Any bets me or Devil Nicotine

[baboon]

Did you resist?

Like a champ.

I have always thought of nicotine as the perfect drug. It covers so much. Hungry can’t stop to eat smoke. Just had a great meal smoke. Tired but need to keep grinding smoke. Just woke up after 20 hours sleep smoke. Had tantric sex, avoid the wet spot smoke.

 

[baboon]

And you remembered why you weren't smoking, and made your decision stick. Your decision, your choice, your Life, not theirs.

As long as I don’t end up in a bar I think I have it. I still enjoy an occasional cocktail, it will be another test.

 

[Coiled]

Like a champ.

I have always thought of nicotine as the perfect drug. It covers so much. Hungry can’t stop to eat smoke. Just had a great meal smoke. Tired but need to keep grinding smoke. Just woke up after 20 hours sleep smoke. Had tantric sex, avoid the wet spot smoke.

Not sure I follow all that other crap but awesome you resisted the nicotine. You're past the ditch & over the hump, stay with it, you'll be much better off!

 

[tekiwap]

Smoked and dipped for years since high school through the Army. One day, I came back from some third world dumpster after dipping 24/7 for several months and said "I'm done", and that was it for dipping. Cigs too; that was in 2011. I can't stand the smell of dip and cigarettes any longer.

I do have a cigar a few times a week with my beer but no jonesin' anymore.

 

[skfullgun]

Smoked and dipped for years since high school through the Army. One day, I came back from some third world dumpster after dipping 24/7 for several months and said "I'm done", and that was it for dipping. Cigs too; that was in 2011. I can't stand the smell of dip and cigarettes any longer.

I do have a cigar a few times a week with my beer but no jonesin' anymore.

Yep. I knew I was hooked badly when I would get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and put in a dip while sitting on the toilet.
Or, when I would wake up, having fallen asleep on the couch and still have a dip.

I

 

[billtool]

Ha! I used to smoke in the shower!!

 

[baboon]

Morning shit & smoke was common.

 

[baboon]

Check it out coming up on 6 months. Two weeks ago I went to see a friend I almost broke and asked for one.

A few morning forgoing eating the bacon & eggs my wife spoiled me with and just having coffee I thought about them. I was actually thinking about a White Russian in my traveler tumbler for the trip to the grocery store.

 

[Mills]

5 year plan

 

[FireInTheWire]

Check it out coming up on 6 months. Two weeks ago I went to see a friend I almost broke and asked for one.

A few morning forgoing eating the bacon & eggs my wife spoiled me with and just having coffee I thought about them. I was actually thinking about a White Russian in my traveler tumbler for the trip to the grocery store.

Good job

 

[baboon]

Gluttony is still my major vice. I need to rel
Place meals with naps.

 

[BobCat]

Very good job!

Cool when someone makes a Life choice, sticks to his guns, and makes it stick.

My update is this. Remember I mentioned my brother, who smoked Camels for ~ 30 years, quit around the time I did in 1997? He is going to be OK but a few weeks ago they found a "spot" on his lung, about 26 mm - maybe an inch or so across. Needle biopsy showed cancer, they did radiation (no chemo or surgery) and are confident they got it. He will have another scan in 3-4 weeks. I worry but they seemed confident they killed the tumor.

So congratulations for sticking with it, you are reducing your chances of any kind of disastrous outcome, and probably can breathe easier and work harder / longer (whatever kind of work) and are saving I don't know how much dough - there was an old joke that 'when cigarettes get up to a quarter a pack, I'll quit' - very old joke.

Hang in there!

 

[Jarine88]

Gluttony is still my major vice. I need to rel
Place meals with naps.

I gained 37 lbs in about 4 months after getting off this last time. The weight has started to come back off. I’m down 20 so far, but it has been 2.5 years.

 

[leVieux]

>

Years back I was a general Physician, Family Practice Doc, in Corpus. I had quit back in 1966 when a great Professor made me do two autopsies every day for a few weeks, a smoker and then a non-smoker. That right there make me never touch a cigarette again.

I have helped and guided many to quit, since, over 1,000 folks. The easiest way is to use Dr. Helmstetter’s flashcards. Just get a pack of unruled 3x5 “ cards and write yourself encouraging notes, like “I CAN quiit!”, “I will do this!”, “I am strong enough!” “I will set a date!”, use a felt tip, be BOLD, and keep them bedside. Every night and morning, take a minute or two to read them. It may seem silly, but it has proved a major help.

Next, you must realize that nicotine and smoking are ADDICTIONS, both chemical/brain, and a habit. Both are best broken at once and COMPLETELY! You must do this “Cold Turkey”, your Doc may help with. short courses of low doses of various meds, but YOUR Brain must do it. Pills won’t do it for you, just give us bit of help.

Once you decide, the night before, smoke all you want, even try to make yourself SICK, then at bedtime, FLUSH all remaining cigs in the house & car/truck down the commode. Get them all away ! For the first few days, stay far from smokers & their “smoke” breaks.

Sugarless Tic-Tac’s, gum, mints, etc may also help, especially with the subconscious reaches to pocket for cigs.

One absolute is that ”Cutting Back” and “Tapering Off” NEVER work and are just forms of self-torture and unwillingness to accept YOUR responsibility to yourself.

Strangely, despite memes, actual quitting usually also results in a moderate weight loss, 4 or 5#.

You CAN quit, even if your spouse or friends can’t at the moment.

One main thought is this: If you fail, take a break, then try again. Failure is only temporary, you can try again until you WIN over tobbaco ! By 1980, over 50MM Americans had successfully quit.

Banish all thoughts of “Just one more”, or, “only a drag”. Either means instant failure. You don’t want to poison your efforts.

You absolutely CAN WIN at this !

leVieux
.

