Sunnyside

Happy birthday Jimmy :)

Hello, ready when you are :)

My cough has gone, I use to cough daily. In fact some people knew me by my cough!! I have taken up running again. I've been doing the 5k app. As I have been progressing through, I can feel and taste the gunk coming out of my lung. It's disgusting but great at the same time.

Congratulations Porkandpancakes you won the game :)

I had a big crush on this guy. Corey Haim. Unfortunately he is dead, too much drugs and alcohol.

Congrats!!!! 2 week is amazing :)

Congratulations Petra!!! 3 years are awesome :)

Our finalists are Pork and Pancake with Portugal and Evelyn with France. Exciting now ;) good luck to you girls, the chicks are going to win this game too!!! :D

Remember Evelyn. Nobody is having ago at you, we know things are tough. But smoking will only drag you down further. You know this! Scream and shout, but don't smoke. Things will become easier for you, I'm sure. Have you ever read this? Its called "choose your pain". You know when you read something and it just sticks with you, well this was mine. Everytime something or someone tried to throw me a curve ball, this was the post I went to. I don't want to die in a horrible way, if possible. I certainly don't want it to be because of me. For my family, for ME! Have a read. I don't need it anymore. So i pass it on to you. I want you to have it. This was one of my favourite post on the Woofmang site. Choose your pain 2009 January 6 One of the strongest motivators for human beings (actually, for all conscious beings) is the avoidance of pain. if you think about it, you'll probably come to the conclusion that this one factor, above all others, was the primary reason we continued to smoke for as long as we did, in spite of the overwhelming evidence that by doing so, we were doing incredible damage to ourselves; we didn't continue to smoke because we had a death wish (at least, most of us didn't), we continued to smoke to avoid the pain of withdrawal from our addiction to nicotine. if we’re not willing to endure the pain of change now, we’ll almost certainly have to endure the pain of regret later. and it will affect not only us, but all those people whose lives we touch in one way or another. but pain can also be a good thing: in certain circumstances, it's our body's only way of letting us know that something's wrong; in others, it's a sign that our body is doing its job of healing itself. the severity of the pain can tell us, in the first case, how urgent the problem is, and, in the second, how bad the damage was that's being repaired. pain is also inevitable; nobody goes through life without experiencing pain of some kind. as it relates to our struggle to quit smoking, there are basically two kinds of pain, and we get to choose which one we'd rather endure; the pain of change or the pain of regret. yes, the pain of change (the pain of withdrawal from our addiction to nicotine) is intense; for many of us, it will be the most intense pain we've ever experienced. but it's also temporary; in a few days or weeks, it'll be pretty much over, and as long as we never feed our addiction again, we'll never have to endure the pain of withdrawal again. but if we're not willing to endure the pain of change now, we'll almost certainly have to endure the pain of regret later. and it will affect not only us, but all those people whose lives we touch in one way or another. because in our case, the pain of regret may be encountered when our doctor tells us that we have lung cancer and that we'll have to endure invasive medical procedures such as the removal of part of a lung or worse. in our case, the pain of regret may be encountered while we're undergoing chemotherapy. or it may be encountered when we finally find ourselves on our deathbed. and when we encounter the pain of regret, we'll probably wish that we had gone through the pain of change back when we had the chance to do so voluntarily: "if only i'd quit when i found out about the emphysema...", "if only i'd stuck with that program...", "if only i'd resisted the urge to smoke that one cigarette...", "if only..." these two words may be the saddest words in the entire english language (or in any language, for that matter) - "if only..." and the saddest thing about them is, that by the time we say them, it's almost always already too late. and how are you going to explain to your son or your daughter that mommy or daddy just didn't have the strength to face the pain of change back when it could have made a difference? how are you going to explain to your mother or father that, because you couldn't face the pain of change, they'll now have to face the pain of attending their own child's funeral? how are you going to explain to your family, friends and loved ones who are watching you die a slow, horrifying, painful death why you chose to leave them with such a gruesome set of memories of you to carry with them the rest of their lives? how are you going to explain that? personally, i never want to have to try. that's why i choose the pain of change.

