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I thank you all so much for your well wishes! Not going to tell a lie, I still want to smoke but at least at this point I know I am not going to do it. I may go to the grave wanting to smoke but I will be proud of how I got there without smoking. THANKS AGAIN

NOPE

Hello everyone@! Just stopping by to report. I'm currently at 140 days smoke free. Only having an occasional craving now. Not bad either. I just want Thank you to everyone who has been there for me during difficult times. It hasn't been easy. My wife, on the other hand, has started back up again. I don't seriously think that she ever quit. Oh well, alone I go. It really doesn't bother me knowing and seeing her smoke. Maybe, it will be her time just like this is my time. See you at 150 days!!!!!

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

NOPE…

NOPE!

Way to go, @Sal. I am so happy for you to have found your forever quit. Keep going strong - and keep us posted on how you're doing!

NOPE!

Nope!!!

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

What an awesome way to start my morning! Thank you for checking in and congratulations on 140 days! That's HUGE and you should be so proud of yourself

NOPE…

Congratulations Sal.... So glad to hear you are fighting to keep your quit ...a little further down the line your wife may see how it's done and follow until then ..Upwards and Onwards .

Nope!!!

Nopitty nope nope NOPE.

NOPE!

Congratulations Sal! Awesome job!

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

NOPE

This too shall pass...but it might take a little while. Ridding myself of the instinct to "reward" myself with a cigarette for a completed job was the last hump I got over in my quit. Eventually, I rewired my brain with a combination of repetition and time. Welcome aboard Engravosaurus. Congratulations on putting the pipe down. I've said it before and I'll say it again, time spent stacking BBs or nailing Jell-O to the wall is preferable to smoking.

This is great news Sal! Hopefully and over time, since your wife will witness first hand the benefits you gain from quitting smoking, she will eventually quit herself. You are right though. This is about you and your quit. And you should be so very proud of yourself! Congratulations on 4+ months!

I think the brain fog thing is from the covid, but I do like your choice in cough syrup!

Nope! I'd rather set myself on fire than light up a smoke!

NOPE!

Picks his nose

I'm actually feeling much better now on day 5 of my Covid journey Here's some take-aways I have so far from having contracted the strain of this virus that I got ( whatever variant that was?). And remember .... I'm an X-smoker just like the rest of you who smoked for decades and damaged my poor lungs way more than I ever wanted to. 1. There's no way to tell where or even when I actually got the virus. I'm pretty careful with masking and social distancing and hand washing since the onset of Covid yet still ....... I got the virus somehow/somewhere. It's a balance of living life vs staying safe at all costs and clearly, there was a bullet in the chamber for me after 2.5 years of dodging this thing. 2. It's NOT like a cold and it's NOT like the flu. It shares a few symptoms with those illnesses but somehow, Covid feels very different. I clearly had a mild case and I never felt it was affecting my lungs. More of an upper airways thing (throat & nose). 3. The brain fog I had was real and a little concerning. It scares me to not feel I'm in control of my focus and motor functions. I was not in control for at least two days or so (good thing I wasn't driving). 4. The fatigue I experienced was fairly mild - not like being knocked on your a*s as the flu tends to do. It was fleeting and came on me suddenly, without warning at times. Sleep was not in large chunks but in small bites. 5. I did not experience many symptoms that others experience like, fever and debilitating headaches. I suppose I was lucky in that regard. I was not sick to my stomach and ate regularly although in lesser volume. I kept hydrated throughout. 6. The coughing was unrelenting at times and unproductive mostly but sometimes producing a bit of clear mucus. 7. My biggest beef with having Covid is that I completely lost all sense of taste and smell! This still persists even though I am feeling pretty decent now and other symptoms are weakening. I had heard this was a very common symptom but I promise you; you can never understand just how profoundly this affects your daily routine until you experience it. I know I did not comprehend what effect that would have on me. Suddenly, mealtime is a disappointment - something to be avoided. Unfulfilling best describes it! Eating become merely a life sustaining function without the joy of mouthwatering flavours. Textures, temperature & spices are all you can hope to experience. I long for the return of taste more than anything at this point. Texture & sustenance is not enough! Not sure why I wrote this down because it just my experience but perhaps it will serve some purpose in illustrating what some aspects of a Covid experience might be like for others?

NOPE

It is a great thing you have done, you have learned to love yourself and be committed to your health. I remember when you joined the board, struggling and confused. Now look at you, you have done it! You have changed your life for the better. I know you must feel better physically and mentally. I am sorry to hear that Anita is smoking again. I know the two of you love each other very much. At the end of the day, sometimes, we have to do what we feel is best for our health. In the big picture each of us is responsible for our own health. I hope at some point she will see how much better you feel since you quit. When she is ready she will follow your lead. For now keep on going....

