I have stopped SMOKING!

“Are you still jogging, maple? When my dad quit, he took that up, and he had very few cravings. When you get a craving (especially due to stress), are you able to get out and walk around the block? Even just a minute or two walking up & down the street might help. TRY ANYTHING!!!!”

“Don't do it Maple!

I had a lapse last week, but back on track now.

I hated myself for giving in last week - there wasn't even skinny dipping or booze involved either.”

“It also helps to avoid the triggers that lead to smoking. Like drinking. I know it's asking a lot but it helps. My resolve dwindles to nothing when I'm drinking.”

“thanks guys for the support. i tried. i really did.

:(

now i feel sick :(”

“AHHHHH! I'm tellin' Mom!”

“Who wants to get a drink & go skinny dipping!”

“OK, well, start a new streak now!”

“My advice is....

to put something else in your mouth besides a ciggy!!!


HUGS......hang in there....”

“Thumb?”

“...you started to smoke again?? bad, bad boy!!!

Maple, hang in there. Whatever happened to stress you like that...it ain't worth it!!!”

“Maple, and Roam, don't let this one little indiscretion give you the green light to start up again
Hang in there”

“Indiscretion? Mapes & Roam? Does Treebeard know about this?????

No wonder they had a smoke.”

“Maybe find something that will motivate you, mapes.

I have been smoke free for about 1 and half years and never felt better, well at least since I started smoking.

The best thing I would say for you to do would be to not beat yourself up over it. You'll just get down on yourself and you'll never quit.

Be at pease with the fact that you fell of the wagon, and get right back on.

Never quit quiting!

Good luck.”

“It was only a couple of days, and I hated myself the whole time. I'm back to being a nonsmoker and I like it sooo much better.

It was just a minor lapse.

Reconfirmed that quitting was a good thing.”

“Quit Date is: 6/1/2003 1:35:00 PM
Time Smoke-Free: 438 days, 18 hours, 5 minutes and 26 seconds

Cigarettes NOT smoked: 13163
Lifetime Saved: 3 months, 10 days, 13 hours
Money Saved: $1,511.10

pretty good eh??”

“i have been soooo good about not smoking. only fell off that wagon once. something about skinnydipping and a lot of booze.

oops.”

“Keep it up, it will eventually smooth out. After 13 years of smoking myself, now coming up on 3 1/2 years smoke-free - and no cravings for a long while. If you can use your willpower to get up a steep slope, you can use it to conquer this hill, too.”

“Yup, so far so good - Day three of round two.”

“A Virginia mother was sentenced yesterday to 10 days in jail for defying a court order not to smoke in front of her children.

Tamara Silvius, 44, who has said she smokes about a pack of cigarettes a day, was led from a Caroline County courtroom in handcuffs. But the judge allowed her to post a $500 bond to stay out of jail while she appeals the ruling.

"It should never have come to this," Silvius said in a telephone interview, after spending four hours in jail before being released. ". . . I hope and pray my two little kids don't think they had their mama sent to jail."

The sentence is the latest development in a bitter and long-running battle between Silvius and her ex-husband, Steven Silvius, over custody of their children, ages 10 and 8. But the restriction on smoking, especially in a tobacco-friendly state, has captured far greater attention.

"It is within the court's powers to jail somebody for criminal contempt, but she's not happy about getting 10 days," said her attorney, Tucker Henley of Richmond. "Virginia is such a big tobacco state, it's kind of surprising. I've never heard of a case where you restrict behavior this way."

But her ex-husband's attorney, Mark A. Murphy of Fredericksburg, said the measure was necessary to protect the health of the children, who live with their father and often visit their mother on weekends. The Silviuses have joint custody.

"With the history of tobacco in this area, people are more understanding about people's right to smoke," Murphy said yesterday. "But any judge who cares about children is going to step in to protect them when a case like this is presented to them."

Tamara Silvius, a waitress at an Interstate 95 truck stop, has been smoking since she was 16, she said. The smoking habit, as well as her drinking, became an issue several years ago as the Silviuses ended their 13-year marriage.

As part of the custody arrangement, a court order last August barred Tamara Silvius from smoking around her children. She appealed that order to Caroline Circuit Court, where it was upheld, and has filed another appeal with the Virginia Court of Appeals.

"She's free to smoke every other day," Murphy said. "It's only when the children are there that the court is asking her to prioritize her children over her smoking."

Murphy said the children, a boy and a girl, would return from visits with their mother "with their clothes drenched with the smell of smoke and with breathing problems."

The U.S. Surgeon General's Office has said for years that exposure to secondhand smoke increases the risk of heart disease and lung cancer.

Tamara Silvius already had violated the court order once. At Thanksgiving, while driving her children to South Carolina, Silvius, wanting to smoke as she drove, tacked up plastic between the front and back seats and secured it with duct tape. In January, she was found guilty of violating the order in that instance and was given a 10-day suspended sentence.

"I was found guilty because I did it," she said. "The children were not in a smoke environment. I asked if it bothered them."

She was accused of the second violation in June, which led to yesterday's sentence.

Silvius declined to say whether she has tried to quit smoking. "That's not what the order is," she said. "I don't think that should be an issue. It's a shame the court got involved in my personal life."

