TOUGH DECISION

DILEMA OK,smoking cessation, here's the deal, I'm thinking of installing a Pedistal Sink in the Bathroom of the new boat, however,stop smoking, I have never had one....I have found an elegant American Standard PS that would compliment the rest of the American Standard fixtures that will be installed...I have always had lavs with cabnets for bathroom utensil storage and countertop and I am afraid I may miss it.....Question is....what is your take on this....has anyone else ever converted from a cabnet based sink to a pedistal??? Do ya like it????

Trying something new

This is my first time joining a discussion board, but I'm desperate to quit smoking. I thought maybe this will help. I've been smoking since I was 14, 12 years now. I've tried to stop many times and have been able to not smoke for months at a time. Last week my mother died of lung cancer. She smoked for years and finally gave it up 6 years ago, but it was too late. I don't want my kids to see me the way I saw her. I don't want to die like that. Then of course there are the many other reasons, cost, smell, constantly cleaning the ashes, butts etc...I need some support,Herbal cigarettes, people who know what it feels like to quit,quit smoking now, the struggles to stay an ex-smoker...Thanks

What was your greatest smoking shame-

It helps me to remember mine and I don't hesitate to share it. After all,stop smoking now, if I can't let me hair down here, why even bother posting, right?I'd been stiffed in a business arrangement with a writer I looked up to. On the strength of our friendship and a verbal agreement, I quit my job and worked full time converting an original screenplay of his into a novelization.The money never came in as promised. Dribs and drabs. And soon enough I was behind on bills and rent,stop smoking, with a cross-country 'employer' who proved to be as slippery and shifty as a Southern senator. The check was always in the mail.Anyway, I remember running out of cigarettes, no food in the apartment. I remember needing to call this man, but needing a smoke for the call. I remember scrounging the pavement outside my apartment building, rounding up ground-up, stepped on, disgusting cigarette butts. And I remember wimping out on the phone while I smoked these hideous butts and 'begging' this dude for the money he owed...then hearing him tell me the deal was off...we had nothing in writing...etc. He sent me one last check...that bounced. And I continued smoking ground-out butts until I found another job.Nowadays, as a happy nonsmoker, I'd get the deal in writing--and I'd stop work the first time the cash flow was not as agreed.

Welcome Joy

Hi Joy,quit smoking, Welcome to the board.Good reading resources I reccomend are WhyQuit.com and quitsmokingonline.com. Also a great book that I think everyone quitting should read is Allen Carr's book: The Easy Way To Quit Smoking.Everyone here is great and will give you great support and advice,Herbal cigarettes, so post often if you feel a crave.For your husband. Her are a couple of websites that are linked from WhyQuit.com. They are websites specifically for people trying to quit chewing tobacco. He is more than welcome here too though.KillTheCan.orgQuit Smokeless.orgHave a good nightEric

Thank You!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to Everyone! I just wanted to say how wonderful you people have made this year for me and how your support has helped my quit for the last 8 months. I have been on vacation for the last week and just came in to read up on all the posts I have missed when I saw Andi's SOS. Andi ,stop smoking, my hubby came home Christmas Eve from his job of 32 years to tell me that his company has been sold to some kind of holding co. that is going to strip it and sell it. Right now we don't know exactly where we stand. I do know that since the economy went south this past year our 401K has been cut into a third of what it was before. I have a pretty good job but we (as are most couples) are almost paycheck to paycheck with little to spare. I won't go on and make this a boring and self pitying post but suffice it to say this sure isn't the best way to end the year. I would like to say however this is not going to send me running for a pack of cigarettes and thanks to this board I can come here and whine if I need to but I don't need to smoke. I have a beautiful family that I just spent a glorius Christmas with, 5 grown children and 3 phenomenal grandchildren ( with a newborn baby grandaughter that lights up my life) and for these reasons I thank God. Things are going to happen the way they are supposed to and I hope they will turn out for the better. It's scary but it certainly isn't going to be the end of the world. I just want to say thank you all for being here this year , thank you for my quit,smoking cessation, thank you for your unconditional support in so many different ways and Merry Christmas and God Bless you my friends. love , paula

The Lie of Smoking

Today I was at work and I noticed that one of my co workers kept sneeking outside to smoke (since the statewide ban, smoking is no longer allowed in my warehouse,quit smoking now, Thank the lord!!). I watched him sneak out like 4 or 5 times in under an hour, so I finally went and asked him why he was sneaking out to smoke so much. He told me that he was trying to do a work order for a customer, but it wasn't going well. He said that it was stressing him out and he just needed a cigarette to relax for a minute. This got me thinking. I started wondering how many times I have said those exact same words in my smoking career. How many times was I stressed out or needed to concentrate on something, and that thought would pop into my head , " Man, I need a smoke!" I allways thought that smoking relieved my stress, when in fact the only thing that it relieved were the anxieties of withdrawal. Smoking is a lie. It does not relieve stress. It creates it! Over and over. THE LIE OF SMOKING ----------------------------- The act of smoking is a vicious cycle. It is an addiction that no matter how much we feed it, it cannot ever be satisfied. We have all heard the saying here. One Puff= All Puffs. Why is that though? It is because smoking is basically the act of temporarily relieving anxieties of withdrawals that cigarettes create in the first place. When a smoker smokes a cigarette. Nicotine enters the brain mimicing the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. This enables nicotine to reach the reward center of the brain where it releases large amounts of unearned dopamine. This is where the smoker gets that AAAHHHH sensation we are all so familiar with. But what happens when nicotine starts to metabolize and leave the body? Another chemical reaction happens causing us to have anxieties that are the same as if we were in a fight or flight situation. It is a false anxiety though. It is a lie. There is no outside variable creating this. It is only our brain and body being fooled into thinking that something is wrong. Thiis is when an active smoker smokes. This act not only releases more unearned dopamine but also creates a chemical reaction that turns off the fight or flight mechanism. It is a viscous cycle that the smoker must perform ritually. A smoker doesn't even smoke to get "High" in the traditional sense of a drug. A smoker smokes to just feel so called "Normal". There's more though. Everytime a smoker smokes a cigarette it raises the heartbeat by 20 beats a minute. It raises the blood pressure and makes the arteries smaller. This effect makes the heart have to work harder and the body releases its own stored fats to try and find the extra energy. This is where a catch 22 happens. The heart now has to work harder to overcome these affects, but to do this, it needs extra oxygen to work harder. The problem is, the carbon monoxide from smoking is basically poisoning the amount of oxygen that the blood can carry. This in turn has to make the heart work harder to get more oxygen to itself to work harder,stop smoking now, because it is allready working harder. LOL Make sense? It is just a viscous circle, over and over. Here's the capper though. Everytime someone smokes to relieve those false anxieties, the body goes through the physical strain mentioned above. The mind might be temporarily calmed, but the body is not. As the nicotine starts to metablolize, the body for a short time, gets to recover from the affects of that last cigarette. The problem though is that the fight or flight mechanism starts turning on creating false anxieties again. Now the active smoker must now smoke and once again this viscous cycle starts all over. Smoking is a lie. It does not relieve stress. All those times we smoked when we were upset or stressed out. All we did was relieve withdrawal. The problem was still there, but we "felt better", because we put a stop to those false anxieties. This in turn makes the smoker think that smoking relieved their stress. It actually does nothing for the active smoker but relieve anxieties that it created in the first place. When we see it for what it is, we come to understand just how useless and absurd smoking really is. So if you ever start thinking about wanting a cigarette or think that you miss smoking. Or think that just "one" will help you through a tough situation. Realize this is what you're missing. An absolute useless lie. Think of how many times you have already lived this lie. Eric

Tootin my horn on my 4th anny...so happy.

Will I just got in from 2 soccer games this morning...I am a soccer Mom...and my husband and son had flowers and a card for me to celebrate my 4 Years smoke free...they are so happy for me and I am so proud that I have reached this milestone. It feels so good to have so much support...and Hubby says were you on the BB today and I said no not yet and he yells...Go get on that board and toot your horn now...so here I am... But I really want to say to the newbies and tweeners that this quitting business is very DOABLE...you can do it and it does get easier every single day...I promise...the rewards are forever and you are no longer a slave to the poisons and toxins in sickarettes that kill us slowly. I am so proud and happy for you all...stay focused and you too will celebrate an anny like this one...YEAH!!!! We all rock... And I am so very grateful that I found this place and the wonderful people that helped me along the way especially my quitbud Stephanie whom I think the world of...and so many more but I will not say any names cause I would hate to miss someone...and I appreciate and thank you all from the bottom of my heart. Thanks for listening, all the best! Evelyn,Herbal cigarettes, smoke free and healing for:Four years, 4 hours, 22 minutes and 17 seconds. 14611 cigarettes not smoked,stop smoking, saving $7,671.21. Life saved: 7 weeks, 1 day, 17 hours, 35 minutes. (off to one more game for today...)

The bear facts...

