Cristóbal

Congratulations MQ on your 4 year anniversary !!! I am so glad that you started QuitTrain, you have done a great job here. Thank you for everything that you do, Happy Anniversary !!! Cristóbal

Abstaining from cigarettes is not the same as quitting. Abstaining means you close the door, walk away from it but keep on looking back at it, keep the key and simply do not use it for awhile. That is not a sticky quit. Quitting means you have closed the door forever on the addiction, threw away the key, and walked away from it forever. That is a sticky quit. As long as you keep some romance about the addiction - believing there is some benefit from smoking - you will be abstaining, and not be completely quit. Only when you recognize that there is *NO BENEFIT* at all from smoking, is when you will find your sticky quit and your complete freedom. That is why education about nicotine addiction, and the process of quitting smoking, is so critical to growing a healthy and permanent quit. Once you understand the addiction and process of quittng, is when you will find your real and complete freedom. Cristóbal

Hi Colleen, Good post !!! I would like to add, that smoking also cost all of us a tremendous amount of our *TIME*. If you smoked a pack a day, that means that we spent at least 1 hour a day (3-4 minutes for each cigarette x 20) smoking, as time completely lost or as time distracted. It is difficult to quanitify in financial terms the value of this lost time, but for all of us it as considerable. Cristóbal

Smokers get sick much more than non-smokers, but it is not just because smoker lungs are in bad conditions and smoker health is never very good. It also has much to do with how we are touching things every day with our hands, and then as smokers we touch cigarettes many times all day with our fingers and and then put the cigarettes in our mouths. That is a great way to transmit virus of colds and influenza from our hands, into our mouths. Cristóbal

Hi Mary, Welcome to QuitTrain and congratulations on your new quit !!! We all smoked because we are nicotine addicts. You have been given great advice, keep reading about nicotine addiction, it is critical that you understand that as long as you do not take another puff, that you will be free. And that if you do take another puff, that you will return instantly to the prison of addiction. Once you have nicotine receptors in your brain, they are there for the rest of your life. This foto, and the description, explains our situation perfectly, it show what happens in the brain of a ex-smoker who decides to smoke a few cigarettes after not smoking for a long time: Cristóbal

I am so glad that vaping is illegal here (Mexico). The reason why it is illegal, is that the federal government does not want to allow another way for people to become addicted to nicotine, and for business to make money from that addiction. We do not even have these conversations here. *NOT AVAILABLE*. Cristóbal

My wife and I used to do something special every month when we first quit. Then later, every 3 months. Now, we do not do anything special with the money we have saved from smoking, we just live, but we live better economically than we did before as smokers. Cristóbal

Thank you very much Reciprocity for remembering my annivesary ! And thank you very much others who have posted to this thread. My quit has been a wonderful trip for me, and I look forward to the future to continue to receive more and more benefits in my beautiful life without smoking. As time has passed, I continue to experience gradual physical improvements even at 5 years. These improvements are more subtle at this point,, but still noticeable in a long term sense. I smoked for about 30 years, and I am grateful that I quit when I was healthy. I can imagine that if I had continued to smoke, that perhaps today I would be ill with a smoking related illness, or perhaps even dead. If you are reading this and are still smoking, or if your quit is new and you are having some problems, please realize that: 1. Quitting smoking is the best gift you could ever give to yourself. It is a gift of beautiful freedom from addiction, much better health, and a lot of money saved. You deserve this gift. You were not born to die of a self inflicted, smoking related illness. 2. Everybody can quit smoking permanently. The only thing that is necessary, is to make a commitment to yourself to never take another puff, and keep this commitment. As long as you keep this simple commitment, you will be fine. Any challenges to your quit that you have right now, will disappear with time. Be patient. The addiction with time will go to sleep, and you will not even realize it when it happens. At 5 years I feel like I have never smoked (although I know better). My freedom from the addiction is complete, and the addiction has gone deeply to sleep. I can continue like this for the rest of my life easily. Just as long as I never take another puff. Cristóbal (I just saw my ticker is messed up, I need to fix it !!!) PS. - Tomorrow is my wife's 5 year anniversary !!!

