Leaderboard

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

NOPE…

NOPE!

@jillar @babs609Thank you! I was wondering what I was missing and realized I hadn't checked in with QT today. Here is this amazing post to remind me of how grateful I am that I am not smoking today. Just for today. A dear friend dropped by for coffee this morning. He smokes. We used to smoke together-notice the tense. He went out on to the porch, asking if it was okay to do so. I had no temptation or judgment; just so glad I no longer had to engage. And who knows? Maybe he will consider quitting. One can only hope. Everything here is TRUTH but the thing I keep realizing lately is that IT IS EASIER NOT TO SMOKE. Once we get past the initial withdrawal period (which is usually challenging unfortunately), it becomes easier and more peaceful to live a life without smoking. We are not constantly negotiating with ourselves which is bloody exhausting. And, at least for me, there aren't the high-highs and low-lows. Instead, there is a steadiness which I now see (DUH) is because I am not in constant withdrawal as I was when I was smoking. Hope whoever is reading/lurking and still smoking will jump on board! Happy New (Smoke-free) Year to everyone. K

NOPE!!!!!!!!!!

NOPE! Happy New Year's Eve

bump for all our guests

1. It's not as hard as you think. Once you begin to be honest with yourself and to look at the facts about smoking, it will become a pleasure to remove this addiction from your life. 2. Square off with your smoking habit. Look at it and size it up. Ask yourself exactly what it is doing for you; then ask yourself what it is not doing for you. You can begin with your hair and work your way down to the tips of your toes. It is a medical fact that smoking affects every organ in the human body in a harmful way. 3. Look at quitting cigarettes as giving yourself a gift-a very big gift. You are giving yourself a better quality of life and, very possibly, a longer life. You are giving yourself a healthier body. You are giving yourself more self-esteem. Wrap all this in a package and took at it for the gift it really is, then "Go for it!" 4. Set a date. Make a commitment. Give it a try. Remember, it is alright if you don't succeed at first. Just keep trying. The only way you can lose is by ceasing to try. 5. Don't look at it as if you are giving up something. This makes it seem too much like a loss. What you are really doing is tossing something out of your life that has done you harm and doesn't belong here anymore. You are throwing away pure garbage. No longer are you going to allow your lungs to be a resting place for nicotine and tars. 6. Always keep a positive attitude. After all, this is one of the most positive things you've ever done. Stay away from negative people and worrisome situations. 7. Quit for yourself. Even though your family and loved ones will benefit tremendously from your quitting, it is you that will benefit most. 8. Treat giving up smoking with the respect it rightly deserves. Become willing to go to any lengths to remove it from your life. 9. Look up the word 'nicotine' in your dictionary and write down the definition in big letters: "A poisonous alkaloid used as an insecticide.' Put it where you can see it. 10. Don't say "I'll take my chances' and continue to smoke. They are not ours to take. We didn't give ourselves life and we don't have the right to "take our chances" on giving it away. 11.Don't fool yourself by saying you have too many pressures in your life right now to give up cigarettes. If you are smoking, this in itself is a pressures very great pressure. Every day is a gamble and your life is at stake. By getting nicotine out of your life, other things will become easier to handle. You will feel better about yourself and you will have more energy. You will have accomplished something more meaningful than all the money and material objects you could ever acquire. You will have given yourself what no one else could give you. You will no longer have the pressure of being a smoker. 12. Don't use the excuse that you might gain weight to justify your continuing to smoke. Even if you do gain a little, the fact that you will be more active and will get more exercise should counteract any weight gain. Remember, overeating, not stopping smoking, causes weight gain. 13. Plan to do things that will keep your mind off smoking. Sometimes our minds can be our worst enemies. They will tell us that we need a cigarette for just about any reason that is handy at the time. 14. Quit smoking one day at a time and think only about the part of the day you are in. "I am not going to smoke before noon." "I am not going to smoke before three o'clock." Sometimes just do it one hour at a time. This is a lot easier than trying to quit forever. 