Just in case you haven't heard this one..... A priest, a Pentecostal preacher, and a Rabbi, all served as chaplains to the students of Northern Michigan University in Marquette. They would get together two or three times a week for coffee and to talk shop. One day, someone made the comment that preaching to people isn't really all that hard. A real challenge would be to preach to a bear. One thing led to another and they decided to do an experiment. They would all go out into the woods, find a bear, preach to it, and attempt to convert it. Seven days later, they're all together to discuss the experience. Father Flannery, who has his arm in a sling, is on crutches, and has various bandages, goes first. "Well," he says, "I went into the woods to find me a bear. And when I found him I began to read to him from the Catechism. Well, that bear wanted nothing to do with me and he began to slap me around. So I quickly grabbed my holy water, sprinkled him and, Holy Mary Mother of God,stop smoking, he became as gentle a lamb. The bishop is coming out next week to give him first communion and confirmation." Reverend Billy Bob spoke next. He was in a wheelchair, with an arm and both legs in casts, and an IV drip. In his best fire and brimstone oratory he claimed, "WELL brothers, you KNOW that we don't sprinkle! I went out and I FOUND me a bear. And then I began to read to my bear from God's HOLY WORD! But that bear wanted nothing to do with me. So I took HOLD of him and we began to wrestle. We wrestled down one hill, UP another and DOWN another until we came to a creek. So I quick DUNKED him and BAPTIZED his hairy soul. And just like you said, he became as gentle as a lamb. We spent the rest of the day praising Jesus." They both looked down at the rabbi, who was lying in a hospital bed. He was in a body cast, and traction, with IVs and monitors running in and out of him. He was in bad shape. The rabbi looks up and says,quit smoking now, "Looking back on it, circumcision may not have been the best way to start..."

This one is funny

One morning while making breakfast, a man walked up to his wife, pinched her on the butt and said. 'If you firmed this up,stop smoking now, we could get rid of your control top pantyhose.' While this was on the edge of intolerable she kept silent. The next morning, the man woke his wife with a pinch on each of her breasts and said. 'You know, if you firmed these up, we could get rid of your bra.' This was beyond a silent response. So she rolled over. And grabbed him by his ’DANGLER’ With a death grip in place,smoking cessation, she said. 'You know, if you firmed this up, we could get rid of the gardener the postman the pool man and your brother!'

SurPRISE!!!!!!!!!

Well thought I was going to have steak and lobster tonight but low and behold I went to a surprise 50th birthday party for me. I was so surprised and yes teary eyed as my loved ones and friends were there. What was so surprising is that my birthday isn't actually until next Saturday. My husband had me all fooled. I told him I didn't want a surprise party (but us woman just say that hoping we get it LOL), but we actually had it all planned to come home from Indiana next Saturday, have a golf outing and then a birthday cookout after. But, SurPRISE that isn't what is going to happen next Saturday at all. I was so happy tonight, and yes, I did think about it (you know) once or twice, but I had so much fun talking to everyone and not missing a single moment, because before I had to go (oh you know).Two of our friends asked my husband if I quit because they didn't see me go outside. They congratulated me on quitting and said we noticed. Geez I didn't think anyone noticed and that made me feel so great. See I don't want to tell anyone right now (only 2 of my 8 kids know, plus husband),quit smoking, because my youngest daughter (now in the Army so I don't see her) wanted me to quit so bad several years ago and I told her I promised I would quit when I turned 50. Well my birthday gift to her is to put my "stat" line down on an e-mail that I will send her next week. I'm sure she will get the hint when the "cigarettes smoked" total comes up. The only thing that really made me want a cigarette tonight was that she was the only one of the kids that wasn't there. But I know in her heart she could have if she was able.Other than that I had a FANTASTIC smoke free Birthday night. And I get to celebrate turning 50 all over again next Saturday (geez do I really want to get excited about turning 50 - I'm not sure LOL).I have been quit for 3 Weeks, 4 Days, 20 hours,Herbal cigarettes, 53 minutes and 13 seconds (25 days). I have saved $116.41 by not smoking 517 cigarettes. I have saved 1 Day, 19 hours and 5 minutes of my life. My Quit Date: 5/13/2008 12:15 AMKim

To Anne

You know, I don't post as much as I once did, and lots of people around here don't even know who I am. But Anne- I know who you are. You were here when I first arrived. You have been in and out the door for as long as I have been around, which is over two years now. You were riding this roller coaster when I first got on the train. Don't mean to offend, but I am wondering something- what payoff are you getting from this trip? Now- those of you who are less than one year old, hear me out. Anne does this on a regular basis- and sometimes she gets a good, running start on a quit- I am talking I have seen this girl throw away a quit after a couple weeks. So Anne- maybe its time for some good old fashioned soul searching. I am not putting you down or attacking you- but for as many times as you have walked this road one thing is clear- if you don't look deeper than the craving or the SOS you are going to continue to do battle. SOMETHING is deeper inside you, SOMETHING is making you continue this journey into pain. WHAT IS IT??? I know I did all the usualy smoker things- just one smoke, I am immune to cancer, it won't kill me- yada yada yada- and until the MOMENT when I KNEW I was an addict, I just kept the cycle going. Look in your heart Anne, look in your soul- something keeps bringing you back in- when you slay that demon you will truly be free- take the time this time Anne- look deeper- what keeps you on this roller coaster- my friend- it is time to get off the coaster and keep your quit this time- it is truly worth it.and for those who don't know me and think I am just spouting- how's this?I have been quit for 2 Years, 1 Month, 6 Days, 2 hours,quit smoking now, 2 minutes and 59 seconds (768 days). I have saved $4,608.50 by not smoking 23,042 cigarettes. I have saved 2 Months,stop smoking, 3 Weeks and 10 minutes of my life. My Quit Date: 1/7/2007 7:37 AM

The Dilemma

When I was a non-smoker I thought that smoking was something I would never pick up, and theoretically I never should have picked up. With my generation there really was no reason for me to start smoking; I remember the banning of Joe the Camel and the Yul Brynner commercials, and everyone and their mother telling me how dangerous and addictive it was to smoke. Yet I can remember being seventeen and in the back of my friend's older brother's Camaro,smoking cessation, and offered that first cigarette. I once told a friend (after I became a smoker) that if I were ever to quit, I wouldn't be condescending nor assertively opinionated towards anyone who was a smoker. Now that I'm quitting, socializing with friends has become harder, because whenever they light up I can smell that smoke from a mile away; amazing isn't it? When we smoke we don't notice that scent,stop smoking, it isn't until we stop, it manages to find its way up our nostrils. Even though I find myself more moody, I refuse to go on these anti-smoking tangents towards anyone, friend or stranger. It isn't because I believe smoking isn't as bad as people make it out to be, no it definitely is; it has more to do with empathy. I think we've all had that impolite stranger or random guest that have said (not to be too sarcastic) something as profoundly mind-bending as, "Smoking is so bad for you." or "I never understood why people smoke." Not to mention television commercials that go out of their way to ridicule and stereotype smokers as untouchable lepers that should be avoided for the sake of avoiding their infectious fumes and odors. Then again, I understand the importance of these messages, just naturally find myself offended. I still think I'm going to be passive when I interact with smokers; mainly because I know that they know it's bad for them, and I know that they know that eventually they're going to have to quit or endure serious health effects or death; but I still don't feel the need to be a know-it-all jerk who really just re-states the obvious. I'm a college student, believe me there's enough of those people already. What do you guys think?

That was close......

Last night i was having a great time in a beach bar with some old friends.It was my first night on the island i grew up...so I had a lot of things to share.I mentioned my quit...but didnt want to go any further...I understand that smokers may feela little bit annoyed once someone quits.Anyway,stop smoking, as the night went on......I was starting to feel that im losing control due to alcohol consumption.I was having a great time and i didnt care.I was not drunk...i was just in the right mood. And thats whenone of my friends brought his cig close to my mouth and asked my to take one puff. "Just one" he said "it shouldnt be a prob for you now that you have quit".I remember that my head moved towards that cig's direction...trying to reach it. (the same move that we make before we kiss someone).Then i stepped back.I gave myself some time to think about it. I chose not to take that puff. I was so afraid....it was not a dream...this was reallity.... after 3 months of quit,Herbal cigarettes, i came so close to a cig. -Have you ever met an old boyfriend who once broke your heart?....it was the exact same feeling!!!After that moment had passed and found control of my quit again,I felt soooo angry with that friend of mine.I so much wanted to hit him. Then i felt angry at myself because for a sec i wanted that puff....I admit!!!3 months quit and I felt like smoking!!!!!!!!!!!? At least i didnt take that puff...and thats good i guess...eventually i wont want it anymore.

To All Newbies

There are so many of you so instead of replying to all the post I type so slow I would be here all day posting replies. So to you new peeps I smoked for 35 years try many times to quit on my Owen and one time I quit fore 4 monthsand 3 weeks and my son went into the Army in 2003 and I picked up a smoke started with just one a day then 2an day I would hide them in my car I was good at that for 3 months I hide my smoking then without thinking I broughtthem into the house and my hubby YELLED you started smoking again I said I am only smoking couple a day thenI started smoking in the house again.This addiction is progressive and it Owens you .It took me 4 years to stopagain that's right stop is the magic word.So if you are having a hard time please do not smoke it will not solve your problems it will just take your quit time away and your life it was very hard hiding the smokes from everyone so remember NEVER TAKE ANOTHER PUFF or it could take your life. I have been quit for 1 Year, 7 Months, 4 Days,quit smoking, 14 hours, 20 minutes and 8 seconds (582 days). I have saved $3,233.41 by not smoking 17,Herbal cigarettes,477 cigarettes. I have saved 1 Month, 4 Weeks, 2 Days, 16 hours and 25 minutes of my life. My Quit Date: 10/29/2007 12:00 AM

This BLOWS me away....

