Reciprocity

NOPE! NP prefers hot weather over cold weather

That is what led me to finally decide to fight this addiction. I was so sick all of January and STILL smoking!! One day I was puffing and coughing away like crazy and I finally realized just how crazy it was so I said "ENOUGH!!!" That was Jan. 28th and I quit early morning Jan. 29th. So far ..... so good :D

It's "Top-Secret". Bat tried to get it out of him once through torture but .......... got nothing :o

-1 Where's Bakon these days. We could use some support here. Did his bus finally come for him?

+1

Congratulations Pedro!! 9 months is 3/4 of the way to that Lido Deck. We'll be having a lot of big celebrations come next January :) Great Job! Let me pour you a drink to celebrate :lol:

NOPE!

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There was certainly a lot. I know I'm stuffed!

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LOL Please don't punch me in the gonads :o :o :o In my own defense I refer you to MQ's profile page where his quit date at the bottom states 10/07/13 (Oct. 7th 2013) Also, in his blog there, paragraph 8, 2nd sentence he makes reference to quitting October 7th 2013. Not sure why the counter is still showing almost a week, the question is, what is the REAL quit date? Was it perhaps the 17th October 2013? I think we should plan yet another celebration for that date :)

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Too bad I had to work today, catching up from my time off. This would never have happened :angry: +1

I doubt you will ever forget that and become complacent. That just wouldn't be you :) I did see a lady at the resort one evening sitting outside in one of the designated smoking areas and she had one arm amputated above the elbow and her feet/ankles were both very discolored. Not sure if any of that had anything to do with smoking but I certainly thought of the story you have related to us about your own experience and I wondered about her sitting there puffing away :o

-4 Looks like another day of battling chicks!

NOPE!

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Yes, absolutely but I am always hesitant to post up stuff about having urges or cravings to smoke after a fairly long quit just because new quitters might interpret that as the kind of all consuming craves they battle early on. It really isn't like that at all but the idea is that this IS a deep seeded addiction and I don't think it ever completely disappears from your random thought process. It becomes very easily managed and those thought don't come very often but it's never like you never smoked in your life. You simply can't erase those thousands of imprints you have made upon you brain over your smoking years so certain situations will come along even years down the road where your brain will link something to smoking. The good news is that once you have truly decided that you are done with the deadly addiction, it's pretty easy to manage anything that somes at you and it only becomes easier and easier every day you keep your NOPE pledge!

Yup!!

I'm sorry to hear your Mom has health issues. It is tough on everyone in the family. You are in my thoughts Dee. Stay strong for your Mom Dee as she will need your support. We are here for you when you need a place to come and just unload and unwind.

Any focus point to stop this deadly addiction is a GREAT thing! If that focus point is the catalyst for even 1 person to quit for good then, that's a success :)

Ice Cream Cake

OO

So at just over 8 months quit I went on my first full week vacation and was out of my normal day to day routine during that time. A new experience for me and in the back of my head I guess I was telling myself; "be on guard for urges or craves that might come unexpectedly" but, I really didn't think that would happen. First of all, it was great not having to smoke a couple before going through security at the airport when flying out :) It was a 5 hour flight so it was also nice not to be in an agitated state after 3 or 4 hours into the flight or to be running for the door upon arrival at destination to get that much needed "fix". During my time at the resort, I took note of almost everyone I saw smoking and what their ages were. I don't know why I took note of ages of the smoker but I did and I was surprised at how many younger people were still smoking. I thought the message was getting thorough to the younger generation that this smoking thing is really bad and dangerous to your health but, apparently not :( There were a few people vaping but most of them were still smoking the good old cigarette. I took note in particular of a young man who obviously worked out a lot because he had bulging muscles and a 6-pack to be proud of but there he was at the pool bar, smoking a cigarette!! That one really surprised me! For myself; I did have a few well defined craves, which surprised me a little. I thought I was over those but there they were at unexpected moments. Mostly when I was completely relaxing in a lounge on the beach soaking up the tropical rays. A wave would come over me out of nowhere and I would think; man, I would really like to have a smoke right now! It would only last maybe 10-20 seconds but it was more intense than I thought I would experience again at this stage in my quit. Not as intense as early on in my quit and certainly not for as long but .... it was still there. A new experience in an unfamiliar setting and there it was again! My brain was looking for that comfort zone that it thinks smoking provided. So here I am, back home again and getting back into my normal hum-drum daily routine but probably somewhat the better for having gone off my "normal routine" for a bit and experiencing new non-smoking situations and getting thorough them without any serious struggles. I think the thing I had to fight the most while away was the urge to go up to almost every smoker I saw and make some sort of comment to then. Something to the affect of, "you do know those are killing you right? And, you know it really is possible to quit if you really want to make the commitment!" But, I know the reaction such a statement would create so of course I said nothing to anyone. Too bad people who kind of want to quit but just don;t think they can do it didn't wear a sign around their neck or something. I definitely would approach those people just to give them some encouragement :)