 

[leVieux]

Very good job!

Cool when someone makes a Life choice, sticks to his guns, and makes it stick.

My update is this. Remember I mentioned my brother, who smoked Camels for ~ 30 years, quit around the time I did in 1997? He is going to be OK but a few weeks ago they found a "spot" on his lung, about 26 mm - maybe an inch or so across. Needle biopsy showed cancer, they did radiation (no chemo or surgery) and are confident they got it. He will have another scan in 3-4 weeks. I worry but they seemed confident they killed the tumor.

So congratulations for sticking with it, you are reducing your chances of any kind of disastrous outcome, and probably can breathe easier and work harder / longer (whatever kind of work) and are saving I don't know how much dough - there was an old joke that 'when cigarettes get up to a quarter a pack, I'll quit' - very old joke.

Hang in there!

Sadly, I’m also very experieced with that, both as a Physician and as a Family member of 3 cigarette victims. Please don’t tell Brother, but just from what you told me here, I’d bet he won’t make 3 years, likely less. If one can see a 26mm mass on an X-Ray, it is likely already elsewhere. Elsewhere means less than 5% chance of 5-year survival.
Sadly, this is one of the few tumors in which we have made little treatment progress once a diagnosis is made.
Pray to GOD now, let him believe what he wants, but get yourself ready. My own younger Brother went through that some 7 years back. The first round of chemo usually helps a bit, sometimes quite a bit, but the second can’t. My Brother finally said “Let me Go”, I can’t take more treatment. He made it almost a year from diagnosis.
May GOD Bless y’all both.
leVieux

 

[BobCat]

Thank you. They did a full-body scan before they did the targeted radiation and said they could not find any spread. We'll see how it goes. None of us lives forever and we've both outlived our father, who smoked his whole life. What gets ya' gets ya' - it is just wise not to give things that can get ya' any free points.

And - on the flash cards - what you suggest can work very well! An Olympic shooter, Lanny Bassham, wrote a book called With Winning in Mind, in which he gave the same kind of advice; leaving notes to oneself lying around essentially saying "You can do it!". Boosting and supporting the view that one is a winner, not a loser, can do wonders. He wrote that his baseball coach always told him, "Don't strike out!" - so he did strike out, because he was thinking about striking out. If the coach had said, "Hit the ball out of the park" he might well have done so.

 

[baboon]

Very good job!

Cool when someone makes a Life choice, sticks to his guns, and makes it stick.

My update is this. Remember I mentioned my brother, who smoked Camels for ~ 30 years, quit around the time I did in 1997? He is going to be OK but a few weeks ago they found a "spot" on his lung, about 26 mm - maybe an inch or so across. Needle biopsy showed cancer, they did radiation (no chemo or surgery) and are confident they got it. He will have another scan in 3-4 weeks. I worry but they seemed confident they killed the tumor.

So congratulations for sticking with it, you are reducing your chances of any kind of disastrous outcome, and probably can breathe easier and work harder / longer (whatever kind of work) and are saving I don't know how much dough - there was an old joke that 'when cigarettes get up to a quarter a pack, I'll quit' - very old joke.

Hang in there!

My dad started smoking Camel non filter my guess in a the Army Air Corps. He smiled them until he got pissed off about the price and started smoking so real cheap ass smokes only to quit about a year before he died. His lungs were clear at death.

His next oldest brother never smoked got a cough, had it checked out. It was cancerous so the operated, he never came home. That was 10 years before my dad passed. Not sure of the age difference between them, my dad was the youngest of 7 children

 

[karlac]

My quitting smoking tale, post is 8 years old, so it's been about 32 years since quitting:

Quitting smoking...

Great job. Are you guys still vaping? If not, how did you quit vaping? Just step down the nicotine dosage? I haven't bought cigs since last Sunday and I haven't smoked since. Saturday morning around 5:30. Today was my first day without that morning smoke and I feel fine. I have 4 tanks I am...

texasguntalk.com

 

[Wudidiz]

I smoked for over 30 years. In the Army I smoked a couple packs a day. Cigarettes were even in our C-rations in the 60’s. I finally decided to quit cold turkey out of fear. I fear hospitals, doctors, and all their strange gadgets. I just put them down and told myself that I wasn’t going to let myself down by giving in. Whenever I would be tempted to smoke, I would picture a little devil standing on my left shoulder saying “Yes Kevin, go ahead” and stuff like that. I know it sounds stupid, but I purposefully would imagine my little devil. I promised myself that I would never give in to him. I was the stronger will. It got alot easier as time went by. When I was working Oklahoma, I lost my best friend and fishing buddy to complications from smoking. Larry was a retired Major with Oklahoma City PD. He knew early that he needed to stop but just wasn’t willing to try. That served to increase my will. It also helped when I would remind myself that, for me, smoking was a selfish act. I owed it to my family to try and stick around as long as I could. You will stay off them forever if you perservere and maintain self discipline. Good luck.

 

[leVieux]

Thank you. They did a full-body scan before they did the targeted radiation and said they could not find any spread. We'll see how it goes. None of us lives forever and we've both outlived our father, who smoked his whole life. What gets ya' gets ya' - it is just wise not to give things that can get ya' any free points.

And - on the flash cards - what you suggest can work very well! An Olympic shooter, Lanny Bassham, wrote a book called With Winning in Mind, in which he gave the same kind of advice; leaving notes to oneself lying around essentially saying "You can do it!". Boosting and supporting the view that one is a winner, not a loser, can do wonders. He wrote that his baseball coach always told him, "Don't strike out!" - so he did strike out, because he was thinking about striking out. If the coach had said, "Hit the ball out of the park" he might well have done so.

Dr. Helmstetter, a Clinical Psychologist, called them “self-talk” for self-improvement, or something similar. leVieux