Cristóbal is 6 Years Smoke Free!

[Reciprocity]

(Posting this for our Sazerac, who is currently traveling and unsure of her internet functionality. This tribute is due to her efforts )

 

Join us in a celebration of Cristóbal's Six Years of Freedom

He has been a seminal influence on many, many quits over the years and his support has held fast and true.

Should you ever need a bump of positivity, please stroll through 

Cristóbal's Content

 

His passion about nicotine addiction is consistently  insightful, always truthful.

 

My favorite gems of wisdom from Cristóbal are visable in these threads,

Your Quit and Your Life-The Proper Sequence

and

A Crave Is Never A Command

 

Please,  have a riotous celebration,  Cristóbal !

Thank you so much for your energy and dedication in helping us all remain nicotine free.

Thank you for everything you are, everything you do.

Gracias por todo lo que eres todo lo que hace.

 

Una pequeña fiesta antes de tu celebración gigante

 



 

[notsmokinjo]

Congratulations Cristobal for being somke free for 6 years. Thank you for all the wonderful advice and observations you have left for us newbies coming behind you and leading our way with such class. Hope you did something special to celebrate your anniversary.

 

[Doreensfree]

Wow !!! ..6 years.....

A huge inspiration ,thank you for all the support you give to all who travel on the train....

You have been a big part of my own quit....

 

[Rozuki]

Congrats, Cristobal! Six years quit is a major milestone!!!! You are a legend...celebrate appropriately and thanks for your words of wisdom along the way! 

 

 

 

 

[Reciprocity]

Congratulations Cristobal! 6 years smoke free is fabulous and an inspiration to so many others following in your footsteps.

I hope you know the assistance you have provided other quitters over the years! 

 

Be sure to celebrate this wonderful achievement  

[Whispers]

Congrats Cristobal! Did someone say wine party?

[jillar]

Congratulations on six years Cristobal, your posts have been so inspirational to so many on both quittrain and qsmb. And being fairly new here it's been my pleasure getting to know you better. I hope you celebrate today and looking forward to attending one of your famous wine parties I keep hearing about

 

[johnny5]

Congratulations on 6 years smoke free, Cristobal.  Your posts and advice helped me out a lot in the early weeks and months of my quit and I know they have helped many others as well.  Do something big to celebrate today.

Edited October 14, 2018 by johnny5

[Sazerac]

Congratulations @Cristóbal  !!

 

and thank you @reciprocity for covering !  and @notsmokinjo for the opportunity to post  Cristóbal's Six Years of Freedom.

 

 Cristóbal has blazed a clear trail for all of us to follow.

here are the links to my favorite posts

A Crave Is Never A Command

Your Quit & Your Life - The Proper Sequence

and all of his posts

Cristóbal's Content

 

Have a great celebration,  Cristóbal !

 

 

[Paul723]

Great job, thank you again for the many people you have helped ( including me)!  Take your wife out to celebrate in another week.

[Parsley]

Congrats!!! And thank you!

[Tammy]

Congratulations Cristobal, that's a whopping-knock your socks off level amazing quit you've got.

Thank you for the all the support around the forums and being someone who everyone can look upto on their quit journey.

 

Kudos!!!

[catlover]

Congratulations Cristóbal on an amazing quit.  I have always loved reading your advice and inspirational posts .

Hope you celebrated in style

[Sslip]

Congratulations on 6 years quit Cristobal. Thank you so much for your contributions here and the words of wisdom that live on. 

[Boo]

Top-shelf quit.  A quit that will live on and help so many who follow the guidance put forth.

 

Great job Cristobal!

[brand.new.ela]

Congratulations!!! And thank you for being here for the newbies and less advanced

[scottinpa]

I have not been here for a while, But I had to check in to check on Cristobals anniversary. I am sorry I am a couple days late my friend... better late than never...

6 years already?? Where does the time go?

CONGRATULATIONS!!

[Sparkzzz]

Congratulations and thank you for the support Cristobal !!!!

[babs609]

well done Cristobal!!

 

You are an inspiration!

 

In celebration of your 6 year smobriety...I made the guacamole.  Just like you showed me. 

[Hope2Nope]

Congratulations!!!

[bakon]

My quit brother would like to thank you but h is message got stuck at the border.  We had another brother from England too. Nobody could understand him. 

we all started about same time and were the three amigos. He always brings some excitement.  When the train started rolling we poked him a bunch to get all the way over here but he wouldn't abandon his starting place. Don't think he ever said a bad word to have to get a warning point.  I tried to yank his chain as much as some others here but he wouldn't have any of that. Just laugh it off.  Well I hope he comes back soon to see all you wonderful people and (that ass skinny Scott) your nice words.  

congrats brother

Bakon

 

[Cristóbal]

Thank you so much Reciprocity and Sazerac for remembering my anniversary, and everybody else for your great comments !!!

