chantix: another month bites the dust

Family obligations have kept me a bit busy lately but my narcissism will permit me to pop in and pat myself on the back in recognition of my third month quit-smoking anniversary. If only the first weeks had flown by as breezily as the months do now.

I've actually finished my required 3 month Chantix run, however, my doctor told me that studies show that hard-core long-term heavy smokers (like me) have a better success rate staying on Chantix for 6 months. I'm not going to argue with what obviously seems to be working.

All along I've said that I don't have any of the negative side effects that so many folks seem to experience. Granted, I have about 5 minutes of nausea if I take my morning Chantix on an empty stomach and some of the worst gas I've ever had in my life ..... but otherwise I've pretty much sailed through. However, I'm actually starting to re-think some of that.

As a life-long dieter, I'm familiar with hunger -- I'm quite certain that I've experienced it in all of it's possible permutations. There's one type of hunger -- a grinding, gut-churning hunger -- that I hadn't experienced often but I paid attention to it when I did -- I always felt that it was my body's way of telling me, "I'm not screwing with you: eat something now." I actually call this type of hunger "core hunger" because it seems to go beyond the routine "Is it time for dinner yet?" hunger I experience daily while on a diet. It's extremely uncomfortable and makes me feel very antsy.

Ever since I quit smoking, I've been experiencing that type of hunger on a daily basis. At first, I attributed it to my quit -- the body adjusting, the addiction demanding attention, the brain demanding a distraction -- and I either gave into it or fought it. I kept telling myself it would get easier. But I'm three months into this and I'm still experiencing this extreme hunger on a daily basis -- even when I haven't been dieting strenuously -- and I'm starting to wonder if it doesn't have something to do with the Chantix. We know it affects the digestive system -- perhaps it creates just enough havoc in my stomach that regular hunger feels like "core hunger?"

Either way, it makes no difference. I'm in this for the long-haul, hunger or not.