15. Don't subject yourself to smoky situations. If you do come in contact with someone who is smoking, just say to yourself "He HAS to smoke. I no longer do" and walk away. 16. While you are quitting. Look at it as an investment. Once you have quit for one hour, you have invested this hour in becoming a healthier person. Now, invest one more hour Continue to add to your investment hour by hour. It will grow and become more valuable as the hours go by. You will begin to see and feel the rewards from this investment more and more. Protect and guard it just as you would a treasure. 17. Start being kind to yourself, It is the beginning of a new way of life for you and you are the most important one there. Treat yourself with respect and love and, remember, you are no longer filling your system with poison every few minutes. Breathe the clean air and breathe it deeply. Smell the different and wonderful fragrances. Begin to spend time outdoors close to nature. Many new sensations await you. 18. Don't get too angry. If we are angry, our minds tell us we need a cigarette to cope. Until your mind learns that it doesn't need a cigarette to cope, try to avoid situations that might be setting you up. Avoid certain people that may bother you. If there is a lot of tension at work, try to get a few days off. If you can't get some time off, quit smoking on a long weekend. Avoid, as best you can, things like getting stuck in traffic. Use a lot of caution. Anger can be very destructive. 19. Don't get too hungry. It is amazing how our minds will tell us that everything's wrong when all we really need to do is eat. 20. Don't get too tired. If we are tired, it is easy to become irritated and when we get irritated our minds will tell us that a cigarette will help. Our overall resistance becomes weak and it is easy to say, "Oh well, I guess I'll smoke." 21. Don't get too lonely. It is good to know some people who are going through the same thing. 22. You can remember these four things by the word "HALT." Hungry, angry, lonely, tired. If you feel you need a cigarette, check. Make sure you are not experiencing any of these. 23. Don't get too bored. It is hard to just sit and not smoke. Keep busy. Find things to do that you enjoy. Bike riding, hiking, swimming, exploring new places, trying new restaurants. This is the time to indulge yourself. 24. Have something to fidget with. We are accustomed to holding a cigarette; being without one might leave our hands at a loss. Get a small rubber ball or a yo-yo. Paper clip, rubber band. 25. Have something handy to put in your mouth. Life Savers are good, or any slowly dissolving candy. Beef jerky and lollipops help, too. Avoid fattening foods like cookies. They don't last long and they fill you up. Experiment while you are still smoking to see what will relieve the craving. If Life Savers work, then stock up. Just a note of caution: don't use this type of substitute on a long-term basis. I preferred to keep healthy snacks handy such as carrot sticks, celery, nuts, fruit. 26. Nicotine somehow doubles the rate by which the body depletes caffeine. This may make some jittery. Reducing caffeine by half usually helps. 27. Don't drink alcohol while you are quitting. Once alcohol is in your system your defenses will diminish greatly. 28. Remember that the discomfort you experience in the first 2 weeks will definitely come to an end and you will never have to go through it again. 29. Remember, every minute you were sucking on cigarettes they were sucking on you. They were sucking the very life out of you. Don't let them have anymore. 30. Remember, it is the first cigarette that gets you started. It takes only one. This is the one you don't have. You can always put off lighting that first one for a little while. Don't fool yourself and think you can start and stop at will. You can't. Many people have tried this and gone on to live the rest of their lives never to experience freedom from nicotine again. :)

Thanks for bumping this @jillar! Excellent tips that are extremely helpful. And ‘way to go!’ @KEL!

NOPE

I'm really happy that you had no desire to join your friend @KEL, that's when you know for sure that you have your forever quit

High five Kris ....for not engaging with your past smoking companion... I hope he saw it is possible to quit .... I'm proud of you .......you won that battle ...

NOPE

NOPE

NOPE

NOPE

https://www.facebook.com/gswchp/videos/446098720382291 Jenn worked so hard, graduated from nursing school, and won two awards at her pinning ceremony! Way to go, DD!

@Mee, I'm really sorry to read your mom died so soon after you losing your dad And that's horrible what your brothers are doing! Hopefully your parents had a will and they'll have to give you your share. Or you could threaten to take them to court and since it would be where you are they would have to travel to court each time at their own expense lol. Anyway my friend just know I'm thinking positive thoughts that your New Year will be better...

