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Nope

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

NOPE

N O P E

NOPE - I don't smoke anymore

Nope!

NOPE!! Nice pic @Reciprocity, is that from your cruise?

NOPE!

Congratulations @Christian99 on 23 years quit! And thank you for sticking around and paying it forward all these years. I hope you're doing well and do something special for yourself today

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

Gday I light a mozzie coil ever night from here on in till winter on our back verandah. My bbq lighter a gas lighter with a long flexable neck had died on me. Kept forgetting to buy another and was getting bored of pulling the grates out of the Grill and lighting the burners with the built in clicker then lighting the mozzie coil then reassembling the bbq. Forgot to buy one again! Stopped at the servo ( gas station) and bought an old school box of match’s to cover me. Well lighting a match was interesting. Woow that little Nico monster sprang up trying to remind me that was the smell when you light a cigarette. I’ve not light a match in years and I was shocked at first but I just said “really?” And refused to argue the point with trigger Never give a crave any power by taking it seriously. Tonight used a match again to light the mozzie coil and …. Nothing really. Yes I like that old school sulphur smell. It’s a comfortable smell from the past but cigarette smoke No that’s not what I’d think of as anything nice. Im not worried about not having a bbq lighter now. I’m just going to enjoy that matches smell for a few days more. I rather like sticking it too that little Nico monster thinking it could ambush me……

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NOPE…

Back off the boat and home bringing my NOPE!! with me...

Me too @Cbdave. Thanks for sharing this experience. Certain smells and sounds are really evocative of smoking for me, also. What gets me most is the smell of wet leaves and rivers. The longer my quit becomes, the more these things hit me as powerful body memories - not actual temptations to smoke again. It’s nice to be able to differentiate between the two feelings… which I couldn’t do early in my quit.

Congratulations on 23 years! I'm sure you're a better teacher after quitting and overcoming the challenges you've had. I think most quitters are better people because of the process.

Hello @Cbdave.... It's amazing how deep seated those nicotine craving triggers can emerge out of nowhere eh? Good for you for just allowing that nasty old trigger and craving to just be without giving it any power or control. That nico Monster no longer has any power over you becasue you are shining the light of awareness on it. You are absolutely right that the thought of smoking and a craving for smoking is not a command to smoke. Many thanks for sharing your story. Good for you for keeping the quit. Warm Regards, Gene

To Quitter G Im giving you some swimming gear for your swims To Penguin A lovely New Bow Tie .

Gday To any thinking of giving the smokes away and thinking that Chris still gets craves at 9 years……. Forget that junky thoughts. Ive had that reminder…. Wouldn’t give it the name of crave, makes you Think it’s got power. As a smoker yes I’ll never forget and frankly that my strength not a weekness. As a smoker I’d have 20 craves a day and gave into most of them! Now I’ve had one little pissy reminder in so many years not hours. I’ll give you a promise! You know those craves Yes those ones you thought were impossible to ignore. The first cig off the day , the post meal one. Etc Well because you face them more they are the first to weaken and disappear. You ignore and wait out a crave and in 5 mins it’s gone and guess what you’ll still be here. If it comes back you’ll be stronger and it will be weaker…. And weaker. I’m not scared of a crave. I don’t fight them I just ignore them…..

NOPE!!

Congratulations on 23 years clean!

Thank you, Penguin. I'm not interested in being judged but if others think I'm not quitting right, well, that's ok too. I'm way too old to give a thought about what anyone thinks. Personally, I will be supportive of anyone who finds a way out! I'm truly working on it and I really appreciate your support.

Gday I've got a secret spy who’s going to infiltrate Santa’s hideout and find out what we are getting for Christmas ……

Congratulations on 23 years smoke free @Christian99 and thanks for still working to help others. Great job!

This is Mega Massive Congratulations . Thank you for coming here and helping those on their journey Celebrate in Style

We will always have to be on our guard I suppose … We smoked a long time … Well done Dave . You stayed strong

23 years! That’s so inspiring! Cheers to you, @Christian99… and thanks so much for your support. There were some rocky moments early in my quit where your words really helped to keep me on track. So grateful for you. Happy anniversary!!

