Qiut smoking day for AZers and support.Monday.

I quit 5 years in January and will never look back. Best decision of my life.
I went cold turkey with the help of a website: http://whyquit.com/

JAM and I talked about quitting back at the inaugural Turning Stone event and looks like we both finally did it! There's also pretty cool little apps that keep track of your statistics. Mine to date are:

Dave - Ex-Smoker for Five Years, One Month, Seventeen Days, 12 Hours and 1 Minute (1874 days).
I have not smoked 46,863 death sticks that would have cost me $21,371.62
and I have saved 162 Days and 17 Hours of my life.

This is based on living in MA where cigs are expensive and a little over a pack a day addiction.
 
I am going on about 2 years. I started at 13 and majority of my life smoked about a pack and a half of Marlboro Reds a day. I quit once, for years, started again, then they came up with those Fire Safe Cirgarettes. I didn't even know about it, but started getting the worst headaches. And they tasted funny. So Googled it and the south was the last place to start using them, but you can see an FSC above the barcode. They ruined the taste, and made it much worse for you. I went to electric cigarettes, because I did smoke for something to do. I have taken a puff of a cigarette a couple times, but tasted disgusting to me. I went with a nice e cig, which you can refill with liquid, love it. Smoke anywhere. Maybe those are bad for you too they will figure out but my lungs are not full of tar like they used to be. Good luck everyone, and everytime you go to light up, remind yourself how miserable it makes you feel, and stinks etc etc. Every reason you want to quit, say it to yourself in you head or aloud everytime you go to smoke.
 
Koop said:
I quit 5 years in January and will never look back. Best decision of my life.
I went cold turkey with the help of a website: http://whyquit.com/

JAM and I talked about quitting back at the inaugural Turning Stone event and looks like we both finally did it! There's also pretty cool little apps that keep track of your statistics. Mine to date are:

Dave - Ex-Smoker for Five Years, One Month, Seventeen Days, 12 Hours and 1 Minute (1874 days).
I have not smoked 46,863 death sticks that would have cost me $21,371.62
and I have saved 162 Days and 17 Hours of my life.

This is based on living in MA where cigs are expensive and a little over a pack a day addiction.
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Great minds think alike, Koopster! We made it! :clapping::clapping::clapping:
 
My earnest wish for all AZ-ers, and for everybody, is that they either never take up smoking or give it up immediately. I grew up, as so many of us did, in a family of smokers. My mother and I were the only two who escaped the habit.

To this day, I have an affection for the paraphernalia of smoking. I actually have a study in my house which is decorated like a tobacconist’s shop—hundreds of cigar boxes, standing ash trays, tobacco tins, old leather luggage, water pipes, cigarette cases. I have everything but a cigar store Indian, and I may get one. It is a masculine space in which I feel at home. In interior design and architecture, such things are called a “foli,” literally in French “a madness.” And that’s what smoking is. Madness! A few years ago a friend gave me a wonderful addition for my study. He said it needed it. It is a bright red enameled sign with mustard yellow letters saying, “ABSOLUTELY NO SMOKING.” He said to me, “With that study, no one would ever believe that you aren’t allowed to smoke in this house.”

I pass over the fact that my wonderful father died of emphysema. You really, really don’t want to get it. My beloved brother died of a bad heart valve, a condition doubtlessly exacerbated by his long years of smoking.

I am extremely grateful to the owner of the old-fashioned, no-nonsense, action-rich pool room where I regularly play that he enforces the no smoking regulation, and that the players without complaint abide by it. There is another city which I visit which has an equally wonderful pool room in which the owner takes the rule lightly and allows certain privileged customers to violate the ordinance. When I am visiting that city, I turn my car towards the race track instead of the pool room.

When I found this thread, I was knocked back on my heels by the one immediately below it which described the recent tournament in Olathe, Kansas. In that thread, an AZ-er explained that he had been disappointed that he had not been allowed to play in the room upon his first visit. Apparently there the owner has made his room into a “club,” and thus is able to get around the local smoking ordinance. Ye gods! Quick! Oxygen! Call the EMT’s! I think I am going into shock! I had actually thought that at some point I might go to one of the tournaments there, for the quality of the pool must be very high. But it is no longer on my bucket list. It’s on my other list. The one that start with an S. Well, maybe not that bad, but on the "only a brief visit list."

I hope that smokers will understand. The objection to smoking is not moral. It arises from good will, the fact that psychologically healthy human beings desire the good of others.
 
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Koop said:
I quit 5 years in January and will never look back. Best decision of my life.
I went cold turkey with the help of a website: http://whyquit.com/

JAM and I talked about quitting back at the inaugural Turning Stone event and looks like we both finally did it! There's also pretty cool little apps that keep track of your statistics. Mine to date are:

Dave - Ex-Smoker for Five Years, One Month, Seventeen Days, 12 Hours and 1 Minute (1874 days).
I have not smoked 46,863 death sticks that would have cost me $21,371.62
and I have saved 162 Days and 17 Hours of my life.