So, I am at work today....and my one coworker smokes...um alot--welll, she and hubby TOGETHER smoke about 2 packs a day EACH (ouch)...so here in WI cigarettes average around $4.50 A PACK...sooooooo they are spending EIGHTEEN DOLLARS A DAY on smoking...and a whoppingwait for it.....$558.00 A MONTH....on cigarettes!!!omg...that totally blows me away...anyway, soooooooooo very happy that I do not have to do that any more...what a blessing and a relief. If I were still smoking, I figured I would be spending about $180 a MONTH...I can hardly wrap my brain around those figures these days....for something like THAT!and that would be the least of my WORRIES!!! Cigarettes are killers and surely will kill you if you continue to smoke....I IMPLORE you to lay them down and walk away and start truly living...because as you keep the quit you begin to realize soooooooo many things you have missed out on, so many things you can and want to do now---it is a beautiful life lived smokefree...I PROMISE!....it gets a tinchy-bit better, then better still--then mmmmmm I am doing this....and THEN...wow HOW could I have smoked in the first place...I would love to hear what you all did today....as nonsmokers!...(infinitely more interesting)...even if it IS slept for an extra half an hour instead of hanging out in the garage!well....this morning...I biked (indoor) on this lovely trainer I have ($$$ well spent on equipment versus cigs)--Jacob Lilly and I ate our usual big ole breakfast of eggs, oatmeal, oranges and farm fresh milk...sigh...( when I smoked I would make breakfast for THEM,stop smoking, and while they ate it go out and smoke and drink coffee---sigh, so unhealthy AND...we have such a lovely time in the morning at breakfast...best time of the day!work/school...came home and made french toast and bacon for dinner--(I know that constitutes 2 breffix's, in one day, but who's counting!!!)...and Lilly and I baked--the now famous and craved-after applesauce/nut/raisen muffins and also a batch of choc chip cookies....(gluten free...shhhhhhhhhh--they cannot even tell)...My whole point is....as a nonsmoker I just engage in LIFE and those I love so very much more---when I smoked, cigarettes reigned supreme ever single time...oh the delays...and the NOT GOING as I would consciously and subconsiously just find myself not going because smoking would not be allowed--I KNOW I did that many, many times.These days there is health,quit smoking, life and energy to spare...(still trying to figure out how to put a couple more hours in a day, though)....Wishing you all a lovely smokefree day....and KTQ!!! It and especially YOU are soooooo worth it...xoxoxoxoxokatiemNot one puff: 4Y 10M 3W 2D 12H 42Mns $-Saved to date: $11484.82...49,493

Really in a pickle...

Hey guys,stop smoking now,I decided to quit smoking a couple of days ago (chucked a whole packet of cigarettes, ashtrays, lighters etc. in the bin which was very hard), I'm doing OK so far I do get very strong urges now and then but when I can find something to occupy myself with they usually subside. However I believe this weekend coming will be a MAJOR test for me,Herbal cigarettes, I'm so used to smoking with my friends (Literally just about all of them smoke) that I can just picture myself giving into temptation and lighting one up , being 21 years old I have a lot of parties of good friends to attend this year and one of them is this Saturday night and I'm very very anxious, on top of that I have a close friends going away drinks at the local pub tommorow night!!!! It just seems like an impossible feat not to have a smoke Any tips on how I can handle these situations??? Anything I can do or think of when I feel that urge or if someone offers me a cigarette. I could just stay home this weekend but I don't need this addiction controlling my life I want to be rid of it!!!! I'd be so disappointed if I gave in... any help would be appreciated thanks guys.

Recovery Timetable (2)

Quitting Health Benefits Time Table Started by: Zep - Gold Sent: 3/21/2001 2:49 PM Health Benefits of Quitting Smoking 20 MINUTES Blood pressure, pulse rate, and body temperature of hands and feet return to normal.8 HOURS Oxygen and Carbon monoxide level in blood return to normal. 24 HOURS Chance of heart attack decreases. 48 HOURS Nerve endings start regrowing and the ability to smell and taste is enhanced. 72 HOURS The entire body becomes 100% nicotine free and withdrawal symptoms peak in intensity.10 DAYS TO 2 WEEKS The body fully adjusts to the absence of nicotine and physical withdrawal ends.3 WEEKS TO 3 MONTHS Circulation improves, walking becomes easier,quit smoking, and lung function increases by almost 1/3rd.Psychological crave trigger reconditioning continues and the first day of full comfort arrives.1 TO 9 MONTHS Coughing, sinus congestion,stop smoking, fatigue, and shortness of breath decrease. Cilia regrow in lungs, increasing ability to handle mucus, clean the lungs, and reduce infection. Body's overall energy increases. 1 YEAR Excess risk of coronary heart disease is half that of a smoker. 5 YEARS Lung cancer death rate for average smoker (one pack a day) decreases by almost half. Stroke risk is reduced to that of a nonsmoker 5-15 years after quitting. Risk of cancer of the mouth, throat and esophagus is half that of a smoker's. 10 YEARS Lung cancer death rate similar to that of nonsmokers. Precancerous cells are replaced. Risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, kidney and pancreas decreases. 15 YEARS Risk of coronary heart disease is that of a person who has never smoked. Overall risk of death returns nearly to that of a person who never smoked.

Snowblower update-SAINT NICK tonight...!!!!

I am consolidating..rotf...Well, I bought the new "used" snowblower and it did not work as you might know already...so the guy did not call me back, he CAME OVER at 7:40 A M Saturday morning. Yes, it is true...and I was in my jammies..well, he rings the bell and the first thing he says is..."I know what is wrong with your snowblower"...mmmmmm "I'm listening" and he said that the snow was too wet...well, all of my neighbors had their driveways/sidewalks cleared, using their snowblowers; and I pointed that out. So, he went to the garage and fired the thing up. He proceeded to try it out and it konked out every single time. (numerous times) So...finally he came back and said "it is the carborator"...Now I had to bite my tongue because he still had my $150. And so he said that "what I REALLY needed is a bigger better snowblower to do the amount of snowblowing that you must do"...(large driveway).. "I will have one of THOSE at the end of the week, however it will cost you an extra $100,stop smoking, or I suppose I could give you your money back"...with the slightest pause--(I was tactful)...GIVE ME MY FRIGGIN' MONEY BACK!!!!!..jest kiddingI just nodded and said I will take the money back..SO he reaches in his wallet..there was a SWEATY WAD there in that wallet, and he goes, very melancholy with a real sadness in his voice, "yeah I just cashed my pension check"...."let me see"..alright then"...And that was that. He took that snowblower off of my premises and back to his garage, whereby I am positive I will see it again as I go past his house every morning when I run...So,Herbal cigarettes, I went and bought three new ergonomically crafted snow shovels whereby there is much less stress on the back..and I will see what I can buy new, as far as a snowblower, late winter-when the sales come.the end...*smile*Just a reminder!!!! As I am sure you guys all know--but WOW my coworker reminded me today!!! SAINT NIC comes tonight...this year I am prepared--except I am short two stockings. We used to have gazillion of those floating around. So, I must go out and get them!xoxoxo wishing you all a lovely smokefree evening!!!Love and hugs,katiem3y 9m quit

Stephanie and Monice

what a most lovely surprise to have a message , one from each of you and I wanted you too know I will do my most very best to reply after I get home tonight One quick question if I get a PM and at the bottom left it says post a reply,stop smoking now, does that mean it will go on the main BB and if so cn I send a PMfrom the pm message you sent to me/ Duh a nana AND a blond, this is way serious...LOLI am happy for your words M and Stephanie ,quit smoking now, all is as it is intended.. Today IS the forst day of the rest of our lives cryptic aint I smooohes and blessings to both you ladies.

Smoking Milestones

Some interesting stats here copied from http://www.quitsmokingcounter.com/ I can't wait to get into the double OFC. When you quit smoking the benefits for your health begin within minutes of your last cigarette. After 8 hrs - Nicotine and Carbon Monoxide level reduce by half, oxygen levels return to normal After 24 hrs - Carbon Monoxide eliminated from the body. Lungs start to clear out mucus and debris. After 48 hrs + There is no nicotine left in the body. Ability to smell and taste greatly improved. After 72 hrs - Breathing becomes easier. Bronchial tubes begin to relax and energy levels increase. After 2-12 wks - Circulation improves, making walking and running a lot easier. After 3-9 mos - Coughs, wheezing and breathing problems improve. After 1 year - Your excess risk of coronary heart disease is decreased to half that of a smoker after one year. After 2 yrs - Your chance of achieving long-term success with quitting tobacco increases significantly after two years. After 5 yrs - From 5 to 15 years after quitting, stroke risk is reduced to that of people who have never smoked. After 10 years - Risk of lung cancer drops to as little as one-half that of continuing smokersRisk of cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, kidney, and pancreas decreasesRisk of ulcers decreasesAfter 15 years - Risk of coronary heart disease is now similar to that of people who have never smokedRisk of death returns to nearly the level of people who have never smokedkablooeyI stopped smoking on Tue,quit smoking, 19 Feb 2008 It has been 57 weeks, 5 days, 6 hours,stop smoking, 35 minutes and 36 seconds since I quit.I have saved $ 2425.65 by choosing not to smoke 12128 cigarettes.I saved 13 weeks, 1 days 15 hours 30 minutes of my life!

So stressed

This isn't exactly an S.O.S. but I feel like I'm going a bit crazy. My bf was in a pretty serious car accident on Sunday and today he got fired from his job because he hasn't been able to work and won't be able to work for at least 2 more weeks according to the doctor. So that means he is going to lose his health insurance,Herbal cigarettes, (which includes insurance on our 2 girls, one who has a heart condition and is bi-polar) and isn't going to be able to get the medical treatment he needs.I just keep trying to remind myself that smoking is not going to make anything about this situation any better. In fact, we REALLY can't afford to buy cigarettes right now so it would be incredibly stupid for me to screw up and smoke.But I can't seem to get it out of my head that just one cigarette would make me feel so much better,stop smoking, if for only 5 minutes.HELP!

