JB 883

There are things worse than having a smoking habit. Oh well, there goes MY desire to have some self-love tonight. Thanks.

I tried that once but I was unable to whip myself while i was tied up. It was an awkward evening i would rather forget. But other than that, I haven't smoked in over a year. Right after "brain generates crave". Although the guy in the photo looks like Bob Marley or some homeless man.

Yeah I have been thinking about quitting myself.

So of course no cigarettes for a month now, that is awesome. But the bathroom, will it be like this - Someone walks in and says, "WOW, this restroom smells so minty fresh!" Someone else goes - "Oh yeah, it always does after Mary drops her morning deuce". And then people walk in going "ooohhhhh" and "aaaahhhh". I know when i use the restroom people think it is a Sunday Service because the fragrance makes people blurt out, "Jesus Christ!" Well umm anyways... I am not a fan of wintergreen lifesavers. people either love them or hate them. Or somewhere in between. You can have my supply.

Yesterday was month 13 of quit. I have had NO tobacco nor nicotine, weed, or whatever. Yeah i am afraid if I smoked a doob, it would trigger something even though I have smoked it maybe 10 times or less in my life. The closest I have been to smoking since I quit is when someone is standing outside a store puffing away their lives. Anyways, so a couple weekends ago my room mate and i were pulling into this restaurant and I got this weird impulse that said, "light up". Well I can't do that without a cig now can I? So just a brief crave that came and went. But then Sunday I was heading to my sister's apartment and then again, that impulse of "light up". A few nights ago I had this dream that I was able to start again but didn't want more than two or three cigarettes a week. Like I was in control of it. Side note about that - I work with this guy that used to chew and says he has dreams about chewing. F*****g nicotine won't leave ANY addict alone in dreams will it? He quit using it a while back but anyways. So I am now thinking, just how much longer will I be dealing with this? The craves are not powerful but I want them gone. How the hell can the brain be so addicted to something so bad?

I am 13 months into the quit and sometimes, like once a week, I just get this weird impulse like "time to smoke". Believe me I have thought about "Well I am doing good, just one won't hurt." But yeah, things can feel "off". The only advice I can offer is keep temptation at bay best you can. The good part of quitting is our health improves, some things immediately and some things over several weeks or months. The shit part though is we end up having to pay some mental dues, in the form of cravings.

I though of a great slogan for quitters - QSMB went up in a puff of smoke. Do not let the same happen to your Quit.

Yeah THAT will make them stop and think, "Gee, i sure do not want to get cancer, I better stop smoking". Then they throw the pack away. For real, I doubt that will scare them.

Here is another one - I remember when you went through your own three month battle. And now, it is almost 10 months, and close to a year.

Are they scoffing at the fact that you quit? Is it one of those rude things like, "Oh yeah, SURE you quit smoking. Huh huh huh"? If so, let me tell you a little secret - When we have an established quit, say a few months, we get to start talking shit We get to be like, "So, I quit MY bad habit, when you gonna quit yours?" If they are scoffing, then LET THEM SCOFF! It will be more motivation to flip nicotine the bird AND when you prove the naysayers wrong, they can no long mess with you. BUT if it is just a matter of noticing what dipwads people really are - That partially passes but beware - people start driving a little worse every time someone quits nicotine.

Phillip Morris is a bunch of bastards. If they said vegetables were healthy, i probably would not believe them. It is not unusual for companies to divert customers away from one of their OWN products only to push a different one. I do not get though - Even if vaping is less harmful, less expensive, less illegal, etc, isn't quitting altogether COMPLETELY free, legal, and healthy? Free, now THAT is a word us Sagittarius like. And us cheap skates.

Pumpkin, no one is mad at you for enjoying those things. It appears you have been studying the typical American diet and decided to try it. Awesome You are doing better than me though - I cannot live without chocolate.