About Me This is my third quit site, and I was saddened by the loss of my first two. I was extremely active for about 12 years on the first one, and then it radically changed in ways that made me uncomfortable. So I left. The second one simply disappeared into cyberspace after I was on it for a couple of years. I'm happy to be here, but I'm a bit reluctant to invest as much as I did with those previous sites. Briefly, I've been quit since late 2001, and I was able to quit by pairing smoking cessation with other significant changes in nutrition and exercise. It was not easy at all (an understatement to be sure), but I persisted; interestingly and surprisingly (especially given how miserable I was for so long), I haven't had a single craving or even passing thought of smoking a cigarette since sometime in 2003. Not one. And I've had a fairly eventful couple of decades since then. Regarding some of those "events," seven years after I quit (at age 40 and in excellent physical condition), I suffered a major (so-called "widowmaker") heart attack and cardiac arrest outside of a hospital setting, and it was pretty miraculous that I: a) survived; and b) survived without any cognitive impairments. Indeed, the cardiologist who saved my life characterized my survival and recovery as a "once-in-a-career outcome." I'll note, too, that my 42 year old brother died a terrible death from lung cancer and his wife committed suicide on the very same day that I had my heart attack and cardiac arrest. (They died as I was in a coma in the hospital.) So I guess you could say that was a pretty crappy day for my family. My recovery from the heart attack was challenging and frustrating, but I very explicitly used the lessons of my quit as I tried to take one day at a time in regaining my strength and stamina and maximizing the efficiency of my remaining healthy heart muscle. I now run regularly and even participate in road races. I'm really proud that I've run 5 half-marathons, 2 ten milers, ten 15Ks and dozens of 10Ks and 5Ks since my widowmaker. (And although I'm pretty slow, I've never stopped or walked in any of those races.). *****Unfortunately, in mid-2022 I began to experience significant hip pain; after attempting some non-invasive therapies, in late 2022 I had major hip surgery in an attempt to save my hip. The easier option would have been a total hip replacement (and I still may ultimately need that), but given my age (54) and the fact that a prosethetic hip would dramatically reduce my ability to run, we decided to pursue a more complicated surgery involving bone grafts. It's a long and challenging recovery (about six months), but once again I'm trying to use the lessons of my quit to help me through***** *****That December surgery was not successful. Thus, in June 2023 I had a total hip replacement, which has effectively ended my running career. I'm disappointed, to be sure, and still in the very early stages of recovery and in a lot of pain. But it had to be done. It's been a really challenging year (the hip pain initially developed in October, so I've been in pain and unable to walk for eight months now), but my smoke-free life remains something of which I am enormously proud.****** ******Terrible development....Over the last several months, been having increasing pain in the artificial hip (which was replaced 11 months ago), and the surgeon is concerned that I've developed an infection in the hip, a rare but devastating outcome. Getting some testing done this week and next that should confirm things either way, but if it is, indeed, infected, I'm looking at multiple major surgeries and a 9-12 month recovery. As worrying is the fact that a certain percentage of people in my situation actually never clear the infection, leading to amputation or death. It sucks balls.****** By profession, I'm a college teacher, and I love my work. The training for it was interminably long and extremely stressful (and not at all unrelated to the health catastrophe at age 40), but it's an absolute privilege to work with students as they strengthen academic skills and refine professional goals. While I certainly wish I could grown less painfully, there is no question in my mind that I'm a better, more humane educator as a result of the challenges I experienced with quitting in 2001-2 and with my health crisis in 2008. Interesting fact about me: I've never had a smartphone (and have never sent/received a text), and I expect that I never will. I made the decision to remain phone free after they began to become pretty ubiquitous on the campus at which I work (I dunno...maybe 2008?), and I saw the majority of people--students and faculty alike--hunched over their phones and not experiencing life itself. It just looked so sad to me, and I recognized that I'd probably do the same if I had such a device; thus, I decided to resist and reject them altogether. I do have an old school flip phone in my car for emergencies, but that's it.

Hi @maryb... I am glad that you found this site. Making a decision to stop smoking is a huge decision and you will find lots of support here. Please check in with us and let us know how you are doing. Welecome aboard Gene

To Quitter @Doreensfree... I'm giving you this cozy no smoking comforter blanket to keep you warm.

Band Aid 30 - Do They Know It's Christmas? (Official Video) [4K]

For the upcoming Christmas holdiday......

Congratulations NSJ! I miss your presence here! So glad to celebrate #7 with you!

20

NOPE!!

Through all this adversity, smoking would not have helped one little bit. A timely reminder as I grapple with my own medical issues. And along the way, you not only kept your own quit… but you also supported me and many others in our bids for freedom. So grateful! There are some good souls riding this train!!

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