I Am Java Mama

Well, last night was my first night at work as a non-smoker. It went... ok. I mean, I didn't smoke or anything, but it was a little rough at times. I was working in the photo lab of a local camera shop, and I kept thinking about all the things that could go wrong, and drive me crazy. Like, when the printer jams. This is the most frustrating ever for me, I just hate it! Or that all the paper would run out and I'd have to keep changing it, which can be a huge pain in the butt. Or the most annoying, or most difficult customers would come in. Or we'd be super busy and it would be super stressful, or we would be super slow and I would be super bored.

I'm so use to smoking there, because I could go out back and take a short little smoke break whenever I wanted to. There was a whole different set of triggers there... like, at 6:00 pm I almost always went out and had one. If the paper would jam in the printer, I would go out and have on and THEN come in and deal with it. This is a super annoying situation, because when one of our monster photo printers jams it isn't like when the little office printer jams... it's a pain to fix, you have do a million things, and you feel rushed because you are trying to get customers orders done in a certain amount of time.

It jammed, of course.

Another trigger: The difficult customer. The one who gets mad at you when their pictures turn out crappy, even though it was the picture itself and not anything you did, and there isn't anything you can do to make it better. I can't tell you how many times I have been asked if we can make an out of focus picture look more in focus. No, we can't. Or the customer who messed something up when ordering, and then expects you to get their new prints out in 10 minutes instead of an hour because they already waited an hour for their original, messed up order.

I always go for a smoke after dealing with these, and a few other, difficult people.

Or when it gets super busy, and you finally have a dead moment so you run out back real quick and come back in feeling better and ready to handle anything lse that comes your way.

The list goes on and on.

The printer jammed. The paper ran out, and that is a huge and kind of heavy cartridge that needs to be changed in an uncomfortable squatting position on the floor in the dark. Good times!! I had one sort of annoying customer, we got busy for a bit... right after I called and ordered my sushi and needed to pick it up. So I was busy and stressed and hungry, and my sushi was sitting out on the counter at the Japanese restaurant probably going very bad, and I couldn't leave the store to get it, and I couldn't have a smoke so omg what was I going to DO with myself??

Then it got kind of slow, and I was bored and wanted to smoke because I was bored! Haha.

My co-worker that night is an ex-smoker, who was happy to hear that I quit. I think it really helped having him there, he was a very nice distraction. I think he kept coming in and helping me with the orders, and talking to me, to help me through it. Very supportive, so that was a plus.

By the end of the night, I was so proud... I did it! t was honestly the first time I had to deal with even a little bit of stress since quitting. And I did it, and I feel like since I made it through that then that means hey, I really CAN handle this!

Not only just at work, but the whole day for was filled with more frequent and more intense cravings. I got pretty crabby by the end of the day.

Today has been GREAT. I went to the gym and really, really had an amazing work out. I pushed myself harder than ever before, did strength training AND cardio, and I have felt SO much better today than yesterday. In fact, I haven't really had any major cravings at ALL. Which is awesome.

I can't believe it, but I have kept up with eating right, eating healthy, drinking a ton of water, and staying within my allotted calorie amount through all of this. I was worried about the munchies and weight gain with the whole quitting smoking thing. It's working out well, though.

So, here I am, well into Day 4!