Here's my stats, AND MY HUBBYS!!!

Wendy - Free and Healing for One Year, Six Months, Eighteen Days, 20 Hours and 29 Minutes, while extending my life expectancy 39 Days and 8 Hours, by avoiding the use of 11337 horrible nasty disgusting cigarettes that would have cost me $2,408.10.Jason - Free and Healing for 2 days,quit smoking, 22 hours, and 33 minutes, while extending my life expectancy 4 hours and 54 minutes,smoking cessation, by avoiding the use of 59 cigarettes that would have cost me $12.20. Yes, thats right, HE FINALLY QUIT! I will post more about it on the Socializing board.MISS YOU GUYS!!! So glad to see you again

How I got to..... where I AM

To the newbie or those sitting on the fence.Also for my friends suffering from battle fatigue.I hope you find something in these words that will help you pick up YOUR power and Move forward.I read a post that asked "How do you do it?"Which caused me to retrace my steps and remember. (easier done after reading my quit journal... some things are best forgotten...which is why I insisted on keeping a journal....so this time I could re-read the detox instead of re-live it AGAIN)I found that.....I had to DIG and DIG and DIG for my deep down and personal grit.Each of us is different.......but the beginning of the quit.....is painfully the same.For each crave we must CHOOSE...smoke or don't smoke.It is painfull for a bit.....but....I promise it is DOable ...IF you will grit it out!Once you get through the physical withdrawal which "peaks" in the first 3 days you will have successfully shed 90% of the toxins from your system. Read about it http://www.whyquit.comread, read, read educate yourself enough to do serious battle. You can not best an opponent with out knowing it.The next battle......This is where battle fatigue can come in and.... Most people fail to do the work here.So.... they continue to pine and moan about consistantly craving or missing the sickarette.They are using "will power" alone to quit. They have not yet changed how they view smoking.DIG and DIG and DIG for a new way of thinking. DIG for the Grit to find a way to "change your mind" about sickarettes.http://www.quitsmokingonline.comor read the book "the Easy way to Stop Smoking" by Allen Carror make up a million of your own positive affirmations about NOT smoking and paste them all over your house, car and work area. And I DO mean a million if that is what it takes to get you to CHANGE YOUR THINKING!I speak from my own experience on that. After many failed attempts to quit...I found the missing key to my freedom.....I had to re-program my thinking habits. To anybody who really, truly wants this......DIG,stop smoking now, DIG,Herbal cigarettes, DIG! Do the work!This Board is awesome for support...you can rant and rave or simply help support another quit bud...whatever works for you....We are here for youBut ultimately the choice is yours to...Find a way to Change your mind and take back your LIFE!I Believe in the POWER of you...and.....I Know You are WORTH every ounce of that effort!My Success comes from how I answer to the crave...From now on "I Decide"#1- What will it do FOR me?#2 -What has it EVER done FOR me?NO -THING=NOPE ( Not One Puff EVER)

