Four Years Today - Cigarette Free

[Cypress Sun]

Not a one since 10/2/19. 

 

Just patting myself on the back!

[Eyesa Horg]

Congratulations 

[Blackwater 53393]

Do it often!!  Quitting is hard and should be appreciated and rewarded!

 

I LIKED smoking and likely would still enjoy it!! I quit in 1996 and I don’t regret it even a little!!

 

Keep cheering yourself on and reward yourself occasionally with something that you can afford now that you’re not spending that money on tobacco!!

[Warden Callaway]

Dad quit smoking and drinking cold turkey when I was very small.  Says he woke up with an awful hangover after an evening playing cards.  Mom quit hundreds of times.  Finally she couldn't breath and had to quit.  Me, never had the desire. 

[Calamity Kris]

Congrats.  That is most certainly something to celebrate.

[Tyrel Cody]

11 minutes ago, Mercy Me said:

What’s your secret, I’m still in the battle. Hopefully I can celebrate quitting just like you. 

Cold Turkey and then post on here every morning and promise us that you will not smoke that day. 1 day at a time.

 

I quit dipping Kodiak that way May 1, 2011. The Nicotine will be completely out of your system in a week or so then it’s just find something else to do to distract you from the habit; for me it was dipping Listerine soaked cotton balls. 

 

I dipped for 20 or so years and smoked some along there, sometimes a pack a day. Dipping for me was harder to quit than smoking.  I will have an occasional cigar, but those don’t affect me the same way for whatever reason and go months between them.

 

 

Congratulations @Cypress Sun

[Subdeacon Joe]

 

Supposedly it's harder than getting off of heroin.  Thank God I never got the habit.  I tried it a couple of times, and for about 6 months took a pipe a couple of times a week.  I liked the process of preparing the pipe, but as with all the tobacco I tried, I hated the way my mouth tasted half an hour later, as well as the smell of stale smoke.

 

 

[Warden Callaway]

I'd see the folks in the quitting argument.   Mom would quit.  Then she'd get around someone smoking and have to bum a cigarette.  Then she'd hide cigarettes in the car and then have on some errands.  Then out in the open.  Dad would jump her case. She'd say, "You don't know how hard it is."  He'd say, you just quit, and swing his hands across like like an umpire making a call.

[Vail Vigilante]

57 minutes ago, Mercy Me said:

What’s your secret, I’m still in the battle. Hopefully I can celebrate quitting just like you. 

I used the gum. It took about a year to wean off the gum but in that year I never backslid. I quit in 2014.  I dont know about you but when I quit I found that there was a truck payment every month hiding in that cig. money that I was no longer spending. Up to that time, all my vehicles were such junk. I ditched the cigs and found what I needed for a truck payment. And not a crappy one either. A really decent one.

[The Shoer 27979]

2 hours ago, Cypress Sun said:

Not a one since 10/2/19. 

 

Just patting myself on the back!

Congratulations 

 

I quit drinking 35 years ago( had to) and quit smoking around 33 years ago. I try to stay away from drinks or I should say drunks. Believe it or not cigarette smoke actually make me nauseas anymore, the only thing I miss about smoking is my zippo

[Rye Miles #13621]

Congratulations!! Keep up the good work! 

[Cypress Sun]

1 hour ago, Mercy Me said:

What’s your secret, I’m still in the battle. Hopefully I can celebrate quitting just like you. 

 

Went to the hospital for 10 days with (what they said was) bacterial pneumonia, damn near died. I'm not so sure that it wasn't Covid before it had a fancy name. They wouldn't let you smoke in the hospital for some reason. 

 

Got out, knew I had to quit...still had 9 full packs of Marlboro 100's, gave them away. Did the gum for a few months, was afraid to do the patches, figured I'd look like a Nascar car with all of the patches stuck on me.  I had a bunch of support/encouragement from my gal and friends, including many in the CAS world.

 

I was a solid 2 pack a day for 45+ years, sometimes 3 if I was at a match or drinking, so I can sure tell the difference in my wallet. Last one I had was the night I went to the ER, never another...so far.

 

I haven't gotten to the point of someone smoking a cig smelling bad yet, in fact, it kind of smells good in a way. I do find the smell of establishments (bars/casinos) that permit smoking disgusting, fortunately I've only been to one of each during the last four years. I can smell a smoker from 10' away now and think "I used to smell like that...ugh".

 

The real secret of quitting is that you have to want to do it yourself. No amount of support or encouragement will help if you don't want to quit. Get rid of all cigarettes in the house, car, work or wherever else you keep cigarettes, no need for temptation. Try to be strong, it's hard to do but it can be done.

 

It's all up to you. Ultimately, you are the only one who can quit and I sincerely wish you the best of luck in doing so.

