Boo

Welcome aboard Sneaky Turtle. Personally, I think any elaborate planning for a quit is a tricky proposition. Things I planned for, those moments I just knew would be tough for me, turned out to be of little to no consequence. Meanwhile, the craves that really hit came out of the blue, totally unforeseen. If you really commit to never smoke again and are unwavering in that decision, everything else with the quit sorts itself out. As for a mantra...NOPE is track 1 on the greatest hits album around here. When I felt a crave coming on and my mindset wasn't quite right, I went with FIDO. The family friendly version of that being: forget it, drive on. You've made a great choice. You're doing the right thing. You've made a valuable commitment to yourself. Proceed.

More like this... And for the sake of transparency, during this time I had a peach-fuzz moustache and owned a pair of acid washed jeans.

With the way Milwaukee lit up the Braves pitching staff today, Bernie Brewer could use the break. He probably has road rash on his ass from that slide of his.

The Milwaukee Brewers are legit. When you look at them on paper, nothing really jumps out at you. They're just a solid ball club. Good pitching. Timely hitting. Rock-solid bullpen. And the owners of the best record in the National League. If the Braves pitching crew doesn't see Jesus Aguilar and Eric Thames again for a while...I'm cool with that.

Sal, Justin, and Adam on the Mind Pump podcast were just talking about this the other day. I don't know that school yearbooks are obsolete, but they are being phased out. Makes sense when you think about it. With the proliferation of cell phones and social networks, these kids have no shortage of opportunities to look at pictures of their friends. Buying a book filled with picture pages at the end of the school year seems a bit of a waste to this generation. As for the styles of the day, big hair was still in style when I was in school. Some of the girls had their hair stacked so high, the photos couldn't contain it all. The haze of Aqua Net in the air in A-Hall between classes was like a dense fog.

I am thankful we didn't have high-speed internet connections when I was a teenager. With that much porn available, I probably would have been much more of an indoor kid.

Damn kids! With their Instagrams...back in my day...

Man! The rhythm section was on point for this one...

One of my guilty pleasures in life is watching an internet argument take on a life of its own and get way out of hand. On the old BoaterTalk forum, the canoe guys and kayak guys used to debate relentlessly. It was all for shits and giggles back in the day. I mean seriously...who cares? More recently, someone revived the debate between canoes and kayaks (the correct answer is canoe if you're keeping score at home) and the debate turned into a full-scale internet clusterf**k. I'd like to say I didn't watch from afar and have a laugh at the insanity of it all, but like I said...it's a guilty pleasure of mine. At least paddlers don't argue as much as the climbers do. Trad climbers hate sport climbers. Sport climbers hate top-rope climbers. And everybody hates the boulderers.

Same here. It wasn't anything to do with The Quit Train, but due to my opinion of social media...I was skeptical even when I joined. Two years later and I'm still here. The Train is different from other social networking sites. There is a common mission and unifying bond shared by members here. This site is helping people dramatically improve the quality of their lives. The fact that we can have a laugh along the way is a big bonus as well. Viva Quit Train!

Nancy, you built a rock-solid quit for yourself and along the way you've shown many of us that followed your lead the path to freedom. Congratulations and thank you for all that you have done and continue to do here on the Train. Five cheers for Nancy!

Did 20 minutes steady-state on the rower and 20 minutes of mobility work this morning. I had some downtime at work this afternoon and put the final touches on the program I'll be starting on Monday morning. Three days a-week of strength training with the other days being focused solely on "active recovery" like steady-state cardio, mobility work, and outdoor recreation. My strength work will be on an A,B,A schedule and I'll be doing ladder reps at 80-85% 1RM for every move except Farmer's Walks and Atlas Swings. Workout A will consist of: Deadlifts(1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,3), High Boy Rows(2,3,5,2,3,5), and Farmer's Walk(time). Workout B will consist of: Front Squats(2,3,5,2,3,5), Incline Bench Press(2,3,5,2,3,5), and Atlas Swings(3x30). I'll stop now as I realize most of you who are still reading this are bored to tears by what I just wrote.

Six months of freedom is a great accomplishment. Great job Martian.

Nine months is great Jetblack. Congratulations.

Great job Weegie. Congratulations.

"The safer alternative." So, we can state with some degree of certainty that vaping is most likely safer than the deadliest commercial product in the history of mankind. I don't think the threshold can be lowered anymore than that.

I'm still winging it a bit, but putting together a program. This morning did some strength work: Clean and Jerks, One-Legged Deadlifts with kettlebells, and a superset consisting of Pull-Ups and Rollouts. Finished up with 5 rounds on the heavy bag and some mobility work.

The only thing I will add to the vaping discussion is this one question: do you trust big tobacco? Big tobacco is seeing the numbers of cigarette smokers in developed countries bottoming out. They've responded by diversifying their offerings. Big tobacco is in the process of acquiring any smaller companies that produced vape pens and e-cigs. The "safer alternative" is being brought to you by the same merchants of death that brought you the cigarette. One didn't need a crystal ball or clairvoyance to see it coming...bogus "scientific" research, claims that could never possibly be verified, deceptive business practices, etc., etc...all part and parcel in the emerging vape industry. New day, same old bullshit.

Welcome aboard Justine. You should be very excited, quitting smoking is one of the best decisions you can make for yourself. Good call.

Never settle for a second-rate fireworks stand. I feel like a public service announcement is in order here...

The Braves rally attempt kept the game interesting...just not enough tonight. Julio Teheran takes the mound tomorrow afternoon for los Bravos. If good Julio shows up, Atlanta has a legitimate shot at taking the series. If bad Julio shows up, it's off to Milwaukee to try to regroup.

No way I'm smoking on the Fourth of July... NOPE!

This clip makes me laugh every time...

Bodyweight circuit this morning: Pistol Squats, Pull-Ups, Olympic Ring Push-Ups, Hanging Leg Raises, and Olympic Ring Fallouts. Repeated the circuit five-times and finished up with 15-minutes of steady-state work on the rower. Taking tomorrow off (Happy Fourth!) but will get back after it on Thursday.