She said that her children are on vacation with their father and that she looks forward to seeing them when they return.

"I love my kids," she said. "We have a good time together."”

“I've got some mixed feelings about that one.

Mixed between bull#&%!$ and ludicrus. Apparantly the kids aren't asthmatic. Looks like the ex husband saw an opportunity to seriously F with the woman.”

“I have a bag of bubblegum and the will to stop.

I made a promise to myself, that if I got this, I would stop. well it is due to be del this morning.
”

“Best of luck. Your lungs will thank you.”

“Good Luck, Mapes!”

“That's great Mapes! I want you to tell me what the difference between that and a treadmill that has an incline is.”

“Congrats!

If you THINK about lighting up, some of us ex-smokers are ready to kick your butt! ;-)”

“Smoking SUCKS. You are doing the best thing and will make a good impression on your kids and helping out yourself a lot by quitting that nasty habit.”

“already yelled at someone this morning.
:(
i am cranky!!”

“If you really, really need your nicotine, there's always all those lozenges and gums now, that apparently taste better than they used to. Also, the diet pill Trimspa contains nicotine, as an appetite suppressant.”

“be strong..if you slip and smoke, get back up and start again...you can do it..oh, pack away all the guns and sharp knives first..LOL!

and Mapes, try this..look at the clock and tell yourself you can have a cigarette in 10 minutes..that's TEN minutes..not eleven, not nine..you are not allowed to set an alarm clock..I never ONCE was able to remember I wanted a smoke within the allowable time frame..I've done this to kick both cigarettes and, er, other things..it worked for me..

Of course, years of drug abuse has given me a really short memory span (insert goofy, red face here)
last edited: 1/31/05 9:08:43 AM”

“Good for you.

I'm thinking about starting.”

“I now remebered why I started again.


@#$%$# @# $%n&&( BOSS!”

“good luck, nora! i actually am going to get hypnotized to see if that works.”

“I got hypnotized once. Now I bark like a dog every time I hear the word ‘rosebud’.”

“rosebud
rosebud
rosebud
rosebud”

“Bark! Bark! Bark!”

“You go, Mapes!!”

“Go to your Dr. and tell him/her you want "WELLBURTON"!
I think it's an antidepressant but one of the side effects is it REALLY diminishes the cravings.
The 1st week or 2 I also had the gum and lozenges, but when the craving came along it wasn't too bad.
This is the easiest time I've ever had!


PS. I'm on day 75.”

“I'm on year #8.
Seriously, it was the best thing I ever did.

My suggestion is to embrace your crankiness. Use it to fuel your resolve.”

“Congrats on quitting, wish everyone had that kinda will power. I started smoking in Iraq, and quit the month before we came home. Though i do admit, i still love the taste of a good cigar with a drink.....bad me...bad me...”

“A good cigar, a drink, and an alpine lake.

Don't inhale!”

“No one likes a quitter! :D”

“congratulations! You'll be glad you quit... Thinkbubelz used to smoke about 15 yrs ago-- He would give me funny looks because I could tell if someone lit up 50 feet away at a restaurant (I don't smoke and am allergic)...

Now, he is just as sensitive to the smoke and can't stand it if someone lights up near us... (he can still tolerate it better than I can).
last edited: 1/31/05 11:59:27 AM”

“Great. One slight innuendo and I'm gonna have Ms. Withdrawal all over me like fly saliva on DocNice wife's sleeve.
last edited: 1/31/05 12:05:53 PM”

“Mapes, be as cranky as you need to be! You can do this, I know you can. The trick is staying quit. Just don't ever smoke again. Do it for Tree, the seedlings, for yourself esp. You will feel so much healthier and stronger, you'll see. You'll be able to smell stuff you've never been able to before, food'll taste better, and your teeth will be whiter. Less wrinkles, nicer skin and nails and you won't STINK. You can do it.

Trident helped me alot. I always wanted to be eating something while I was quitting. That and thinking about how much easier hills would be while hiking (and they are so much easier). It's been two years and seventeen days since I've smoked a cigarette.”

“I did do this before. then last Aug work got real real bad and I started again. so sorry i did. now I have to start all over again :(”

“I think of cigarettes as the devil now, lol. I have to be one of those horrible, intolerant non-smokers or I'll be smoking again in a heartbeat. I'm an addict. I don't berate people or anything like that but deep down inside I hate cigarettes and I hate having to smell and breath other people's stink. I do when I have to though.”

“This thread bringing back memories. I didnt' know you started again Maple. Dang you!!

I am almost at my 2 year mark!
Mapes honey...want me to slap it out of your mouth next time I see ya? Dang Woman!!

My brother inlaw tried hypnosis and accupuncture before. It worked for a little while, but that's it. He ended up quiting on his own a year or so later.”

“no slapping needed.
will get on the new toy and play.



if this chick comes in my office one more time, i can not be held accountable for my actions!

grrrrrrrrrrr”

“Oh the places we could go . . .with this ..



"no slapping needed.
will get on the new toy and play."


Oh my .. . .



That should keep you busy w/out a cigarette . .. .(although you may want one afterwards).”