JB 883

This is weird, I logged into my health insurance web page to pay the bill and it has me listed as non-tobacco user. So yeah whatever test they need is good.

Some always gets their panties in a bunch when I talk about how quitting was not that hard. Only hard part was the three month mark. Why do some get upset when I mention that quitting was not super hard for me? Is it because i didn't smoke away 40 or 50 years of my life before deciding, "this could kill me"? And Jillar, the reason I am here - I started off on QSMB just to pass time and whatever. I saw how that crowd was when you all decided to gang up on FrazzledApril over her using vape to quit tobacco. So she gets banned And everyone cheers about it. Well, I happened to get along fine with her. She was here for a bit but stopped logging in, probably busy in real life. But yeah through another member there she contacted me and mentioned QT. The Qt crowd seemed different in a good way. So, here I am. This isn't QSMB Nor are the regulars here anywhere near as cliquish like that other place was. If you do not like what i have to say, there is a mute/ignore/whatever somewhere. I am not sure where, I looked for it so I could explain how it works. Forums are fun to chat and whatever but i think if my own KTQ had been contingent on some silly QSMB clique accepting me, I would have failed just days in.

The premiums do not increase for 12 months (from what date?) but yeah if they are gonna give me $40 then why not go through some quit program unless that program is boring or whatever. And no, I am not planning on relapse.

Oh my god. With everything else you have been through lately. You did everything you could to try to get her to quit. Each of us though is an adult and we must each make our own choices. Even though it is not quite like having a real life good friend there but you know we are here for you.

So today is day eight without a smoke or tobacco. You are doing good. You KNOW you can live without tobacco. No point in lighting up anymore. Assuming $5 USD a pack and a pack a day smoker, you have already saved $40.

Martian - Well shoot, I hope it wasn't discouraging. In my case, i was rummaging some old magazines for ads and of course every other page in the mags was about tobacco. I guess it just triggered a crave. But if YOU are starting to struggle, power through it. It may even take a couple days but after that, the final big battle is OVER. The shoes, yes. By a company called "Born". One model is BOC (Born Concept). They were listed as "pre-owned" but they were brand spankin new when i received them. $60 sandals for $20. AND, very comfortable for a heel. I am sure Bakon would understand the value of comfy heels.

No, I did not relapse. However, i got a letter from my insurance saying their records showed i am a tobacco user. Well, I can honest to Bejesus say i have not had a hit since Oct 6th. But here is the scam - It said i can earn up to $40 on a prepaid gift card from Wal-Fart if i sign up and complete that QUIT-NOW BS. So completing such a program would be a snap for someone who has already quit months or years ago. There are a few problems though - 1) Does it have any hidden cost to sign up and go through the course? 2) Do they test for nicotine before and after? Even my "before" would show NO nicotine, so... 3) How would they know whether or not some Quitter was claiming to be a smoker just to "quit" and get a coveted $40 Wal-Fart gift card? I do not really give a shit about honesty if they do not test. I know I already quit a while back, they don't need to know If the course is some long boring BS that is not worth $40 to do because it is a hassle, how do insurance companies go about gathering proof someone doesn't (or no longer) smoke? other - they said I have 12 months to quit. Who the hell takes a year to quit smoking? My own program took me about five days. Plus I am getting tired of all these things that talk about how "You have a high chance of relapse". Oh bull crap. If anyone would need assistance quitting it would have been me. I thought smoking was a big joke. I enjoyed doing it. It was only costing me about $1.25 a pack. YET, I quit ON MY OWN. Not cause of some doctor, program, message board, quit buddy, or even major health problem. Some of us do not need to thank anything nor anyone other than ourselves for quitting, yet these companies act like it cannot be done. Fcuk them. I didn't pay a red cent for any kind of quit program. So anyways that aside, how should I handle the fact that my insurance thinks I still smoke?

