BS: Five Weeks Without a Smoke!

Subject: RE: BS: Five Weeks Without a Smoke!
From: Amos
Date: 10 May 03 - 10:55 AM

Thanks, McM.

Do you mean banning it on the premises? Or banning use of it iby employees?

The latter seems a bit illegal.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Five Weeks Without a Smoke!
From: McMusic
Date: 10 May 03 - 02:16 AM

God bless you. My place of employment is about to ban all tobacco product. Like ot or not, I believe I'll be quitting soon. Hope I do as well as you. Hang in there, and whatever you do, DON"T START BACK! I quit once for 3 weeks and let a little stress get to me. Undid all I had done. Got my fingers crossed for you.

Subject: RE: BS: Five Weeks Without a Smoke!
From: Amos
Date: 10 May 03 - 12:22 AM

WIlco on that, LTS! I'll be heading back out there next couple of weeks, so I need to be in shape.

Gawd the things we do for nmoney in this world!!

A

Subject: RE: BS: Five Weeks Without a Smoke!
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 09 May 03 - 10:21 AM

Gervase my dear, where have you been hiding yourself? Yes, OK, up a hill in Wales....

Blushes modestly, screws available toes (not the purple ones) into carpet.... Gorsh, thanks.

Amos - it's a deal. You don't eat fags, I won't smoke chocolate! Same goes for you too Gervase..... don't want to be kissing no ashtray gob at Towersey!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Five Weeks Without a Smoke!
From: Gervase
Date: 09 May 03 - 08:59 AM

Keep it up Amos! On Monday and Tuesday I was taking groups of teenagers up Pen y Fan, Cribbyn and Sugar Loaf - some lumpy hills in Wales - and felt smugly pleased that I was sounder in wind and limb than they were, and that the smokers among them - even at the age of 19 - were in bits.
You'll be amazed at how much fitter you feel, and how much more you enjoy the outdoors. And, should you get cravings for chocolate, cookies and carbohydrates, head up the nearest hill instead; the endorphins a bit of exercise releases will see off any craving.
As for nicotine itself - I still pop in a piece of gum when the craving gets unbearable (usually after a good meal) and do enjoy the odd pinch of snuff.

And well done, Liz! Castle Hill is steep even without a giant on yer back!

Subject: RE: BS: Five Weeks Without a Smoke!
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 09 May 03 - 03:38 AM

And I though MY commute was a pain!

OK Amos - I'm aiming for another stone by end of August - the fact that I managed Castle Hill in Hastings carrying a giant (imagine walking up a wall whilst wearing a 10ft backpack) is testament to the fact that something is working! And for a small fat asthmatic with the willpower of your average gnat, that's a milestone!

I'll keep off the cakes and chocolate (within reason) and you stay off the fags (sorry, Britspeak for cigarettes - no offence intended).

See you on the other side Amos!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Five Weeks Without a Smoke!
From: Amos
Date: 08 May 03 - 11:53 PM

I had a really strange experience Monday-Tuesday -- I was out in the wildest, roughest most inhospitable mountainous rock-strewn flea-bitten, water-deprived, sand-blasted, dust infested, heat-drenched parched unforgiving and sheerly brutal desert ever dreamed up by a malevolent Creator., bouncing around in theback seat of ahuge, squat, ugly Hummvee driven by a spawn of Beezlebub thinly disguised as an enthusiastic Marine. For about six hours we ran up and down the sides of mountains, out onto promontories that would have made a mountain goat think it over, over waadis and gullies, slamming like so many marbles in a tornado. Dressed up in a flak jacket and a USMC battle helmet, I looked like a leftover from Rumsfeld's Follies, I tell ya. On more than one occasion I would have split my skull open on the roof-truss of the damn Hummer had it not been for the battle helmet. Woof, woof. HooRAH and all that...

Anyway, we were testing a bunch of radio and computer comms and had antenna and boards all lashed up along the back of this godforsaken machine with duct tape and straps and so on, and it was quite a day. I am glad to say I survived, and the equipment worked better than expected, especially considering what we put it through physically.

