Chrysalis

Hey, a shout out to all my fellow 2014 Avengers! What a great group we were (and are). Good to see so many familiar names here and it's still fun to read all the new "Non-smoking Cats" posts ?. I am still quit-- 4 years and counting! Absolutely for sure could not have done it without you all. I will be forever grateful.

Hi, Folks- I just thought I'd pop in and share my good news. With the help of this board, I quit smoking in March of 2014 and I have not smoked since. I had a very though time quitting-- I quit and relapsed several times over the years. But I finally made it! I feel great! Once my lungs healed, I was able to exercise better which helped me to lose 40 pounds last year. And life is MUCH easier as a non-smoker (like booking hotel rooms or standing around airports without wondering if I have time to run outside for a smoke). And with the $5,000 I have saved, we're going to Europe in the spring! Yippee! Yes, there are still occasional times when I get an urge to smoke. My worst is what I call "Miller Time" which happens when I finish a long, difficult task. I really want to sit and smoke and savor a job well done. But after all this time, I know that I won't go buy cigarettes just to have one "Miller Time" smoke. And I know that within 5 minutes the desire will fade, anyway. That's the good thing about establishing a good track record for yourself-- you gain confidence in yourself that you can maintain your quit no matter what. Stress, illness, unemployment, marital arguments, Miller Time... I have faced and conquered all of those without going back to smoking. So the next time I face such a challenge, I know that I will be able to keep my quit. So hang in there, folks. Take it one day at a time and stay focused on why you wanted to quit in the first place. It WILL get better and you WILL be very proud of yourself. I am!

Hi, folks! I know that I have been AWOL for a couple of months but I want you to know that everything is fine with me. Most importantly, I'm still NOT SMOKING. (Almost 15 months now!) And a very special "Thank you" to those of you who PM'd me in recent months asking "Where are you??". Your messages made me feel good. :wub: When I first joined QT I resolved to actively participate for at least one, solid year. I knew from my previous quits (as well as from more experienced quitters here) that it takes at least one year to really get "clean" so I made that commitment to myself and to the other members here. Happily, as of March 28th I had succeeded at Keep The Quit for one year.Hooray! Unfortunately, as I said in my blog, I gained 30 pounds in the process. For me that meant that whatever gains I made in terms of energy and vitality through stopping smoking were lost because of the additional weight. Furthermore, for the first time in my life my diabetes was "out of control" (i.e., A1c >7.0). So all-in-all, even though I had not smoked in a year, mentally and physically I felt worse than I had when I was smoking. Bummer!! :( However, rather than trying to lose weight by going back to smoking, I decided to find an online support group to help me to get my weight and diabetes back under control. After all, if this forum was so helpful to in terms of education and support for the purpose of quitting smoking, maybe another forum could do the same thing for me for the purpose of diabetes control. So after my 1-year anniversary here (and believe me when I tell you that the Lido deck is absolutely FANTASTIC!) I threw myself into the DiabetesDaily dot com forum. Since I didn't have time to actively participate in both forums, I have been focused on the diabetes forum lately. I am happy to report that during the last 3 months I lost 12 pounds, my blood glucose is down and my A1c is back where it belongs, and my blood pressure, lipids and everything else is just tickety-boo! I also discovered that a statin that I was taking (to reduce cholesterol) was making me depressed and short of breath, which is a common side effect of statins. I stopped taking it and not only do I feel much better and more energetic, but my lipids are just fine without the statin, thank you very much! So my journey is not finished-- I guess we only "finish" when we're dead, right? :) -- but I'm not feeling tempted to smoke, I've got my eating back under control (low carb is the way to go for diabetics!) and I'm finally beginning to feel healthier and more energetic. Now that I've gotten the hang of this low carb eating plan I hope to be able to pop in here from time to time and catch up on how you all are doing. Thank you again for all of your help, advice and support over the last 15 months. As you can see, you showed me how important and effective an online community can be to overcome some very significant personal struggles. Hooray for Quit Train!!

Having successfully quit smoking for ONE YEAR (hooray!! :) ), I decided that it's time to get serious about losing the weight I gained. Based on the rave reports from some of you about paleo/low carb meal plans, I decided to try it. I'm doing quite well on my low carb diet so far (all 10 days of it LOL!). But for some reason, I have been craving the breakfast sausage-and-egg biscuits I used to buy once in a while. Well, I found a really good recipe for almond flour baking powder biscuits and whipped up a batch. As you can see in the photos, I made 6 biscuits in a muffin tin and in the other 6 spaces I put 1/2 egg (scrambled) and 1 sausage patty (pre-cooked). Then I baked the whole thing for 13 minutes. They came out great! Next time I will probably whip the egg whites more and perhaps increase the baking powder a tad to get more "fluff" in the biscuits. I might also mix in some grated cheddar cheese (M-m-m-m!). The good news is that I satisfied my craving. (Hooray!!) The bad news is that now I want to eat all of them right this minute. (Boooo!) 1 biscuit is: 148 Cal, 4.6 gm carb, 13 gm fat, 6 gm protein. You can find the recipe here: Almond Flour Biscuits https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZSmYPPo_Qg This lady also has a recipe for low-carb sausage gravy but I haven't tried it yet. You can view it here:Low Carb Sausage Gravy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0WL...U_59OgHWJgkJ5x

I can't believe that my "Quit Date" is the same as the official Quit Train start date! That is so incredibly cool! It's like an omen guaranteeing that I will never smoke again-- I'm on this train until we get to the end of the line. I find that reassuring. Hugs to you, MQ, for setting up such a successful program. :)

Wow! What can I say to all you wonderful people who have shared your warmth, support, humor (and recipes! :)) with me for all this time? Your patience with my whining and your faith in my eventual success really did make this quit possible. If I have been able to pay it forward to some of you, that pleases me immensely. The video below expresses my feelings perfectly. Hugs to you all (((HUG :wub: ))). "I couldn't have done it without your help."! https://youtu.be/fxRzYLD2PyE

OMG! You guys are cracking me up!!