How would you deal with

This one hit some real chords with me in my newbie days,stop smoking, maybe it will hit a note or two for one of you.Blessings How would you deal withthe following situations? Your 2-year-old is having a temper tantrum because he wants a new toy. Would you; 1. Leave him alone until he calmed down 2. Give into his demands 3. Give him a tranquilizer Your 7-year-old is anxious about next week's Little League tryouts. Would you; 1. Assure him that he can do it 2. Practice with him and tell him to try his best 3. Give him a valium every three hours until the game Your 14-year-old is crushed when she is not asked to the sophomore dance. Would you; 1. Fix her up with one of your friend's children 2. Tell her to go anyway 3. Give her cocaine to pick up her spirits Your 15-year-old is self-conscious about being 5 pounds overweight. Would you; 1. Cook lower calorie meals 2. Enroll her in a diet or exercise program 3. Put her on appetite suppressants All of these young people are experiencing what adults would consider "growing pains." A little time, patience and positive reassuring will help them overcome all of these difficult situations. The fact is, as long as anyone continues to develop physically, emotionally, intellectually, professionally or spiritually, they too will experience growing pains. Adults are prone to hurt, pain, sadness, depression and anxiety just as children are. These feelings are all necessary if we wish to continue to develop our minds and bodies. Without such growth, we would not experience happiness, satisfaction, contentment or purpose to their full extent. The third choice in each of the above situations was, of course, ridiculous. We would not subject our children to chemical hazards to overcome such trivial problems. However, as adults we are fully capable of practicing such dangerous behaviors for our own relief. Take cigarette smoking as an example. When you were still a smoker, how many times would you say you had to smoke because you were lonely and sad without your friendly cigarettes? How many times did you say that you had to smoke because of all the stress in your life? How many times did you tell yourself that many social activities were just not fun without your cigarettes? How many times did you say that you would gain too much weight if you quit smoking? All you were saying was that you needed nicotine, a drug, to overcome everyday life problems. It was not until you were off cigarettes that you realized you could overcome such problems without smoking, and in most cases more effectively than when you were a smoker. Once you had quit you realized just how much a source of stress dependence upon nicotine was to you. You were caught by a socially unacceptable and physically deadly addiction and were quite often aware of it. This is when you had the desire to give them up, but thought the pain of quitting too great to even attempt it. Even today,quit smoking now, you probably still desire an occasional cigarette. It may be in a stressful situation, at a party after a few drinks, or at a time when you find yourself alone with nothing better to do. The fact is, there is nothing worse you can do than take a cigarette. One cigarette will not help you over the problem. In reality, it will create a new problem, a disastrous situation of a revived and reinforced addiction, with all the physical dangers and the dirty means of delivery that come with it. So, next time you have the desire for a cigarette, sit back and take a few moments to reflect upon what you are setting yourself up for. Do you need that drug? Do you want that addiction? If not, simply remember - NEVER TAKE ANOTHER PUFF! Joel

Ebay Question...!!!!!!!

soooooo I have about an hour left till the bidding has stopped. I bid "X" amount last night and it says exactly $1 over my bid (sigh someone outbid me again today....sooooooDoes one wait to right at the end and then "go for another bid" or?...I swear I am not doing this again...I soooooo have other things to think about...for real...!!!!!Any suggestion would be most welcome and I will check back here as dinner is cooking...xoxoxoxoxo..hamburger somethin' I have not decided quite yet....BUT I am also making SOUR CREAM MUFFINS...I am thinking something spicey to go with the muffins... oh!!! Perhaps Skillet tacos which I think I have everything!xoxoxoxoxo

Dropped them two days ago.

Hello,stop smoking, fellow non-smokers. I put them down two days ago with the help of Bupropion pills and some gum, and I'm quite pleased to say that the cravings have been next to nil for me. I quit before with the Commit lozenges, and nasty as they were they did work well, but man oh man I had some massive cravings back then. So far though, I have only had small cravings which are easily dispatched with ether the gum, some sunflower seeds, or some menthol cough drops. (I had a cough anyways.)But I do want to send a message to all of you who think of relapsing for stress-relief. I am currently in Afghanistan serving with the 218th Brigade. My job consists mainly of providing security for convoys on a daily basis. So that means,quit smoking, I go outside of the wire just about everyday and expose myself to a combat environment. At anytime when I least expect it, I could be involved in an explosion or fire fight with explosion being the larger threat. So when you think about your stress, think of mine and my fellow soldiers' stress. I'll bet your stress will likely seem less significant as will your craving for that cancer-stick. Be strong, and let's beat this damn thing together!