At one point, trying to find a surveyed benchmark to calibrate a GPS unit against, I had to scramble up to the top of a rubble- and scree-strewn hill. By the time I got up there I was breathing hard enough to qualify for a year of intense aerobics in one hour. My heart sounded like a Christopher Brubeck practice session in 13/9.

We're going back in June or July for a full demonstration of the technology. We're designing new mounts for everything, hard-learned lessons, and so on. But if it hadn't been for not smoking I am pretty sure I would still be lying there being eaten by coyotes and snakes in the moonlight.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Five Weeks Without a Smoke!
From: MAG
Date: 08 May 03 - 11:39 PM

It's a bit scary to think of you with more energy, Amos. You'll stay thin as a rail, never fear. -- MA

Subject: RE: BS: Five Weeks Without a Smoke!
From: UB Ed
Date: 08 May 03 - 12:15 PM

People have likened nicotine withdrawal right uo there with heroin withdrawal. Based on what I went through two years ago with a cold turkey approach, I will never try heroin.

Lots of water and aeorbic exercise dulls the pain.

I know I can never smoke just one lest I start all over again. And though the cravings diminish with time, occasionally they thunder back with a vengence! Of course that's purely mental so you shift to something else.

Stay on it Amos!

Ed

Subject: RE: BS: Five Weeks Without a Smoke!
From: Amos
Date: 08 May 03 - 10:26 AM

You betcha, Liz. Can we go for double or nothing? :>))

A

Subject: RE: BS: Five Weeks Without a Smoke!
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 08 May 03 - 08:29 AM

Amos, as a lifelong non smoker, I can't fathom what you've given up... however as a lifelong chocolate eater who's cut from 2 big bars a week to less than 1 every 2 weeks (amongst other stuff like cakes and biscuits), I can appreciate the struggle and the journey.

You've gained some lungs, I've lost a stone. Let's keep it that way eh?

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Five Weeks Without a Smoke!
From: Amos
Date: 07 May 03 - 11:40 PM

Thanks, man -- so far so good!!

This forum is a great place to get free of an addiction, isn't it -- except for the Mudcat addiction, of course, that's outside the line!! LOL!!

A

Subject: RE: BS: Five Weeks Without a Smoke!
From: Bobert
Date: 07 May 03 - 10:38 PM

Well danged, Amos!

I usually smell that smokers stench when I pull up thier posts and well, I never got it from any of your posts. Ahhhh, you didn't like get someone else to hit the "submit" button did ya'?

Awww, jus' funnin'. Iz proud of ya'. I quit, ("cigarettes, that is") 17 years ago and it was the best thing I ever did.

(Ahhh, Bobert. "The best"? Remember that afternoon with Marty Smith? Ohhh, she was so hot. 'Er remember hittin' in the winning run in the 1961 Babe Ruth Chmapionship? Hmmmm, now that was purdy cool. "Er, opening for the Chambers Brothers in '69? Ahhhh, I don't 'xactly remember that, but hey, I don't 'zactly remmeber '69 either, fir that matter. 'Er......)

No, Amos, I'll tell ya what. The best day of my life, and I remeber it well, was 17 years ago this October. I had a pile of wood to split. This is a truie story. I went out, sat down on a log to be split, chain smoked two nasty cigars, and then split about two chord of wood. I coughed and wheezed and probably about died, but when it was over, it was...over!

Yeah, I might take a puff on the peace pipe now and then, but tobacco is history! That's the only way you can think of it! History!

Now, should you thinkabout lightin' up? Yopu just page by butt at 703 513 1224 and I'll call ya and talk you out of it. I promise!

There, now you got 24 hour protection.....

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: Five Weeks Without a Smoke!
From: Genie
Date: 07 May 03 - 09:05 PM

[i]"I think one key ingredient to quitting is being willing to face the present without flinching or reacting. Cuz one of the major uses of smoking for me was to have something safe and comndortable to do when things seemed a bit unsafe or had to deal with -- things like breaksfast, lunch and dinner!"[/i]

LMAO, Amos! Brings back distant memories.

