how envious will your smoking friends be?
Hope your day goes well.
S x