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One week until 20 years. The life we all live has/had nothing to do with smoking tobacco. It never did! Smoking was incorporated into our lives and only brought weeds. Wastage of time, money, health, addiction. Quitting is/was never a problem. It is only a process we all go through. If someone had told me when I was 39 that I would quit for 20 years I would have raised my cynical eyes more at myself than the statement. Having “giving” up smoking over a thousand times in various increments of time. I deemed myself a weak, spineless jellyfish. My friends had quit for 15 years over a £10 bet; yet I an educated person could not find a logical/spiritual plan. If someone had asked me at 40 that I would quit for 20 years. I would probably have agreed. What made the difference was not a convergence of the planets or meeting a guru. I realised that the problem was right under my nose. I kept smoking! I kept smoking after various holidays from smoking. From a minute until a year.... Why did I keep going back even when I had gone through the initial turmoil of early quitting? My answer was I must not smoke ever again in my life. Eureka! What ever happened I would not smoke until I died. The idea clicked. This was before I had ever heard abut NOPE. I love NOPE and what it means. There is no reason why I can/should/will ever smoke. As the months passed it dawned on me that not only is there a chasm between life and quitting smoking but they are only connected by a memory. Quitting plays no role in heartbreak/love within your life. It is a process that goes along like breathing and your heart beat. You have to stay still to detect it. It gets much harder to detect the “quit” after 2 years. You can even forget the date you quit. Hard to believe after 3 months. For me it felt “normal” not to smoke after 7 months. Life just went on... After 15 months it felt “natural” to be a non smoker. I felt like a non smoker.. Only 15 months and since then I have felt the same way. It does not get better and better. IMO eventually you settle into being a non smoker. The best celebration without a doubt us the first year. So much has happened. 4 seasons and so many things have changed in your conscious/unconscious life. The pinnacle as your so aware of it. Bathe in it..... By now you should have encompassed some extremes in your life. If not remember life and quitting are not entwined. You made your decision to quit and life will throw an extreme event. Once you have traversed this- you are practically there. Last month I carried my mother's coffin into church. 13 years I did the same with my father. Smoking and grief are not compatible to a non smoker. I saw that NOPE means “Never”. YOU>QUIT>LIFE Protect your “quit” from the endless events of life. This board is really for people in the first year and especially the first few weeks. It feels like being in a fog the first few weeks/ months. You must have faith that the fog will clear. It always does.... It is not a cliché, “ if I can do it , anyone can”. Most people looking back feel how fragile the start was. A minute/hour/day is often what matters in the beginning.. The same for me and everyone but it does change and quicker than you think, but the first year is critical. As the years go by you forget but I gave upon my birthday, so a double celebration. 20 years quit and 60 years of age. NOPE

G’day NOPE .....Not One Puff Ever.... (replace Ever with Min,Hour, Day as required)

NOPE

NOPE!!!!!!

Thank you everyone. Forgot date. Six more months of uniform hopefully. Bought house in Florida already. Going to play bocce and grow fat. Keep marching

NOPE…

G’day Near 6 years for me. Whilst not exactly on your heels I’m working towards that 20 years.......

Happy 20 and 60 and make it a double celebration for the ages! You've now kept your quit for a third of your lifetime and counting. Congratulations, and thanks for the inspiration to all quitters, old and new.

NOPE!

Huge Congratulations ..... Thank you for sharing your story ... Inspirational.....

Thanks for taking the time to pop in here. It's always good when "experienced" quitters relay that it is possible to stay quit.

NOPE.

Congratulations Bakon! So happy for you and your future plans. Thanks for reminding us all to Keep Marching and leading the way! Love to you and yours!

Congratulations to our Bakon ..... Wow !!!! 9 years ....We miss your sorry backside around here .... I'm delighted for you ....your fun and straight support helped me through and I'm sure many many more . Reward yourself Horney Toad

Congratulations, Bakon!

Nope!!!!

Congrats, @bakon! Carry On and KTQ!

NOPE

Congratulations on nine years bakon!

i'm baack Went for a run in downtown San Antonio yesterday and passed The Alamo

Jerry has been reported to both the Humane Society and McKamey Animal Center. He's not microchipped and no one has reported a cat missing that matches his description. Wade, a young fella that works as a driver for us, is going to take him home this weekend. He and his girlfriend don't have any other pets and they're gonna see how it works out this weekend. Assuming things go well over the next couple of days and no report is filed by the original owner, they're going to adopt him as their own. I think Jerry is going to like his new digs. Me and a couple of the guys tried to lure him into a carrier this morning. Jerry wouldn't budge. Then Wade's girlfriend came by, called his name, gave him a treat, and he strolled right into the carrier for her. Jerry was far more cooperative with a young lady than he was with me and the boys...Can't say I blame him.

OK, I will play for 36days till the end of Oct, then evaluate if I want to continue. I decided I'm far enough into my quit to handle watching my diet. When I commit, I commit, so it will be daily. And I'm going to add my diet and wt cause I had been gaining before I quit and am increasing quickly since my quit. Exercising daily will be a breeze because I have not missed a single day in about 3.5yrs. And I do not count anything productive as exercise (only for me, not someone else), but I do count sports I'm involved in. I primarily due HIIH workouts (high intensity interval hiking) which is just a name I made up because it sounds cool to tell people I get HIIH in the woods everyday. Basically I hike from 1-3miles and do exercises at intervals. Some freebody like pushups, situps, burpees, etc. Some wt lifting using logs, rocks, and brake rotors (hid about 6 of these in the woods). Some are MovNat type ground exercises or just climbing on things. My only rule is exercise everyday, a little or lot, does not matter intensity, duration, or type. If I'm throwing up sick, I still do one free body squat. It does nothing for the body, but everything to keep the mind programmed. So each day I'll let you know what I ate, what my exercise was, and what my wt was at start of day. Goal is to drop from current 179 to 174 by Oct 31. Thats about a pound a week which is reasonable. My ideal wt (the wt I feel most energetic at is 168. I know some people say you should not weigh daily cause it causes so much stress. I disagree as long as you have the ability to just look at the trend and not get bent out of shape on daily fluctuations.