For The NRT Users

Hey Everyone,Herbal cigarettes, I was just reading some of the concerns about stepping down with the patch and wondering if it is going to get harder or make the craves more intense. I would say to try and not to worry so much about this. A lot of times the anticipation of an event and the wall of fear we build up to that event is actually a lot worse than the actual experience. If we keep this wall of fear built up, it makes it a lot harder to tear down when the event does happen. In this case,smoking cessation, stepping down the patches. What this can do is create a self induced anxiety. This can make the event much worse than it would originally be. Just to share my experience of fear of this. The first 2 days of my quit, I was on the 21 mg. patch. I was actually going to give up and buy cigarettes on my 2nd day. I was literally on my way to the store while at work, when I asked the shipping guy if I could use his computer. I wanted to get on the internet to maybe try and find something that might be able to help me try to quit in the future. I think I was actually doing this to relieve the guilt I was having for giving up my quit. I stumbled upon WhyQuit.com and ended up reading my whole lunch hour. I didn't go get those cigarettes. Happily I have never smoked a cigarette since. That was 2 years and 5 months ago. I did do something that day though tha did scare me. I took off the patch. I went home that night and threw the rest of my patches away. This made me a bit scared, because I thought to myself that I was having a hard time with the patches, how hard was it going to be without them? I was anticipating bad things to happen and anticipated having horrible craves. I had visions of me withering on the ground, going through horrible detox. To my amazement. I didn't feel too much different. Sure it felt a bit more intense, but I think with the reading I was doing at WhyQuit.com, it was teaching me what to expect and helping me to tear down that wall of fear I had. After a few days though, it started to go away. I think that we all have had these horrible thoughts in our head about what quitting smoking is all about. I think that they tend to fuel a fear and it is more the fear that makes it hard to quit. When we first quit, we get a crave. Well when we smoked we would just put a stop to the crave by smoking. Now when we first quit though, we have a crave and now we say Oh my God, I'm having a crave and now I can't put a stop to it. This tends to fuel the crave, because we are also creating an anxiety on top of a crave. Understand though, a crave is just a heightened anxiety and an empty feeling. An itch so to speak. It is really the fear of not being able to scratch that itch that seems to make it so hard. The craves won't hurt you. They don't cause pain and they will pass whether you smoke or not. Remember though. Craves do not last forever. The only people who have craves forever are people who do not quit smoking. I guess what I'm trying to get at is don't let the anticipation of the event fuel your fear. When you release the fear, it will make things so much easier for you. When you step down to a lower dosage, try not to worry about it. Enjoy the fact that you are freeing yourself!Eric Enjoy the fact that you no longer have to smoke anymore.

for those who want to start smoking again

I found this on whyquit..post by JOEL...wow I needed this!!! Any others???I wrote the following letter to a member who had quit for 18 days and wrote a post saying he was probably going back to smoking that particular evening. This was my reply to him. I don't know if this member is off smoking or if he is even still a member. But the reply applies to everyone here who ever thinks they consciously really want to go back to smoking.You are at a point that all of our members are at who are nicotine free for at least three days. You are free to choose now. You can choose to smoke nothing--you can also choose to smoke full-fledged again until it cripples then kills you. If your choice is to relapse and go back to smoking again you know what to do. Tonight will be as good as any time. Although, as long as your goal is to smoke until it kills you,stop smoking, why fret the rest of the afternoon, now is as good as time as to relapse as any.So again--as long as your goal is to smoke till it kills you--you know what to do. As long as you know you will be smoking tonight, today would be a good time to do some estate planning too. Get your will, living will, durable power of attorney, organ donation papers signed in case there are any organs worth harvesting after smoking takes it tolls throughout your body, and maybe call your insurance agent and see about getting some disability insurance. Just in case cigarettes don't cause a sudden death scenario, you want to make sure to have money available in the event of a long disabling illness. Cigarettes can cause plenty of them.One of the most common ways cigarettes accomplish this goal is to destroy your lungs and breathing ability. Who knows for sure there will be enough money to take care of your needs when you can no longer breath on your own. In fact, if money gets too tight and you can't work, affording cigarettes will be a real problem then. So insurance shopping will be a good way to spend the afternoon now. By the way, you will have to state that you are going for the insurance because you are planning on becoming a long-term smoker. Insurance companies need to know this so they can adjust your premiums accordingly. If you were to mislead them and say you are a non-smoker, when the disease strikes and you expect payments--you may be in for a terrible shock to find out that you will not collect for signing up under false pretenses.Another good thought for today is maybe prepay for a plot and funeral arrangements now. You can save a bundle. Most of us don't like to think about such things but it sounds like you are planning for a life and death decision tonight so why not make a number of them.So again--as long as your goal is to start your slow motion suicide into action, you know what to do. If by any chance you were not really considering going back to smoking till it cripples and kills you--you may want to have some contingency plans set up for tonight too. Maybe take the money that is going to be earmarked to smoking for the next month,Herbal cigarettes, which may be hundreds of dollars and go out and have a really good time treating yourself to things that wont kill you. You will be able to do a lot more of this as long as you always remember to never take another puff!