Evelyn vs Bat tonight for the right to be the supreme champion of this game

Wow!!! Congratulations Nancy :)

I found this article on another website and thought it may help someone here. By Terry Martin "I quit smoking seven months ago. I do feel better, and I don't struggle all of the time now, but I still have days when I find myself missing my cigarettes. I sometimes wish I could have just one now and then. At times, the urge to smoke is so intense. I wonder if I'll ever be free of this habit? Will I miss smoking forever?" Think for a moment of your life as a tightly woven piece of fabric. Each thread represents your life events and experiences, and running alongside the many "life" threads are threads of a finer gauge. They are so fine in fact, they're impossible to see with the naked eye. Those threads are your smoking habit, and they've become so thoroughly interwoven in the fabric of your life, you find you can't do anything without thinking about how smoking will fit into it. The associations that we build up over time between the activities in our lives and smoking are closely knit. Once you quit smoking, the job becomes one of unraveling those smoking threads, or associations, one by one. How does that happen? And how long does it take? Recovery from nicotine addiction is a process of gradual release over time. Practice Makes Perfect Every smoke-free day you complete is teaching you how to live your life without cigarettes. Bit by bit, you're reprogramming your responses to the daily events that trigger the urge to smoke. The more practice you get, the less cravings will plague you. Over the course of your first smoke-free year, you'll encounter and have a chance to clear most of the events and situations in your daily life that you associate with smoking. Seasonal Smoking Triggers Some smoking triggers are seasonal in nature and can create strong smoking urges months into your quit program. For instance, if you quit smoking during the winter and you're an avid gardener, you could find yourself craving a smoke break the first time you're out digging in the dirt the following spring. Thoughts of smoking related to the seasons may hit you with an intensity you haven't felt in months. Don't worry. Once you make your way through the trigger smoke-free, it will let go and you can move on. The first year is all about firsts...experiencing the many daily events in your life smoke free for the first time. And it's all about practice. You built your smoking habit through years of practice. Now, build the nonsmoking you the same way. Practice is a necessary part of recovery from nicotine addiction, so try to relax and let time help you. The more of it you put between yourself and that last cigarette you smoked, the stronger you'll become. Work on Your Attitude There's another step in finding permanent freedom from nicotine addiction that is just as important as practice and time. It involves your attitude. I'm sure you've heard about people who still struggle years and years after quitting. They're the ones who say they "still miss smoking" 20 years down the road. That's a frightening thing to hear, but don't let it throw you. The reason they are in that position has to do with the fact that they never did the work to change what cigarettes meant to them. Along with using patience and time to help you reprogram your associations with smoking, you must also alter the way you think about your cigarettes. The path to permanent freedom has to do with changing the relationship you have to smoking, and the way to make that mental shift is through education. As the saying goes... Knowledge is Power... ...and it's the truth when it comes to recovering from nicotine addiction. Educate yourself by reading everything you can find about how tobacco harms us from head to toe. It will open your eyes, but more importantly, it will help you start to change the meaning that cigarettes have for you. Once you do that, the mental chains of this addiction will begin to break down for good. You'll truly be free, and believe me, it's a great place to be. Be patient with yourself and allow for as much time as you need to heal from this addiction. There is no set formula for recovery; we're all unique in how we move through the process. Read about nicotine addiction and do the work to change the way you perceive cigarettes. They are instruments of death. They deserve nothing more than your disdain. Don't look at quitting tobacco as a sacrifice. You're not giving up anything of value. Your quit program is a gift. Change your attitude and you'll find your freedom. Cessation is doable, and your precious life is worth the work it takes to achieve. If You Want to Change Your Life, Change Your Mind.

Well done Evelyn! We kept your seat warm for you :)

http://youtu.be/mgmVOuLgFB0 This has always been a great motivation in some dark days. We believe in you Evelyn :)

Nice Daisy :) Into the semi-finals we have Skillfullabbot with Wales vs Pork and Pancake's with Portugal & Evelyn's France vs Bats Germany. Good luck to you all :)

Happy Birthday to you :)

Well done hell week done ;)

Brilliant, congratulations :)

Right, I stand corrected :) Evelyn you are still in with France. Bat and Skillfulabbot are through to the semi-finals Joe is still in with Iceland :)

Happy birthday Action :)

skillfulabbot, sorry for late answer if you want to take number 9 you have Wales :)

Sorry, been rubbish with this. Joe and Bat are still in it.

I disagree that people who have quit for a long time cannot help you quit. I found having people spurring me on that had, been there and done it all. Really helped. It showed me it was possible. There are lots of ways to quit. NO right way! If you feel cutting down is the way forward for you, then do it. But at one point you have to let go. My advice would be to read and read and read as much as you can. You have to understand that smoking does nothing for you, but lose you valuable seconds off your life. So the quicker you leave this all behind the better. I would implore you to stick around, you may not agree with what has been said to you but they are hear to support you and the more you read and learn about this addiction, you will see that.

Come on and get on the train!!!!

I could list so many times, all as bad as each other. Smoking never seemed to be my life but it certainly was. You need to break though to the other side and then it is so obvious :(