Testamony to Quiting Smoking

“Back in highschool I was one of those rebel student. I had a motorcycle, combat boots, and a cigarette in my mouth. 3 years later, I decided after crashing the motorcycle, ditching the boots, I wanted to stop smoking too. Only I was very addicted.

I spent a year trying to ween myself off, but it took more then that. I saw that I had become a cityslicker and had tried to get back into the outdoor adventures that I had done before the whole rebel looser bit. I needed to get in shape but, I had dificulty running. or breathing anyway. So I did it anyway. I started running and coughing like hell, spitting up brown lugies and blood. Then when I craved the next cig, it hurt to smoke so I finaly stoped.

It's been 3 years sence and I haven't had a smoke since. Now I run 5 miles every other day and it's all good. So if anyone else outthere is trying to quit, do it! You'll feel better and hikeing will be a lot more fun.”

“I smoked in my late teens - early twenties. It's tough to quit but it's one of the best decisions I ever made! Saves your health plus all the $$$$ you save.”

“I quit a 20 yr pack-a-day habit just over 3 years ago. It was brutal beyond comprehension, but the best thing I've ever done for myself. I still can't run 5 miles but I'm up to 3.”

“Been smokin' for decades an' it's gettin' tabe a real drag. I also have quit for several two-week periods over the last year. One problem is that I go on a lotta hikes w/ a particular buddy who smokes only on hiking trips (we're leavin' for a quick overnight after work on Fri.). Add a hot toddy an' sumathat rocket weed to the equation and it's hopeless. Nevertheless, gotta stop (out sick from work today w/ a bad cold that's probably smoker-related). I'd start right now, but I still gotta coupla packs of 'boros in the house. Very soon I'm gonna do it, though.”

“I smoked for 10+ years, 1.5 packs a day. Quit 7 years ago cold turkey and haven't looked back.”

“once, i smoked a cigarette.

then i quit.”

“I stopped for 2 weeks about a month ago. I was ornery and probably wasn't too civil on this board! Went out-of-town and bought a pack after the harrowing traffic tie-ups. I'm sure I was just looking for any convenient excuse and was looking for some "familiarity" while on the road. I look forward to quiting again soon. I did notice that I didn't tap the ATM nearly as often. So, not only did I save the cost of the smokes, but alot of incidental purchases as well. I figure that by not smoking for two weeks I have about $42.00 in my "new sleeping bag fund!"
Health benefits go without saying.”

“I quit a 25 year, 2 pack a day habit on my birthday 2 years, 3 months, and 25 days ago. I wanted to hike the JMT - my first Backpacking trip - the summer of '99, and I knew there was no way I was gonna make it at those altitudes, unless I stopped smoking. So, I got the patch, used it a month, and focused on hiking plans. Every day, in fact. I learned TOPO! so well, I could almost design it myself.

Don't think much about smoking now. Occasionally, I wonder if they still "taste" the same... But I'm done. It's over, and I ain't goin' back. A less obvious fringe benefit - I haven't turned into a bible-thumping anti-smoker. I just leave the area.

If you're going to quit, consider choosing an opposing goal, as I did. In the end, only YOU can make the decision, and only YOU must live with it... or is it something else? GOOD LUCK !!”

“Good point on opposing goal obi. My wife started running marathons to her give reason to quit. It worked and she still runs.”

“I quit 1 year and 19 days ago. I smoked for ten stinky, phlemy, expensive years. Never again! It's easy to stick with it when you have someone else's health to worry about too.”

“I recently went back to Minneapolis to visit some friends...I could not BELIEVE how much my clothes stunk after coming home from the bars. Guess I forgot about that, having lived in CA for a while.”

“Tommy - I know what you mean. I am rather spoiled, living in California. I went to South Carolina and was surprised to ba asked if I wanted a smokers or non-smokers section of a restaurant.

Not to pick on smokers too much, but "a non smoking section of a restaurant is like a non peeing seciton of a pool".”

“LOL, on the pool simularity.”

“Does anyone know the health facts about what happens to a person after quiting, I forgot but, I remember that with exercize and time, ones lungs return to like 90 -99 % of that of a nonsmoker. Is that true, I hope it is!

