BS: My anniversary (stopping smoking)

Subject: BS: My anniversary
From: kendall
Date: 16 Dec 10 - 09:35 PM

14 years ago today I gave myself a Christmas present. I smoked my last cigarette, and my only regret is that I didn't quit sooner.

Subject: RE: BS: My anniversary
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 16 Dec 10 - 10:00 PM

"I smoked my last cigarette..." This is good, and it's good to be so positive about it. Keep it up.

I haven't quit smoking, although I haven't had a cigarette since about 1977. But every so often I do get a craving (usually while drinking) and if someday I give into it, I will have broken no vows, nor promises, nor resolutions.

Subject: RE: BS: My anniversary
From: Bobert
Date: 16 Dec 10 - 10:08 PM

October 12, 1985 fir me... "Cigarettes, that is"...

But congrates, Capt'n... I mean, they was still messin' with the nicotine levels when you quit which I'm sure was a lot harder...

My Christmas wish is that my poor brother would quit... He turns the big 6-0 on Jan. 2nd and still smokin' 2 packs a day...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: My anniversary
From: open mike
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 12:30 AM

wow congrats...i no longer smoke tobacco either...
they say it is harder to quit than heroin!!


i wonder if i still have green crystals in my lungs
from the KOOL menthols i smoked way back when...??!!

Subject: RE: BS: My anniversary
From: Joe Offer
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 12:47 AM

I quit in February, 1993, when a beautiful woman told me it might improve my love life. I cheat and smoke one or two every once in a while, usually at the Getaway. I do feel better not smoking, but I still get a hankering for a cigarette every once in a while.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: My anniversary (stopping smoking)
From: J-boy
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 01:57 AM

That horrible shit is so addictive that just reading the word "smoking" makes me want to light one up. Though I am down to five cigarettes a day I know even that is too many. I started smoking at the age of fifteen. Camels non-filter they were. I imagine it was much the same with you, Kendall?

Subject: RE: BS: My anniversary (stopping smoking)
From: GUEST,kendall
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 03:30 AM

One of the older boys in the neighborhood gave me one, then another and I was hooked almost from day one.
I'd like to light up now and again, but I know from past experience that I wouldn't be able to stop at one, and 14 years would be wasted.

Subject: RE: BS: My anniversary (stopping smoking)
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 04:17 AM

21 years in January, and I was a very heavy smoker.

Dave H

Subject: RE: BS: My anniversary (stopping smoking)
From: s&r
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 06:56 AM

40+ years now.

I wish I'd saved the cash I would have spent...

Stu

Subject: RE: BS: My anniversary (stopping smoking)
From: mauvepink
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 07:08 AM

It was seven years for me on the 14th December. I, too, believe that I am only one cigarette away from starting again so must never have that one.

Well done all those who have managed to stay off them and good luyck to all those who keep trying to get away from them. It will happen one day for you

mp

Subject: RE: BS: My anniversary (stopping smoking)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 07:32 AM

congratulations, Kendall on your 14th anniversary!

and congratulations to all who have quit & cut down

sandra (who stopped mid 70s very soon after taking it up - THEY all has a cigarette in one hand & wine glass in other so I tried to be sophisticated like them but I didn't like the taste & tried not to inhale!)

Subject: RE: BS: My anniversary (stopping smoking)
From: bobad
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 07:37 AM

Three weeks ago it was 22 years for both my wife and myself. At the rate we were smoking at today's cost we would be spending over $7000.00 on cigarettes.

Subject: RE: BS: My anniversary (stopping smoking)
From: bobad
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 07:38 AM

...per year.

Subject: RE: BS: My anniversary (stopping smoking)
From: MikeL2
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 09:29 AM

hi kendal

Many congratulations on your willpower.

As I have never smoked even one cigarette I don't really know what it means to do so but from what some of my friends tell me it is very difficult. The vast majority of them have failed.

I hope that everyone who smokes has the determination to try to stop smoking.

Like you I have suffered from throat cancer and I have no hesitation to blame it on passive smoking.