This is based on living in MA where cigs are expensive and a little over a pack a day addiction.
Click to expand...

You should put a link or name to that APP. That is pretty cool. You get to see how much you have saved over the period of time you have quit. I can't begin to guess how much I have saved. 3 packs a day of Marlboro Red and 1 pack of Red man, quit for at least 15 years.

JoeyA
 
JAM said:
Keith quit smoking January 1st of this year. As of the time of this writing, he doesn't drink or smoke or do drugs. We eat red meat once a week and have fresh veggies every night. I just turned him onto steel-cut oatmeal, and he loves it. Good for blood pressure.

Keith is doing well. He hasn't complained about not smoking. He did it cold turkey, just like me. :)
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Wow! Keith is very lucky.

JoeyA
 
Your story sends power to others.......

shanesinnott said:
I am in....My last cigarette was last night before I went to bed. I have been smoking for 21 years and have been smoking about 15 a day.

I am almost 45 and about 3 months ago I started doing Crossfit and have been working out at 6am every morning 5 days a week and have not missed a weekday workout since I started. I have gotten stronger and in much better shape over the last 3 months but the smoking has been holding me back. I am very competitive and do not like being the last person to finish a timed workout because I am so out of breath from smoking so I finally am saying enough is enough. I woke up this morning at 5.15am and went and worked out as usual but did not smoke before the workout (like I always do) and have not smoked since.

I believe that I can do this and I know I am strong enough to make this change. I also know that any other AZer that is a smoker and is reading this can do it too. Just make the decision and stick to it.
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Instead of just complaining about the smoke we're actually saving lives here on AZ.

By becoming a Rock for yourself your also a Rock for everyone that reads your post and has wanted to quit but just couldn't.

If one person quits because of your words on here you have just saved a life or part of it for sure.

Good Luck with your fight that I'm sure you are going to win.
 
JAM said:
I quit just 6 years ago. At 1:30 p.m., February 19th, 2008, I smoked my last cigarette. I woke up with a lump in my neck, and I had a sore throat. It scared me. Fortunately, I did not feel like smoking because I felt sick. As it turned out, it was a swollon gland. A few days later, I felt better and did want to smoke, but I figured I had made 3 days without a cigarette, so I'd see how far I could go.

I had been wanting to quit for 2 or 3 years, talked about it all the time, but I just didn't do it. Meanwhile, my brother and best friend both quit about the same time, and I was getting pressure from them to quit, which pissed me off actaully. I did enjoy smoking when I smoked.

Today, it is the best move I made in my life. I feel so much better, no more colds, flus, sinus problems. My hair and clothes always smell clean now. No more frantically running to the store to get a pack because I ran out. And then there's the money I have saved.

Keith quit January 1st of this year. It's almost 2 months for Keith. I just asked him last night if he's over the hump, and he said not really. But like you hae written in your post, a lot of his friends recently passed away with cancer. In fact, he just learned that his brother Mark now has cancer, so I think that's keeping Keith off the ciggies, thank the good Lord.

Nobody will quit unless they really want to quit. I did it cold turkey, and so did Keith. I can honestly say that today, I do *not* crave those ciggies. :smile:
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I quit on Sept 11 2002. I thought it would be a good way to remember the day and as good of a reason as any to quit. I remember being halfway through with my cigarette and putting it out, handing the rest of the pack to a co-worker and saying I'm done....I don't want them anymore. That was 12 years ago and I haven't had one since but I still had dreams up to 6 years later that I slipped up and smoked one. I would wake up pissed off at myself for doing it, it felt that real. Cigarettes can have a very strong hold over a person. In some ways I still miss it but I will never go back to it. I hope Kieth is able to kick it completely.
 
Cdryden said:
I quit on Sept 11 2002. I thought it would be a good way to remember the day and as good of a reason as any to quit. I remember being halfway through with my cigarette and putting it out, handing the rest of the pack to a co-worker and saying I'm done....I don't want them anymore. That was 12 years ago and I haven't had one since but I still had dreams up to 6 years later that I slipped up and smoked one. I would wake up pissed off at myself for doing it, it felt that real. Cigarettes can have a very strong hold over a person. In some ways I still miss it but I will never go back to it. I hope Kieth is able to kick it completely.
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Those dreams are no joke. I've woke up almost in tears a couple of times.
 
Koop said:
Those dreams are no joke. I've woke up almost in tears a couple of times.
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Yeah they can be intense. My wife had quit roughly the same time as I did (a few days earlier) and I remember having dreams that I caught her smoking and would pissed at her the next day because of it!