@Katgirl, Starting with a walk/ run is pretty normal and is probably better than trying to do all run. Running is very hard on the body and best to ease into it. Lots of info on walk/ run if you look and hope you're stretching before and after

Welcome @JustinHoot99. You've got a great start on your quit. Feel free to post a lot here - we're all ex-smokers and will appreciate and understand what you're going through. Most times someone will jump in to share their own similar experience.

Well, I am two days in to a new routine. I speedwalk for 2 minutes, increase the speed by 1/2 mph, then jog for one minute, and repeat for 2 miles, all the while with a slight incline. It is much harder than what I was doing. Jogging motion is much more taxing than walking. I had to rest for a few moments twice, or at 10 minute intervals. The mind was willing, but the flesh a bit weak. Maybe I am expecting too much from this 70 year body. I will keep it up, and hopefully see some improvement in stamina.

@bakon!! Congratulations on 9 years!! That’s amazing!!! You definitely helped me along the way!!

Congrats Bakon!!! Awesome job over these last 9 years -- not just the quit but all the support you have given!!!!!

NOPE!!!!!!

Good job @bakon Congratulations!!

Good Job! Thanks for helping others along the way. Here's a bacon joke for you -

I think I’m just too damn old for what I’m doing. I repeated my workout of the last two days, and man, it was hard. I had to rest several times, but did finish. So, 2 full miles in 34 minutes, running 1/3 of the time, and speed walking 2/3, all up a slight incline. Sounds pretty easy, right? Well, I was huffing and puffing, and sweating my ass off. I will continue on, though. Why? Because I am THAT stubborn, that’s why.

Welcome to the train Everyone here knows the pain you speak of It can be conquered- Stick around a while with some cool wise folks

Awesome post, breath. Congratulations on almost 20 years smoke free and Happy Birthday!

That's GREAT news @Boo, thank you!!! and thank Wade and his girlfriend

Good job Bakon. In spite of your many limitations, both physical and mental, you put together a solid quit. Congratulations.

Thanks Paul for reminding me. And Horneytoad on buddybook. 9 keep marching. Easy now. Cruise control. So easy I forgot

I chose my quit time to be 6:30pm (16 days ago). This wasn't a randomly chosen time. By choosing 6:30pm, it was late enough in the day that since I immediately showered after that last smoke, there would not be so many waking hours left in the day that I would feel like going out to buy more cigarettes, because then I would have to shower again. The advantage to this was that when I woke up the next morning, I could tell myself I already had a half day under my belt. I was already thinking in terms of being an ex-smoker, not in terms of whether I had the strength to start my quit. AND, all I had to do was not smoke for 12 hours (until 6:30pm) and I would be able to say I had 1 day of the chemical withdraw over with. Much better than waking up and thinking I have 3 full days to go and wondering if I even had the strength to get started. Psychologically, knowing I was only 12hrs from having 1 day over with really meant a lot to me. And after going that 12hrs, at 6:30pm, I immediately put a red X on my calendar so I could go to bed knowing I was already into my second day. The point? Plan your quit, do it strategically.

Never stick anything in your mouth ...and set fire to it ....youv,e quit ..... Your already a fabulous Non Smoker

Welcome, @JustinHoot99! As a 40+ year former smoker myself, I know just how strong those cravings can be and I purposely changed my daily routine to disassociate whatever would be a trigger to "have a smoke"....and there were many! As a result, I never sat on my front porch or my back patio for the 1st year after I quit...drank lots of water and played a million games of Solitaire on my phone/pc.....and did so much research online about getting help in quitting... You have started your own process to deal with your cravings and have come to a great place here at QT for support.....read and view all the forums and videos here esp Joel's library because knowledge is power. You can do this!

Gday Ive quit and then gone back to smoking all my life. This time is different. The “Ever” bit is important to me as a near 6 year ex smoker. I don’t want to forget completely. So I think about being an ex smoker once every day. And I walk Ever morning that’s where the pics get taken. So my day starts with a pledge,a quik car trip,and a walk and breakfast. I used to have a Bushman’s breakfast, a pee, a smoke and a quik look about. Chris

NOPE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NOPE! Not today.

Nope!

NOPE

Depends on how how limber you are doesn't it?

Are we talking about doing the horizontal bop or pole dance now?

Nope

Great post @JustinHoot99, the time starts as soon as you put out that last cigarette. I quit at 10:15 pm. Right before bedtime and truth be told, I actually quit around 5:00pm but proceeded to smoke all the butts in the ashtrays before cleaning them once and for all! So I agree the time you pick is a good idea. I wanted to let you know also about our tickers that you can add to your signature. Its a great way to watch all the time, money and cigarettes NOT smoked add up There's a tab at the top of the page if you'd like to make one for your signature

Tweaked my program a bit this week. I wanted to work in the four fundamental lifts, at least four strongman lifts, and finish up each workout with a bit of conditioning work. Here is what I came up with: Monday and Thursday: Deadlifts, Bench Press, Sandbag Bearhug Carries, Sandbag Over-the-Shoulder Throws, Sled Pulls. Finish up with fifteen minutes of steady-state rowing on the Concept2. Tuesday and Friday: Squats, Overhead Press, Sandbag Get-Ups, Sled Push. Finish up with four rounds of boxing on the heavy bag.