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Hi to all here! I am 67, divorced, retired from the IT profession 3 years now! Originally from New York (Long Island) and now living in lovely Western North Carolina, w my boyfriend, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains. In February of 2017, I wound up being hospitalized for first time ever, due to a stroke that occurred while I was at work. I quit smoking, after 40+ yrs, that day! I was having a hard time about the 3 month mark and searched online for help and found my first quitting forum.... same one as @jillar , @Doreensfree and others on here! After that forum shut down, I stumbled onto Quit Train. I, too, think the online support was key to my staying quit along with NRT. I used the patch and the gum. Not long after my one year quit anniversary, in April 2018, I was informed I would need a CABGx4, asap! Coronary Artery Bypass surgery with 4 arteries needing replacement. Doc told me it was good that I had quit smoking the year before, as she had every confidence I would have a good outcome. She was right.... and it turned out I only needed 3 bypasses! Only!?!?! I had always considered myself to be in shape (I ate my veggies, walked 3-5 miles a day, took care of my house, in-ground pool and yard myself, was involved in various activities like bowling, scuba diving, gardening). I am extremely lucky that I was able to recover fully from the stroke and the bypass surgery. Smoking is an awful addiction and does so much damage. Take advantage of all the info that is here and read, read, read everything and watch the videos. Knowledge is power! PS I will be celebrating my anniversary of the bypass surgery by going to a Bon Jovi concert!!

NOPE

On the subject of breathing techniques, I did the 4-4-8 breathing technique early in my quit. Inhale through the nose for a count of four, hold the breath for four, and exhale slowly through the mouth for a count of eight. I started doing this breathing technique early in my quit to deal with cravings. I no longer crave cigarettes but still find the breathing technique helpful from time-to-time. Taking a little pause for the cause to focus on your breathing is like hitting the reset button for your body and mind.

NOPE…

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

NOPE!

Heck NOPE!

NOPE

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

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

Thanks @jillar I look forward to the day I break even from the cost of the gum, it will take about a month before I'm really saving money. Instead I am focusing on the number if cigs not smoked, all that tar I did not put into my body, all those chemicals avoided, all that stink I didn't have to smell of.

Good news: After you put in the time early in your quit, there's no real effort involved. You can simply enjoy being a non-smoker. Not smoking only feels weird for a while. Then you reach a place where not smoking begins to feel normal. Eventually, you will reach a point where not smoking is not a task but rather your new reality. Welcome to the Quit Train Gum_Addict.

One of the most beautiful in your series. So peaceful NOPE

A Big Fat NOPE.....Not Now ,Not Ever.

NOPE.

Thank you @jillar I created a ticker, I hope it worked.

Way to go, Yoda! You are an inspiration to this newcomer. If you can do it, hopefully I can do it too. Great job!

Thank you for responding to me with encouragement, it means a lot to me as I trudge my way through the first few weeks. I just chewed a non-nicotine gum instead and it feels like I have a real shot at quitting at the moment.

NOPE - Not One Puff Ever

Ticker works and looks good. Take pride in the time since you last smoked. Things will get better, even with coming off of the gum. You are doing a great thing.

NOPE

Welcome @gum_addict! You’ve got a great start on your quit going! Congratulations! Although I did not quit using nicotine gum, I did use the patch. Eventually, you are going to have to go through those three days of getting that nicotine out of your system. I started my complete withdrawal by forgetting to replace my patch one morning and decided if I could go the length of time I had without refreshing my mode of delivering nicotine into my system—I was done. And I was! I hope to see you around!

Thank you @jillar and @KEL, I am very committed and will be here for the long haul I smoked religiously for 42 years so I can appreciate putting time and effort into remaining smoke free for the next 42 years.

you can do it @gum_addict you got a great start and a great quit going

NOPE…

Thank you, Boo. I don't yet know when the day will come for me that not smoking will not be the largest thing in my life but I look forward to that day nonetheless. Today I am confident that I will not take a puff and that is all I know for sure on day 22.

That' ticker looks good on you @gum_addict, and look at all those savings already!

