notsmokinjo

But the Balkan war.... Kosovo, Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia the former Yugoslavia, The Siege of Sarajevo???.... it was all very sad?

So see that ^^ that is a huge motivator... decades ago a friend of mine who was quitting had t-shirts made for his little kids to wear when he had access visits that said "My dad doesn't smoke cos he loves me" because when he first quit. He said just seeing them in their little shirts while he pushed them on swings or what not made him not want to even smoke while he was with them. He kept a photo of them in their shirts in his wallet for those times they weren't together. (see that long ago no mobiles to have pics on). As a motivator what is better than you kids. Hey Toc...so.... 1. Thanks for sharing, its hard to do and awesome proud that you shared because maybe not today or tomorrow but sometime soon someone is going to read this and it is going to help their quit... and it will help you with your re-start too, because you can come in here and read this at any time. Basically what I'm saying is be kind to yourself because you can do this, you know that, you slipped, you stumbled in your quit dust it off, it can't be undone, what can be done is you can leave that quit in your wake, brush yourself off and make this the sticky, forever quit because lessons were learnt. 2. Your not alone, there are many of us who have failed quits under our belt. What is fantastic is that you haven't wasted years (over a decade for me) to get back on the horse and try again. The lessons from your last quit are still fresh and clear, the good lessons and the bad. 3. Your a list man, who doesn't love a list.... so time to write some lists my friends... reasons to quit, ..... what worked last time and how awesome you felt every time an anniversary rolled around, or you beat back a crave, or you hung with your boy and he had all your time and attention and none of your anxiety. How great was that? .... Last list, what lead to you smoking and how it could be avoided or what you could have done to prevent yourself caving to the pressure (and with the family gathering I get the pressure) and on that list... how you really felt when you did cave. 4. NOPE, every day.... take it one day at a time. 5. Remember we have your back. There is always at least one person here who has been where you are now, and knows how you are feeling... don't be scared to shout out and say this is hard I need a hand... don't be worried about pming someone and saying hey this is happening I know you went through this got any suggestions cos I don't want to put this out there just yet. You wont be the only one who sets up a pm buddy system. 6. Remember, regardless of the chaos of life and whatever crazy is happening around you the one thing you have 100% control over is if you pop a smoke in your mouth, light it and drag. ONLY YOU control that and it is an awesome power. So onwards and upwards my friend, lets get this thing happening again and free you from the nicobitch.

Did you not "the NEWS" during the early and mid 1990's? I promise I didn't even barrack for them.

Who said Aussies aren't articulate....

One can but live in hope can't they?

Here's one for the Commonwealth countries... its about 10 years old... from the last time Liz popped down here for a visit... well Wills and Kate were married and hadn't had any kids yet... so whenever that was..

Confession: At least every third day I have to google at least one of the exercise terms @Boo uses and then I usually have to you tube it and then I go "Yeah--NAH, not this little duck".

Sausage & Cabbage Stir Fry

Mash Potato Chips

Needed repeating, well said Reci.

Welcome Zeezazz... I'd be inclined to tell hubby and let him know you have this whole group of crazies that you can come and unload the emotional stuff too so he has back up. We are happy for you to vent here because we have all done it. Make a list of the lessons you have learnt from previous quits and keep it close to help you if it gets hard. Everyone else has already commented on all the key things or you have yourself but let me just say the 11th of any month is a really successful day to quit (just check today's congratulations thread) and July is a really successful month with lots of members having their 2nd, 4th, 5th and 6th year anniversaries this month. So you've picked a great time to quit.

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baby octopi

Frog in a pond (reci better have these at my lido deck party too)

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Firing line

Italian leather jacket

Oh Sneaky... forgot to say... get up early so that you can be outside in the early morning sunlight... it is the best source of Vitamin D... and its free and natural.

Nah I reckon I'd have Kylie at the head of the parade... do you think she'd still be up for it?

I counted fifteen minute increments for the first week, and a bit. I was lucky I had a job where I could choose to do pointless repetitive tasks that didn't need me to think. I made graphs of my emotions and the number of craves and how many times I thought about smoking... I was slightly insane, then I have insomnia anyway so that was worse and I had endless hours all night to do my graphs and charts. But it gets easier, you know this, deep breath... and set small work goals and just push through until the task is done... then reward yourself with a quick five minutes reading... then on to the next task... when its finished, reward yourself with a little bit of reading. It works. You are doing so well, keep it up.

tom bowler marble

Well of course she is why wouldn't she be?

So, a few weeks ago I had my 7 month WooHoo celebration (thanks again everyone) and I was feeling all comfy, cosy in my quit. Thought the work was done and I was just biding my time and it was all smooth sailing until that Lido Deck party, even put in some catering requests to Reci for the celebratory event. You see I was going days, nearly weeks without really thinking about smoking let alone wanting one. So I was completely complacent. Then Saturday night... ALL FRICKIN NIGHT.... that voice was back... not the skin crawling, itching, aching I need a smoke... but the we can have a smoke now, just one, it wont hurt. Everything I did... oh good smoke time... it didn't take much to stave off the urge... and they are urges... because I knew them for what they were. Then Sunday... which was a good day for me... was more of the same... random, multiple times throughout the day I got these urges ... some strong some not so... then I was clearing some space in the shed and found a pack of smokes... and I shook it, cos you never know there might have been one in there (wot the ever lovin??) ... and I think if there had of been, I would have, maybe smoked it because... "a few puffs wont hurt now" ... wot the fvck! ... well I probably wouldn't have straight away because I have a promise in place as a contingency but it would have been a close call.... so you all know there are some issues in my life, but this isn't linked to that if it was linked to that the thought process would have been more like "wots the point now you may as well", that thought is not entering my mind at all. This is different. I'm not sure if its the nicobitch having one last big hurrah roll of the dice to get me to feed her again or if its a comeuppance for being so c0cky and thinking I had it under control, for being complacent. So besides that moment in the shed I've been shrugging the urges off... ignoring them.... letting life just keep going with these little blips of subconscious stupidity ... but they are not stopping and quite frankly they are driving me insane. I thought I was past this. Don't get me wrong.. they are annoying, they are not soul consuming like they were in the beginning or even at 5 months but they are pretty regular at the moment. They are driving my mental when they hit. They are stupid. I want it to stop. But each time I shrug one off another will come. Its not like I'm going to smoke because I am not, beside that moment in the shed its not even close to being a consideration. There will be an SOS if it gets to it, this is not that time. I just need to confess and put this out there, hopefully someone further along than me will post and say... Oh yeah, I had that... you just need to ride it out and she'll be right... or by me posting this someone else will see it and think, thank god I'm not the only lunatic in the asylum... but basically its all well and good to show you all the strong, stable quit persona that most of the time I am but it is not OK to act like I'm not still battling with this addiction because that doesn't help anyone, especially me ... so in the interest of honesty and transparency I'm still battling this addiction, because I am a junky, I am an addict, I always will be an addict I am just never going to be a user again. I still make a coffee and drink it and then get, "ok time for a smoke" thoughts... I still walk past the back door and get the "oh lets go out for a smoke" thoughts. Its still happening, and for some reason while not as insistent more often than the past few months. So for most of the day I am super confident in my quit but there are still glitches in the programming where the urge for a smoke will slide on through. It will stop soon... wont it?

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