intoxicated yoda

nice job @Gus hope you are still celebrating the milestones.

very interesting that you would notice that. maybe you should try comparing that to how you smoked. the way you held the cigarette, the inhale, the exhale, the relaxation after the exhale ended. then do everything just without the cigarette in your hand. you might come to see that your subconscious is giving you the insight that you never needed the cigarettes. you just needed to learn to relax by taking a few breaths in that manner. also i could just be full of shit. hhahah. seriously, i never paid attention to how anybody else smoked, but I did come to the realization that I could get most of the relaxation of a cigarette by going through the motions without the cigarette. Some here called it JACs. Jillars Air Cigarettes.

Look at it this way, bud...you were 63 and 0 in terms of winning days not smoking. Now you are 63 and 1. Still a great winning record. The great ones always train harder, focus harder and come back to win again. Focus on getting to 100 and 1....then 200 and 1. By the time you get to 365 and 1 that 1 loss won't mean anything. Just because you slip doesn't mean you have to fall. good luck.

If you believe it's going to lead you to a relapse then don't play with the smokers. I did play alone most of the time and the smokers were always some rando's i'd get paired with, but let me tell you...it was always a source of self pride to have a great day on the course (regardless of how i played). Reinforcing that knowledge that life and enjoyment doesn't end when you quit smoking was a great motivator for me. Always remember, you don't need the cigs. It's the cig CEO's that need you. Don't let them use you. Good luck.

Golf was a huge part of my quit. That first round was tough, ngl. But I got through it and realized the cigs didn't make it any more or less enjoyable. After about my 3rd round without cigs I would look forward to playing and even enjoy the smell of someone else's freshly lit cigarette. In fact, golfing was about the only time I could get any relief from the constant craving attacks I would get so I played a lot. So focus on the golf and enjoy that and I think you'll find that you don't need the cigs to have fun. good luck

way to go @DenaliBlues congrats on 4 years quit. hope you get to treat yourself today.

congrats reci...it's been fun being on the train with you.

why did i start? probably because i thought it would make me somebody i wanted to be. it didn't...but i didn't figure it out before I was addicted. but isn't that the way marketing for cigs works? make you think that everyone else will think you are one of the cool kids? but we all know who we really are deep down. the genius of the marketing isn't to fool us into thinking we will be someone else, it's to fool us into believing we will fool everyone else into thinking we are some different, but to everyone else we are still the same ol' idiots we always were with the addition of looking more stupid with a cigarette hanging out of our mouths. then after you mature enough you realize that there are no such thing as the cool kids, we are all weirdos of our own brand but isn't that what being 'cool' is all about? yep...we all got faked out but when you can appreciate the genius of the lie you can heal your own ego and walk away from it. no shame in getting fooled, only shame is in staying the fool. congrats all you quitters and happy new year.

talking to yourself generally are the most intelligent conversations you can have. Congrats on making it this far tho. It takes real guts and determination to get past the first week. After that you just have to be a stubborn s.o.b. to get past the next six months. After that you get used to being away from the habit and life starts to return to normal. I know it doesn't sound glamorous because it ain't. it's a slog but you'll be much better off having done it. stay the course.

congrats nsj on 8 years quit. always liked that handle. keep your left up. heheheh

@tocevoD you need to ask yourself if you want to be tied to a crutch. if you were getting over a broken leg you would want to get off the crutch and strengthen the leg so you could walk unaided and pain free, right? that would be the goal. So why would you want to keep the crutch while getting over the addiction of smoking? To get over the broken leg and to strengthen it you must endure some pain. This is no different. You can't cheat the process by replacing one vice for another and expect to beat the addiction. It's not easy but it is simple. Don't over complicate it. Otherwise you will just end up bouncing back and forth between NRT's and cigarettes. Other people can give you encouragement but only you can quit. Hope this gives you something to think about.