On Oct 6 2017 I quit cold turkey. No gum, no patches, vape, weed, pills, nothing. I had no idea I would still be quit. I remember thinking, "If I make it even a month..." I mean honestly, who really thinks they will be able to stick with it? it is scary to think of life deprived of tobacco. Like "Damn, so I just do not get to smoke anymore?" Plus all the propaganda about how hard it is to quit, how you NEED NRT, etc. Bullshit. You know what kept me from using NRT? I was not able to afford it at the time PLUS I am too much a cheap skate to pay for something I can do for free. I never picked up vape because whenever i saw people do it, it looked stupid. Worse than someone carrying a chew-spit bottle, worse than someone smoking a cigarette. I do not like to look stupid. it does not seem like my daily life is different until i remember things like - My cigarette break at work is now a hot chocolate break. I don't like coffee. One time at work we ran out of hot chocolate. I am not sure how I survived. None of my clothes in the past year were ruined because of cigarette cherries randomly falling apart (happens a lot with roll-your-own's, even in a good machine) My room and house do not smell like a disgusting ash tray. PLUS it is one less fire hazard. I do not feel like I am going to puke half the time. Looking back, cigarettes tasted like crap. It is like one imagines it will be some wonderful sensation but in reality, it was nasty. No more nasty-ass yellowish film all over everything. Soon after i quit, i took some wall pictures down to clean them and the rags went from white to nasty yellow. No more time wasted sitting there cranking out cigarettes with the top-o-matic machine. Had to make sure I had enough. But like also my blood pressure has decreased a little since quitting. Doctors say my lungs sound perfect. I can laugh like hell and not have a coughing fit. MY GYOD that was embarrassing to try to laugh and be like "BLAH HACK CHOKE COUGH HACK HOCK WHOAT GURGLE SPAT..." Or trying to fall asleep but being awoken cause my lungs would rattle. Take a deep breath? For-get it. How the hell did I not die of smoking? I was one of those who thought smoking was a big joke. I used to call it things like "Having lung sex" or "going out for a roast" or "going out to choke on carbon monoxide" or "ensuring an early grave" or "sexing up the air". But I thought, "What if I DO die early from this shit? Who will take my place as the forum troll on web places I visit? Where will my room mate live? Who will keep Goodwill in business? Who will keep Pepsico in business? Who will the general public laugh at? They are all depending on me!" I knew it was time to quit. Now when I see someone smoking, I want to say, "What the heck are you doing? That is nasty!" Honestly, there are still moments I think I would like one but I do not need that pile of crap back in my life. It's just gross.

I remember one of your quits was either the day before or the day after mine. We talked briefly about it, something about having seats right next to each other on the Quit Train. You were one of the first people I remember seeing on here. You, Reci, Bakon, Doreen, couple others. You mentioned in this thread about not feeling so comfortable and gung ho about this quit. I will tell you a little secret - My first few days I thought the same thing, "If I can stay quit, if I make it an entire month..." Things were easy for the first couple months but just about the three month mark, it was hell. I have NO clue why it took so long for the big battle to hit. I was actually kind of surprised when you quit showing up here, supposedly relapsed. We quit about the same time and you were part of my inspiration to stay quit. It had been a few weeks and I thought, "Other people like this lady quit about the same time I did, so if she can do it, so can I." that might sound weird but it was honestly one of the things that helped my early days. Because you helped me (whether you realized it or not) I need to ask - is there anything I can say or do that might give you some help? My personal opinion is that if you made it an entire week, you can do this long haul. Nothing is as bad as the first few days. Well, you got past those so things are going well.

Pretty simple - the hardest part of quitting for me was fighting off craves. I never felt guilt or shame about smoking. I just got tired of the mess involved like the smell and it was just gross. That and i figured If I wanted to avoid health problems... After age 40 isn't the best time in life to play games with your health. I guess what helped me hang on to the quit was focusing on the things I didn't like about smoking. I didn't want to spend the money, didn't want to ruin outfits with the smell, didn't want to clean up cigarette butts and ashes. I do not know your living situation but one thing that might help is avoiding temptation. If you do not live with smokers then that should be easy - just do NOT have any tobacco in the house. Toss the ash trays. Do whatever practical to not remind yourself of smoking. I would say toss the lighters but sometimes those come in handy as they are more of a tool than a smoking thing. But if you must toss them for the time being, if it helps then yeah. Clean up as much evidence of smoking as you can. Like emptying the car ash tray, launder curtains and beddings, maybe all clothes. If you live with a smoker - try to make whatever arrangements necessary. Maybe they go outside to smoke, maybe they hide their cigarettes from you, whatever. For me when I quit, i basically had to get it completely out of my life. It was a cleaning project. My room mate does not smoke so that helped.

