I did it!!!

[thomasortega]

Hey guys, I have some news...

After 30+ years smoking and saying "Yes, I smoke and I don't have any plans to quit, it's my life and fu** you if you don't like my decisions"

Exactly 3 days, 13 hours and 37 minutes ago I was chatting with Scott about detergents when I suddenly decided to start my webcam and ask him to be an eye witness of my last cigarrete.

I DON'T SMOKE ANYMORE!!! WOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Believe it or not, all the smells are different. the food smells and tastes much better, the softener smells 10x more, even my apartment is starting to smell better as my mom decided to respect my decision and now she just smokes outside.

Let's count together? Now I realized I need all the help I can have. The 3 days have been odd, but the worst is to come (between the 4th and 7th day) If I can resist these 7 days, i can consider my victory and say I'm an ex-smoker.

 

[thomasortega]

Oh, by the way, I'm not using any kind of chemical help like patches or chewing gum. My body must relearn how to live without nicotine.

 

[rayjay]

Thomas, I wish you all the luck and support you 100% I quit in 1993. I was a 3 pack a day person. I thought I could never do it. My dad had lung cancer which went to his brain, (which was operable), but they had to take his left lung out. After the surgery, he had a pulmonary embolism (a blood clot) on his right lung. THis is what killed him. My brothers gave me a paid membership to a national group out her called SmokeEnders. It helped me quit. It was not easy, and it will take a while. And yes, you will gain weight. I do not care what anyone says. lol

If you need any support, please email me.

Ray

 

[thomasortega]

Thanks Ray!

Yes, I know i'm supposed to gain some weight, but I'm not worried about that since I'm going back to the gym because I have a target. I want the same body I had in 1996 when I used to be an athlete.

Now I'm starting a heavy program with a personal trainer (weightlifting, spinning, step, Jump!, body pump and body combat classes) and a nutricionist (a super diet where I won't feel hunger, but I'll feel like a rabitt thanks to tons of vegetables)

 

[scott55405]

This of course is wonderful news all around for Thomas, but if you think cigarettes are expensive here-oh. my. God. The price there is not to be believed.

 

[thomasortega]

Yes, and considering the number of cigarrets I used to smoke per day, a Wavetouch washing machine went to the ashtray every two months.

 

[laundromat]

15 years for me

Tom,I used to smoke Marlborrow 100's. i smokd outside at home and at work. Four packs a day!!!i also smoked 420.I quit both,cold turkey after a battle with a flu.As you know,yourself,you get your smells and tastes back.You don't wake up in the morning with toilet breath,you will breathe a lot better and get fewer colds and viruses.I rarely get sick and have a great breathing pattern.I can walk farther,swim farther and dance longer with no problem.Be careful though,the desire to have a cigarette in your mouth may cause you to eat more junk food.Most quiters give up after gaining 20 to 30 pounds from that desire to have something to make up for the cigarettes.Get som carrot sticks,celery and watermellon cut into bitesize pieces.When you get that urge to have a smoke,grab a few pieces of either and you'll apease your pallet.Stay in touch with friends who don't smoke.Those who do usualy critisize your desire to quit and can cause you to fail.I kept an emergency cigarette in my medicine cabinet but never gave in.Of all the goals I have reached in my life,quitting my cigarette habit is among the top three.

Working in an emergency room and taking xrays to the OR showed me xrays of cancer patients who were habitual cigareete smokers.Their lungs and esophogas were BLACK!One of them on a resperator had a portable when he was home and had his stupid daughter light a cigarette and place it in his breathing tube for him!!!!Not only did it kill him but could have caused a serious explosion if the oxygen had been ignited.Of all the smokers I currently know and love,women are by far the worst.They seam to have more of an addiction to tobacco and smoke more frequently then most of the men smokers I know.Nothing personal,ladies,just an observation I noticed among friends i have who still smoke cigarettes

Pot however is a different story and being a serviving epileptic,I used it along with different prescribed medications and found it to help curve my auras and petit mauls.My neurologist was totaly against my tobacco habit but all thumbs up on the cannibus.I found that a bit out of the ordinary then but see their point now and,during my employment at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in baltimore,MD.,I allowed them to use me as a Guiney pig not only with new medications prior to their aproval but also experimental surgery. On April 16th,1989,the very daay that Ms lucille Ball died, I was put asleep and had a left temperolobectomy and became the first epilepsy patient to have a 100% successful cure of epilepsy.They found that my sezures were what is known as local meaning they all happened in the same area,my left temperolobe.The dead tissue brought on by a high 105C temperature lasting 29 days,was the cause of the dead cells causing the sezures and convolsions I'd had from the age of three.Technicaly,I am cured and haven't had any sezures since 1989 but I am still regesterd as an epileptic. Because it was,at the time,an experiment,no health insurance companies will allow me to be on their plan.I can now get a driver's license but need to decide whether or not,being 52 years old now,I realy need one after 50 years without.

 

[maytagbear]

Sincerely happy for you,

Thomas!!

Best of luck with it. I have never smoked, but I have had challenges with other substances.

I stopped drinking alcohol one day at a time 27 years ago.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[steve1-18]

Good Luck

I quit for more than 20 years and started back for about 3. Have stopped since March, 2009 but have gained about 20 lbs[as my profile picture shows] Food tastes soooooo much better!