Oh, 727, you are S-O-O-O-O-O BAD!! (but it's S-O-O-O-O funny!).

I'm going to wear my red jumpsuit (remember those? :D ) and my red mittens, of course! :P

Yeah, the only time I ever got my fill of lobster was when we vacationed in Booth Bay Harbor, Maine 20 years ago. We walked to the town's "lobster pot" every evening and got lobsters right off the boat. Wow! Was that good!

I love IKEA and I have a lot of their stuff. I actually enjoy assembling their furniture. :) Love your sprei, Evelyn; it looks great with the pillows.

You guys are great! You're just the best EVER! :wub: I already planned my celebration. DH and I are going to treat ourselves to a lobster dinner-- with a great big lobster! Maybe nothing else with it, just lobster! :D :D :D

I MUST get rid of the weight I put on when I quit smoking, so I started a low-carb diet this week. Tonight we had BISTEC DE PALOMILLA (Cuban Style Steak). Very thin steak marinated in Mojo Criollo (Cuban sour orange/garlic marinade). Then quick fried and topped with mojo crudo (chopped onion, parsley, olive oil and lime juice). Served with parmesan encrusted grilled tomatoes. I didn't take a photo but it looks like this:

Gee, MQ, it sounds like you really are having a hard time of it! I'm so sorry for your pain. As I told Colleen, I highly recommend an ergonomic specialist to show you how to adjust your workspace to get rid of the carpal tunnel. And I think seeing a chiropractor for your hip sounds like a great idea. I know that most men prefer to suffer for a long time rather than take steps to change things, but I think that you have suffered enough now. Get some help!

I think that the key here is to find an activity where you can "shut your mind off". Usually that means something that you are really passionate about. I remember when I played golf regularly it was very relaxing. The reason is that all through the game I was thinking about golf. After the drive and walking down the fairway I was thinking about the lie, the wind, the distance to the water hazard, whether I should go around the dogleg or try to cut across it, etc, etc. Oh, and once in a while I would pause to admire the beautiful grass and trees, point out a rabbit running for the bushes, hope we could finish 18 before the rain started, etc. etc. In other words, I was so absorbed in the game that I didn't think of any of my problems or concerns for the whole 3 hours. That is why golf is so good at relieving stress. I don't golf any more for various reasons. Now I use various creative interests to relieve stress--cooking, gardening, painting and drawing, dancing, things like that. So I suggest that you think about things you do where you "lose track of time" -- video games? fixing classic cars? perfecting your pool game? Any activity is OK. Just get yourself to do it frequently.

Even though it was tough, you did it! You DID get to week 6! Congratulations to you. :yu: And remember, February and March are difficult months for most of us. This winter has been really rough and the short days are depressing. Now that we have Daylight Savings and the weather is moderating, I bet your days will seem to fly by faster. But whether they do or not, you're rocking this quit so just keep doing what you are doing. Hooray for CPK!!!

How is your carpal tunnel problem, Colleen? Are you regaining the strength in your hand?

OK. I yield to the majority opinion. So for all of you out there who know that you would be wise to get a colonoscopy but are putting it off because you find it embarrassing (get that? "bare-assing"? :D :D ) and/or humiliating and/or frightening, be advised that it is a truly miserable experience the day before, the day of and the day or two after. However, the folks here will help you see the humor in the situation and that is undoubtedly going to reassure you to such an extent that you happily laugh your way to the phone and schedule your first colonoscopy. Yep. Sounds like a plan.

Sue, I am sorry that you have had such a bad experience with colonoscopies. I, too, have had several including one surgery and never had any of the problems you describe. Perhaps you should find a better doctor.

Sue and Sarah, I know that you mean to be supportive and/or humorous. It's one thing to josh with somebody about having to drink a gallon of enemetic the day before the colonoscopy-- that is the reality. But there are absolutely NO problems or after-effects of the procedure itself. You do NOT kneel face-down on an examining table, your rectum is NOT raw and red, you do NOT need any rectal or other pain killers. Frankly, because of the anesthetics they use today, you don't even REMEMBER that you had a colonoscopy! Colon cancer is deadly serious and I feel that we are truly blessed that we now have the ability to have a simple, painless, non-invasive test that can detect and remove colon cancers before they cause damage. It's a shame that most people still resist having a colonoscopy because of fear or embarrassment. Just look at the results-- even within this tiny group here, two of us can attest that our lives were saved by this procedure. So I, for one, will not tolerate anyone spreading fear-provoking misinformation about colonoscopies, no matter how funny you think it is. Do yourselves a favor-- go get a colonoscopy.

Check out these adorable pandas having a lot of fun!

You have a good eye for color, Babs. I like it!

Good for you for getting a colonoscopy, Mike! Everybody over the age of 50 should get one. Yeah, drinking all that stuff the day before is annoying but the colonoscopy procedure itself is nothing (as you say, the drugs are g-o-o-o-o-d, Dude! :) ) My first colonoscopy they found a 2.5 cm (which is HUGE) polyp that was just transitioning to being malignant. They got it in time. I had no symptoms so if I hadn't had the colonoscopy I'd probably be dead of colon cancer by now. Folks, if you're over 50, DO IT!!

Kale smoothies??!! See--that's why I don't think I could ever become a health food nut. :(

Thank you, Colleen. That's definitely on my "to do" list! :)