Some folks I knew where taking some type of medication to help them quit (it may have been called wellbutrin (sp) not sure), anyhow I remember hearing horror stories of the dreams that they would have because of the meds.
 
My wife and I talk about quitting all the time. With my moms health from smoking. Makes me think about it more and more. Hate that cigs have such control over me. I need to do this for me, my wife and kids. I have tried before and end up rummaging through the house and car the next day looking for a cig. Checking golf bags and anything else in the house. I just know how tough it is for me. Need to man up.
 
Side story not really related but I thought I would share...

I lost my friend / co-worker Leon this morning. He battled lung cancer for almost one year exactly. He was 43 years old.

Never smoked a day in his life. Never. He was the epitome of excellent health, always drinking those nasty home made green slurry concoctions, no junk food, was a work out fiend. Almost zero body fat, was ripped.

It f'ing sucks balls, fukin cancer, I'm pissed off. He tried everything, we even raised enough from multiple benefits for the experimental meds that our health care didn't cover. It raged through him like a runaway train.

I don't smoke. But I guess what I want to say is, why better the chances. And this is coming from somewhat of a hypocrite...I chew about a tin of kodiak every few days. I'm about ready to kick it now. I said this morning this is my last tin. We'll see.

Hope that didn't sound too preachy, not my intention. Just a bit of venting, the title of the post got me thinking. Whatever anyone here chooses to do if they face a decision, I wish them all the luck in the world.
 
I made a mistake. My quit month was May and not March.

So it has been only 10 months for myself. I used to smoke Winstons, even tho I live in Canada. I was good for at least a pack to a pack and half a day.

Winstons are more expensive at $13 a pack of 20. I figured that I easily saved $6000, and probably more since last May.

Today was my first day of Physio Therapy after a car accident in 2012.

I was on a tread mill for 10 minutes at a fairly brisk pace. My heart rate was excellent and my blood/oxygen level remained a constant 96 to 98, almost perfect.

My breathing was great and not labored. I didn't break a sweat.

And pretty good for a person that has only 80% lung capacity.

I would never give up all my little guilty pleasures in life and unless there are special situations involved, I doubt that anyone has to either.

All a person has to do is be aware of what you are doing and do them in moderation.

I have always enjoyed a decent cigar and a snifter of Brandy after a meal. I don't see a reason not to, besides, the Brandy is for medicinal purposes.

I sleep like a baby after a shot of Brandy.
 
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Blue Hog ridr said:
I made a mistake. My quit month was May and not March.

So it has been only 10 months for myself. I used to smoke Winstons, even tho I live in Canada. I was good for at least a pack to a pack and half a day.

Winstons are more expensive at $13 a pack of 20. I figured that I easily saved $6000, and probably more since last May.

Today was my first day of Physio Therapy after a car accident in 2012.

I was on a tread mill for 10 minutes at a fairly brisk pace. My heart rate was excellent and my blood/oxygen level remained a constant 96 to 98, almost perfect.

My breathing was great and not labored. I didn't break a sweat.

And pretty good for a person that has only 80% lung capacity.

I would never give up all my little guilty pleasures in life and unless there are special situations involved, I doubt that anyone has to either.

All a person has to do is be aware of what you are doing and do them in moderation.

I have always enjoyed a decent cigar and a snifter of Brandy after a meal. I don't see a reason not to, besides, the Brandy is for medicinal purposes.

I sleep like a baby after a shot of Brandy.
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Good ole Lloyd!

lb.JPG
 
I did quit last Monday, so today is day 8 for me and my wife.

We have been wanting to quit for 5+ years, did quit for 6 months on 2 separate occasions.

We are not strong enough for one to quit and not the other, and thanks to some new motivation my wife received Friday before last, I think this time we will stay quit. Well, at least for the next 9 months, and hopefully won't be stupid enough to start again.

Chantix is great, we both love it, although she is only using a patch this time.

Had some drinks over the weekend, damn that was tough.
 
MahnaMahna said:
I did quit last Monday, so today is day 8 for me and my wife.

We have been wanting to quit for 5+ years, did quit for 6 months on 2 separate occasions.

We are not strong enough for one to quit and not the other, and thanks to some new motivation my wife received Friday before last, I think this time we will stay quit. Well, at least for the next 9 months, and hopefully won't be stupid enough to start again.

Chantix is great, we both love it, although she is only using a patch this time.

Had some drinks over the weekend, damn that was tough.
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Best of luck to you both, I hope everything is okay with your wife.
 
Nice idea I just joined the forums recently, I actually tried quitting a day ago and I just bought a new pack :( .. I was hoping to stop smoking and save that money to buy my first cue, il try to make this pack last till monday and quit!
 
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