[Sedalia Dave]

Well Done!!! 

[bgavin]

I never smoked, and glad of it.
The #1 and #2 big factors in heart disease is Tobacco and Cocaine.

I can certainly appreciate how hard it is to quit.
I've fallen off the no-carbs / diabetic bandwagon so many times I have rocks embedded in my face.

[Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474]

I smoked cigars and a pipe, (an aromatic blend my wife liked) but I quit in 1976, when we found she was pregnant.

Haven't restarted.

[Michigan Slim]

I've been down to three or four smokes a day. Was 25- 30. 

[Pat Riot]

I gave up Alcohol & Tobacco, but I am not giving up Firearms! 
 

Congratulations @Cypress Sun! That’s a great milestone. 

 

[bgavin]

I wish I could impress on those young men who smoke and still have sound arteries.... tobacco is devastating to your heart and arteries.

Sometimes I wish the young were required to attend the autopsy of a smoker, just to see what the damage really looks like.

[LawMan Mark, SASS #57095L]

Congrats on quitting.  I was coerced into trying to quit several times.  Until I decided to quit, it never took.  Gum, patches, prescription meds; none of it worked.

 

What finally worked was deciding for myself to quit.  The urge to smoke lasted about three days, the need to have something in my hand every 20 minutes lasted a couple of weeks.  At the time I quit, they were $3 a pack, and I was burning over $2,000 a year.  That was 17 years ago.  

[Pat Riot]

I quit smoking 6 years ago. Had a bike crash and was in the hospital. When I came home I had my wife buy me some Snus and nicotine lozenges. Used the Snus for a while, maybe 6 weeks then switched completely to nicotine lozenges -4 mg ones. Used 15 or so per day. Slowly cut those down to 5 a day the switched to 2mg lozenges. I still use the 2mg lozenges. Between 5-7 daily. I split them with a pill splitter. 
My doctors all say 10-14 mg of nicotine daily can’t hurt me and studies have shown that nicotine in small amounts helps fight Alzheimer’s disease. One Marlboro Light contains 18mg of nicotine. They also contain tar and other chemicals. 

I figure I am good where I am. I have no intention of quitting the lozenges any time soon. 

[Warden Callaway]

 

[Alpo]

On 10/3/2023 at 12:27 PM, Mercy Me said:

What’s your secret, I’m still in the battle. Hopefully I can celebrate quitting just like you. 

I decided that the kids could better eat that $10 bill every week (been a while) than me set a match to it.

 

Cold turkey.

 

My wife had a couple of teeth removed, and was told that she should not suck on anything. You know, like drinking through a straw. This could cause a dry socket which would be very painful. I asked the dentist if that included smoking and the dentist said absolutely. So for two weeks she did not smoke. Until the holes healed. And I told her congratulations - she was no longer addicted to cigarettes. The next day she was smoking. Back to the pack and a half a day.

 

My father was in the hospital for a month and a half. And the day he was due to be released his doctor told him basically the same thing - congratulations, you are no longer a smoker. Daddy told the doctor that in the door pocket of the truck that Mama was going to pick him up in it would be his pipe and his tobacco pouch and he would smoke on the way home. And he did.

 

I guess the point I'm attempting to make is - you really really gotta wanna quit.

[Cypress Sun]

1 minute ago, Mercy Me said:

Your father must be one hell of a straight shooter. Thanks for the words of encouragement. I believe I can do it if I set my mind to it. It started out to be a cool thing when I was young and then a stress release when I had a full time job and a growing family and now ? It’s health threatening.

 

And expensive $8 a pack. One pack a day for a year is $2,920. Two packs a day is $5,840.

 

A lot of money to spend on committing suicide the slow painful way.

 

Who is stronger...the cigarettes or you? 

I say it's YOU.

[Alpo]

47 minutes ago, Mercy Me said:

and now ? It’s health threatening.

Like I said, I quit because of the money.

 

But after 6 months or so it was nice not having to cough crap up and spit it in the toilet every morning.

[bgavin]

When that big slamming heart attack arrives... in your secret heart you will know what it is.
Then all the B.S. excuses to continue smoking will go out the window.
If you survive it, your life changes significantly.

Every high school kid should attend the autopsy of a smoker or coke snorter.
They should see the lungs, heart and arteries first hand.

[Henry T Harrison]

On 10/3/2023 at 12:49 PM, Cypress Sun said:

Not a one since 10/2/19. 

 

Just patting myself on the back!

Congratulations its been forty two years for me and that took years quitting and starting again to finally make it. If I had not quit I would no doubt be long gone 

[dannyd]

Congratulations, 38 years for me.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

51 years, six months one day eight hours three and a half minutes and I don’t think about any more, went cold Turkey.