Cheers

MikeL2

Subject: RE: BS: My anniversary (stopping smoking)
From: jacqui.c
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 10:14 AM

I stopped on New Years Day 1983. The idea of smoking now makes me feel ill.

Subject: RE: BS: My anniversary (stopping smoking)
From: Bobert
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 01:49 PM

I'm with you, jacqui...

I can't understand how people, once they have quit, have urges to smoke anymore... Seems to be the nastiest smell imaginable... Down right sickening, too... Literally...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: My anniversary (stopping smoking)
From: kendall
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 03:37 PM

Their breath alone would knock a Hyena off a gut wagon.

Subject: RE: BS: My anniversary (stopping smoking)
From: Slag
Date: 18 Dec 10 - 09:19 AM

Do you all remember why you started? Most of us wanted to be "cool" and look "Grown up". Is there anything more pathetic than to see some young whelp sucking on a cigaret? It make me just want to wring their srawny little necks and tell them what idiots they are. and then I get REALLY mad at the tobacco companies, the pushers.

I only smoked for about three years but I was up to 2.5 packs a day before my eyes were opened. Cold turkey and never went back.

I heard a preacher once state "Smoking never sent anyone to Hell, it just makes you smell like you've been there!"

Subject: RE: BS: My anniversary (stopping smoking)
From: kendall
Date: 18 Dec 10 - 09:33 AM

I really believe that this is the thing they should hammer on in schools. If you smoke, you stink. Period. Appeal to their vanity, scare tactics won't work because all young people think they are bullet proof.

Subject: RE: BS: My anniversary (stopping smoking)
From: nutty
Date: 18 Dec 10 - 12:47 PM

It's my anniversary as well.
I gave up in 2000 - I can't believe how quickly those 10 years have passed.

I was so grateful for the support I got from the Mudcat community. It really helped me to be strong

Subject: RE: BS: My anniversary (stopping smoking)
From: gnu
Date: 18 Dec 10 - 02:03 PM

K... "If you smoke, you stink. Period. Appeal to their vanity,..."

Excellent idea... through in some pics of how it affects their looks too. Of course, with me, as good looking as I am, that wouldn't have worried me. But the stinkin part woulda.

Subject: RE: BS: My anniversary (stopping smoking)
From: alanabit
Date: 19 Dec 10 - 01:40 PM

When I see kids smoking, I invariably say (just loud enough for them to hear) "Ah how sweet! I used to smoke in my childhood too!"

Subject: RE: BS: My anniversary (stopping smoking)
From: Crowhugger
Date: 19 Dec 10 - 02:50 PM

Congrats, Kendall, and to all the other ex-smokers reading this!

Bobert, it's truly mysterious, that urge to inhale something so choking, smelly & unpleasant. I used to smoke too and still occasionally feel the urge; if I had just one puff I'm sure I'd be back up to a pack a day within a week, which is what happened the first time I quit. Even though I now detest most of the smells of cigarettes, the aroma of a fresh-lit one doesn't offend me nearly as much as I wish it would.

It's frustrating that almost all smoking happens outdoors these days: yes it's better for whoever lives/works with the smoker, but the smell often makes our yard totally unusable--never remaining within their own garage or porch. Plus it clings to the dogs' coats who then bring it inside--blech! I'm starting to wish for an outright ban or at least some non-smoking neighbourhoods. Guess I'm part of the walking talking proof that there's no one crankier about smoking than an ex-smoker [smirk: irony not lost on me!].

Subject: RE: BS: My anniversary (stopping smoking)
From: GUEST,Alan Whittle
Date: 19 Dec 10 - 04:56 PM

Congratulations!

Subject: RE: BS: My anniversary (stopping smoking)
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 20 Dec 10 - 01:02 AM

I put on a lot of weight when I stopped smoking, so after about a year I bought a packet of cigs, I smoked one and felt ill for three days, that was in August 1991, never touched one since.

Dave H

Subject: RE: BS: My anniversary (stopping smoking)
From: kendall
Date: 20 Dec 10 - 12:46 PM

I'm lucky to have not gained weight. In fact, I weigh the same now as I did when I went into the service at the age of 19. ( 180) pounds, not stone