Relapse (2)

So I have a little story to tell~ This day one year ago I messed up my quit ( i had done it cold turkey and it was only 4 weeks along) but I messed it up thanks to a hit and run driver. He totaled my car and left me alone at 1 am while it was rainning heavely. Through out this past year it has taken me some time to be able to drive again while it rains because I will still get flash backs of the horrible night. Well here i am 10 1/2 weeks smoke free- driving home from class last night it starts to rain and before i realize it I am panicing and pull over to get my breath... and where did I end up pulling over at- the exact spot were my accident happend! how crazy is that. Once I finally got home I went to bed right away and all day to day I have had a smile on my face knowing that one year ago I could have ( should have) died and that I quit my quit once before and NOTHING will make me do it ever again. I know this is a bit random i just thought I would share my story- So to everyone out there no matter how tuff things in life get - Stay strong and keep your quit!

Seemed Appropriate

How nice tomorrow night none of us will be sitting , puffing and saying Tomorrow is THE dayWe will be in the process of or fully recovered from our addiction.Look at what you get to miss!!!!!!! New Year's Resolution Remember all of those resolutions to start the New Year a non-smoker? Year after year, many smokers take this vow and keep it until January 1, 10:00 a.m. Well, this year you can make the resolution with confidence. Once you have quit smoking for an appreciable period of time, maintenance becomes much easier than quitting. Simply remember - NEVER TAKE ANOTHER PUFF! Although urges for cigarettes still occur, and may increase with the preparations and pressures of the holiday season, they are usually not intense or long in duration. Many people get only one urge a day, a week or even a month. They last only seconds. In essence, the cravings last only 20 seconds a week while the other 10,060 seconds ex-smokers are overjoyed by the fact that they quit. When you now get an urge for a cigarette, it is literally for one cigarette, not for smoking at your old level. Instead of feeling deprived of one cigarette it is better to remember your pleasure in no longer consuming thousands of cigarettes a year. No longer are you spending hundreds of dollars on a chemical dependency which was making you feel ill,quit smoking now, smell bad, seem like a social outcast, burning holes in your valuable furniture and clothing, affecting other peoples’ opinion of you and possibly killing you. The potential threat of that first puff is restarting the whole withdrawal cycle. One puff has sent many ex-smokers back to full-fledged addiction, which only the day before they had considered one of the most disgusting of human behaviors. So,stop smoking now, when you get the urge, sit back, take a few deep breaths, and consider the alternatives. The urge will pass and you can then pat yourself on the back for overcoming it. Always remember - NEVER TAKE ANOTHER PUFF! Joel

Stopped at the gas station this morning....

Yes,stop smoking now, I stopped at the gas station this morning, bought a pack, took one out and told the woman behind the counter to give the rest of the pack to the next poor sucker who comes in on a daily basis. Went back out to my car with the one that I kept, and when I went to light it, couldn't do it. Threw it out the window and drove to work. I hate myself right now. I wasted $5 on nothing, nothing that would have even made me feel any better. I didn't smoke it which is huge, I know that. But I was so close. The only thing that kept me from lighting up was the thought of my two little boys,Herbal cigarettes, and who would raise them if I die. #$%^^&!!!! I could scream right now. I am on day 20 and it feels harder now than day 10 did. I don't get why, it is supposed to get easier. Hubby told me (he is laid off right now) that he went to a bar for lunch yesterday with a friend, and was just fine, until he took a drink of his beer. Then he bummed one smoke, ate his food and knew he had to leave or he would have bought a pack. You have no idea how angry/jealous I was last night that he got to have one. What the heck is that? "got to have one". No. I should be feeling sorry for him that he caved and I didn't. But I wanted to cry "I want one too!!!!" Aaaahhh!!!!!Thank you for the vent....No one else truly understands.

Quitting smoking.....

just the mere thought of it invokes terror in the heart and minds of the hardcore smokers. I was one of them for so long. Every time I thought of it, my heart would race, I would break out in a sweat and reach for the ever present pack of cigarettes always close at hand, always by my side, and smoke even more. I defined myself as a smoker. After all, there are only two kinds of people in this world, those who smoke and those who don't, right? Well, I smoked! Yes, I tried to quit countless times. I hated myself with each failed attempt. Then I lived in denial for another month or three or four, or year or five or six, until I found the courage to try again..... and fail again. This went on for over twenty-seven years. I took my first drag off a cigarette at the age of ten. By sixteen I was buying my own and smoking in front of my parents. I made my first real attempt to quit at eighteen, but after that failed, it was another four years before I tried again. After that attempt, it was another six or seven years, and so went the pattern.So what made this quit for me different? Support. This board. The people here. It was quite different when I joined almost four years ago at the age of forty-three. Posts didn't live in perpetuity and there was a whole different group of folks (some are still around, katiem,Herbal cigarettes, kl, bob, jennelle, j/q) - posts were blue if you hadn't read them yet and grey if you had. I lived here. I read every post and responded to every post. I wrote 20-40 posts a day. I finally wanted to quit more than I wanted to smoke. I listened to what the old timers told me and took it one day at a time. I cried, slept, screamed, laughed, read about addiction, and read some more. I changed the way I looked at smoking. It took a while,quit smoking, about a year and a half, but I finally defined myself as an ex-smoker. Last weekend I was at a friend's house, and I was the only non-smoker. There were five other women there, and they were all smoking (we were outside). I watched them all and felt their pain, smelled the stench of slow death, and was so grateful I didn't do that anymore. I had not one thought of gosh, I wish I could have a cigarette. Instead I thought Gosh I wish they could see there's life after smoking.I don't come around here too often anymore, but wanted to let you all know that. There is life after smoking. In fact, it's a pretty awesome kind of life. It's a life of FREEDOM. It's living with the heavy, stinky smokecloak of addiction lifted like suddenly seeing the blue sky after the clouds part from days of rain. It's a feeling of accomplishment that spills over into every aspect of your life. If I could quit smoking, I can do ________ - anything!It's the best thing you will ever do for yourself. It's difficult and challenging, but it is so worth it, and so are you! If you are quit, hold onto it with everything you have, because it is easier to keep a quit than to find a new one. If you're thinking of quitting, there's no time like the present. Life happens and there will always be excuses, but you will never regret your decision to take back control of your life and redefine yourself. One day at a time, it's do-able. KTQFan of the LungFannyRitaThree years, nine months, one week, four days, 11 hours, 49 minutes and 55 seconds. 27609 cigarettes not smoked, saving $4,831.58. Life saved: 13 weeks, 4 days, 20 hours, 45 minutes.

Red Tide

So i was all excited today, its beautiful out, a sunny 78. not too hot, nice and cool...so i drove to the beach. I knew they said there was red tide, so i knew i'd probably not be able to go in the water...WELL....i get there....and nobody is there first of all....nobody....secondly...there are literally hundreds of dead fish lined all up and down the shoreline....then..the stench of all the dead fish....BARF>>>>>>i drive to the edge of the water, and sat there in awe of this horrible site...then my throat started burning, i guess from the red tide. (not exactly sure what it is) my throat started to hurt so badly it was hard to breathe,smoking cessation, i started choking, and had to leave. how crappy is that! my one day off,stop smoking, and i can't spend it doing waht i love! i've only lived here 3 years and we've had red tide before, but nothing like this. it was crazy man!

sos -relapse drill

Some one better stop me ,, or I am going to eat this whole freaking box of twinkes,stop smoking, and go into complet twinkie relpase.. I have been twinkie free for 3 months.. I thought it would be better but all I can hear is there little twinkie voices .. Saying eat me twinkies are your friendI have read everything over at quitsnackingfatass.com I have watched the eat less move more video a hundred timesI just cant stop thinking about twinkies and how wonderfull they areAll that cream filling wraped in cake.. Oh there to die for but I know I have to stop,, why cant I ? should I get a new job. Find a girl friendIf they could risk being with a twinkie junkieI think what happened I thought I could eat a devil dog the other dayAnd then I got one of those pink things with the coconut stuffNow All I can do is think about the twinkie.. I should have never eat the first one,quit smoking,, But my mom put them in my lunch box.. They just didn’t know better back thenOh all I have is excusses but I need a twinkie I do I doPlease hurry ,, I am going to go get a gal of milkHope I wont have to use it

Sos_30340

Guys I don't know if I can do this. I have been feeling depressed all day and can't stop thinking of how much a cigarette would help. I picture myself smoking and like the picture. I have tried everything H.U.R.T., thought stopping,quit smoking, praying,Herbal cigarettes, I can't get these feelings to stop. It has been getting more and more intense all day, and the depression... I know one cigarette leads to a pack, but I am feeling like a pack wouldn't be so bad right now. I know it gets better but it doesn't for a long long time. So why bother

Quitting phobia

I'm a 23-year-old female who's been smoking regularly for eight years, on and off for a further 3. At my very worst I smoked 60 a day, at present I think that figure is closer to 30 although I don't keep tabs. I've tried quitting numerous times and failed. There were times when I managed two weeks cigarette free, other when I managed just half a day. Either way it's been hard. However it seems to have become harder to quit with each failed attempt, so much so that I've developed a 'phobia' off quitting. I'm asthmatic, I have terrible sinusitis, I have constantly irritated gum and I suffer from hiatus hernia and GERD - see a pattern? All these conditions would improve immensely if only I quit smoking. However the very thought makes me feel heady, anxious and petrified. As much as I want to live into old age,Herbal cigarettes, the thought of quitting terrifies me MORE that dying of an asthma attack stroke,stop smoking now, heart attack, cancer or the like.And yet here comes the twist: I'm obsessed I'm going to fall very ill any time soon because of all cigarettes I've smoked in my brief life. At the slightest sign of a headache I'm convinced I'm having a stroke. Any kind of chest pain I have (usually resulting from my GERD/hiatus hernia), I associate with a heart attack. And so on. Things have come to a head now. I'm expected to quit by October after a specialist told me my asthma is getting worse. I've even been prescribed Champix as an aid but I daren't touch them because I'm simply too afraid to let go of a habit that's killing me. I'm not sure what I'm afraid of leaving behind. I just am. Call my barmy, but coming off cigarettes, to me, feels like considering that a long-time boyfriend I love very much wants to break up with me.I feel like I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. I want to quit because I'm scared of falling ill/dying, but I'm to scared to quit because I'm terrified I'll get anxiety so bad I'll top myself. I'm not even quite sure WHY I'm posting this. I just thought it would be helpful if I intend to quit.Hello everyone and bear with me if that didn't make much sense!

