sgt.barney

Sarge logged over 1800 miles on The DreadMill (basement treadmill) that first year. Every time he wanted to smoke, he hopped on and ran a mile the fastest he could. Got up to running full marathons within a year. A typical year is under 1000 miles these days, with the past 13 months being exactly zero. Diddley-Squat. No. Miles . Logged. Achilles injury. EZPZ

Same as it ever was, Ev. Don't smoke: You win. Smoke: You lose. Make your choice and live with it. EZPZ

Sarge would strongly suggest you quit making excuses and stop smoking ... but what does he know? EZPZ

It generally took years to put on the weight. Sarge has NO IDEA why folks try to take it off in a month or two. That's a recipe for disillusion, demoralization, and failure. A pound a week is a good, do-able goal for most folks. You can usually manage this without much hunger. Two pounds a week if you are a glutton for punishment and have a high threshold for personal discomfort. Most mere mortals can not sustain three or more a week for a significant time period. If you've got 40 or 50 to lose, plan on taking a year. Too many try to do that in 3 or 4 months and find the hunger unbearable, give up in disgust and go back to gaining again.

Meat has a lot of water. A LOT. A pound of raw, uncooked meat can be up to 40% water - zero calories. 40% water, 60% calories (protein, fat) Cook off the water. Now a pound of cooked meat is 100% (give or take (not really, it still retains a lot, but significantly lower zero calorie water and significantly more higher calorie proteins and fats)). It's a calorie density thing. They are, literally, watered down in raw meats. If you're measuring pound-for-pound, cooked is more calories per pound. The same given hunk will have the same calories before and after cooking ... it'll just weigh a lot less. EZPZ

Nope. For weight loss, it does not matter. There may be other reasons - health, taste, ethical/moral reasons ... but for weight loss it doesn't matter if its Wild Boar, Fattened Pork Bellies... or Ice Cream Farking Sandwiches. Maintain a caloric deficit in line with your weight loss goal and it doesn't matter one iota what you eat. If you want to lose a pound a week, you need a deficit of 500 calories a day. 3500 calores is one pound. It doesn't matter what you eat. Enjoy your Ice Cream. EZPZ

Non-smokers have anxiety attacks, too. They deal with them without smoking. You should, too. Sarge is just sayin' - you are a non-smoker now. EZPZ

It works every time. The Human Body can't break the laws of physics. The Laws Of Thermodynamics are a thing, and "Conservation Of Energy" is inviolable. A caloric deficit sustained over time. EZPZ

To lose weight, carbs don't matter To lose weight, "bad calories" don't matter. To lose weight, "healthy lunch" doesn't matter. To lose weight, Beer doesn't matter. All of these may or may not matter in other contexts, but for simple weight loss forget about it. Your goal is one, and only one thing: A caloric deficit sustained over time. That's it. Nothing more is required. It is both necessary, and sufficient. A caloric deficit sustained over time. It's the only thing that works. It's the only thing that can work. All else is noise that confuses the issue, and gets in the way. Eat what you've always eaten - you'll do it anyway when you're tired of missing the things you like. Just eat less of it. Eat. Less. A caloric deficit sustained over time. Sarge recommends myfitnesspal. EZPZ

Don't be a DumbAss. If they never went away ... why would we quit? Of course they go away. Sarge hasn't craved a cigarette in over 7 years. ... but you can't get there if you keep doin' stupid sh*t, like smokin' ... right? EZPZ

> Remember when life wasn't so difficult No. As far back as Sarge can remember ... life was difficult. EZPZ

Stress doesn't trigger a crave. Stress is just an excuse that you will latch onto. EZPZ

Failure is a choice. Choose otherwise. EZPZ

EZPZ

One is never "helped" by taking away freedoms. EZPZ

(1) This is not The State's place - despite what folks think, this is a giant leap of overstepping bounds. Then again, The Sarge thinks same for banning of all drugs. Not government's place. (B) Did no one learn a thing during Prohibition? Or the (still better - and relevant/current) spectacularly unsuccessful failure known as The War On Drugs? (iii) Only Government can take something this bad and sell it as a GoodThing™ EZPZ