Some of us get craves even after an entire year quitting. Maybe for you the "three month craves" came late? But yeah, the best thing to do is avoid temptation. I am not going to lie, I think if someone came over and left a pack of smokes, i would likely give in if I were having a bad moment. So yeah, destroy the cigs is best.

It looks like you are coming up on your three month mark. That might be a time you really need to protect that quit. I do not know about most quitters but my ass about fell apart on the three month date. Now about the parents - One expects the little kids to fight but the parents? What the hell were they even fighting about? Next time just yell, "If you two do not settle down, I am going to pull over and beat both your asses!" Or at the very least, chew them out the same way one would if their kids were fighting. My younger step sister and I thought the car was a boxing ring. Either way, you need to start putting your foot either DOWN or perhaps UP a couple peoples' asses. AND - hell of a good job maintaining the quit. Under easy circumstances, anyone can KTQ but in difficult cases (like dealing with pesky parents) when someone does not relapse, THAT shows strength.

Kind of funny this was posted. Lately I have had this thing about Delta Burke.

Looks like you quit exactly one year after i did. Stick with it. The early days suck. But you get to a point, for me it was after a solid week, and you realize, "i can do this". One year flies by. On Oct 6th 2019, we need to keep nosmokingjo on her toes by both of us having yearly markers.

Thank you everyone. I wish I were somewhere like the photo Reciprocity posted. The weather around here is STILL warm enough to be by the pool. The only disturbing thing about being a year quit is realizing the past year flew by. I mean honestly, except for having nasty craves (only mild ones now) it seems like I quit only last week. Well the good news is I found a place that seems to appreciate some of my "troll" posts better so I can behave around here. But you know, you will soon be one year as well. I mean honestly, making it from 9 months to 12 is easy. It didn't seem like a huge deal really but one thing did happen - my room mate and i went to steak n shake and ate til we nearly busted. Gyod we were hurting. Last time i was in there a couple years ago I was with a friend who smoked and we had to step out every few minutes to "cancer up" again. This time i didn't even think of smokes aside telling my room mate it had been exactly a year. We were comparing pics of what we thought were pretty women, and I have this horrible "guilty pleasure" of liking Delta Burke when she was younger. Yeah, I know. I would be less embarrassed to admitting relapse if i ever did.

I wonder if October is possibly a bigger month than january? Of course everyone makes their resolutions in january but we know how THAT goes. "I am going to pay off bills, lose weight, quit smoking, put more towards savings, drink less, spend more time with family..." And then reality has it's say... But October - maybe it is getting chilly so people do not feel like going outside to puff away. Who knows. Now these sexy ladies - I can name them left to right - Reci, Bakon, Mrtitwank, and Sslip. They may not have cigarettes but they ARE smoking for sure!

My body weight has held pretty steady most of my adult life, unless I make a serious effort to drop some. But yeah, before, during, and after my smoking years, my weight was never affected. Last year when i dropped the habit, i was expecting to become a fatso or at least end up gaining 20 pounds but that never happened. It was weird too because a few weeks after quitting, I was obsessed with food. That didn't really last though. So was the whole, "you will gain weight" just another lie told by the medical field so they could sell products to help you quit? Kind of like how they say it is harder to quit nicotine than it is crack, heroin, meth, qualudes, sniffing glue, and alcohol combined. WTF ever. I ain't trying to boast but after a year without smoking, I think MOST of whatever noticeable changes happen have already came. But yeah, neither getting fat nor freaking out like a crack addict ever happened. normal?

Oh yeah, a lot happens during recovery. things like... night coughing stops. smell and taste come back Just wait until your blood pressure lowers. That does not happen overnight but after several months of not smoking, it levels out back to normal. Mine is kind of high for whatever reason but yeah, benefits of quitting are scattered across the calendar and several.

People do have a habit of necromancing threads that have been inactive for several years but to send them to you as messages is weird.

There might be more nicotine in a hit of vape than a puff of tobacco. Either way, yeah I do not miss "needing" a smoke. It's weird though cause the only times I have nicotine craves (even if real brief) is at night at home when I COULD feed such a habit.