Nicodemon Lies-

33.It's all Nicodemon's fault, not mine! There is no Nicodemon, no little monsters, no big monsters, no monsters at all. None! In fact, the title to this article, Nicodemon's Lies, is one of the biggest lies of all. They were never Nicodemon's lies but our lies. Nicotine is simply a chemical, a drug, an alkaloid known as C10H14N2. Its I.Q. is and always has been zero. It does not think, plan, inflict punishment, nor will it conspire to make you relapse or die addicted to it. The fact that it has zero intelligence is your greatest weapon. Everything you see, feel, and sense during nicotine withdrawal and recovery will be grounded in chemical dependency, conditioning, reason, logic or science. Any conspirators in any past attempts to make you relapse and destroy your recovery were always and only "you!" Should you reclaim control of your brain reward pathways,quit smoking now, your health and your life, the victory will belong only to you!http://www.whyquit.com/whyquit/A_NicodemonsLies.htmlNicodemon's Lies?by John R. PolitoNicotine Cessation Educatornicotine addiction denial lies As teenagers, what most of us thought would be a brief rebellious experiment was quickly transformed into a powerful lifelong chemical addiction as regular nicotine feedings quickly became mandatory. New studies confirm that for some of us it only took coughing and hacking our way through a few nicotine laden cigarettes before the shackles of slavery began to close. Five, ten, fifteen nicotine fixes a day - when will enough be enough? "Tomorrow, tomorrow" or "I love being addicted" became our lifetime cry! Welcome to the realities of true chemical dependency. A world built upon lies. Science calls our lies denial. Denial is an unconscious defense mechanism - just below the surface - for resolving the emotional conflict and anxieties that naturally arise from living in a permanent state of self-destructive chemical bondage. Three primary areas of denial relied upon by nicotine addicts are dependency denial, cost denial and recovery denial. In each, truth is sacrificed in exchange for peace of mind while remaining hostage in an artificial world of “nicotine normal,” or to justify relapse. Most nicotine addicts you'll see today are almost completely insulated by a thick blanket of unconscious denial rationalizations, minimizations, fault projections, escapes, intellectualizations and delusions that hide the pain of captivity or create the illusion that the problem is somehow being solved. The average addict musters the confidence to challenge their addiction about once every three years, at which time roughly 1 in 20 will succeed in breaking free for an entire year. These horrible recovery statistics evenutally result in half of us dying by our own hand, with male smokers losing an average of 13 years of life expectancy and females losing 14 years. Our senseless self-destruction is undeniable visible evidence of denial's depth. It insulated us from the extreme price being paid with each and every puff - a little more of life itself. We've been waiting on you! WhyQuit's dream is to hand you the tools needed to helping you dramatically increase your odds of long-term successful recovery. Those tools include education, denial understanding, skills development ( recovery philosophy, coping, and relapse risk awareness), motivation reinforcement, and high quality serious support if and when needed. Once residing here on Easy Street with us we hope you'll share what you've learned as opportunities present themselves, as for far too many the three years between recovery attempts will be too long. According to the World Health Organization the next three years will cost 15 million of our brother and sister addicts their lives. Our Lies and the Truth 1. My cigarettes are my friend. Friend or master? What kind of "friend" would deprive us of oxygen, take away our ability to smell, burn our clothes, destroy our teeth, harden our arteries, elevate our blood pressure, daily feed us 4,000+ chemical compounds that include arsenic, ammonia, acetone, formaldehyde, butane, massive doses of carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, methane, stearic acid, vinyl chloride, mercury, and lead, together with 43 known cancer causing agents (one of which is created when nicotine breaks down - NNK), before finally killing you with cancer, a stroke, a heart attack or emphysema? Imagine seeing your executioner as a friend. Imagine residing inside a mind that is so sick it is willing to trade 13 years of life for one chemical.2. I enjoy smoking. This may be the most deeply engrained rationalization of all as it has a solid basis in the following flawed denial logic. "I don't do things that I don't like to do." "I smoke lots and lots of cigarettes." "Therefore, I must really enjoy smoking," instead of the correct conclusion, "therefore, I must really be chemically addicted to smoking nicotine." Did you enjoy being the unaddicted "you" or have you forgotten what it was like to live comfortably inside a mind that does not crave for nicotine? If you cannot remember what it was like being "you" then what basis do you have for honest comparison? If you truly enjoyed being addicted to nicotine then why are you here reading these words? Is it that you liked smoking or that you liked not having to experience what occurred when you didn't smoke - withdrawal? Studies have long ranked nicotine as a more addictive substance than either heroin or cocaine. In fact, cocaine's generally recognized addiction rate among regular users is 15% while nicotine's addiction rate of over 70% is at least five times as great. Imagine convincing your mind that it " likes " being addicted to the drug that addiction scientists now rank as the most addictive substance on all of planet earth. We are nicotine addicts . A pack a day smoker smokes 7,300 cigarettes each and every year. How many of your last 7,300 nicotine fixes did you really enjoy ? How many of the next 7,300 will bring tremendous joy to your life? Isn't it time to be honest?3. My spouse, close friend or family member smokes. I'm waiting for them to quit with me. Procrastation recovery denial makes the next puff of toxins easier to suck down. Nicotine tells this junkie that they cannot quit until their friend or loved one quits too as they're around their smoke, smells, cigarettes, breath and ashtrays, and quitting is thus impossible. It's pure denial and often both friends or loved ones use the other as their excuse to remain enslaved. How long will you continue to destroy your body while waiting for someone else to quit with you? A lifetime? If and when they do quit with you, what will you do if they relapse? Will "love" cause you to do the same? One of you needs to stand tall, continue on and lead the way. It's okay to have hope for a loved one but you must quit for "you" or it's doomed from the very start. Why make your freedom, health or life dependent upon another person's decision. As for being around smokers, don't we all do it? Isn't it just a matter of degree? Will planet earth's 1.2 billion nicotine smokers disappear once commence recovery? Won't you still see them and smell their smoke at restaurants, as they stand around outside stores or even hospitals, or as they puff away in the car beside you? Will all the stores pull-down their cigarette displays or move them from arms reach just because you are trying to reclaim your mind and life? Don't live the lie that "I smoke for love!"4. It reduces my stress and helps calm me down. This health intellectualization is false. The body's pH balance is delicate. Nicotine is an alkaloid and stress an acid producing event. The more stressful the event the quicker the body's remaining nicotine reserves are neutralized (in the same manner as pouring a baking soda solution on an acid covered car battery terminal). The stressed smoker is thrown into early chemical withdrawal adding additional anxiety to the underlying original stressful event. It's why the anxiety associated with a flat tire causes smokers to reach for a cigarette while the non-smoker reaches for a jack. The anxieties build until the doubly stressed smoker cries out "I NEED A CIGARETTE!" Within eight seconds of the first puff, the smoker's nicotine blood serum nicotine level rises and their withdrawal anxieties subside. The addict is left with the false impression that smoking cured the underlying stressful event when in fact the tire is still flat. All non-smokers experience stress too. The difference is that they don't add early nicotine withdrawal to each stressful event. In truth, stress nicotine depletion causes smokers to experience far more anxiety than non-smokers. In truth, it is much easier and calmner being the real "you" than it is living as a chemical slave.5. My friends smoke, I'll lose them. The nicotine smoker's mind has been conditioned to believe, through association, that smoking is central to their entire life. Telephone calls, computer time, work, meals, driving, talking, walking, stress, joy, sorrow, and even romance, may have developed a subconscious association with smoking. The truth is that none of these activities will be altered whatsoever by the absence of tobacco. The truth is that quitting smoking will not deprive you of even a single friend or loved one. The truth is that smoking is costing you new friends and possible relationships as fewer and fewer non-smokers are willing to tolerate being around the smell and the smoke. Can you blame them? With the exception of quitting, your current life doesn't need to change at all unless you want it to change. It might be nice to enlarge your circle of friends to include those who don't stand around the community ashtray, but that's totally up to you.6. It wakes me up and keeps me alert.This dependency rationalization uses a basic truth (nicotine releases adrenaline and a host of other hormones) to hide the fact that nicotine deprives us of the ability to enjoy prolonged periods of deep conscious relaxation. If always at the peak of alertness because we are addicted to and chemically dependent upon a centeral nervous system stimulant then when do we truly relax? This dependency rationalization also subverts and ignores a host of natural alertness techniques ranging from a simple deep breath to brief periods of stretching or moderately exhilarating activity. Instead of engaging life on life's terms, a powerful puff of nicotine starts a neurochemical chain-reaction that increases breathing rate, accelerates heat rate, constricts blood vessels, elevates blood pressure, causes the liver to release stored cholesterol into the blood stream, the adrenal gland to release glucocorticoids, the thyroid to release metabolism hormones, the hypothalamus to release corticotropin-releasing hormones, a decrease of progesterone levels in females and testosterone in males, digestive tract shut-down, a glucose release into the bloodstream followed by a boost in insulin to metabolize it, pupil dilation, and your blood to thicken. Inside those highly constricted and over-pressurized blood vessels, carbon monoxide eats away at their teflon like lining (endothelium) while nicotine amazingly vascularizes fat buildups causing arteries to harden. More smokers die from circulatory disease each year than from lung cancer yet denial kept almost all of them from wanting to know why or how they would die. What goes up must come down. Once the hormones wear off and that drained feeling begins to arrive a new puff of nicotine again whips every central nervous system neuron in a tired body like some overworked horse never allowed to rest. Alert, yes, but somewhere in that endless cycle between alert and exhausted resides the "real" you.7. My concentration is better. Vast quantities of carbon monoxide do NOT improve concentration. Although nicotine is a stimulant and does excite certain brain neurons, it also constricts all blood vessels. Feel how cold your fingers and toes get when deprived of blood flow while smoking. Imagine what's happening to the blood vessels in your brain. If nicotine results in a stroke we probably won't need to worry much about concentration. Fresh air and exercise are far healthier brain stimulants. When quitting it's important that you understand the role that nicotine played in regulating blood sugar as its absence may cause the temporary impairment of concentration and clear thinking. If you are experiencing any concentration problems be sure and drink plenty of fruit juice (cranberry is excellent) while your brain adjusts to your body's needs. Also don't skip meals! Nicotine released stored fats into your blood and in a sense fed you with every puff but not anymore. Don't eat more food each day, just spread your normal intake out more over your entire day so that you keep fuel in your stomach and your blood sugar level. 