Guess I have to start smoking again...

[Racehorse]

But I had a pot of coffee this morning. It's 1:30 and I'm mostly alert but I could nap. Kinda want to. I've started making iced coffee for the afternoons so I'm getting over a pot a day. Pushing two pots a day.

Well, coffee isn't the energy your body needs, just like white sugar isn't.

I used to live that way,, ended up with a lot of problems.

If you could see what that does to your body (food is chemicals, no different from taking a pharmaceutical) then you could watch how that revs you up then throws you down.

There's a reason they tell you to have oatmeal with a few berries and some protein for breakfast, and not overdo the coffee or sugar. You want long lasting energy and not rapid blood sugar rises and not stuff that is making your adrenals go nuts.

The mornings I couldn't wake up.......clogged lymphatic system, puffy eyes......wouldn't take that life back now.

anyway, back to vaping. I did go thru a drowsy period that almost made me quit vaping..........as soon as I got off the higher PG it all went away. It was kinda scary for a while though......I literally couldn't get thru the day!

 

[Racehorse]

The brain fog is starting to lift and I'm having thoughts about painting or crafting even though I've yet to become motivated enough to actually start anything. The first 3 weeks I was completely consumed with thinking about vaping, supplies and smoking.

That sounds normal.

Good to hear about your "sparked" creativity yearnings. !

 

[Racehorse]

Ibut there does feel like something is missing.

I know what you mean. this is gonna sound weird but I kinda like that feeling. It reminds me that I am off cig for a year now, even with that "something missing" feeling..........and it also makes e realize that I can quit vaping, too, when the time comes, and I will already be "familiar" with that something missing feeling.

It doesn't scare me anyore.

 

[mkbilbo]

Oh sheesh gosh I'm not gonna say...

Ummm.... If we can't fix you at least we can agree with you? (NEVER give me an opening like that! lol)

Well, you could have argued with me on that point!

<squint>

 

[mkbilbo]

Well, coffee isn't the energy your body needs, just like white sugar isn't.

I used to live that way,, ended up with a lot of problems.

If you could see what that does to your body (food is chemicals, no different from taking a pharmaceutical) then you could watch how that revs you up then throws you down.

There's a reason they tell you to have oatmeal with a few berries and some protein for breakfast, and not overdo the coffee or sugar. You want long lasting energy and not rapid blood sugar rises and not stuff that is making your adrenals go nuts.

The mornings I couldn't wake up.......clogged lymphatic system, puffy eyes......wouldn't take that life back now.

anyway, back to vaping. I did go thru a drowsy period that almost made me quit vaping..........as soon as I got off the higher PG it all went away. It was kinda scary for a while though......I literally couldn't get thru the day!

Yah, I actually know better and, other than still stuck with smoking, had way healthier habits for a long time leading up to the "disaster of the month" era.

(Seriously, the last, oh, eight years have been at a level of chaos right off the freaking scale. Including two, literally historic disasters. The "most destructive wildfire in Texas history" was only a year and half ago. And I came here after New Orleans. What? I hack off some wizard or something???? )

But, anyway, far as coffee, it's more I enjoy it. I'm not immune to caffeine but it doesn't do to me anything on the scale it seems to with many (most?). I can't use it to "wake up". The amount of coffee I'd have to drink to get a stimulative effect would be absurd. Also, pointless. It wouldn't move things along much faster than they go on their own. I have a very stubborn metabolism.

Mostly, I'm just ranting. I gots stuff to do. It's ten in the ayam. I'm still sluggish. "Normally" (for me at least) 10 is the start of my most productive hours of the day. I'm barely pulling out of "play around on duh Intertubes until you wake up" phase.

What I actually find interesting about it is I notice folks (not here, out there, especially the rabid "anti" crowd) lump everything under "nicotine did it". Thing is, I'm getting the nic. It is clearly not the stimulant I was getting from smoking. Else my metabolism wouldn't be doing these crazy swings trying to find some new equilibrium.

It's clearly just wrong to blame nicotine for so much. And potentially dangerous. We need to get smokers off smoking. Other elements of the addiction need to be evaluated separately. In and of themselves. The cancer causing agents may have nothing at all to do with the addiction. Who knows how much else we could "swap out" and get folks off the deadly stuff? Then we can worry about the addicted side. Save lives first. Worry about things like my nicotine "habit" later...

 

[XeniaMike]

I'm with you on this, mornings are rough and it's harder to bounce out of bed than when I was smoking cigs. I had to bump my nic level up to 24mg and now it seems to be working much better. Lately the opposite has been happening, I can't seem to get in bed on time at night because I'm wired from being a vaping fool in front of the TV all evening.

 

[mkbilbo]

...one of the friends I was staying with was in such a panic while trying to pretend to be the macho man who could solve the world's problems single handedly that it got funny. I realize he was trying not to scare his wife, who was a native and not scared at all, but he was hilarious.

Heh. When Whittier happened, my roommates were a married couple I'd known from college who'd moved to LA recently. I'd been there a while. So I came out of my room, grumping (it was a nasty "early morning wake up call" after all), turned on the TV to see what they were saying, and started the coffee.