Actually, having quit (for the last time) over 27 years ago, my conscious mind has long since quit having any need for that kind of "comfort" or "safety." My unconscious mind, however, seems to be a somewhat different beast. Occasionally (about once a year or so on average), I have very realistic dreams in which I have begun smoking again!

As long as those urges (or memories) stay repressed, fine.

Again, hang in there!


And have you learned "Smoke, Smoke, Smoke That Cigarette" yet? It's a great song!

Subject: RE: BS: Five Weeks Without a Smoke!
From: Amos
Date: 07 May 03 - 04:00 PM

Definitely get out and stretch those lungs.

And, my advice anyway, is fil;l your life with compelling and interesting activities. Work, play or in between -- stuff that really engages the attention.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Five Weeks Without a Smoke!
From: GUEST, heric
Date: 07 May 03 - 12:15 PM

Okay I've thought long enough. I thought it was just a coincidence but I quit smoking two days after my divorce. Twelve years of being a bit unsafe, under this theory.

I don't a full oxygen status report for you yet. I thought it was going to be disappointing news but this morning I feel there's hope. However, I am strongly considering, as perhaps should you, the need (somewhat ironically), for just a little of that old aerobic exercise in some fashion. . . .

Subject: RE: BS: Five Weeks Without a Smoke!
From: GUEST, heric
Date: 07 May 03 - 11:51 AM

Yikes who's cooking around there? But that's interesting, I need to think on that last sentence of yours.

Subject: RE: BS: Five Weeks Without a Smoke!
From: Amos
Date: 07 May 03 - 09:37 AM

Thanks, RR and thanks to you all for the encouragement. It hasn't been too bad this time. There are moments, but I think I am thought he worst part.

I think one key ingredient to quitting is being willing to face the present without flinching or reacting. Cuz one of the major uses of smoking for me was to have something safe and comndortable to do when things seemed a bit unsafe or had to deal with -- things like breaksfast, lunch and dinner!

A

Subject: RE: BS: Five Weeks Without a Smoke!
From: Gervase
Date: 07 May 03 - 04:43 AM

Sorry - Guest above was me, with crumbled cookie. Any crankiness and generally harrumphing, by the way, is nothing to do with nicotine withdrawal - more to do with the current political situation (about which I can do bugger all, so the temptation to say 'sod it' and fire up a fag is all the stronger!).

Subject: RE: BS: Five Weeks Without a Smoke!
From: GUEST
Date: 07 May 03 - 02:57 AM

Well done - I've just made it to the nine-week mark and am already feeling fitter and sounder in wind that I have in years. Until the cravings finaly go, however, I'm calling myself a recovering smoker rather than a non-smoker - there are moments when a fine, dark roll-up wrapped in liquorice paper is a vision of loveliness!
Keep it up; it's good to see so many on this thread going through the same ordeal and feeling so positive about it.

Subject: RE: BS: Five Weeks Without a Smoke!
From: Genie
Date: 06 May 03 - 09:36 PM

Glad to hear you're still not smoking, Amos! Hang in there. It gets better all the time!!

Genie

Subject: RE: BS: Five Weeks Without a Smoke!
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 06 May 03 - 06:25 PM

I echo Steve the ORC on the warning about cigars. I quit cigarettes- several times- usually when I had a severe cold- but started again. Then I quit for a month, but the craving was there. I started on cigars, since I figured that I would just puff- not inhale. The old story! Cost me more. Cigars were expensive- why smoke weeds when good Cuban cigars are available here in Canada?
An operation with a few days stay in the hospital, and I quit again. This was about 1985 and it took. Haven't smoked since.
When I travel I get a non-smoking room. Once they sold out my room and I had to stay in one on the smoking floor. I couldn't stand the odor and dozed much of the night in the lobby.
Luckily all public buildings and stores and most restaurants here are non-smoking, so no cigarette odors.