8. It's something to do with my hands. So is playing with a loaded gun and they both have the same potential for harm. This weak addiction rationalization ignores that doodling with a pen, playing with coins, squeezing a ball or using strength grippers may be habit forming but are non-addictive. You might get ink on yourself, rich or strong wrists but your chances of serious injury or death are almost zero.9. My coffee wouldn't be the same. More junkie thinking! Your coffee's flavor will remain identical. In fact, it may even taste better once your taste buds heal after years of being numbed, coated and poisoned. Your sense of smell may become so refined that you'll smell fresh coffee brewing more than one hundred feet away. Although you don't need to give up your coffee or any thing else except nicotine during recovery, be aware that nicotine somehow doubles the rate ( 203%) at which caffeine is metabolized by the body and as a new ex-smoker you may only need half as much in order to obtain the same effect. If you are a heavy caffeine user and find yourself experiencing increased anxiety during recovery, or encounter difficulty sleeping, try reducing your intake by roughly half.10. There's lots of time left to quit.This year tobacco will kill 4,000,000 humans, 1.5 million in middle-age who will each die an average of 22.5 years early . In order for 22.5 to be the average, how many hundreds of thousands had to die even younger? Maybe you've got time left and maybe not . But, dying in your thirties or forties is a powerful price to pay for guessing wrong. The numbers above only reflect DEATH by tobacco. You may be lucky enough to be among the millions of nicotine smokers each year who SURVIVE and "only" have a heart attack, a stroke, a lung removed, go onto oxygen, or who receive news of permanent lung disease as you struggle for every breath. Which puff, from which cigarette, in which pack, will pull the trigger that fires the gun? The odds of a male smoker dying from lung cancer are 22 times greater than for a non-smoker. His odds of dying from emphysema are ten times greater. How lucky do you feel?11. It's one of my few pleasures in life. Does that mean that it's better than the pleasure of having a throat to deliver fresh air and great food, two lungs with which to laugh, a healthy heart to feel love, or an undamaged mind which dreams of a wonderful tomorrow? Pleasure from your addiction or pleasure in committing slow suicide at the hands of a mind that thinks it can only live with the aid of a powerful stimulant? What do they call someone who derives pleasure from self-inflicted harm or who slowly puts themselves to death? Pick your own label! Which nicotine fix out of the last 5,000 was the one that brought you tremendous pleasure? Which cigarette out of the next 5,000 may be the one that sparks permanent damage or disease, or that carries death's eternal flame? If bad news arrives tomorrow will "pleasure" cross your mind? Your only pleasure is in postponing the challenge of the initial 72 hours that it takes to remove all nicotine from your blood.12. Dad just died, this isn't the time! Smoking won't bring dad back nor cure any other ill in life. Success in quitting during a period of high stress in life insures that future high stress situations won't serve as your excuse or justification for relapse. If you think about it, if we continue to live we will all see someone we love die. Such is the cycle of life. It's extremely sad but serious illness, injury, or the death of a loved one are the most convincing justifications that quitters sell themselves on, in order to justify keeping their drug. There is no better time to quit than before your next mandatory feeding. Don't allow finances, work, illness, education or relationships to serve as your excuse to remain an active addict. There is no legitimate justification for ever putting nicotine back into our body - none, zero, never!13.Lots of smokers live until ripe old age. They are much rarer than you think. Look around. If you do find old nicotine smokers almost all are in poor health or in advanced stages of smoking related diseases, many with oxygen. Laboring for every breath with lungs on their last leg, is that ripe enough for us? Nicotine smokers tend to think only in terms of dying from lung cancer. Tobacco kills in many ways. For example, circulatory disease caused by smoking kills more smokers each year than lung cancer. How long would George Burns have Tobacco does not control any clock on earth but it does control you . For the lived to be if he hadn't smoked cigars, 115, 125? Click here to look at the " truth ". What's wrong with dying healthy from natural causes!14. I get bored. It helps pass the time.pack a day nicotine smoker it takes about 30 minutes before their blood's nicotine level to drop to the point where their mind sends them an "urge" of discomfort to remind you that it's time for a feeding. It doesn't matter where they are or what they're doing. Depending upon your daily nicotine requirements, the voice inside your head will let you know when it's time. All you're doing when bored is being alert enough to what lies ahead, so that you keep topping off your nicotine tank before the next message of discomfort arrives.15. It's my choice and I choose to smoke! It's a lie and you know it! You lost your "choice" and the ability to simply walk away the day that nicotine feedings became mandatory. The only choice you have now is how EARLY you feed the beast within. The ignorant nicotine addict still believes the "choice" myth pounded into their brain by an endless stream of highly effective tobacco company marketing. All the pretty colored boxes, the displays, the sea of ads, how often have you seen any smoker switch brands? It's a well set trap from teens and a way to keep you from looking at the man behind the curtain - nicotine. You uneducated smoker associated smoking with the newspaper, coffee, travel, stress, other smokers, telephone calls, meals, celebrations, romance, or even as a necessary step prior to walking into a store. The educated nicotine addict sees all nicotine fixes as either mandatory, or an early feeding, in order to avoid the onset and discomfort of chemical withdrawal. You smoke nicotine after a meal because it's time for a nicotine feeding and you smoke before a meal because it isn't polite to feed yourself nicotine and food at the same time. If your regular feedings are spaced thirty minutes apart, at least every thirty minutes you're going to start sensing the need for more nicotine regardless of the activity.16. I'm only hurting me. Have you stopped for even one moment to reflect upon the financial, physical or emotional pain that your needless dying and death would bring your loved ones? Do you care that the deadly byproducts of your addiction have the potential to harm or kill family members, whose only crime was loving you? How much does it cost to attempt to cure a cancer patient? $100,000? $200,000? $300,000? How much is your annual deductible, your lifetime benefits cap and who will pay any balance that remains? What's the cost of a funeral today and which loved one have you designated to pay the emotional price of making arrangements for your early departure? As for making your family breathe second-hand smoke, the World Health Organization says that your smoke contributes to causing lower respiratory tract infections such as pneumonia and bronchitis, colds, coughing, wheezing, worsening of asthma, middle ear disease, cardiovascular disease, and even neurobehavioural impairment (especially in young children). It also found that maternal smoking or exposure to second-hand smoke during pregnancy is a major cause of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), reduced birth weight and decreased lung function. 17. A cure for cancer is coming soon. Between Europe and North America tobacco will kill over one million this year. How many of them thought that a cure was on the way? Sadly, it was false hope. As hopeless drug addicts they waited, and waited and waited. What type of lung cancer are you waiting for them to cure - squamous cell, oat cell, adenocarcinoma, or one of the less common forms of lung cancer? Even if a cure is coming for all forms and types of cancer caused by tobacco (and there are many), what will be left of your lungs by the time it arrives? If you're gambling on "how" tobacco will kill you, don't forget to consider heart attacks , strokes, and emphysema. Which cure are you betting on?18. I smoke lights and they're not as bad. Lights and ultra-lights are capable of delivering the same amount of tar and nicotine as regular brands, depending on how they're smoked. They do not reduce most health risks including the risk of heart disease or the risk of cancer . In fact, their smokers often take longer drags which means far more tar and more nicotine than advertised. Others simply smoke a higher number of lights because they feel short changed.19. It's my right to blow smoke! And it's the right of non-smokers and ex-smokers to be free from your smoke too. Social controls to protect the rights of non-smokers are just beginning. Can a dog's life-span be cut in half by a smoking master? Would you intentionally double the risk of heart attack or triple the risk of lung cancer for a spouse or family member? Why kill the innocent too? Are non-smokers who get extremely upset at having to breathe some of your smoke simply being obnoxious or are they fighting to protect themselves and those they love from the known harms generated from burning a plant that contains 44 known cancer causing agents (including nicotine) and releases 4,000+ chemical compounds when burned? Do you know a child whose mother smoked while pregnant who does not suffer from some form of impairment today? Think about it!20. Quitting causes weight gain and it's just as dangerous. This intellectual denial pre-assumes a large weight gain and then makes an erroneous judgement regarding relative risks. Quitting does not increase our weight, eating does. Some assert that metabolic changes associated primarily with the heart not having to work as hard could account for a pound or two but as far as being " dangerous," you'd have to gain an additional one hundred pounds in order to equal the health risks associated with smoking one pack a day. Keep in mind that your general health, physical abilities and lung capacity will all improve dramatically. If patient, you will develop the physical endurance (a 30% increase in overall lung function within 90 days) and mental recovery tools (the same tools needed to take control of your addiction to nicotine) necessary to shed any extra pounds just one pound at a time. Remember, smoking was your cue that a meal had ended. Unless you develop a new healthy cue there may be fewer leftovers. Also keep in mind how easy it would be for a drug addict to use intentional weight gain to a ploy to sabotage recovery.21. It's too late now to heal these lungs. Nonsense! If you have not yet caused permanent lung damage you should expect to experience an almost one-third increase in overall lung function within just 90 days of quitting! It's amazing how much damaged lungs can repair themselves unless disease or cancer have already arrived. Even with emphysema, although destroyed air sacks will never again function, quitting now will immediately halt the needless destruction of additional tissues! You only have two