Hola mi gran amigo, My post is late for your anniversary but this does not mean my felicidades for you are less in any way. I am very happy to be able to wish you big congratulations on your 5 year anniversary.....just keep going. Life is so good without this garbage of smoking in our lives !!! Fireworks for you, of course !!! Un abrazote !!! Cristóbal

I have so much extra time for everything I want to do in life, and the energy and health to do these things. As a smoker, I was spending 40 cigarettes @ 5 minutes each = 200 minutes a day smoking ! That is over 3 hours a day, interrupting and/or distracting my time with just smoking ! Not only did quitting smoking give me more time to live each day, it also gave me a longer life !!! What better gift can a person give to themself ??? Cristóbal

If you are still smoking it is like being on the Titanic and knowing there is probably a huge iceberg ahead of you. You just don´t know if, or when, it will hit you, and sink your life. Now - *TODAY* - is the time to change the direction of your trip in life. Your choice is clear. You can: A. Continue to smoke going forward in your life trip, and hope that you are one of the 50% of smokers who do not die at average of 10-12 years before your expected time, or develop a chronic health condition caused by smoking. B. Quit now changing permanently the direction of your life trip, and greatly increase the chances of living a healthy life, and dying when you are expected to die. Any excuse that your nicotine addict mind may tell you cannot justify to smoke one more day. And any discomfort you may feel temporarily when you quit, cannot equal the discomfort of losing a lung; of losing a leg; of gasping 24 hours a day from emphysema or COPD until you die from it; or slowly drowning to death from blood and liquids in your lungs caused by lung cancer. 50%. Ready to bet ??? Keep on smoking. Cristóbal

There is nothing about smoking that I miss. I don´t even think about it !!! Cristóbal

Congratulations Feely on 6 days !!! What is going to really clear the garbage from your lungs is time, not medications. Several months after you quit, the cilia start to grow again in your lungs. These are small hairs that clean your lungs. When you smoke, you burn them and bury them in the garbage tar, and they cannot do their job. That is one reason why smokers often become more sick more often, and stay sick longer than non-smokers, because the smoker lungs do not have the capacidad to clean themselves. At about 6-9 months in your quit, all of these hairs have returned to your lungs and really start to work to remove the garbage. This cleaning process takes a very long time....years !!! For me, it is only in the last year that I have not noticed that gray/brown garbage coming from my lungs, but I know the process continues. Most of the time it is simply swallowed, and you do not realize it. I attach a foto that shows what the lungs of a non-smoker look like, and the lungs of a smoker. This will help you understand why the process of cleaning the lungs takes so long. Keep going !!! Keeping your quit is so much easier than to ever smoke again, and it will always be worth it in every way that you can possibly imagine. Cristóbal

Take these positive thoughts, keep them in your mind always, live in the light they bring to your life and keep running as far as you can away from this awful addiction.....and never look back !!! There will never be anything there for you except awful slavery, and the promise of horrible diseases and death. You, I, and all of us were not born for that destiny. Cristóbal

By not acting on the thought, it does not have any new reinforcing energy with which to reappear in the future, so this thought will probably not happen again in the situation your were in (in the casino). This we can call, "Killing permanently the crave". The mental, emotional, and spiritual recovery from nicotine addiction from Day1 of your quit until the day you die, is based upon killing thoughts such as this. The more you deny them reinforcing energy (by not smoking), the quicker they disappear from your life.....permanently. (Babs already know this :D). Cristóbal

(First Posted 01 April 2014) A crave can happen because of 2 things: 1. Physical Withdrawl Symptoms. 2. Mental or Emotional Smoking Triggers. Craves can happen frequently early in our quits, because of physical withdrawl symptoms. They can also happen simultaneously with physical cravings and then later in our quits, much less frequently, as we continue to confront triggers which are mental or emotional in nature. The important thing to remember, is that craves are *NEVER* a command !!! You N.T.A.P. them (apply to them the concept of Never.Take.Another.Puff.....just for today) as they happen. Then what happens ??? Nothing. Absolutely.......*NOTHING* !!! Your head does not explode when you say "NO" to a crave. You will not die. Life will continue, and the sun will continue to rise every day.....and so will you....and the crave will be gone and soon forgotten. At the same time, you re-program you brain and emotions to react to life as a non-smoker again. Craves create F.E.A.R. in your mind and emotions, but it is a false fear. F.E.A.R. = False.Expectations.Appearing.Real. In the case of smoking, the expectations that some horrible thing may happen if you do not yield to the crave, are ***FALSE***. The fear that craves create can appear real, if you give them life and continue to believe lies the addiction may tell you, and can seem like a command at the moment they come to you. But the reality of this fear, is that it is a fear based on lies. This fear generates a false command....a empty command, based on the lies of a addiction that has no intelligence, is in every way illogical, and exists only as a ghost in your brain. If you do nothing when you experience a crave.....nothing happens. Ever. A crave based on illogical F.E.A.R. - False.Expectations.Appearing.Real.....is never a command. Do not listen to the nonsensensical illogical lies the addiction may tell you. Instead, N.T.A.P. these craves, and N.T.A.P. your way to the mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual freedom you so desparately want. Cristóbal