 

I have been traveling for the past week, so I have not had much chance to come here until today.

 

It takes about 10 years to repair physically much of the damage that smoking caused to our bodies, so I like to think of anniversaries in this manner.  At 6 years, I am making good progress against the damage that years of smoking did to my body. Of course, we can never repair all of the damage, no matter how long we stay quit. But the point to always remember, is that with each new day between now and our last cigarette, we are increasing the chance of living a normal life in good health, and decreasing the chance of dying from a smoking related disease. That is one of the great gifts of our quits. Add to this better health the tremendous freedom that comes from not smoking, and you then have the best possible gift anybody can give to themselves.

 

 

Anniversaries are good reminders for the person who remembers to celebrate them, but the real value of anniversaries is that they show the person who is just starting a quit now, that permanent, complete freedom from smoking is never impossible for anybody.

 

Whenever I post to my anniversary threads, the theme of my post is always more for those who are thinking of quitting, or just starting a quit.

 

Sharing the story of my quit, and my journey to where I am today, is really for them.

 

 

I started smoking cigarettes regularly as a young teenager, my first cigarettes when I was about 12 years old. I smoked for about 30 years, 2 packs a day for most of those years, so I did some serious damage to my body. Still, it is important to remember that we are all physically addicted to nicotine, which is the real reason why we smoked.  None of us are "more" addicted, or "less" addicted.  Some of us just smoked longer than others, and more frequently than others. I was one of those persons.

 

I never really thought about quitting until the morning of 14 October 2012.

 

I woke up that day, looked at the cigarettes on the table next to my bed, and thought: "Bleah. I´m not sure why, but I really do not want to smoke today. Let´s see if I can not smoke for one day".

 

So I got out of bed without smoking, made some coffee, and did not smoke for the entire day.  At the end of the first day I thought: "Hmmm, I kind of like the idea of not smoking, this was not hard to do. Let´s see how long I can last without smoking".

 

Day # 2 was easy too.....and so was Day # 3, and also the next day.....and the next day......and the next day.

 

When I had reached 1 week, I started to notice some amazing things: I could breathe better; I could smell better; my mouth felt cleaner; I had more energy; I could taste food better; I was sleeping better.

 

 

When I was at 1 week in my quit, my wife noticed that I was not smoking anymore. So she decided to quit too, 8 days after I had quit.

 

I had an easy quit; her quit was the quit from hell.

 

For about 2 months, she was screaming, crying, throwing things, she was a total mess.

 

I decided to look for help for her, and that is how I found the old forum QSMB, when I was at day 36 of my quit, and she was at about 1 month and still having problems with her quit.

 

That is how I became involved with the forum at QSMB, with helping myself, others, and most importantly, became educated about nicotine addiction and the process of quitting smoking. 

 

 

Now, 6 years later, I do not participate as much on internet forums as I did in the past, but I still come here several times a month and help when I can. In real life, I continue to help a lot of people with their quits. Most of the time people ask for my help because of recommendations from other people I have helped in the past.  My wife also helps people with quitting smoking.

 

We have thought of opening a quit smoking clinic here focused on cold turkey, but the reality of doing this is that we just do not have the time. I travel a lot for work, and my wife is always very busy.

 

Perhaps we can do this in the future, when we have more time available.

 

 

My messages for those who are planning to quit, or who are just starting a quit, are very simple:

 

1. Everybody can quit. It is never impossible for anybody. Only you can complicate your quit, and make it impossible for yourself.

2. Any discomfort you may experience, is never permanent. It always goes away, and you find yourself in a much better life with time.

3. Realize that you are dealing with drug addiction. It affects you profoundly physically; mentally; emotionally; and spiritually. You are in total slavery, and the addiction 

    creates lies in your head that keep you in that slavery. Education exposes those lies, and will set you free. You will grow tremendously as a person, in this new freedom.

4. Educate yourself about nicotine addiction. This information is available at www.whyquit.com and everywhere on the internet.

5. The number 1 rule of quitting smoking, and staying quit, is to make a commitment to yourself to "NEVER TAKE ANOTHER PUFF" (NTAP or sometimes called NOPE "NOT ONE PUFF  

     EVER").  You cannot quit smoking permanently, without this commitment.

 

 

At this point in my quit, I thank all the people who educated me and inspired me over the years. Some are on this forum, others have moved on in life.

 

Others, unfortunately died awful deaths because of smoking. In some of these instances, their dying and eventual deaths from smoking diseases were posted live every day, in these forums.

 

Still, I am very grateful for all of these people, for they have given me wonderful new perspectives about this horrible addiction, and about our journeys in life. My participation in these forums have greatly increased the quality of my life, and strengthened my quit, over the years.  

 

 

Cristóbal

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Markus]

Great job in staying quit...congrats to you.

[bakon]

Still getting paid by the word I see.  Got to be at least 37,000 peso in that post.  Good advise amigo.