options - decay or heal. Which cigarette in which pack will carry the spark that gives birth to that first cancerous cell ?22. I'd quit but withdrawal never ends! False! If you remain 100% nicotine free for just 72 hours, your blood will become nicotine free, your withdrawal anxieties will peak in intensity and the number of psychological craves will peak in number. The greatest challenge will be over. Within 10 days to two weeks, actual physical withdrawal is substantially complete as your mind has physically adjusted to the absence of nicotine and accustomed to natural brain dopamine levels. What then remains will be to encounter and recondition your remaining psychological habit crave triggers and to learn to live with the millions of smoking memories stored deep within your mind. You will experience your first day of total quit comfort, where you never once even "think" about a cigarette or smoking, by at least day ninety. The sad part is that you won't even realize that it has happened. After the first such day, they grow more and more frequent until they become your new norm. The deep sense of lasting comfort and calmness that awaits you is probably beyond your comprehension. The real "you" is in total control!23.But the craves last for hours! Just like the lingering thought of a nice juicy steak, lobster in butter sauce, or fresh baked hot apple pie, you can make yourself "think" about having a cigarette all day long, if that's what you really want to do. Unlike thoughts, crave anxiety attacks last for less than 3 minutes. It's important that you look at a clock and time them as your mind can make those minutes seem like hours. The bulk of the anxiety surrounding each crave is self induced. Such "thoughts" can be controlled with honest answers and through the power of positive thinking . Strip away all the self-inflicted anxiety and what remains on Day 3 for the "average" quitter is just 18 minutes of true crave anxiety (an average of six craves each less than three minutes in duration)24.I'll quit after the next pack, next carton, next month, my next birthday or on New Years' Oh really? Can you count on both hands and all your toes how many times you've lied to yourself with such nonsense? And which pack,stop smoking now, carton, month or birthday will give you the best chance for success? Forget buying nicotine laden cigarettes by the pack or carton. A case is even cheaper! With the way that cigarette prices are shooting through the roof, you might as well calculate how many it will take to keep you in nicotine for life and buy them all now. The only problem with that is in determining how long you have left to live. How many more pack, carton, birthday and New Year's lies will you tell to yourself? When will they stop? If you continue on your present path, many Birthdays are very likely be cancelled by your early Deathday. Will your family celebrate without you?25.I like to smoke when I drink and I find myself smoking even more. The effects of drinking and stress upon our body's nicotine level are the same. You smoke more when you drink not because you "like" to but because you MUST in order to keep your body's nicotine level within the comfort range, so that it does not experience the symptoms of early withdrawal. When you drink alcohol it causes your urine to become acidic. The acid causes nicotine to be drawn from your blood at an accelerated rate. Thus, the more you drink, the more nicotine you'll need to ingest to avoid the anxiety of early withdrawal. Although early alcohol use contributes to destroying a great many quit attempts, understanding the nicotine-acid relationship can be of benefit in accelerating physical nicotine withdrawal so that quitters can begin feeling relief sooner. Acidic fruit juices, such as cranberry, may help reduce the normal 72 hours of withdrawal required to remove all nicotine from the blood. If at all possible, don't drink during the first few days of your quit. When you do decide to drink, drink at home without cigarettes around before testing your resolve around smokers. By doing so you'll help to break the your mind's psychological link between smoking and drinking, with as little risk as possible. As millions of ex-smokers can attest, your beer or drinks will taste better than ever once your taste buds are allowed an opportunity to heal.26.It's too painful to quit! Compared to what? Three days of physical withdrawal (just 72 hours) in no way compares to the pain of months of chemotherapy, lung removal surgery and a two foot scar, a losing battle with throat cancer, years of trying to recover from a serious stroke or massive heart attack, or fighting for every breath through emphysema riddled lungs as you drag oxygen around for the remainder of your life. If you're really worried about hurt then why continue your daily destruction?27. If I quit, I'll just start back again. I always do. The truth is that you don't have to relapse. We relapse because we rewrite the law of addiction, we forget why we quit, or we invent lies and stupid excuses, such as those that fill this page. Your next quit can be your last but you need to learn how to care for your quit , while always applying the only rule that you'll ever need to obey - NEVER TAKE ANOTHER PUFF OF NICOTINE!28. I'll cut down or quit and smoke just one now and then. You are addicted to a substance that is five times as addictive as cocaine (15% vs. 75%). You may be strong enough to cut back a bit but you'll remain addicted, the decay will continue and a recent study indicates that your health risks will remain unchanged. If you were a pack-a-day nicotine smoker and after quitting you decide to smoke just one cigarette, you might as well get ready to smoke the other 7,300 for the year too as full and complete relapse is virtually assured. The Law of Nicotine Addiction is simple - one puff of new nicotine and it's over! Yes, 95 to 97% of those who smoke nicotine from just one cigarette will immediately or soon thereafter experience full and complete relapse back to their prior level of nicotine intake or higher. Your addiction permanently transformed your brain into a highly efficient nicotine processing machine capable of generating a steady output of dopamine. Quitting is a process where the brain learns to function without the extra dopamine but it does not alter your processing potentials. After quitting, the jail remains but is empty and you're on probation for life!29.I tried quitting but my family stopped supporting me or was giving me such a hard time that it caused me to throw in the towel. It's a lie. You gave up because you used your family as a cheap excuse to get your drug back. You exaggerated everything they did or didn't do. You were looking for any excuse. You're the drug addict yet you expected them to understand the weakness and thinking of a drug addict's mind. Maybe they didn't pat you on the back as often as you wanted, but if they've never been through chemical withdrawal themselves is it really fair to expect them to appreciate the magnitude or duration of your challenge? They just want you to be normal. They don't know how to react. Do they pat you on the back and keep reminding you, or hope and pray that the worst has passed? Feeling unappreciated, picking fights and creating confrontation are tools of the addict's mind that are often used as weapons in order to reclaim their drug. Some know that if they inflict tremendous stress on loved ones that they may even convince their loved one to beg them to start smoking nicotine again, or to buy their relapse cigarettes for them. That way they can blame their relapse on their loved one. "They just couldn't handle my quitting." "Maybe next time!" The lengths to which the nico-addict will go in order to feed the beast are almost beyond belief. Yes, some will even hurt those that love them most.30.Ok, I'm going to quit! Now I can enjoy my smokes until then! If you've done this more than once, isn't it just more junkie head games ? This addict wants to feel good about smoking nicotine and they've learned that by saying that they're going to quit, that they make themselves feel better even though deep down they know that it's just another lie! Unless something awakens this addict, there may never be a serious quit in their future. 31.I've got to die of something! True, but if you knew that tomorrow morning at 9:22 a.m. a massive smoking induced stroke would bring your life to an abrupt end, and you'd die on a cold floor with a cigarette beside you - just as tens of thousands of smokers are found each year - would you light that last cigarette at 9:21 a.m. and pull the trigger that kills you? Would this be one or your primary recovery denial rationalizations? Look around at all the smokers you see today. The death certificates of half will read, "cause of death - smoking. " Yes, they had to die of something but not an average of more than 5,000 days early. Have you met Noni and Bryan ? Would any non-addicted human spend each and every day of the remainder of their life intentionally destroying a little bit more of their ever shrinking lung capacity? Why continue doing so until physical exercise is no longer an option, or until your chemical dependency begins burdening and wasting the lives of others who'll be forced to care for you, as they watch you struggle just to suck oxygen from tanks and machines 24 hours a day? Which family member have you spoken with about taking care of you once you've almost finished destroying that body? Can you imagine what it's like trying to breathe through a straw? It's called emphysema. Since you've got to die of something why not try it out now. See what it would be like to have advanced emphysema by spending just five minutes learning to straw breathe. What has nicotine done for you lately?32.I can't quit alone. I'll need nicotine gum, the patch, hypnosis, acupuncture, magic herbs or other wonder drugs! Wrong! The simple truth is that no magic cure has ever " made " any smoker quit smoking nicotine. The key to immediate and lasting abstinence is education and understanding not hypnosis , not acupuncture and not some over-the-counter nicotine product that teaches absolutely nothing while robbing 93%of those who toy with clean-nicotine of a valuable opportunity to master the core principles underlying years of nicotine dependency. Remember, should all else fail, you always have you! 33.It's all Nicodemon's fault, not mine! There is no Nicodemon, no little monsters, no big monsters, no monsters at all. None! In fact, the title to this article, Nicodemon's Lies, is one of the biggest lies of all. They were never Nicodemon's lies but our lies. Nicotine is simply a chemical, a drug, an alkaloid known as C10H14N2. Its I.Q. is and always has been zero. It does not think, plan, inflict punishment, nor will it conspire to make you relapse or die addicted to it. The fact that it has zero intelligence is your greatest weapon. Everything you see, feel, and sense during nicotine withdrawal and recovery will be grounded in chemical dependency, conditioning, reason, logic or science. Any conspirators in any past attempts to make you relapse and destroy your recovery were always and only "you!" Should you reclaim control of your brain reward pathways, your health and your life, the victory will belong only to you!? WhyQuit.Com 1999-2009 Taking back control, restoring self-respect and self-confidence, being truly honest and feeling totally free, so fresh and new, clean and proud, smelling oh so sweet, while healing and growing healthier day by day, the real you is just dying to come home. Is it time to end the suicide march or were you born to die an addict's death? It's your birthright to be free. Isn't it time you claimed it? Isn't it time to meet the "real" you again? The key to your cell and to trading places, by placing your dependency under arrest, is in understanding the core principles of dependency, withdrawal and recovery, while following just one simple rule - never use nicotine in any form again - NEVER TAKE ANOTHER PUFF, DIP OR CHEW!Breathe deep, hug hard, live long,John R. PolitoNicotine Cessation Counselorjohn@whyquit.com