@Doreensfreethanks for the vote of confidence. I will continue to explore different things and provide updates...for the foreseeable future anyway!!

Enjoying your posts updates Yoda..... Dont look now ...but I have every faith you are doing to reach your Freedom ...

Hello and welcome ..I'm late !!!!....due to time Zones .... Congratulations on your wonderful Quit .... We have had successful quitters here,using the gum ..All road leads to Rome ... Al long as you keep to the plan to slowly ween of it ...knowing there will be a day when you are nicotine free, You should be ok ...I agree with using regular gum too... Read all you can on the Main Discussion Smoking Board ...there is tons of useful tips ... And Joel's videos ... Those who stay close and participate.... usually succeed ... Check out our games too..they keep you busy ..plus we could do with another chick in the chicks and stick game ..just sayin ....you can do it ...believe in yourself ..

@Edy 10 days is a great start. Sleep disruption is still a problem for me as well. I'm sure that there is some kind of connection to cigarette addiction and food addiction. I've found that if I don't try to quench a cigarette crave by eating some kind of carbo loaded food then both cravings will go away or at least diminish enough to not bother me after a while. I can see gluten being a problem for that as well. For me cleaning everything up at once wound up being easier to do. Hopefully you find a strategy that works for you and your quit goes smoothly. However difficult or easy it may be it's definitely worth it. Congrats again on your quit and hopefully you get some sleep.

Hey Yoda I think there is something in your hypothesis regarding connection between for example sugar addition and nicotine .. i have experienced more cravings for smoking when I was eating gluten .. sugar doesn't seem to effect me so much in that sense, but bread pasta etc... yes - how strange - probably similar mechanism to drinking alcohol and increased craving to smoke. Congrats on your quit! I am on my 10th day of quit .. can't sleep and so feeling like a zombie ..

5 months quit today. 153 days of not smoking. Time for a little reflection. In hindsight the first couple of weeks quit was a lot easier than month 2 to month 4. I had a lot of changes going on at that time and the positives of quitting were far out weighed by the negatives I was experiencing. The great equalizer for me was that I knew I had gotten to the point where smoking that next one would only make me want the one after that even more which is what led me to quit in the first place. What's the point of smoking if the crave never goes away? There was always that fear of emphysema in the back of my mind but that was never enough to get me to quit cause my lung function was still pretty good. Yeah, I would get the wheezes occasionally but it was never bad enough to actually scare me. Nope, the quit was mostly about the crave. It annoyed me that smoking that cigarette realistically only gave me about 2 minutes of relief from the crave after I put it out. I can see how some people become chain smokers because that's what I was becoming. Of course through all the struggle I came to the conclusion that the best defense against relapse was to get clean of everything. Trying to quench the crave with Mt. Dew, chips and candy bars was causing me extreme strife and much to my surprise I found out it was only making the craves worse!!! Funny how that happens, almost like there was a demon in my head hell bent on my demise by whatever means. Sugar addiction takes the same neural pathways as nicotine and heroine addiction, or so I've read. Don't take my word for anything about addiction as I'm just firing shit off the top of my head to reinforce my quit, but I digress. My hypothesis was the sugar and carb addiction was keeping the pathway open for the cigarette addiction and if I quit all of it then as the craving for one addiction lessened they would all lessen. And when I beat one I would beat them all because maybe they are really all just the same addiction. Maybe Lord of the Rings was on to something. One ring to rule them all and in the darkness bind them. Or in this case, one addiction to rule them all. Anybody know where Mt. Doom is? I'll go on a quest and throw the addiction back into the fire that made it. Was Mt. Doom even a place in that movie? I can't remember and it doesn't matter. What does matter is that I didn't smoke today. My goal is to destroy this addiction to the point it's not even a memory. I don't know if that is possible but the depth of our minds is inconceivable. We like to think the science of man has it all figured out but when you think about what our subconscious mind does just as a daily routine....I mean think about this, there are about 10 billion cells in our bodies that get destroyed and replaced everyday. Our subconscious controls all of that, in fact, if we had to think about if we would be dead in a matter of seconds because we can't even go to the grocery store and come out with everything we need without a list. So if we can get that kind of power programmed correctly to eliminate the addiction totally it should be able to do it in a matter of seconds...if we allow it. Something to think about, the power of the mind. Anyway, I've gone on long enough. If anybody is suffering through a crave and stumbles across this I hope it kept you occupied long enough for the worst of it to pass. And maybe it sparked an idea in you that could be of use to all of us. Please share it if it did. Peace.