Key facts •Tobacco kills up to half of its users. •Tobacco kills more than 8 million people each year. More than 7 million of those deaths are the result of direct tobacco use while around 1.2 million are the result of non-smokers being exposed to second-hand smoke. •Over 80% of the world's 1.3 billion tobacco users live in low- and middle-income countries. Leading cause of death, illness and impoverishment The tobacco epidemic is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced, killing more than 8 million people a year around the world. More than 7 million of those deaths are the result of direct tobacco use while around 1.2 million are the result of non-smokers being exposed to second-hand smoke.(1) All forms of tobacco are harmful, and there is no safe level of exposure to tobacco. Cigarette smoking is the most common form of tobacco use worldwide. Other tobacco products include waterpipe tobacco, various smokeless tobacco products, cigars, cigarillos, roll-your-own tobacco, pipe tobacco, bidis and kreteks. Waterpipe tobacco use is damaging to health in similar ways to cigarette tobacco use. However, the health dangers of waterpipe tobacco use are often little understood by users. Smokeless tobacco use is highly addictive and damaging to health. Smokeless tobacco contains many cancer-causing toxins and its use increases the risk of cancers of the head, neck, throat, oesophagus and oral cavity (including cancer of the mouth, tongue, lip and gums) as well as various dental diseases. Over 80% of the 1.3 billion tobacco users worldwide live in low- and middle-income countries, where the burden of tobacco-related illness and death is heaviest. Tobacco use contributes to poverty by diverting household spending from basic needs such as food and shelter to tobacco. The economic costs of tobacco use are substantial and include significant health care costs for treating the diseases caused by tobacco use as well as the lost human capital that results from tobacco-attributable morbidity and mortality. In some countries children from poor households are employed in tobacco farming to boost family income. Tobacco growing farmers are also exposed to a number of health risks, including the "green tobacco sickness". Surveillance is key Effective monitoring tracks the extent and character of the tobacco epidemic and indicates how best to implement policies. Key measures to reduce the demand for tobacco Second-hand smoke kills •Second-hand smoke is the smoke that fills enclosed spaces when people burn tobacco products such as cigarettes, bidis and water-pipes. •There is no safe level of exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke, which causes more than 1.2 million premature deaths per year and serious cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. •Almost half of children regularly breathe air polluted by tobacco smoke in public places, and 65 000 die each year from illnesses attributable to second-hand smoke. •In infants, it raises the risk of sudden infant death syndrome. In pregnant women, it causes pregnancy complications and low birth weight. •Smoke-free laws protect the health of non-smokers and are popular, as they do not harm business and they encourage smokers to quit. Pictorial health warnings work •Large pictorial or graphic health warnings, including plain packaging, with hard hitting messages can persuade smokers to protect the health of non-smokers by not smoking inside the home, increase compliance with smoke-free laws and encourage more people to quit tobacco use. •Studies show that pictorial warnings significantly increase people's awareness of the harms from tobacco use. •Mass media campaigns can also reduce demand for tobacco by promoting the protection of non-smokers and by convincing people to stop using tobacco. Bans on tobacco advertising lower consumption •Comprehensive bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship can reduce tobacco consumption. •A comprehensive ban covers both direct and indirect varieties of promotion. °Direct forms include, among others, advertising on television, radio, print publications, billboards and more recently in various social media platforms. °Indirect forms include, among others, brand sharing, brand stretching, free distribution, price discounts, point of sale product displays, sponsorships and promotional activities masquerading as corporate social responsibility programmes. Taxes are effective in reducing tobacco use •Tobacco taxes are the most cost-effective way to reduce tobacco use and health care costs, especially among youth and low-income people, while increasing revenue in many countries. •The tax increases need to be high enough to push prices up above income growth. An increase of tobacco prices by 10% decreases tobacco consumption by about 4% in high-income countries and about 5% in low- and middle-income countries. •Despite this, introducing high tobacco taxes is a measure that is least implemented among the set of available tobacco control measures. Link to world Health Organization: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs339/en/

I am happy with anything, just glad we are doing it! I don't care what you call me as long as you don't call me a smoker!

You can speed weed for me if you run out of weeds there! Kudos to you @engravosaurus, for finding an alternate to the rituals you were going through. You're doing great!

NOPE

Nope

I, too, have this challenge, Loren. Smoking is SUCH a ritualized activity. I think you are smart to find other ways to engage yourself. For 40+ years I used smoking to punctuate my life. Wake up, have a smoke. Complete a task, have a smoke. Need to think, have a smoke. etc. 3+ months into my quit and the initial withdrawal cravings are done, but I often still feel a deep "pull" to smoke. Instead, I'm (still) doing a lot of wall pushups. Like you, I am finding new things to drink. (Sugar free Power Ade on ice is my latest.) I come here to the Train to reply to the daily NOPE pledge or play a game. When when the pull gets really strong, I "speed-weed." Dash outside to a flower bed, pull as many weeds as I can in 8 minutes, dash inside, wash my hands, and be back at my desk to resume work in under 10 minutes. It's a little silly and somewhat sweaty, but it's not smoking - and that's what counts!

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

The junkie mind ...boggling !!!! We actually thought killing ourselves slowly was a Reward ....for when ever we did anything ... Quitting was to me ,like a toddler ,learning to do things for the first time ....without my pacifier.... Try some regular gum ..it keeps your mouth and your brain busy ...soon the new will become the Norm ..

Victory 11x- One year coming in hot

Congratulations on eleven(!) months and great job making it happen, Kris! Every smoke-free day you put in the books makes your quit a little more solid, even when it doesn't always feel that way.

@Kris, yahoo!!! Eleven months is super! You are racking up the months!

Congratulations Kris, you are doing so good. One month away from the Lido deck. Don't forget to reward yourself today for this great accomplishment.

Nice going! 11 months and you can see the finish line to your Lido celebration

@Kris 11 months is awesome!! You have struggled hard to get there my friend but I knew you could do it!!! Your one strong lady!!

Awesome quit @Kris

You are doing awesome, @Kris Congratulations on 11 months smoke free!

Great job Kris. Congratulations.

Eleven months Kris ....Wow !!!! You have fought so hard for your freedom ....your Lido Party is just around the corner .. I'm so happy for you ...

WooHoo @Kris! Lido Deck in one month!!! You have done amazingly well. I realize that your quit was filled with some hard fought battles, but you survived them all! Thank you for being such a help to those who ask for it. You have been a great source of support since you first hopped onto the train!

Way to go, @Kris! Big congrats on 11 months of hard-won freedom. Disco Turtle and I are doin' a little dance in honor of your life-affirming work to ditch the smokes!