15....Go Away !!!

Day 4 and I'm actually not doing to bad other than the headache gets pretty bad at times. My research tells me this is pretty normal when getting off of carbs and sugars. It's a lot like quitting smoking but I've seen some testimonials of people that went carnivore and kind of spontaneously quit smoking or alcohol. It's an interesting concept. I think much of the issue is inflammation, hormones and gut biome. As the inflammation heals, the hormones normalize and the gut biome stabilizes it changes who you are on a very microscopic level and the new you might be a non smoker. Anyway, I tipped the scale at 193.8 this morning so after 3 days i'm down 5.7 lbs. I'm sure most of that is water weight but I don't really care since I'm not suffering from the bloat or constipation. I'm also less concerned about weight and more focused on body composition. In regards to smoking, it doesn't seem to be causing any extra stress that would put my quit in jeopardy so whatever transition I have to suffer I'll deal with unless that changes. I hope everyone had a great day today and is getting ready to grab 2022 by the balls and beat it into submission. Stay smoke free everyone.

NOPE

NOPE

Day 3 of carnivore almost done. Somehow I have managed to not eat any of the leftover pecan pie for 3 days now. I haven't thrown it away yet because I'm afraid if I touch it I'll just end up shoving it down my throat. Maybe by tomorrow morning I'll have enough self control to get it out of the house through the side door instead of the toilet. That was gross. The scale showed me 195.0 this morning. I slept pretty good last night, I think I got about 6 and a half hours of sleep last night. That is a record for me since I quit smoking. 3 nights of six hour or better of sleep. Joints felt pretty good this morning. I could go down the stairs normally from the first step to the last right out of the bed. I'm also becoming aware of different things that have been going on that I've just never paid attention to before. So far in the short term the number of positives are outweighing the negatives, but the negatives are definitely a hell of a lot more intense. All the cravings were quite a bit more intense today but the bloating being so greatly diminished makes it worth it. I'm still not sure if drinking the water with either lemon/lime juice or apple cider vinegar is helping but doing it beats suffering and doing nothing. We shall see how this plays out but I did not smoke today so whatever else happened it was a success.

Happy Holidays everyone! I wanted to come back to this and answer my own question after nearly 2 years off the nicotine. I think the brain does recover 100%, or at least enough to feel like it's 100% recovered. I guess its been a few months now that I feel like I used to feel before I got hooked on nicotine so long ago. Feel normal again. Yay! So, yes, eventually you do feel normal again after quitting smoking! Just keep that quit!

Enjoying following your journey Yoda.... Quitting the smokes is only the first part ....I always find it interesting what route a newbie takes ... Your finding new ways of becoming a better you ....I'm Lovin it .

Yes of course the brain recovers. There is a before smoking, the smoking years and the after years. All are different, regarding your brain's neural pathways. Once you quit, you develop new pathways to food, routines and stress. Eventually after a couple of years you will have no reaction to the last list but life throws in funerals and redundancy e.t.c Don' smoke! and even these events will have no brain reaction. I have quit nearly 19 years and feel like i never smoked after 15 months.

Thanks, everyone, for your thoughtful replies and resources. Man, how I wish I never got hooked on nicotine. I will persevere! I'm betting that my brain will get back to normal in time. Not the addiction keyhole. That may always be there. It's a feeling. How I felt before getting hooked on nicotine. I want that feeling back. Gonna get it back! Gotta strive for it! I believe in hope. I shall persevere!

I smoked for 52 years !!!!! What happened in my quit I started to think of smoking less and less as time passed by .... Now I don't crave them at all....... Even when I went through a tough time last year ...I never gave them a thought... Every person is different ....and the Magic happens at different time of a quit ... But it happens .....If you dont light up again .....it's a journey ....not a race .....

Bump for the newbies.

Bump

Excellent post. Needs to be bumped up regularly.

Top notch post lad well done! Great reading...

Good post for our newbies..

tips for newbies! :)