Cigarette Free Since 9/7/12!!!

[piperdbh]

Kudos to you! I've not had one in a while, too.

[Mael Coluim]

You have done the #1 change of a personal habit to improve your overall health! As well as those around you. Well done!

[Riverkilt]

Its worth it! My nicotine addiction got so bad I gave myself nicotine poisoning chain smoking cigars and inhaling...quit in 1974 after multiple attempts. Keep on quitting until it takes.

Used to teach smoking cessation groups for the American Cancer Society at our local hospital. Lots of support out there if you want/need it.

There are two levels of the addiction - chemical and behavioral. If you can quit for 24 hours you can stay quit - that's the chemical addiction. The rough one is the behavioral addiction. Nearly 40 years later if I put a ciggie in my hand I still have all the same ritual moves...tapping the tobacco down, lighting up, how I hold it, how I flick the ash....scary.

When I smoked I wondered what non-smokers did with their hands. Now I wonder how smokers can do anything with a ciggie in their hands.

And, of course, your kilts are gonna smell a LOT better...

Keep on keepin' on...it really really really is worth it not to be a "corporate slave" to big tobacco anymore.

[timothyjmcneeley]

Thank you all for the support. I'm taking it one day at a time!

[GMan]

Good for you!!!

[Dale Seago]

Congratulations! It can be tough, but it can be done; just take it a day at a time.

I used Nicorette gum to quit; but then stayed on the gum for another couple of years because I liked it and figured it at least was "harm reduction" compared to smoking. What got me off that was the need for a new hip due to the cartilage in the right one having gone away for no reason that could be determined. The medical team wanted me off nicotine altogether at least 2 weeks before the surgery; the primary reason was that nicotine in your system slows the healing process. (Somehow I'd never realized that.)

That was an immediately persuasive and compelling reason to drop the gum and never look back. I was back working in the office, though using a cane, after 11 calendar days (not 11 work days) off. Nine weeks after the surgery I was doing 2 & 1/2 mile hikes in the hills, and was caught on video doing koshi nage (hip throws) on one of my black belts in the dojo. (Fortunately my surgeon never saw it, he would've thought I was pushing too hard.) At ten weeks I was teaching at an outdoor martial arts seminar:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...1&l=758514bb29

I'm thinkin' there's a good chance I wouldn't have had that sort of progress had I still been using nicotine.

Keep going!! And if you happen to slip and fall. . .get up and keep going some more. As long as you get up more often than you fall down, you'll make it.

[Father Bill]

Congratulations and well done! Discipline born of terror can be very effective!

[tulloch]

Day three! Hope all is well. Persevere!

[cessna152towser]

Well done, all the more credit to you for quitting while you are still young enough. There is less of an incentive to quit when you are still young and the thought of living till the age of sixty seems an eternity. Luckily I never got hooked on nicotine but I did get too fond of the alcohol for a number of years which I am now so glad I was able to quit.
My Uncle Tom (mother's twin brother) was a heavy smoker for fifty years till he quit at the age of 62). Too late though he died of lung cancer age 65. My mother who was a non smoker outlived him by 12 years. A friend was a heavy smoker and quit in his sixties, now he's in his seventies and been told he will be housebound and on oxygen for the rest of his days due to lung damage caused by smoking.

[frank_a]

Good for you man! I smoked for years (in my case starting at 13), and quit maybe 15 years ago. And it was day to day. I had this horrendous cold or flu that kept me home, and one day there was no way I could have a cigarette I was so sock. The next morning I wake up in a fog but the 1st thing I think is that I feel good enough to have a cigarette (just barely). The next thing I think is wait a minute, I didn't smoke yesterday. Then it was I wonder if I could not smoke today? That's how I quit, one day at a time, and man o man, I was just lucky. It's a terrible addiction for which anyone that can quit is to be commended in my book!

Kee up the good work.

Frank