Keep it up!

Subject: RE: BS: Five Weeks Without a Smoke!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 06 May 03 - 03:17 PM

Wow, that is absolutely great, Amos! Bravo!

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Five Weeks Without a Smoke!
From: stevetheORC
Date: 06 May 03 - 03:11 AM

Keep it going Mate it gets easier but beware of the cigars.

De (ex smoking) Orc

Subject: RE: BS: Five Weeks Without a Smoke!
From: Col K
Date: 05 May 03 - 05:25 PM

Congratulations
You have joined the very exclusive club of ex-smokers,entry is free but to leave this club becomes very expensive,Several pounds or dollars or whatever currency is in your area for each packet and that strange smokey smell which gets everywhere.On top of the financial cost is the pain of giving up has been wasted.
Keep on not smoking I've just done 20 weeks without and feel much better for it.
The catters here are very supportive, use your friends to help you give up the weed, they are all behind you,
Good Luck for the next 5 weeks and every week after that
Col K

Subject: RE: BS: Five Weeks Without a Smoke!
From: GUEST,Mudjack
Date: 05 May 03 - 03:25 PM

Congradulations Amos,
I'm proud of your endeaver. I must of quit 8 or nine times and finally deducted that the minute you think you can smoke just one and it won't hurt anything is what got me back to a pack a day. Like Roger, I last smoked when cigarettes were cheap. 35 cents a pack or $3.50 a carton. 15 years goneby and I can honestly say, I quit.
If a doctor ever declares me doomed with 30 days to live, I will go out and buy 30 ten dollar cigars and count down the days. Cigars is what took me back to the affordable cigaretts at least three times.
Good luck and most of all, Keep the faith.
Mudjack aka your pal...Jack

Subject: RE: BS: Five Weeks Without a Smoke!
From: Rustic Rebel
Date: 04 May 03 - 05:20 PM

No really Amos, I am serious(this time). I don't know if you are going through some kind of misery or not but I know I would be if I tried quitting. No advice intended, I really would have never guessed, by the joviality of a lot of your posts. Proud of you
Peace. Rustic

Subject: RE: BS: Five Weeks Without a Smoke!
From: Tweed
Date: 04 May 03 - 04:21 PM

I am feeling terrible about the pore tobacco companies as the population here seems to be chucking their butts en masse! What will the executives and researchers do for work when the bottom finally drops out? What are they gonna put on their job apps when they get back out in the real world....
"What were yore duties at RJ Reynolds Mr. Desenex?"

"O, a little of this and a bit of that. Mostly I worked on ways to make drug addiction legal and appealing to young people. Just before the company folded I was involved in efforts to show that folks had a natural inclination to suck poisonous carbon particles into themselves and that we were only filling a human need, like water plants and Porta Pottys do."

Subject: RE: BS: Five Weeks Without a Smoke!
From: Tig
Date: 04 May 03 - 01:01 PM

Congrats Amos - keep it up!! Congrats also go to Col K who has now made it to the 20 weeks.

The Badger stopped 4 weeks and 3 days ago as soon as he had his heart attack. The docs told him that although it probably was nothing to do with the attack they could GUARANTEE that if he carried on smoking he WOULD have another one within 5 years, but that if he stopped he would probably never have another. (Loads of research/practical demonstrations)

Makes you think doesn't it!

Subject: RE: BS: Five Weeks Without a Smoke!
From: Amos
Date: 04 May 03 - 12:32 PM

Dan:

That is really interesting -- the nicotine withdrawal and the acompanying "stunod" feeling was what made earlier attempts to quit fail for me. I couldn't stand acting stupid. This time I'm on the same track you are, copmfortably free of smoke and dealing with the final stage of letting go of my little nicotine pills. I have decided that I will just be willing to act stupid and hope it wears off.