ThinAir”

“ Tobacco Exposed

American Cancer Society Tobacco Page”

“I'm doing something wrong with my links.

http://www.thetruth.com

http://www.cancer.org/tobacco/index.html”

“I`m down to three packs a day, it used to be five
the doctors can`t figure out why I`m still alive
to a man, they told me I need to quit
but air doesn`t taste right without it
I`ve tried to quit, but that was a joke
the more I try to quit, the more I smoke
and the more I smoke, the more I pray
that like a puff of smoke, I`ll drift away
and at night it`s the glow and not the smoke I see
because the two of them now, are a big part of me
and I`ve been down and out and bit more broken
but whatever time I got left, I`ll do `er smikin`”

“Oops, ...smokin`, it should have been, but smokin` kills brain cells and I haven`t got that many left.

Hmmmmm, come to think on it a bit,.... I didn`t have many to start with, or I wouldn`t have ever started it.”

“I've been tobbacco-less for 3 years 2 months and 7 days now. Quit after my Dad had a heart attack tht day before '97>'98 New Years Eve. He never smoked, drank little, ate right, lived a good Christian living and then BAM, I see him in the hospital hanging on for life and all hooked up to tubes and wires and machines. And there I was...living ike I was invinceable! It was hard at first, but it got easier. I had the will to do it...unlike my prior attempts.

"Quitting smoking is the easiest thing I've ever done, and I ought to know 'cause I done it hundreds of times!" Samuel Clemmons”

“Ex-smoker, chewer, and dipper. 22years @2 packs a day towards the end, plus a tin of snuff every other. Quit cold turkey, talk about a JONES!!”

“I quit playing with matches, stoping smoking was a byproduct”

“my oldet son( the one in trouble with the law just quit in fact quit everything im really proud of how well hes doing just hope it lasts. he has now been cigg free for 15 days!!!!!”

“and when are you quitting?”

“I hafta admit, though, I do likes my cigars.”

“Wanna quit? Get locked up in CA. No smoking in jails here.”

“My ear, nose and throat doctor told me if people gave up smoking he would be out of business. The reason is because he does so many operations to remove the smoker's throat because they got throat cancer from smoking. This operation is no joke and is extremely painful and side effects from it last for the rest of your life, that is if your lucky to survive 2 years after the cancer has been discovered. How do I know? Because I was diagnosed with throat cancer that spread into my neck in 1999, I didn't get it from smoking since I never smoked at all. I got it as a complication from one of the immunosuppressant drugs I was on when I had a bone marrow transplant for leukemia the year before. I had most of my throat removed, a radical neck dissection to take the lymph nodes in my neck and 31 radiation treatments. Luckily, I still have my vocal cords so I still have my voice, but the other complications are plain brutal and I'm at high risk for a relapse. Throat cancer treatment is very painful and risky. I always thought cancer happens to the "other guy" until I found out I was the "other guy". I urge anyone out there to quit smoking immediately.”

“Started smoking at 12, quit at 37 doing 2+ packs per day. After 16 years without them I feel great. I will smoke a good cigar every now and then but don't inhale.”

“ok Bill”

“I stopped 9 years. back. Smoked for 27 years -- nonfiltered most of the time. Best and hardest thing I've ever done. My wife said I had the personnality of an ax murderer for almost a year after I stopped.”

“I think my mother would still be alive today if she hadn't smoked. She and my dad quit cold turkey about 4 or 5 years ago. It helped her, but not enough.

I smoked a pipe from about age 20 to 30. It is easier to quit smoking a pipe because you aren't addicted to nicotine. Interestingly, I found out that some people stereotype pipe smokers as lazy and non-productive. My boss asked me one day, "Hey, did you quit smoking your pipe?", I said, "Yes, eight months ago."

Here in California I was against telling restaurants and bars what they could do for constitutional reasons. However, I must admit that it is great not having smoking in public places. When I travel I can tell the difference (Japan was the worst).”

“I quit smoking 9 years ago the 27th of this month! Quit after 40 years of 1 to 1 1/2 pack a day. This was after maany, many tries. One needs a challenge, a positive attitude, and above all to quit for yourselve, not your wife, kids or anyone else. Do it for YOURSELF! I stopped cold turkey and haven't had a coffin nail since! I can honestly say that I do NOT MISS THEM - much more money in my jeans!
For those of you who wish to stop, well. Hang in there, you can do it!! I did.”

“I quit four years ago. More money, nothing smells like smoke anymore and best of all... LESS cleaning! After the first year of not smoking, I washed my windows throughout the house. They was hardly anything on them, unlike the rolls of paper towel I would go through when I was smoking.

Smoking is so smelly and dirty not to mention it kills us. Why ever did we do it to ourselves?!”

“As a non smoker, but the child of two smoking parents - Thanks for quitting and also congradulations.