The Sarge doesn't particularly care that you choose to take a simple statement of fact as "belittlement". He can't help how personal perceptions warp the reality that NRT requires quitting a minimum of twice into some kind of personal insult. If you choose to take that as "belittling", that's your problem - don't blame Sarge. He doesn't care. EZPZ

EZPZ

You are making it harder than it needs to be. Quit once. Quitting twice is redundant ... and twice the effort. What matters is the folks who end up hopelessly addicted to Vape (or Patch (Or <whatever>)) ... just like they were addicted to smokes. Trading one addiction for another is not a positive gain. It's a lateral move. Ending up in the same spot. Thinking you've made progress when you went nowhere. EZPZ

Sarge always wonders: "Why quit twice ?" First you quit the smokes ... then you quit <whatever> (vape, patch, pills, lozenges, <whatever>) ? Just quit once and be done with it. It's TheWayToGo. For. Sure. EZPZ

> Trying 2quit again bad timIng There is no "bad timing" ... or rather, the junkie-addicted mind will always tend towards a "it was just bad timing" rationalization. Too much going on. This. That. The Other. Obligations. Stressors. Situational pressures and anxieties ... But that is the addiction rationalizing impending failure. In reality, any time - AT ALL TIMES - it is a GoodTime to quit. Also this: The only way to quit is to actually quit. Stop "trying" - it is another addicted mind delusion. "well ... I tried ..." Not good enough. Stop trying to quit and ... y'know ... actually quit. It makes a world of difference. > What does everyone do when they get a craving ? Distract yourself, eat, mints,etc ? The Sarge laced up his running shoes and ran a mile as fast as he could. Guaranteed crave killer. For hours. EZPZ

Dishonesty is the #1 impediment to success in quitting. Every one of those Junkie Thoughts is dishonest. Most rising to the level of Outright Lies. First and foremost under the Dishonesty Banner for most folks? Denial. We all know the facts here. We knew them all along. We chose willful Denial. ** Sarge is wagering that she never successfully quit. EZPZ

Batman? Superman? PFFFFT ... nope. It's, hands-down, no-questions-asked SHIRTLESS GIRL !!! EZPZ!

The Sarge ain't buyin' any "vow" brought to you by Philip Morris < Article here > EZPZ (He does, however suspect that they will heavily transition into The Wacky Weed when it is legal nation wide)

Additional Data Point: While you can never reverse the damage of periodontal disease, it can be halted in its tracks. One day, unexpected and out of the blue, the nice hygeinist lady asked "Has anyone talked with you about ... <erie pause> ... Periodontal Disease ... Mr. The Sarge ?" ... "Uhhhhh ... nope ..." Progressed for 3 years. Had to have the ol' under-the-gumline root planing / deep scraping. Twice. Next up: Surgery. They basically cut the gums away from the jawbone, roll 'em outa the way, and go to town on the teeth roots. Yikes! Fast forward 2 years: Quit smoking. Active Gum Disease all but disappeared. Gums returned to pink, and plump, and healthy. No sign of active disease for the past 5 years. There's still the bone loss and receeded gums ... but it's stable. No change in half a decade. They even quit measuring and reading out the numbers (Sarge wasn't quite as bad - highest of 5 (2,2,4,3,5,4,5 3.3....) ) at every appointment because they were no longer changing progressing. Two changes were made: (1) Flossing twice daily - whether needed or not (previously Sarge only flossed when a hunk o' something was stuck up in there) ... and (2) quitting the cancer-sticks. Dentist could neither confirm nor deny which had a larger benefit, but the two together cinched the deal. Quit smoking, folks. Your future teeth will thank you. Sarge had perfectly sound, healthy, good teeth that would have fallen out of his head by now due to bone loss from the gum disease. Now? Problem solved. Complete remission. No sign of active disease. Sarge is certain he'd be in dentures by now if he hadn't quit. EZPZ PS: Your heart and arteries will love you, too. There's a funky correlation between gum disease and heart disease.