Boo

In the early days, Willie was content to be a songwriter. He was bashful and shy, always nervous about being in front of a crowd. In fact he was so shy, he almost didn't meet with Patsy Cline to introduce the song "Crazy" to her. I think it's safe to say Willie came out of his shell a bit over time.

I voted for Thin Lizzy. It was the first version of the song I ever heard and you can never go wrong reminding people what a great band Thin Lizzy was. One was a supergroup consisting of outlaw country legends. The other was a folk band formed in Connecticut. Fun game...can you guess which is which?

Just a few more...

Rammer Jammer, Yellow Hammer! Shout out to the Magnolia State... And down Louisiana way...

Time to head down to the Peach State...

We still doing the state song thing? A bit more home cooking...

And one more for the road...

Johnny Cash gets his own page of Tennessee songs...

Home is where the heart is...

The fact that you are addressing the issue and looking for answers is a great start. Anger has its time and place, but carrying too much of it around is bad news. I sincerely hope you find what you're looking for...good luck. I had never heard of the 7-4-7 method before. So I guess there are people who do seven rep sets...bunch of freakin' weirdos.

Happy Fourth to my fellow Americans. And to our British friends...Well, it's complicated. We just felt like some time apart might be good for us. But we're cool now so no hard feelings.

Have you tried working out? Works like a charm for me. It gives me a productive way to channel any anger and irritability I have and leaves me feeling relaxed and focused. The whole "think happy thoughts" thing never really worked for me; getting under the bar and moving some weight always does the trick though. Speaking of working out and being weird about numbers...I saw an article the other night where a guy suggested doing 4 sets of 7 reps. Seems straightforward enough except for...who the hell does seven reps? You can do a single. You can do a double. Three reps is a common number for power training. Five reps has become a standard for overall strength. Eight or ten rep sets are common if hypertrophy and/or muscular endurance is your goal. But nobody does 7 reps! Confession: I know that last paragraph I wrote serves no purpose whatsoever, but sometimes I get this shit in my head and just can't let go of it.

I was the same way and unpacking that thought process was a vital step in dismantling the misguided beliefs in the power of the cigarette that I was holding onto. I "needed" that first cigarette of the morning to get me going, but I "needed" that last cigarette at night to calm me down. The cigarette that I smoked in the morning was identical to the last one I smoked before bed. Yet I convinced myself that the one woke me up while the other helped me sleep. Upon further review, I started to think to myself that this whole smoking thing didn't quite add up.

I stopped making excuses and addressed a major issue head-on. I stopped telling myself that I couldn't do it and put my head down and did it. I made a commitment to myself and followed through. I stayed focused on the big picture and wouldn't allow temporary feelings or events put me off course. I built positive momentum for myself, success begets success, and used that momentum to make improvements in other areas of my life. The basic tenets of a successful quit can be laid out as a blueprint for success in most any endeavor.

It wasn't the Quit Train and it wasn't my computer. Turns out it was a change in the settings on my search engine that caused my spellcheck to go away. Confession: I am spellcheck dependent. It's the "E's", "A's", and "I's" that give me the most trouble. I suffer from irritable vowel syndrome. Confession: I can't resist the urge to make really bad, punny jokes.

Eight is great. Good job Wantsit.

That brought back a memory from the very early days of my quit. Had a moment where I thought about stepping outside and taking a little pause for the cause. Got a bit frantic as I thought about how much I was going to miss that. Then I calmed down a bit and reminded myself that smoking is not a prerequisite for stepping outside for a moment. Oh yeah, people who don't smoke go outside too. I don't miss being a newbie, but it was a time when basic truths could feel like a revolutionary breakthrough.

Might as well confess this: I misspell a lot of words. Some words I misspell consistently (or is it consistantly?). The reason for this confession is that my spellcheck function is not working. I don't know if it's a change here at QuitTrain or if the settings on my computer changed. I just know that there are no red squiggly lines under words that I typed wrong anymore. There will be mistakes along the way, but I will make every effort to spell rite and talk gud.

Spot on Ankush. Enjoy your newfound freedom.

My fear was that not having that first smoke of the morning was going to be an awful way to start the day and that it would be all downhill from there. Most every other misguided fear mentioned in this thread also applied to me. I really let myself get snared in the addiction.

I'm a former smoker who successfully quit. I've also been a member of this forum for over three years now. As Yogi Berra said: "You can observe a lot by just watching." In my time here, I've developed a thesis...feels like I just might have cracked the code. What if I told you there was one secret that every successful quitter used to set themselves free from cigarettes... Ready for it? This is groundbreaking stuff right here...Every quitter who has enjoyed a successful quit committed to stop putting cigarettes in their mouth and setting them on fire. Some made a plan; some quit on an impulse. Some went cold turkey while others used NRT and still others used Chantix/Champix. Some read and did research; others relied on intuition. The one unifying common thread in every successful quit comes back to the decision that was made to not put a cigarette in your mouth and light it on fire. Everything else is supplementary to the one big decision(the aforementioned rule of not putting a cigarette in your mouth and lighting it on fire). Quitting smoking is not judged like an Olympic diving meet, you don't get bonus points for making things more difficult. Don't lose sight of the big picture and keep it simple.

The old man is turning into a real ironhead now. He did three strength training sessions last week. His trainer sent me a text earlier. Dad was at the gym bright and early this morning. He did Deadlifts and Incline Presses. The real highlight came when I found out that his trainer has introduced loaded carries to his workouts. Meaning the old man is now doing Farmer's Walks. Have I mentioned before that I think the Farmer's Walk is a great exercise?

Prepare the lido deck. Linda is coming in hot. Great job Linda. You have really nailed this whole quitting thing.

Great job Abby.