Welcome to the community and congrats on 7 days! 
A lot of people wish they could make it a week and I was one of them. Every day sober is a victory.
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Thank you Steve, much appreciated! I find especially the not smoking part very hard at the moment… so today definitely feels like a victory. Thanks for the welcome.
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Congratulations on your 7 days!! Leaving the anxiety and panic that alcohol creates behind has been a wonderful thing. Plus, sobriety opens our lives up to so many new experiences. 
Ps…I found sugar free spearmint Life Savers extremely helpful when I was quitting cigarettes and nicotine. I always had one in my mouth. It gets easier as you break the nicotine addiction, but yeah, that’s a rough one for sure, especially if you smoked a long time. It sure made running and working out a lot more fun tho.
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Thank you!! Leaving the anxiety behind has been the best thing, that panic from over a week ago seems like a very distant memory already (in a good way, not forgetting the bad).
Interesting that you quit without a program. I thought I’d give it a try as those programs have worked and are working for so many people, but I just can’t seem to relate. I’ve read quite a few books by now though that resonate, so that may just be the way to go for me.
Currently I find not smoking the hardest. My chest feels better already when running, I feel better in general, but the cravings are there. I only really started smoking again 2 years ago, but worked myself up to smoking at least half a packet a day, often more.
Thank you for your message, and I find your profile/posts very inspirational.
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I found a lot of info and inspiration in quit lit as well. This Naked Mind, Quit Like A Woman and We Are The Luckiest all resonated for me. Idk, maybe keep looking for a meeting, so many get so much from them. I think it helps a lot with in person connection, which sounds nice.
It took me awhile to quit smoking. I relapsed a lot, but kept quitting and eventually it stuck. Nicotine is very addictive, but once you truly break from it, you will feel so much better. Stay hydrated and have some coping mechanisms. I would sometimes go for a short run when craving. That is when I first started running. I also did a LOT of house cleaning.
Stick with it, it gets way better!!
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