Let me know how next week goes. I'm really interested to know if oxygen-stupidity is a life sentence... :>)

A

Subject: RE: BS: Five Weeks Without a Smoke!
From: GUEST, heric
Date: 04 May 03 - 12:17 PM

Amos: I am ten weeks without a smoke, and four weeks without nicotine. I had intended to stay on the patch for the rest of my time on this particular planet, but something prompted me to just drop it. This after thirty years of packaday. Funny thing was, I was so proud of that first six weeks, but when I dropped the patch, terrible things happened, even though I thought I had finished with the trauma. Unlike you, I could tell from my posts that I was overly sensitive, cranky, irritable, restless, agitated, agonized and sucking on altoid tangerines, but more to the point: CONFUSED. It was so bad, I ended up doing research on it, and found that about 60% of quitters get confused due to INCREASED OXYGEN TO THE BRAIN. That is, the end of vasoconstriction. This was physically evident as well, when I went for a cleaning at the periodontist. They knew all about the phenomenon. The good news is that, starting next week, statistically speaking, chances are I will not be confused anymore!

Congratulations, and good on us pink-hearted, well-oxygenated slightly corpulent ones for foregoing the self-mutilation.
Dan

Subject: RE: BS: Five Weeks Without a Smoke!
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 04 May 03 - 12:03 PM

Amos...if you weaken, go to the nearest Hospital and just stand outside for ten minutes. The sight of the poor elderly (and sometimes dying) sods sucking away will keep you hanging tough.

Next....you gotta start throwing out a lotta clothes. I never realized this, but the smell will drive you nuts (and NOT with desire for a smoke!)

So glad I quit on June the whatever last year while IN the hospital. After having my kidney removed I was actually gonna hobble downstairs and have a butt! The sight of those mentioned in my first paragraph did it for me.

Rick

Subject: RE: BS: Five Weeks Without a Smoke!
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 04 May 03 - 11:59 AM

I quit smoking when I was 13. Took two puffs and quit!

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: Five Weeks Without a Smoke!
From: Amos
Date: 04 May 03 - 11:35 AM

RR:

I appreciate the advice. I am filing it under A-G-P-U, for "Advices, gratuitous, probably unnecessary".

I don't intend to start smoking again. Can't see wjy I would. It's kinda expensive and poisonous, like starting a relationship with a bad-tempered gold digger, I imagine.... :>)

Thanks for all the encouragement!


A

Subject: RE: BS: Five Weeks Without a Smoke!
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 04 May 03 - 03:58 AM

If you start smoking again, somebody should tuck your old Martin where the sun don't shine. Stick with it Santa.
Giok

Subject: RE: BS: Five Weeks Without a Smoke!
From: rangeroger
Date: 04 May 03 - 02:28 AM

Oh, the point to all that was, if you start smoking again Amos, don't tuck your old Martin under your chin if you smoke while you play.

rr

Subject: RE: BS: Five Weeks Without a Smoke!
From: rangeroger
Date: 04 May 03 - 02:24 AM

It is amazing what one can see when looking back from " been there, done that".

As Sorcha said, the monetary cost alone, is a factor now. The $2.50 -$3.50 a pack is a far cry from the 10 cents a pack I payed on board ship.

And being abe to spot cigarette mishaps on instruments. A couple of years ago I was given my maternal grandfather's fiddle.He played at all the country hoe downs and barndances around the Ottawa, Ohio area. The fiddle is German and dates from around 1900. He was killed when his car stalled on the railroad tracks coming home from a gig ( he did like his corn likker)> The fiddle survived,including the old coffin-style wooden case.

After playing it for a few months I talked with my mother about it and asked her if grandad Mullett had smoked. She asked why and I told her that I had noticed burn marks on the top of the fiddle that would corespond to a cigarette hanging out of the players mouth. She told me that he smoked cigars and would smoke them while playing.

BTW he died sometime in the 1930's

rr

Subject: RE: BS: Five Weeks Without a Smoke!
From: wysiwyg
Date: 03 May 03 - 05:52 PM

VERY PLEASED.