Hello Deltawings, It is wonderful to see you are doing so well, great post !!! Cristóbal

I do not think about it. At all. I quit smoking a long time ago, and I live only in today. Cristóbal

Hello Patoolla, great post !!! I agree completely that F.E.A.R. (False.Expectations.Appearing.Real) of quitting smoking is what keeps many smokers from quitting. We hear constantly that it is almost impossible to quit, but the reality of smokers quitting smoking is that over half of smokers have now quit, and most have quit without any support or education. They just make a commitment to never smoke again......and that is it. The people who have arrive to this board, have a big advantage: not only do they have the support of people who have quit before them, but there is a fantastic amount of education about quitting smoking that is also available for any person who wants it. At this moment, I cannot think of a good answer to the question of what is the hardest thing I have done in my life.....but quitting smoking is definetly not it!!! Cristóbal

Quitting smoking is easy !!! Just make your commitment to never smoke again, and realize that any discomfort that you may have soon after you quit, is just temporary. The benefits are permanent !!! Cristóbal

Hi Juan, You know me from another place, and for several years now. The only thought I can extend to you, is that if you make a solid commitment to never smoke again....and keep it....that you will never have to continue to ride the roller coaster again. NEVER TAKE ANOTHER PUFF (NTAP) It is as simple as that. Cristóbal

You will get there, as long as you never put nicotine in your body again.....but the interesting thing about getting to that "special place on the other side", is that you will not ever know it when you arrive. Bits and pieces of you will arrive there first, and other bits and pieces later, but with enough time all of you will finally be there. Believe it or not, some of those bits and pieces of you have already arrived there, you just have not realized it yet. :) :) :) Cristóbal

Thank you very much Sazerac for posting this, it is nice to know that people have remembered my quit anniversary !!! My wife quit a week after I did, so Mirian's anniversary is coming up this week, both of us are at 4 years. About our quits........... My wife Miriam cried and screamed almost every day for almost a month when she quit. She thought she was going to go crazy, she had a very difficult quit. She smoked a pack a day for about 10 years. My quit was real easy - I just decided one morning to not smoke for one day.....and then one day became two days, then three days.....and now I am at 4 years. I have had only one quit in my life. I was amazed how easy it was to quit !!! I smoked for 30 years, for most of them about 2 packs a day...and I was one of those smokers who would say "If I quit smoking I am going to die !!!" What is interesting to some of our friends, is that although our quits were opposite in difficulties, with time we both found ourselves at the same place: Free of the addiction physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. For us, we both feel almost as if we never smoked, but our memories do remind us that we were smokers once, a long time ago. Still, with time we have moved forward in our lives away from this garbage. The longer you do not smoke, the more you realize what garbage it really is and destroys any romance for it that may be left. Smoking does not impact in any way our lives today, except that we both continue to support and educate others with their quits. My wife does this with Facebook, and I do it occasionally in internet forums and more often in person. It is important to emphasize, again, for people who are new and reading this, that we both feel completely free of the addiction. It went to sleep a long time ago and will continue to stay that way as long as we respect the "Law of Addiction" and do not ever put nicotine in any form into our bodies again. http://whyquit.com/joel/Joel_04_02_law_of_addiction.html We were nicotine addicts when we smoked. More importantly, we were smokers because we were nicotine addicts, and because our brains were permanently changed when we became nicotine addicts, we will continue to be nicotine addicts until the day we die. Because of this, we can NeverTakeAnotherPuff. (NTAP). Internalizing these simple truths is enormously critical to all people who start their quits, and to all people who really want to keep their quits. It really is this simple, and if you are struggling right now with your quit, realize that once you accept these truths is when you will make real progress to quit smoking just for today......and then what follows is the rest of your life. 58,480 CIGARETTES NOT SMOKED SINCE MY LAST CIGARETTE. Cristóbal.

I pledge to Not.Take.Another.Puff.....just for today. *SMOKING SUCKS* !!! Cristóbal

Congratulations Nancy on your 3 wonderful years, I am so happy for you !!! Cristóbal