 

[jaxsunst]

I admire you for quitting cold turkey. I'm using the nic gum and I'ms struggling. I have had one cigarette (I broke down) in the past week.

 

[foraloysius]

Congratulations! All of you who have quit smoking. Food tastes indeed better and wine too. Don't think about starting again when you gain weight. You won't loose the weight when you start smoking again, just gain more when you have to quit one more time. I know, I talk from experience!

BTW, kissing with non-smokers is so much better than with smokers. I hate the taste of a full ashtray!

 

[thomasortega]

"BTW, kissing with non-smokers is so much better than with smokers. I hate the taste of a full ashtray!"

Louis, that's exactly why I decided to quit.

I'm sure there's a wonderful guy miles away from me that would hate to kiss an ashtray with his wonderful lips.

So it's better to quit before it happens in real life.

and I would love to discover his body's taste without a smoke dressing.....

also, I don't want him to take care of me with a cancer and I don't want a second heart attack.

better than all above, I DON'T WANT TO LOOSE MANY OF LIFE'S PLEASURES, SMELLS AND TASTES BECAUSE OF A STUPID PIECE OF PAPER FULL OF TOBACCO.

I'm sorry for the bad words but that's what cigarretes deserve.

I'm sure i'm much stronger than that fucking piece of shit that makes manufacturers rich and ridiculous smokers like me sick and poor. (I think I'm "a little" angry now).

Is that the moment I start to hate people smoking next to me? and wish the Phillip Morris, British American and all the other killers explode, including all the plants around the world?

Now at night I had another victory. I went to Walmart to buy the monthly groceries and the attendant said "Hi Thor, like always Marlboro Ice mint, six packages for the month?" and for the first time I said it "automatically": "No way honney, I don't smoke anymore!" That moment was FABULOUS!

Oh, before I forget. 3 days, 22 hours and 12 minutes free from that shit. (does THE GUY want to kiss me just to check my fresh and smoke free breath?)

 

[thomasortega]

5 days, 1 hour and 8 minutes...

 

[washerboy]

behavior plan

Part of what I do in social services is write behavior plans for adults and children with developmental disabilies....if you will replace your smoking behavior with a different behavior your chances of success will be greater. After many failed attempts to kick the habit myself I finially relized that I needed to write myself a behavior plan. Seemed like the my heavest smoking was done in the mornings before work (at least a half pack) and at night while watching TV (another half pack). So in the mornings I went for a walk rather than sitting on the back porch with my cigeretts and in the evenings I either went for a walk or to starbucks or sonic. The in between time I was at work and rather than a smoke break I broke out carrots and celery sticks.
If you do decide to do a behavior plan remember your not tring to do away with a behavior but rather replace it with a different behavior.
I enjoy the fact my truck does'nt reek of smoke anymore..and my skin looks sooo much better..my water bill went down 15.00 a month because I dont wash as many clothes becuse the shirt I had on for one hour can be wore again becuase it does'nt reek of smoke and I limit my showers to one a day (well 2 if I get dirty from yard work ect) becuase I dont stink.

Congrads!!! you'll probably always miss the little gems..lord knows I do..but life is soo much easier!!! I dont have to worry about where I going to smoke when I out in public, or if I smell bad, or how brown my teeth are. You'll also enjoy the extra spending money!!!!

 

[jaxsunst]

My replacement is Altoids, 2 at a time. I'm down to 5 pieces of gum a day.

 

[thomasortega]

I didn't need to create a plan, and in my case it was much more difficult because I always smoked everywhere at home, in my car and in my office (actually in the office I just need to go to the hallway)

My plan was very simple.

I didn't want to quit. I didn't think about it when I got my last cigarrete... When it was burning, I had the idea and 10 seconds later I did the big decision.

There was only one cigarrete more in the box. while chatting with Scott, i told him I was going to quit and tha ould be the last one.
I smoked it saying goodbye, enjoying every second. and that's it.

Even when if I climb the walls for a cigarrete or when my hands start shaking, I don't smoke. I know i'm much stronger than it and it's only the detox. In a few days I'll stop feeling this horrible sensation.

5th day. My mood isn't "floating" anymore. I fell great! Sometimes i want to smoke, but I remember the victory I had other night and each second without smoking is a new victory.

My breath is fresh, i can feel many smells, and I'm not eating more to compensate the nicotine. That's my motivation!

Oh, before i forget, let's celebrate again...
5 days, 14 hours and 1 minute

If I survive 7 days without a cigarrete, I will never smoke again.

 

[hydralique]

Congratulations on this Thomas! Not only will it benefit your own life, but you'll be a good example to your friends and relatives who still smoke.

 

[sudsmaster]

Visualizing the next few moments of your life without smoking is a good technique to fight the urge. Also, you can ask yourself, "what will those smokeless moments bring?" You'll never know unless you don't light up!

 

[thomasortega]

OMG...
almost a week!!!!

6 days, 11 hours and 31 minutes.

Can I consider myself an ex-smoker?

The worst part was between the 3rd and the 4th days. Now everything is so better that most parts of the day I forget I used to smoke.

By the way, now I know how the smoke can be irritating. I can't breath when people smoke next to me.