9193 Days...

[murrays 0]

since I quit smoking on May 3, 1983....25 years and 2 months right about now as I butted out at about 3:30 pm.

If you're trying to quit or thinking of it...it can be done!

--
Murray

"No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

[KenKnight 0]

I smoked for over 30 years. Tomorrow morning will be one year smoke free.

_______________
D28695 PoPs #9237
"Mix ignorance with arrogance at low altitude and the results are almost guaranteed to be spectacular"
— Bruce Landsberg

[Lastchance 0]

I quit 4 yrs ago on July 29. Here is a rough estimate of what I didn't spend and what I didn't smoke.

A pack and a half a day is 30 cigs X 365 days X 4 years at $4.00 a pack is $8760.00 saved. And $4.00 a pack is conservative.

30 cigs a day X 365 = 10,950 cigs X 4 yrs = 43,800 cigs that I have not put in my lungs.

Alot of times I smoked 2 packs a day and when drinking in the bars, even more than that. To me these numbers are staggering.
My wife quit 6 months after me though she only smoked between 1/2 and a pack a day so her numbers are less but still all told that is a helluva savings and a great save on health.
Thats alot of money saved for skydiving. Actually the money saved is paying our house payment every month

I may be getting old but I got to see all the cool bands.

[murrays 0]

I just did the math for myself at 30 cigarettes a day...likely a bit low:

25 x 365 x30/day = 273,750 Cigarettes....over a quarter of a million cigarettes!! I am certain I would not have lived this long had I not quit...seeing that number reinforces my suspicion.

25 x 365 x $2/day average (they were under a buck a pack when I quit) = $18,250....not a huge, huge amount of money but enough for a new main every 2-3 years!

--
Murray

"No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

[Lastchance 0]

Pretty amazing when you add it all up isn't it? Congrats on 25 yrs.

I may be getting old but I got to see all the cool bands.

[Lastchance 0]

Congrats on a yr. It's cool to be free isn't it?

I may be getting old but I got to see all the cool bands.

[Beckert 0]

Any advice for those of us who would like to quit? What worked for you?

[jcd11235 0]

Quote

Any advice for those of us who would like to quit? What worked for you?

I quit for over three months a few times. The last time, I told myself it was going to be the last time I quit. If it didn't work, I would just die a smoker. I made it a real commitment; it was no longer something I could try again if it didn't work.

The other important thing was that I was never "trying to quit." After I put out my last Marlboro, I went from being a smoker to a non-smoker, like flipping a switch.

That was in November 2001. I haven't used tobacco in any form since then. It wasn't always easy, and sometimes it was a struggle to just get through the next five minutes, but it was worth it.

Math tutoring available. Only $6! per hour! First lesson: Factorials!

[murrays 0]

Quote

Any advice for those of us who would like to quit? What worked for you?

Never quit trying to quit until you succeed.

Quit for 10 seconds at a time....Count to ten when you are having a strong craving...take deep breaths. Repeat if necessary.

Quit for 10 minutes. An hour. A day. Another day. Before you know it, you'll have a bunch of days, weeks and years behind you.

It was torture! But I am so grateful to be able to remain smoke-free...it is worth the aggravation.

--
Murray

"No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

[LongWayToFall 0]

If you have health insurance, your hospital should have a smoking cessation class. If your take it, they give you the option of taking some pills that can help allot. This method worked great for me, along with patches. Once you are past 5-10 days, it becomes easier. Chew a shitload of gum and have toothpicks available at all times. Half of the addiction is doing things with your hands/mouth. Good luck man, its worth it!

[virgin-burner 1]

the longest i could quit was for like 3 months. maybe i should just skydive more..

“Some may never live, but the crazy never die.”
-Hunter S. Thompson
"No. Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try."
-Yoda

[bluepill 0]

I tried everything to quit, patches, gum, quitting classes, all sorts of different stuff, but nothing worked.

Finally I found a book by Paul McKenna ("Quit Smoking & Stay Thin"). It had a CD you listen to. Not hypnoses, just relaxing and "Mind Programming" it is really relaxing.

You read the book and listent to the CD every day for 2 weeks and thats it. I quit completely 2 days into it and I have never had a craving since. (That was almost a year ago now)

The only reason I tried the book was because I read one of his other books about losing weight... It had an mind exercise in it to stop food cravings. I though it was a load of mumbo jumbo and to prove it to myself I did the exercise using Chocolate as my food craving (I don't crave it, it just happened to be the last thing I ate at the time).

I havent and can not eat chocolate since that day. And I used to love chocolate. Now just thinking about it makes me want to wretch.

BP

[virgin-burner 1]

does that also work if english is not your mothers tongue!?

“Some may never live, but the crazy never die.”
-Hunter S. Thompson
"No. Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try."
-Yoda

[bluepill 0]

Not sure if it is in any other different languages, but as long as you can count backwards from 300 in English then you should be OK. I never got past 276.

One of the exercises in the book, works by association. Soemthing like you thing of a time when you felt ralxed or the best you have ever felt (without smoking). You keep doing this over and over while squeezing a finger and thumb together. You do it many times over and over until you get to a point where when you squeeze that finger and thumb together you get a "Happy" or "Relaxed" HIT. You then use this as one of your tools to counteract cravings.

BP

[tkhayes 190]

kewl - I did not know you ever smoked Murray!. I was always an occasional smoker - quitting for a year or two, then starting again, usually smoking more and more each time.

When I moved to Florida, I started again. Quit completely about a year later and have not had a smoke in 11 years. The secret? NEVER let it touch your lips again. Not ever. Not even a 'party smoke'.

Not ever.

Never

Don't do it...

Don't let it touch your lips ever again...

TK

I think I would hurl if I tried to smoke a cigarette now....

[murrays 0]

Quote

kewl - I did not know you ever smoked Murray!. I was always an occasional smoker - quitting for a year or two, then starting again, usually smoking more and more each time.

When I moved to Florida, I started again. Quit completely about a year later and have not had a smoke in 11 years. The secret? NEVER let it touch your lips again. Not ever. Not even a 'party smoke'.

Not ever.

Never

Don't do it...

Don't let it touch your lips ever again...

TK

I think I would hurl if I tried to smoke a cigarette now....

TK - I also don't remember ever seeing you with a smoke, didn't know you ever smoked but am glad you have quit for 11 years now.

Yep - You can't play with it....I am positive that if I smoked one today, tomorrow I would be up to a pack a day again.

After 25 years, I will still get the occasional twinge...it's really quite amazing. I take a deep breath like I am taking a long drag and that gets me over the craving.

Just a few months ago I had a very weird thing happen. One of my habits when I smoked was to pat my shirt pocket when leaving my house or apartment...to make sure I had my butts with me. So, recently when I walked out of the house to go somewhere my hand went up and patted my shirt pocket. It just floored me.



Hope all is well with you TK my old friend we should talk one of these days.

Cheers,

Murray