They came outta their room, holding hands so tight, you woulda thought they'd been super glued together, both white as sheets. No, ghosts of sheets.

I'm sitting on the couch, flipping channels, and said, "Coffee's on".

Ho hum. Another day in LA right?

It was their first one of any strength. But I'd sure picked up that local, "meh, earthquakes" kind of attitude fast.

I still haven't had my morning analog and feeling pretty good about that.

And you should.

Not everybody stops all at once. Some of us slow down over time. What matters, I think, is not how many did you smoke today but how many did you not smoke today? Count up how many you didn't have and the numbers can be pretty amazing...

 

[mkbilbo]

I'm with you on this, mornings are rough and it's harder to bounce out of bed than when I was smoking cigs. I had to bump my nic level up to 24mg and now it seems to be working much better. Lately the opposite has been happening, I can't seem to get in bed on time at night because I'm wired from being a vaping fool in front of the TV all evening.

Heh. I never "bounced". In my family, that would make me some kind of genetic freak.

I slouched, zombie like, to the cigs and coffee. Something in the cigs seems to have woke me up faster. Dunno what it was and bet it wasn't good for me. But adjusting to not having it seems to be freaking my metabolism out. This doesn't happen all the time, it comes and goes. This morning is half way back to normal. Go figure?

I am hauling the 24 back out. I had the same problem at nights you're talking about. I had to cut my evening nic level way back. I use higher in the morning (and after lunch when I tend to get sluggish, especially in this weather) but I'd gone to 18 as my max. Maybe I should keep some 24 (or, hell, 36 even) on "stand by" for weeks like the one that just passed.

 

[Claudia P]

Heh. When Whittier happened, my roommates were a married couple I'd known from college who'd moved to LA recently. I'd been there a while. So I came out of my room, grumping (it was a nasty "early morning wake up call" after all), turned on the TV to see what they were saying, and started the coffee.

They came outta their room, holding hands so tight, you woulda thought they'd been super glued together, both white as sheets. No, ghosts of sheets.

I'm sitting on the couch, flipping channels, and said, "Coffee's on".

Ho hum. Another day in LA right?

It was their first one of any strength. But I'd sure picked up that local, "meh, earthquakes" kind of attitude fast.



And you should.

Not everybody stops all at once. Some of us slow down over time. What matters, I think, is not how many did you smoke today but how many did you not smoke today? Count up how many you didn't have and the numbers can be pretty amazing...

Heh. I never "bounced". In my family, that would make me some kind of genetic freak.

I slouched, zombie like, to the cigs and coffee. Something in the cigs seems to have woke me up faster. Dunno what it was and bet it wasn't good for me. But adjusting to not having it seems to be freaking my metabolism out. This doesn't happen all the time, it comes and goes. This morning is half way back to normal. Go figure?

I am hauling the 24 back out. I had the same problem at nights you're talking about. I had to cut my evening nic level way back. I use higher in the morning (and after lunch when I tend to get sluggish, especially in this weather) but I'd gone to 18 as my max. Maybe I should keep some 24 (or, hell, 36 even) on "stand by" for weeks like the one that just passed.

Funny I almost miss an occasional quake here, lol. But I don't miss a chance to laugh at friends and family living in some of the areas than never had them until recently, who had always wondered how I could live somewhere that had them. There have been some tiny ones in this area the last couple of years but I don't notice anything under about a 4. The thing I don't like at all is the fact that this was NOT a tornado prone area, yes they had happened but a LONG time ago and very very rarely. Then 2011 came and I had the pleasure of seeing two EF4 or EF5s from my house, one to the west and another to the east. Now that isn't at all fair and I hope it is another 35 years before that happens again cause I won't be here to see it.

I just got an order of new juice on Monday, I had originally ordered primarily 18mg and this time primarily 24mg and I am instantly doing much better. I'll save the 18mg for a few weeks down the road, and for evenings.
While I did cave in and have one yesterday, it turned into one and only for the day. Again none so far today and I'm pleased as punch about that.
In 29 days I've not smoked at least 650, I'm not sure how many I smoked before because he and I share a pack that sits on the kitchen counter and he smokes about half a pack most days and we were going through one and a half to 2 packs a day between us, now a pack is lasting at least two or three days.

 

[mkbilbo]

I just got an order of new juice on Monday, I had originally ordered primarily 18mg and this time primarily 24mg and I am instantly doing much better. I'll save the 18mg for a few weeks down the road, and for evenings. While I did cave in and have one yesterday, it turned into one and only for the day. Again none so far today and I'm pleased as punch about that.

Sounds good. And seems I'm not done fiddling with my nic levels myself. I had a sudden thought about the "sluggishness". What if I lowered my nic too fast? That might have made a difference.

To test the idea, I nabbed a couple of NJoy. They use high nic levels. Their "gold" are 3% (30mg). And "bold" are 4.5% (45mg). Can't vape those things much nor long but I wondered if a higher "kick" in the morning is part of what I'm missing. I've lowered my nic levels across the board. Maybe I went too fast? The NJoy seemed to help some this morning. I'm going to play around and see what happens. Maybe I shot myself in the foot dropping my nic too fast?

 

[DarthSnoopyFish]

Are you eating breakfast in the mornings?