Kate18

Ignore the slip. Get back to it. I was a serial quitter, seriously. I took me more than two years of attempts. I'd last for a month, a week, a day, two hours. And I'd slip. I wrote out my reasons, I copy/pasted gross pictures of the consequences of smoking--cancers of the mouth, gangrenous toes, etc. For a while, nothing worked. But I didn't quit on myself. I kept looking for a strong reason, an incontrovertible reason to quit. Mine was Covid. A smoker who gets Covid is asking for double trouble. Find your reason, and there won't be any more slips.

Hey @Sunshine59. Good for you for tackling addiction and striving for a life free of the awful expense and health issues. Regarding "workouts" that you mentioned: This may, at first thought, seem off the topic, but it really isn't. I heard that Queen Elizabeth II (current queen, of course) is very fit for a woman of 95 years. She doesn't work out and I wondered how that could be. I began watching videos on the science behind being fit and losing weight. Patching some of them together, a person can be reasonably fit (as is the gracious Queen) by getting out and walking briskly for 30 minutes a day, three times a week! Of course you can do more, but really, 30 minutes a day three times a week is pretty doable. And then there is the will to do it. Ah, well, it does take some inner motivation, I know. The other advantage of those three days a week is that it helps with staying smart, being able to learn better. Best of luck. You can do this. I think everyone can do this when they find their reason, develop a desire to truly be their best person. For me, it was Covid. Before it hit the USA, I remembered a presentation I attended where an epidemiologist presented a slide of how a pandemic would start and spread. When Covid was still in China, but spreading, I knew it was heading to the USA. I also knew that I'd likely succumb to fulminate lung failure as a smoker, if I got Covid. so I quit. A week later, Covid showed up about 15 miles north of me, in Kirkland, Washington. Finding your reason--that's the key.

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NOPE @CbDave, your photos bring back fond memories of my brief months in Australia, and a longing to go back. These photos are so beautiful.

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There are no words for how beautiful this photo is. Thank you for taking the time to share it.

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NOPE Every NOPE in the pledge counts. I look forward each day to seeing @cbDave's photos and the people who are once again, making the pledge.

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It was amazing, the first time I realized I'd gone a couple of days without thinking of a cigarette. I was also regularly forgetting to come online and pledge NOPE in Quittrain because I wasn't thinking of smoking. I finally added it to my morning checklist of things to do while I'm having morning coffee. Passing someone outside who is smoking no longer gives me a wistful feeling. When I see someone standing alone, on the side of a commercial building or at an uncovered bus stop, huddling under an umbrella in the drizzling rain in Seattle, I feel a moment of amusement mixed with compassion--I used to be that person. Halleluiah, not any more!

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I don't know about other successful quitters, but the passing of time has made it easier and easier to deal with a desire for a cigarette. The feeling of wanting one is less frequent, it's milder and fleeting. It's a reinforcement that I see ticker racking up the days I've not smoked, the thousands of cigarettes not smoked, and money saved. Ah, just remembered, there is also the amount of time I've not wasted smoking. If I count each cigarette as a use of 15 minutes (to get to a smoking place, smoking, and returning to where ever I needed to get back to), I've saved 3,217 hours.

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