Boo

Exercise is a great natural mood booster. It doesn't need to be an intense workout, could just be a brisk walk-around. Anything that gets your heart rate up. Exercise is also a great way to deal with unwanted weight gain. Two birds, one stone.

I love Westerns. The "Spaghetti Westerns" of Sergio Leone are my favorites. Obviously the ones with Clint Eastwood are always highly recommended: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, A Fistful of Dollars, and For a Few Dollars More are all considered classics for good reason. Eastwood wasn't in Once Upon a Time in the West, but that may well have been the best Western Leone ever produced. John Ford produced so many classics, most starring John Wayne: The Searchers, Rio Grande, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, How the West was Won...not a bad one in the bunch. Those movies not only hold up well, I think they look better than most of the movies made today. I recently watched several of Akira Kurosawa's films. Kurosawa was heavily influenced by John Ford and later Sergio Leone was influenced by Kurosawa. The themes of Kurosawa's movies were very similar to Westerns only with samurais instead of cowboys. I will always consider Seven Samurai the best Western that isn't actually a Western. Jeremiah Johnson is more of a story about a mountain man than a cowboy, but I really like that movie. It is an overlooked gem. And while they may never be considered classics and were not critically acclaimed, it is ridiculous how many times I've watched Tombstone and those Young Guns movies. That's just good, clean, all-American fun right there.

Eight is great. Good job Opah.

Congratulations Abby. You've built a rock-solid quit for yourself.

"Smoking helps me relax" is one of the great lies of smoking. A lie agreed upon is still a lie. A cigarette will temporarily relieve nicotine withdrawal symptoms, but is useless beyond that. The cigarette only solves the problem created by the cigarette. We smoked because we were addicted to nicotine. We were addicted to nicotine because we smoked.

Addiction to nicotine and years of conditioning ourselves with cigarettes makes for quite the one-two punch. It takes some time, but you'll get through it. Buckle up, knuckle down, and drive on.

Not a banjo player. I play stringed instruments the same way most people speak a foreign language for the first time. I do tell dirty jokes. I have a dirty joke for practically every occasion. And I almost never forget my pants now...almost never.

Soon after I hopped on the Quit Train, I became good friends with Doreen. It all started over a conversation of banjo music and a dirty joke. You join this site because you quit smoking. Where it goes from there is anybody's guess.

Good job Kris. By the time I got to day ten in my quit, I used that as motivation. There were times when I wanted to smoke but figured since I already had some time in I might as well keep going. Ten days is something you can build on.

It's that time of the year again...

Expect good days and bad days. Expect fluctuations in your weight. They're gonna happen, so you might as well expect them to happen. It's less of a surprise that way. World class athletes do not maintain peak physical condition year-round. It's not uncommon for top-ranked boxers to come into camp overweight and a bit out of shape. They put in the work during training camp and are in prime condition on fight night...ideally. Then the cycle begins all over again. As for those fitness models on Instagram who are perpetually in perfect shape, there is a lot of smoke and mirrors involved in that. Or more specifically a lot of Photoshop. Don't compare yourself to those people. They present an unrealistic and disingenuous view of what healthy living should look like. I've been eating clean for a few weeks now. However, last week we had a birthday party for my daughter. I ate cheeseburgers and potato wedges. I had cake and ice cream. I didn't beat myself up over it. I'm not going to spend a wonderful day with family and friends fretting over calories and macros. I'll get back to eating clean tomorrow. Besides one day of indulgence in not going to derail my entire fitness routine. I get a little fat every year around Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day. It's not a big problem. January rolls around and I get my ass into gear. Live your life. Do the right things more often than not. Accept the fact that some days are going to be better than others.

Just in the nick of time. Sat down, started putting on my shoes, had that feeling that something was missing...pants! I'm not wearing any pants. The brain fog was thick that morning.

Welcome aboard Steven. Good call on giving up the smokes. When you quit smoking, you enjoy benefits that you didn't even know were on the table. Positive change in one area of your life will ripple out into other areas of your life. Enjoy the ride.

Good job Gus. I'm late to the party so congratulations on 102 days smoke-free.

After a couple of weeks of wandering aimlessly in the mornings (like that one morning when I forgot to put on my pants), I changed my morning routine completely. Made up a new plan, a regimented plan, and followed that plan down to a T. Replacing my morning nicotine binge with a workout regimen didn't feel natural at first, but was undeniably a change for the better.

That was one of the pleasant surprises when I quit. Other people smoking didn't lead to me craving a cigarette. Frankly, I was indifferent to what the smokers were doing. Other folks are going to do what they're gonna do, best to stick to your own path.

I was already a fan of Roger Waters. And that was before he told Mark Zuckerberg to f**k off.

Good job Robbie. It took me the better part of my first year to finally start to fully identify as a non-smoker. It wasn't that my quit was shaky or my commitment weak. It was just a matter of finally being able to flip the switch. Change, even positive change, can take a little while to develop deep roots. I got there eventually. You will get there in time.

Top-shelf quit Abby. Congratulations.

It passed. It always passes. A man relentlessly committed to a goal has no fear of temporary circumstances. Drive on Steven.

Some days, all you need to get through that last set of the workout is the right song played at the right levels...

Welcome to the Quit Train Graciegirlva. Commit to the quit. The only regret you will have is that you didn't do it earlier.

Welcome aboard Kris. Good call on giving up the smokes. The challenging parts of quitting smoking are temporary. The benefits of quitting are permanent.