Quitting Humor_6444

Quitting humor -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Here are some tips for the newly quit: 1. Remove all firearms,quit smoking, ammunition, archery equipment, power tools, kitchen utensils, golf clubs or other dangerous items from your home. For their own protection, young children and incontinent pets should also be removed, it possible. 2. During the first 5-14 days of your quit, you will notice an improvement in your sense of smell. This change may be sudden and dramatic. You may want to avoid any areas known for strong odors during this time. You may also discover that your home is one of those areas. Allow 1-3 hours per day for scrubbing an obscure corner of your home in an effort to remove the mystery smell. 3. One effective technique for reducing stress is the recitation of a mantra. Your mantra for the next few weeks will be: "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean that. I just quit smoking." 4. If you drink the recommended 8 glasses of water each day, you will need to remain within 150 feet of a lavatory during the first 3 weeks of your quit. 5. Many cessation experts recommend you keep a diary of your experience as you quit. A written record of your inability to control your emotions, words and actions may be useful later on during any criminal or civil proceedings. You may also want to discuss with your attorney which homicidal or other violent fantasies about your spouse, employer or local politician should not be recorded in that journal. 6. Many people find driving a car is a major trigger of smoking urges. If it is practical, you may want to consider using public transportation during the early part of your quit. If you must drive, carry gum, mints, cassette tapes of soothing music, a small rubber ball to squeeze in one hand, extra kleenex for crying jags, a roll of duct tape for swearing jags, and extra toll fare change in the event that your aim is effected by the spasmodic trembling in your hands. Again, all firearms should be removed from the vehicle. You may also want to keep your journal handy to hand to the highway patrol officer in the event of an accident or traffic offense,smoking cessation, since uncontrollable sobbing may prevent you from speaking clearly at that moment. 7. Whatever you do, DO NOT LOSE YOUR SENSE OF HUMOR.

Newbie on day 4!

Hello,My name is Sandy. I've been preparing to quit smoking for (believe it or not) about a year. I smoked two packs a day. Four days ago I threw away all the ash trays (full of smokeable butts), bought nicotine patches, and prayed a lot. I haven't smoked since. I read a lot of posts that suggest you have the support of your family and friends when you decide to quit. I haven't told any of my family or friends. I feel that this endeavor is,stop smoking, for me, something private. I've asked myself if it's becasue I'm afraid I'll fail. That may be part of it, but I honestly don't think that's the main reason. I don't want them agonizing over wheher I'll be able to do this or not. And, part of it is just my personality. I have less of a problem sharing with strangers,Herbal cigarettes, or in a situation (like this) where I can remain anonymous. After I've gone through the worst, I'll have no problem sharing with them.Just wondering if anyone else has gone through this.Any HONEST thoughts? Good luck to all!

Persistance

and dedication,quit smoking, stick-to-ness, some support, a plan, belief in if they did I CAN and the ability to never ever forget the mantra Not One Puff , It will al lead you to Freedom.Daily MotivatorAugust 7,Herbal cigarettes, 2006Persist nowPersistence will win over just about any advantage. The longer you persist, the closer you are to winning. Even when you are constantly beaten back, even when the road is steep and strewn with giant boulders, keep going.The value of your accomplishment increases with every difficulty you encounter on the way to it. And you must persist in order to realize that value. Whatever it takes, keep going. Every moment you persist builds equity in your dream.The glory, the joy, the fulfillment of life come from persistence through the troubles, the frustrations and the obstacles. You already know that. You've experienced it before. And now, today, is yet another opportunity to keep going, to persist through whatever may come.It's the best opportunity you could possibly imagine. So make the most of it. Keep going. Persist in your efforts. And fulfill your own incredible possibilities.

Now this is a good case

for WHY honesty is ALWAYS the best policy...LONDON (AP) - Twins who were separated at birth got married without realizing they were brother and sister, a lawmaker said, urging more information be provided on birth certificates for adopted children. A court annulled the British couple's union after they discovered their true relationship, Lord David Alton said."Everyone has a right to knowledge about their lineage, genealogy and identity. And if they don't, then it will lead to cases of incest," Alton told The Associated Press during a telephone interview Friday.Alton first revealed details of the unusual case last month during a five-hour debate about a bill that would change regulations about human embryology."I was recently involved in a conversation with a High Court judge who was telling me of a case he had dealt with," Alton said according to a transcript of the Dec. 10 debate. "It involved the normal birth of twins who were separated at birth and adopted by separate parents."They were never told that they were twins. They met later in life and felt an inevitable attraction,stop smoking, and the judge had to deal with the consequences of the marriage that they entered into and all the issues of their separation."Alton gave no additional details and would not reveal the name of the judge who told him about the case.The High Court's Family Division declined to discuss or confirm Alton's account about the twins.Alton, an independent legislator who works at Liverpool's John Moores University,Herbal cigarettes, said the siblings' inadvertent marriage raises the wider issue of the importance of strengthening the rights of children to know the identities of their biological parents, including kids who were born through in vitro fertilization.Under British law, only a mother has to be named on a birth certificate. Such certificates also are not required to identify births that result from IVF or to identify the sperm donor.In addition, British law does not require parents to ever tell children that they were the result of donated sperm.Alton believes this should be changed.Alton said he favors an amendment to the Human Fertility and Embryology bill - which is still being debated in the House of Lords - that would require birth certificates of children born from donated sperm to say that and to identify the genetic father.Referring to the twins' case, he said: "If you start trying to conceal someone's identity, sooner or later the truth will come out. And if you don't know you are biologically related to someone, you may become attracted to them and tragedies like this may occur."

No Smoking Ads

Any of my NJ or NYC friends here....have you seen any of the new anti-smoking TV advertisements on the local NY channels???~~~~~~~~~BRUTAL~~~~~~~~~~~Start with a slow zoom in on a tall city street garbage can....A hand and then foot come into focus, sticking out the top of the can.....Then another garbage can with more body parts........Then lots of streets with lots of cans with lots of body parts.Then announcer:More people die every year from cigarette smoking than there are garbage cans in all of New York City(and if you have ever been to the Big Apple you will likely remember that there are at least 5 garbage cans on every street along the ritsy 5th Avenue and then probably a hundred on every street in the residential areas and God only knows how many in the garment district, etc....so, the ad definitely has punch for New Yorkers!)Another ad.....no commentary.....as body parts are shown one by one from long time smokers,stop smoking now, covered in tar and cancers and diseasein clear living color, well not sure living is the right word.... Then announcer: "If you smoke, these could be yours." And rumor has it that in NYC, cigarettes will be up to $10.00 a pack by Feb. 1 in the tourist parts of the city. Because studies have shown, that as prices go up, smoking does, in fact,smoking cessation, go down.AREN'T WE ALL GLAD THAT WE HAVE AT LEAST NOW MADE THE RIGHT DECISION AND QUIT!

Pat yourself on the back

I brag about it and pick on folks about my new life. But it is all in fun. If I could I would for youTruth is though I am PROUD to even know people.Quit or no quit I have many smoking friends and darn great ones.!So all I can say is if you are wanting to quit or you have quit the point isthat you should be proud. First feel the pride and the rest is a ride.It is nice to know people even WANT to quit for goodness sakes.So just for the record "Give yourself a pat on the back"AND HAVE A GREAT DAY OK ?FF is rubbing off on me and this board I think.I called that dude this week and he is one neat human being.He walks his own beat and so do we.Hey FF !! ........your cool

Our Gramma needs your help!

Grandma,quit smoking, I didn't want your cry for help to be lost in my post"I'm sorry but I still think about smoking all the time ,quit smoking now,,,, I've wanted a cigarette so baddddd since yesterday afternoon,, I have NOT but I am hurting again I am off the chantix too and I want it outta my system too,,,, sometimes it helps just to let you all know that i'm cravingggggggg,,,, but I will not give in I can't i just can't_________________July 9th 2007,O HAPPY DAY !"Well, for starters I used Chantix too and I am proof that yes there is a weening from it but you are soooo much better off than the day before you took your first pill, RIGHT?????Second you are here and have many that love you and are going to be helping you wind up that fist and smack that demon to the ground...he will be nothing, NOTHING!!!!You are so awesome and have come so far you will not let a pesty craving ruin what you have accomplished so far. You are AWESOME and I love you.Newlife