Boo

Way to go Overcome. Good job.

Congratulations on reaching the lido deck DenaliBlues. I was late for the party, but I'm making up time.

Great job Catlover. Top-shelf quit all-around. This gif doesn't really fit, I just liked it.

Same here. I spent a lot of time procrastinating about finally quitting. I didn't call it procrastination, I called it "planning." Finally took the dive. Flew by the seat of my pants for a while...turned out to be one of the best decisions of my life.

Welcome aboard Molly. Good call on giving up the smokes. That's the way it's done. You're doing great.

Top-shelf quit Ace. Good job.

Saying goodbye to loved ones is never easy. It hurts and there's no way around it. I think sometimes we put too much pressure on ourselves looking for "closure." I'm not sure when seemingly everybody started using that word, it just happened one day. You don't close the book on the ones you love, you move on to the next chapter. This is an important realization. We try to fill voids in our life with all types of things. At best, they are loving distractions. At worst, they are actually compounding our problems at our lowest times. Regardless of which it is, we are only delaying the inevitable; we will eventually have to deal with the actual issue. Kris, I think you've only begun to tap into the strength you are capable of. Hang in there, better days are ahead.

Enjoying a typical quite night at home. Spent time reinforcing the makeshift boundary wall we had to build around the Christmas tree and pulled a rescue mission after Jackson got himself stuck trying to go under a chair to get to the tree. He loves to pull at the lights and rip wrapping paper. So much so we had to put an ottoman, a hope chest, and various other items around the tree to keep him walled off. An eight month old boy whose only recently become mobile and is full of curiosity will keep you on your toes.

Merry Christmas Quit Train!

Good to hear from you Doreen. Hope all is well down under. Me...I'm getting ready for the cold weather that's moving into my neck of the woods. Better to be over-prepared than not prepared enough I say.

Special Christmas dedication going out to the lovely and talented Sugar Britches. Her favorite Christmas song...

It's entirely possible. I guided between 1991 and 1997. Worked at Cherokee Rafting for a couple of years then went to work for NOC. If you heard a lecture from your guide about the glories of taking the hero route as opposed to the chicken route or remember the phrase "Hold on to your T-grip like it holds the cure for all that ails you."...That was probably me. None of us got rich guiding rafts, but it's unlikely that anyone had more fun at work than we did.

I'm a dedicated river rat. Started off with whitewater kayaking. Made the decision to make the move to canoes instead of kayaks after one particularly close call on Big Soddy Creek. Worked as a raft guide on the Ocoee and Nantahala rivers during my younger days. Haven't been doing as much whitewater running over the last couple of years. Now that I'm a full-fledged adult with responsibilities, I can't just drop everything for a couple of days chasing rain and flood stage creeks all over the South like I used to. I still get in plenty of time on the water though. I've been doing a lot of fishing lately. Mostly freshwater fly fishing, but I'll break out a spinning reel from time-to-time and fish anything from the Tennessee River down to small farm ponds. We're looking at making another trip down to Florida next year...get into some saltwater action.

Congratulations DenaliBlues. You are building a great quit for yourself.

Towards the end of week one and into week two of my quit, I do remember feeling lethargic at times only to feel very energetic a few moments later. It was a roller coaster ride there for a few days. It takes the body a while to sort things out after quitting smoking. Cigarettes have an adverse effect on every system in the body. That's the bad news. The good news is: our body's ability to heal itself is nothing short of miraculous. Hang in there Dizzy. You're getting better by the minute.