MarylandQuitter

I was traveling way too much. My last job in the horticulture industry I traveled an awful lot (gone 4 out of every 5 weeks) and did so for 8 years. It got old but I got to see much of the United States and Canada which was nice. The work was a bit stressful as I was doing Patent administration and enforcement for U.S. Patents and well as foreign Patents for clients. I was the Field Coordinator for North America. It was time to relax and live a normal life.

Say whaaaaaaa? 24 more than the dead? Must be the tree pollen getting to you. :scratch_one-s_head: What is your favorite song?

Ohio and Pennsylvania are known for saying pop. What makes you special? You forget where you came from? lol :rofl:

Yeah, mail them to me and I'll start them for you. lol J/K Nope, no more greenhouses. I work in the concrete jungle of Washington, D.C. now :)

Not One Puff, Ever. Period. /story

I pledge to not smoke today, all 47 minutes that are left of it. :)

Okay, but before you moved to Texas, you didn't say "pop" as a general term for soft drinks like Pepsi, Coke, Dr. Pepper, Fanta, Mountain Dew, 7up, Snapple, Faygo, Sprite, Canada Dry, A&W, Shasta, Sunkist Orange, Barq's root beer, Mug root beer, RC Cola, Mellow Yellow, Diet Rite or even Stewarts?

All annuals and an herb garden. I take care of the gardens (I was in the horticulture industry for 20+ years). I built that pond and had it displayed at two businesses before it ended up in my back yard. It took me approximately 45 min to an hour to water everything at my house. I used to own/operate a garden center and wholesale greenhouse business which consisted of over 100,000 sq/ft of glass covered greenhouses so everything single annual in those pics were either started by seed or cutting and grown by yours truly. Prior to that, I was the production manager for an international plant breeder which had 750,000 sq/ft of glass covered houses. Needless to say, I'm very particular on how things are taken care of so I'm the gardener at the ranch (not too much these days though). PS, those pics were from my house in Ohio and few others were from landscaping jobs that I did on the side here in Maryland two years ago.

Do you say "pop" or "soda"?

Eating asparagus will give your urine a strong odor to the point that it will give the air an unpleasant aroma. http://www.dailycal.org/2013/04/17/fun-food-fact-of-the-week-why-asparagus-makes-urine-smell-funny/

Most people are even afraid to try to quit smoking. Take that leap of faith and quit before it's too late. You've already found a great quit smoking support group so what else do you need to quit?

Do you have a question? :on_the_quiet2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YL4Sl6oVuyk

Is that a question or....lol I like asparagus as well.

2 miles and every stride sucked. Time moves so slow while running on a treadmill. The treadmill and I, we have a love/hate relationship but unlike most other love/hate relationships, this is one is actually healthy. :sensored:

He certainly does but nobody ever makes them except for Christmas. :cray:

Every aspect of our lives revolved around smoking so when we quit smoking, like you said, it's natural to think about it all the time and it's not pleasant if we think we're depriving ourselves of something. Quit for just one hour at a time. Many smokers fail at breaking free because they sell themselves on the lie that the mountain is just too big to climb. Sadly, they've fed their mind such rubbish so long that it believes it as much as their name. Still, it doesn't stop them from trying. Every few years they'll take a few steps, stop and decide that the mountain is still too big. It isn't that they are too lazy to climb, afraid of heights or lack the desire It's that most convince themselves that there are just too many steps to take while having almost no insight into how many there actually are. Not only do they not have a map home, they've forgotten who they were. Buried beneath a pile of nicotine induced dopamine "aaah" "pay attention" memories -- possibly the most high definition memories their mind has ever produced -- they now have very little if any remaining memory of the calm and quiet that occupied their mind before nicotine took control. It's why those first steps into recovery are often taken on faith. But if faith is to survive challenge it needs to be nourished not starved. Imagine loving to eat beef but thinking about dinner while picturing yourself having to eat an entire cow (actually a steer). That's about five hundreds pounds of beef. Impossible! It'd get pretty discouraging rather fast, wouldn't it! But that's how most new quitters think about quitting. The pit their dreams, desires and faith against the biggest mental meal imaginable, "forever", that success can only be achieved by quitting forever. Sitting down and eating 500 pounds of beef truly is impossible. Navigating the up to 72 hours it takes for your body to become nicotine free and for withdrawal to peak in intensity is not only possible, it has already been done by the hundreds of millions of now comfortable ex-smokers who walked this path before you. How does one consume 500 pounds of beef? One steak at a time. How do you navigate the most challenging period of nicotine detox and withdrawal, the first three days? One hour and challenge at a time! As for beef, the average American consumes about 60 pounds of beef per year and thus consumes an entire steer once every 9 years. But forget 9 years. As with ending a fine meal, celebrate each hour of freedom and healing for the full and complete victory it reflects. We smokers are impatient people. We want results now! But it isn't our fault. Our minds have been conditioned by our addiction to expect immediate relief from the anxiety of early withdrawal. Smoking nicotine was quick and dependable. Within 8 to 10 seconds of that first puff nicotine we could actually feel it arrive in our brain as that "aaah" replenishment sensation was felt. Every two hours the amount of nicotine remaining in our blood was cut by half. Within 20 to 30 minutes we would again sense our blood nicotine level falling to the point that minor discomfort arrived, and we'd again obtain almost immediate relief as new nicotine laden smoke was sucked into crying lungs. A pack-a-day smoker repeats this cycle of obtaining immediate relief about 7,300 times a year. Yes, we nicotine addicts are impatient people when it comes to bringing an abrupt halt to the symptoms of withdrawal but then we have good reason to be, as our drug was in charge of conditioning. Those successful at recovery all learned to control their impatience by ignoring the size of the cow and height of the mountain as they continue taking just one bite and one step at a time. All lengthy tasks in life require baby steps in order to finish what we've started. we can't build a beautiful wall with just one brick, receive a new baby after one month of pregnancy, obtain a college degree with just one class, or cook a delicious holiday dinner in seconds. Imagine getting half the meal cooked and then leaving the kitchen or building half a wall and walking away. Going the distance in life is normal. Swimming half way across the river and stopping is not. Do you dream of being free? Is there any doubt in your mind that you can stop smoking for just one hour? If so, you already have the building blocks needed break nicotine's grip upon your mind and life, but only if you fully accept the Law of Addiction, that just one powerful puff, dip or chew of nicotine and relapse is all but assured. Not only has nicotine taken your brain's reward pathways hostage, it has rewired those pathways by growing millions of extra nicotinic type acetylcholine receptors in at least 11 different regions. They call it upregulation and it's related to an addiction concept known as tolerance, the gradually increasing need over the years to use more nicotine in order to achieve the same effect. No subconscious crave episode lasts longer than three minutes but time distortion during recovery is as real as your name so be sure and look at a clock. Keep your eye on the path and try not to look ahead and do your best to enjoy the hour, don't dread it. It doesn't have to be difficult and if you'll allow your dreams to flood your mind you may even find joy in it. The hour could be flat and level or it might be a bit bumpy. Your subconscious mind might sense your calmness and dreams and relax along with you, or sense fear and begin issuing forth anxiety command that beg you to throw in the towel. Either way it's just one hour, and so is the hour that follows. See each hour of freedom as the full and complete victory that it is. Slowly they'll build and within 72 hours your blood will be nicotine-free and your mind will have no choice but to begin sensing what it's going to be like taking a long overdue rest from an endless lifetime chemical cycle of nicotine, dopamine and adrenaline highs and lows. With each passing hour you'll move closer and closer to that moment when the underlying current of anxieties (if any) begin easing off. Be sure and get plenty of rest as a tired mind is easier to betray. Also be sure and drink plenty of fruit juice the first three days (cranberry is excellent) to help stabilize blood sugar and don't skip any meals. Nicotine fed you with each puff by indirectly causing stored fats and sugars to be released into your blood. You may need to learn to spread your normal daily calorie intake out more evenly over your entire day. If you try skipping meals after ending all nicotine use you'll experience wild blood sugar swings and concentration difficulties that can making recovery miserable. Also, if you were a big caffeine drinker you need to know that nicotine doubled the rate at which caffeine was depleted by the body (203%). If you were not a big caffeine user you have nothing to worry about but if a heavy user (greater than 750mg. ) you'd be well advised to reduce your intake by roughly half but do not give up all caffeine as that can intensify recovery as well. Some of us have spent a large part of our life learning to be good little nicotine addicts. Although it's not realistic for us to expect to learn to be a good little ex-smokers overnight, it is realistic to deeply believe that the next few minutes and that each is entirely doable! Do you deserve to see what it's like being "you" again? If you don't remember what it was like inside your mind prior to nicotine taking control don't feel alone as can. Believe in your dreams and believe in you. Don't be afraid as you're leaving nothing behind and everything you did while enslaved you'll again do as well as or better once free! Baby steps to glory! Freedom is your birthright and there's only one rule no nicotine today. The next few minutes are doable and there's only one rule if followed provides a 100% guarantees of success - just one hour at a time, no nicotine today! Breathe deep, hug hard, live long, John R. Polito Nicotine Cessation Educator

A happy quit smoking birthday to you, SueBedoo!

I use the Sonicare Diamond Clean and love it. My dentist uses it and she told me to get it so I back in Feb 2013 so I did. It took me awhile to get used to but now it feels strange to use the SOS pads that I had always used. As it turned out, the steel wool wasn't too good for the enamel on my teeth but I got them sprayed at the local body shop pretty cheap and they even through in some metal flake for no extra charge.

NOPE

A smart, cool and a fine figure of a man. That's who.

Food: Green Beans Singer/Songwriter: Gordon Lightfoot Color: Blue and Orange Combo Author: John Grisham Movie: Jeremiah Johnson TV Show: Northern Exposure Comedian: Dave Chappelle Baseball Team: Baltimore Orioles Football Team: Baltimore Ravens Athlete: Bo Jackson (Dave Winfield a close 2nd) Instrument: Piano Beverage: Coffee (properly brewed) City: Boston, MA Vacation Spot: Fripp Island Favorite Exercise: Dumbbell Presses Dog: German Shepherd Cat: Bengal

Glad that you're feeling "okay" and not in some kind of dire straits. Day 2 is almost in the books so before it ends, are you struggling with anything? Any concerns?

My 5 yr old daughter wanted to go into the garage the other night and listen to some music.lol She was going to through some CD's and the next thing I know this song comes on, she grabs my hand and wants to dance. We listened to it over and over and she said it was "our song". :heart: This evening while I was waxing my grill with Adam's Buttery Wax, she takes out my Social Distortion CD and puts "our song" back in and starts playing it. Then she informed me that it's no longer "our song" but she still likes it. :excl: Anyway, I had never heard this song prior to her playing it the other night (at least I don't remember ever hearing it) but it's now one of my favorites. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uE6qUZeP5jA