Add this span of time to your prior effort and claim all of it. It will be good for you.

~Mom

Subject: RE: BS: Five Weeks Without a Smoke!
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 03 May 03 - 04:54 PM

Go for it bro' I stopped 13 years ago, and see how fat, sorry fit I got. Seriously though, you've beaten it now, stick with, and well done......Giok

Subject: RE: BS: Five Weeks Without a Smoke!
From: Morticia
Date: 03 May 03 - 02:45 PM

Smoking kills. If you're killed, you've lost a very important part of your life.
-- Brooke Shields (during an interview to become spokesperson for a federal anti-smoking campaign)

Well done,Amos. You keep trail blazing and sooner or later I am sure to follow along.( I'd follow that man anywhere.....if only out of curiosity).

Subject: RE: BS: Five Weeks Without a Smoke!
From: CarolC
Date: 03 May 03 - 12:16 PM

Great job everyone! Good luck with it.

Subject: RE: BS: Five Weeks Without a Smoke!
From: *daylia*
Date: 03 May 03 - 11:40 AM

Way to go, Amos! Keep it up dude ... I only wish I could make that claim! Last time I tried, I caved in under the pressure of "over sensitive, cranky, irritable, restless, agitated, agonizing or sucking on lolly-pops!" as Rustic said. Sheesh, maybe a little heroin would help calm me down ... ;)

daylia

Subject: RE: BS: Five Weeks Without a Smoke!
From: Rustic Rebel
Date: 03 May 03 - 09:54 AM

Amos. I'm proud of you man. This is the first I heard you were even trying to quit. Couldn't tell by any of your posts that you were over sensitive, cranky, irritable, restless, agitated, agonizing or sucking on lolly-pops!
Love ya, Rustic

Subject: RE: BS: Five Weeks Without a Smoke!
From: nutty
Date: 03 May 03 - 07:37 AM

Congratulations to you all ....keep it up.

It's now over 2years for me and I'm sure I would have failed if I hadn't got such fantastic support from Mudcatters.

If you ever feel you need support Amos ..... just give a call.

Hazel

Subject: RE: BS: Five Weeks Without a Smoke!
From: fiddler
Date: 03 May 03 - 05:49 AM

Keep going all of you!

I quit from 60 cigs a day max. Stopped when No1 dotter was born.

If you want to do it you will. If you think you ought to do it then you probably won't - sorry all.

But if you want Extra sensory help I'm backing every one of you.

Sorch - My old fiddle maker smikes his fiddles - sits in his chair smoking beneath them after he has finished work on them reckons it helps them - He's a great old man and full of stories but still smokes - it helps with hsi work you see......

Best of luck all

A

Subject: RE: BS: Five Weeks Without a Smoke!
From: C-flat
Date: 03 May 03 - 04:36 AM

Well done Amos!
I'm another who's cut back on smoking, and now I'm on the brink of committing to a bout of abstinence. I keep getting close and then backing off again. 5 weeks is a long time!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Five Weeks Without a Smoke!
From: Mudlark
Date: 03 May 03 - 03:16 AM

Well yeehaw for you sez I, as well...Well done, Amos. Just great news. Keep up the good work...we want you around and healthy for a long, long time!

Subject: RE: BS: Five Weeks Without a Smoke!
From: Sorcha
Date: 03 May 03 - 12:39 AM

Both Amos and Tweed are ahead of me......but I am down a pack a day from 3-4 packs, and I'm still trying hard. Not heard of the lozenges. Will check that out. I think I'm a 'habit' smoker...not a 'chemical' one. We can DO this..........and save a bunch of money!

Subject: RE: BS: Five Weeks Without a Smoke!
From: Dave Swan
Date: 02 May 03 - 11:30 PM

Well done pal. I was SO tired of you grinding the butts out on my forehead.

D

Subject: RE: BS: Five Weeks Without a Smoke!
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 02 May 03 - 10:30 PM

Corn-grats!

Dave Oesterreich