comrade simba

Comrade simba here. It's been awhile, ya? Aine and I spent a year rv-ing west of the Mississippi through the West Coast and wound up sorta settling in Astoria Oregon. 7 or 8 years of not smoking... been so long can't remember, ha! I pointed a friend to this site... just checking to see if he's here. Hi all, and stay cool.

Bandito and Sober Julie still around? We should all have 5 years right about now!

Of course everything is more important/serious now that our shutdown mechanism is gone. Go ahead and just dig on all the formerly unseen/ignored things now dancing in the forefront of consciousness. Quitting smoking really is a big deal, and so is this life. Just say wow.

...and out comes a 32gig flashdrive containing all 3000 hours of Alan Watts' lectures along with a free packet of pipe cleaners! I insert a Telefunken U-47...

And your next two lifetimes are really gonna suck. I put in an "Are We Great Yet?" bumper sticker...

The Late January Quitters Club must prevail. You do not want the widdle gwandbaby to say yuk... you stink! Remember, it's the first one that will take you down. Everything about quitting is the same today as it was on day one, and we made it through that day. Hang loose Julie, the comrade

Wow. Coke Machine seriously malfunctioning due to non-use. Lard didn't work so I toss in a whole greased pig and a cheap chinese knock-off 176 piece tool set.

Yea, buddy. You, Julie and me make 3/3.

Being in Jamaica she's too busy to post - I guess we're just chopped liver. According to her ticker she's saved 12 thousand dollars on cigarettes... can't think of a better way to spend it than laying about on a beach. Attagirl!

Three years is the best! ;)

Da.

This last year I have truly felt like I wasn't a smoker who quit, but a real non-smoker. My mom handed me some old pictures to look through before she tossed them and the first one I looked at had me holding a cigarette. My first thought was "That's back when I was a smoker". But, to hit closer to home, the last real crave I had to light up was at 8 months. That was actually the hardest month to get through in some ways, but easier because I had a lot of non-smoking momentum going on.

Actually, my personal favorite was when huge gops of long term lung mustard started to break free. "Productive cough" takes on a whole new meaning. Can't remember for sure when the cough went away. Thing is, it did. My wife quit a month later. The house no longer sounded like a TB ward. Son is now a few months from being 16. Never started smoking. There. That's enough cheerleading for today. Don't pick up the first one.

This is in The Newbie Database (in the quit smoking discussions forum) I could see it happening and that's what made it okay to keep going. Well, that and the gang war with the QSMB, heh heh. Watch the joel videos. You really don't want to disappoint the guy :-) Within ... 20 minutes Your blood pressure, pulse rate and the temperature of your hands and feet have returned to normal. 8 hours Remaining nicotine in your bloodstream has fallen to 6.25% of normal peak daily levels, a 93.75% reduction. 12 hours Your blood oxygen level has increased to normal. Carbon monoxide levels have dropped to normal. 24 hours Anxieties have peaked in intensity and within two weeks should return to near pre-cessation levels. 48 hours Damaged nerve endings have started to regrow and your sense of smell and taste are beginning to return to normal. Cessation anger and irritability will have peaked. 72 hours Your entire body will test 100% nicotine-free and over 90% of all nicotine metabolites (the chemicals it breaks down into) will now have passed from your body via your urine. Symptoms of chemical withdrawal have peaked in intensity, including restlessness. The number of cue induced crave episodes experienced during any quitting day have peaked for the "average" ex-user. Lung bronchial tubes leading to air sacs (alveoli) are beginning to relax in recovering smokers. Breathing is becoming easier and your lung's functional abilities are starting to increase. 5 - 8 days The "average" ex-smoker will encounter an "average" of three cue induced crave episodes per day. Although we may not be "average" and although serious cessation time distortion can make minutes feel like hours, it is unlikely that any single episode will last longer than 3 minutes. Keep a clock handy and time them. 10 days - The "average" ex-user is down to encountering less than two crave episodes per day, each less than 3 minutes.