Thanks for all you do to keep this site going @MarylandQuitter and congrats on 12 years quit.

congrats @Doreensfree not sure how I missed this but in my random adventures here but better late than never I guess. Sending you lots of good vibes on a stellar quitaversary. Thanks for all your help during my quit.

congrats @Cbdave 10 years is a fantastic start to never again. Much respect to you.

Thanks QG! I'm not sure about the inspiration part but hey, if me quitting doing dumb shit inspires others to quit doing dumb shit too then I guess it's a win for everybody, right? May all of you be blessed and stay away from the cigs.

Words cannot describe the sadness I feel seeing this news. Her value here was immeasurable to me and I'm sure many others. May her journey on the other side be blessed.

@susie14quitting is a hard row to hoe, no doubt, but you can do it. before you beat yourself up to bad for a few failed attempts remember that scientists spent decades hybridizing tobacco plants to make them more addictive. They spent decades tweaking their formulas for chemical additives to make them more addictive. The advertising is done to make them psychologically more addictive. I myself spent a decade or more trying to convince myself to quit before I actually did. Don't be me and wait that long because it won't get any easier. The least amount of pain you will endure is to quit now. The longer you wait the harder it gets.

hey MLMR...i really don't know if anything i'm about to write here will be relevant to your situation or not but take it for what it's worth. not long ago I had some issues that vexed me greatly. i was at the point i was about to say screw it and go get a carton of smokes and try to make up for lost time. my world was crashing down around me and i was powerless to stop it. doing nothing was torture but doing anything only made things exponentially worse. no where to run and no where to hide. so in desperation i decided to try gratitude and prayer. at the time i couldn't think of much to be grateful for because all i could see was the disaster in front of me so i decided i would be grateful for that. sounds stupid i know, to be grateful for the circumstances that i'm hoping the gratitude will abate but i never claimed to be an intellect. Then I branched out and started being grateful for my next breath, the sunshine, the rain, the water i was drinking. then i called out to my Creator and thanked it for watching out for me and those i cherish. I wasn't perfect. I had days I wouldn't think about gratitude and sometimes i'd even shake a fist at that Creator. But as the days and weeks went on I came into some wisdom and that's what changed the game and here it is. Your thoughts are not yours. none of them. we think they are cause it seems like we can control them but we can't. once you understand that concept any guilt you have crushing you should start to fade. now, we do have freewill in that we can give power to those thoughts through our attention and our actions or we can ignore them. this is what connects or disconnects those thoughts to our emotions. If you've been giving power to the wrong thoughts the disconnection process will be unpleasant. That process is simple but not easy. you must not act on the thoughts that hurt you and you must act on the thoughts that lift you up. use your discernment. good judgement comes from wisdom. wisdom comes from bad judgement. pray and be grateful. smile at your Creator and it will smile back. put this to the test. you don't need to join any religion or cult and no special postures or hand signs are necessary. the gratitude and prayers you need are already inside you. just give them some attention and let them stir your emotions and keep it between you and whatever power you choose to honor. i hope this will be of some help to you.

we've all been brainwashed by the idiot box we call television. it makes us want to consume things that we shouldn't by suggesting we will become like the glamourous image we see. the truth is we are already perfect from our creator with a few little flaws sprinkled in to make us unique. undoing the brainwashing can be painful and traumatic, at least it was for me, might still be as far as I know, but that's the quest and you do it because you determined you are worth it.

congrats @Runfreeyou are an inspiration

congrats @notsmokinjo who says quitters never win? i hope you had a remarkable day!!!

@Penguin good luck with your endeavor. i do understand where you are coming from and don't really disagree with you, however, the 2 things you cannot legislate without giving power to tyrants is intelligence and morality. In this case, context is everything so be careful for what you wish.

Congrats @johnny5and thank you for the encouragement and support you gave me in my quit. Stay blessed my brother

congrats @Genecanuck2 months is a big deal. keep doing what you are doing and trust in yourself. you are stronger than this addiction and you've got 2 months worth of proof behind you.