Way to kick butt Yoda! Congratulations and keep it going. best wishes.

NOPE

@Edycongratulations. Ten days in is terrific. @intoxicated yodaWord. Truth. I do believe there is a connection with sugar and addiction. When I got off booze, I ate chocolate all day long. With this quit, I have had some chocolate but the exercise has balanced any weight gain. And then it just really becomes about the freedom. We don't crave stuff that is bad for us anymore. Or so we hope. Thanks for sharing the journey today! K

@gum_addict here is step by step directions for making yourself a ticker https://www.quittrain.com/topic/15042-creating-a-ticker/

@gum_addictwelcome and good job quitting smoking. it really doesn't matter how you get the job done as long as you get it done. 21 days is a great start. and that ticker is a great motivational tool.

Thanks again @jillar, I am very excited to have an online community to join and participate in. I will be sure to check out your suggestions. BTW, how do you add your ticker to the bottom of your posts? I am mostly interested in the number of cigarettes avoided, they add up fast!

I smoked for 35 years and I'm convinced that being a part of a forum with others who had been or were going through the same thing as me is how I achieved my forever quit and you can too, we got your back Check out all our different forums. We have our main board with tons of great information on our addiction. We also have a video forum if that's more your thing. Then we have our Social boards for when you want to stick close to your support but try to get your mind off your quit for a bit. Lots of fun threads there

The gifts from quitting just keep coming so I hope you will stick with it.

You keep rocking it yoda. I'm right behind you.

Thank you @Jonny5Just having someone respond and give support means a lot to me! In only 21 days I am noticing positive effects: My sense of taste and smell has returned I can breathe more deeply and easier My hands and feet stay warmer, and I no longer need an extra blanket to sleep My plan is to stick with my plan

Welcome! I used gum on my first quit but this time went cold-turkey. I'd defer to other members on their experience but just wanted to congratulate you on your 21 days. That is an amazing accomplishment. Stick around-this is a good place!

Welcome @gum_addict and congratulations on your three week quit, that's fantastic I went cold turkey myself but we do have members who have successfully quit by using the nicotine gum. I'll tag @notsmokinjo to give you some clues how she did it. You can also try alternating between nicotine gum and regular gum but obviously at some point you'll just need to go through the three days or so it takes to get the nicotine out of your system.

thanks for all the love, guys! it means more than you'll ever really know...

Welcome @gum_addict and congratulations on 21 days smoke free. I didn't quit by gum but I know a lot of people here did quit by a nicotine replacement treatment such as gum and they did quit the gum with time. You are doing a great thing in quitting smoking and being concerned about the gum.

intoxicated yoda 31 Posted yesterday at 07:35 PM honestly...even tho i've been quit for a few weeks, the cigs are still in control. I'm still an abstaining smoker. Most of my thoughts are dominated by the quit but that's okay. it has to be this way. my quit is a garden and right now it's full of weeds so it's going to take all my focus and effort to get all the weeds pulled. then once all the weeds are pulled it's going to take daily monitoring for new sprouts of weeds so i can dig down and find the roots. later it will take weekly monitoring for more weed sprouts so i can dig down further and get the rest of the roots. and then when i've gotten all the roots out and all the weeds are gone and there are only beautiful blooming flowers in my quit garden i still have to be vigilant in monitoring for weeds cause seeds will blow in on the wind from who knows where and they will pop up when and where i least expect them. but that is life. the garden, whatever it is be it quitting smoking or playing piano, must be tended. to do otherwise is to stop living. Link to original blog entry: Who's in Charge? https://www.quittrain.com/blogs/entry/1050-whos-in-charge/

3. Use for string art

Top-shelf quit BAT. Good job.