This might sound weird but I think it is cause some of us never really thought of ourselves as "smokers". Like we were somehow different or special. But yeah, early in my quit I ended up in the hospital over a skin infection on my leg. When asked if i smoked, i said "ex smoker". At the VERY least, we don;t have to listen to that tired-ass lecture about how we need to quit.

Thank you. Last night though I got like this weird crave where i could almost taste that first cigarette out of a new pack. My second thought was, "It will pass here in a moment". Now folks, i try not to encourage other bad habits, however, sometimes when i "treat" myself to something like another pair of shoes I cannot live without, my thought process is often "I have saved more than that by not smoking so screw it". Often I still would like to smoke but figure, no need to ruin a solid quit.

So far as something to help people quit smoking - it probably does help but then one just has a different problem. So if vaping is the new smoking... The fact that fewer people than ever smoke cigarettes is meaningless if they are just taking up some other bad habit. "Smoking kills! Use vape instead, it is safer". This is called a "lateral move" and not a "step forward". Of course the vape smokers do NOT want to hear about how unhealthy their habit is. Research has shown vape to be less harmful, just like medical reports used to show how safe certain cigarettes were. The first time i ever heard of vaping was about five years ago. People indoors acting all proud of their "electronic cigarettes". My first thought was, "What kind of douchebag BS smoking is this?" They would say "it is just water vapor". I thought, "Why not just carry around a spritz bottle and inhale the mist?" So the entire decades-long cycle of trying to get people to quit vaping has started. Kind of like how tobacco was at one time. Once they have enough years of research to show that vaping IS harmful, you have to wonder what sort of nicotine delivery system will be en vogue then. But since some insist vaping is not harmful - Maybe they should withhold the warnings about any danger of vape (and smoking for that matter) and let the problem take care of itself.

MrTitwank, you are going to go blind if you don't slow it down.

Is that a 67 Cougar down there?

If you have ever given a cat a bath, you know that cats, let us say, do not always agree that it is a good idea. Even dogs do not always enjoy bathing. They tough it out though. Or if it's like my own ass sniffer, he then goes outside to roll around in his favorite spot to piss. RIGHT AFTER I bathe and dry his stupid ass.

Why would kids lick the school bus windows? Do they have any clue how many boogers have been wiped on them?

The problem is though that they blame EVERY problem in the world on smoking. Yeah it is bad but they are getting pretty silly about things. Do they really think people who are not ready to quit are going to say, "Well golly, I didn't know it was effecting (whatever), I better quit smoking now." Even though i have quit, I think a lot of the anti-smoking propaganda is BS.

How horrid a "groaner" would it be to tell someone - "Many people have thoughts of self-harm. Don't beat yourself up over it"

I only have maybe a couple cigarettes a day so I imagine my lungs are just fine. Here I am on a light day

I didn't use anything special but will say this - my pepsi intake went up considerably. Gotta have some kind of bad habit.

If you do get strong craves at three months - Yeah, that is one of those times when some quitters get these craves out of nowhere. Like christ what is going on? Power through it. I think that three month mark battle may be the last bad one. I been quit about 6 months and yeah the three month mark was a bitch. However, you may not have to face it. I imagine plenty of quitters elude that battle somehow.

So they are pricing tobacco out of affordability. Their excuse for wanting people to quit - they say it raises health costs for everyone, not just smokers. Does that mean once everyone quits smoking (due to cost) that health care costs will decrease for patients?

.......

I sure hope your dad isn't a smoker and if so, hopefully you are on him to quit.

What makes salt "kosher" is if some Jew urinated on it. If someone said of the Marlboro men's death - "His ashes were spread all over the country side" does that mean his body ashes or the cigarette ones?

Oh gyod, the sight of children headed off to that institutional learning facility where they will be indoctrinated with BS like the rest of us went through..

What are the screen names of each of these people? I have not been on the forum long enough to know. AND, what degrading nick name might i end up getting eventually?