When you smoke, you do affect more than yourself.”

“Smoking stinks! Happy to hear so many people quitting.”

“I'm three weeks smoke free after 30 years of 2 packs per day. I've tried to quit many times with no luck. The difference this time? For some reason I don't think about the cigs much. I used Zyban for about 10 days and then quit that too. I think I was finally ready to quit...no one told me to, I had just had enough. I know I've got it dicked this time.”

“I'm down to less than 5 cigarettes a day... That's five cigarettes -- not five packs!! But I just can't get over the hump.

Nice post Big Foot.

It's 2:30 PM. I've only had two today... one yesterday... one Saturday... three Friday....

Now, all you former smokers.... any of you quit after being down to about a pack a week? (Or do I need to smoke a pack or two per day for awhile before going cold turkey like the rest of you?!)

Peace,
theiowanerd”

“dang! congrats jpm!”

“I smoked from 9th grade until two years after I finished college. I smoked about a pack a day while in school, after I graduated I cut down, I smoked about a pack a week or about 5 cigarettes a day from Sun.-Thurs. But when I went out I smoked like a chimney. I could smoke up to two packs on a Saturday night alone.

About two and a half years ago I found out I had diabetes and had to change my life style almost completely. Not that smoking has anything to do with diabetes but quitting was part of the change I made. I quit cold turkey the day of a good friends weeding. Sitting through that reception with all my friends that smoked was about the hardest thing I ever did. After that night though its been fairly easy for me. My biggest allie was gum, it gave me something to do when I craved a cigarette I chewed gum. It wasn't the chemical I missed so much as the action of smoking. Gum helped with that aspect of quitting.

The best part about quitting, isn't that food tastes better, or that you can breath easier, or even that you'll probably live longer. Its the smell or lack thereof. Smokers stink, they smell like rundown dive bars, and truckstop restaurant booths. You never realize how bad it is until after you quit.

Good luck to anyone who is quitting.”

“Would that it was easy to just up and then quit
to say I`ll have no more of this and that be it
but I`ve found it eaiser to say and much harder to do
to have this be the very last one and no more Thank You
and I don`t know how I got the habbit or what started the desire
cause I`ve had it most of my life, but I`d sure miss the fire
oh and it`d be nice if I didn`t smoke and the stuff didn`t stink
but I got started years ago and back then I just didn`t think
and smoking took my dad away and that left me broken hearted
but I didn`t know then what I do now, I wish I`d never started”

“I'm lucky in a way. When I was in my teens my father died at the age of 46, mainly due to smoking 3 packs a day, eating bad, and drinking too much. He left behind 6 KIDS and a wife. He had his addictions, but he was a good father. Anyway, after his death I just never had the desire to smoke. Honestly, I don't understand why people would even want to start. I guess it's to "be cool" and "fit in". Fortunately I never bought into that during HS.

Sadly, my younger brother and sister have been smoking since they were 11 and 12 years old (they're 18 and 19 now). It's sad because my father started at the same age. I keep asking them, "Do you want to leave behind a family when you're in your 40's too?" They don't listen, though. :(”

“jpm, way to go! Its not over however. I quit for two weeks about a month ago and thought I was doing really well. Ha. It only takes a moment to let it all slip away. Just keep telling yourself that this week is the hard week. I think they all are. I haven't had a smoke in 12 hrs and didn't buy a pack on my way in to work this am. I guess that means I've quit again!
Be strong and maybe we can all inspire each other!”

“Try Tootsie Pop suckers for a substitute. Satisfies the need for something in your mouth AND your hand. Helped me.”

“Thanks for the encouragement. I truly feel it is over though. The reason why? Because I just don't even miss or think about them this time. Was up in the mountains this weekend with my son, and we were coming around a corner and I could smell someone smoking quite aways away. It smelled like XXXX. The guy was sitting on a rock puffing and looking embarrased about smoking in the mountains. That used to be me...no way, no more! Later.”

“Looks like someone should have quit before last Tuesday.”

“dumba$$”

“Now that is lighting a fart!”

“Another candidate for a Darwin Award.”

“March 1 it will be 2 years since i stopped smoking.

I feel great :)

to all of you that have tried to stop, how is it going?”

“i stopped in 1980. My lung feels great”

“whooohooo...I have to check when I quit...it's been that long...wait...
okay, it's been 270 days today, that's what? almost 9 month! I don't think I'll ever quit.

maple used to be a smoker. They do say the ex-smokers are the biggest nags about smoke. remember the fairy? you're sooo bad!!”