Riverdale Man, Glad to hear your doing better today. Keep persevering! We're all so proud of you for maintaining your quit. Danielle ___________________________ The SSC Support Team

Riding the roller coaster with you, Phillip...just one seat behind! Someday it will be a little gentler ride! ;p [B]My Milage:[/B] [B]My Quit Date: [/B] 2/18/2006 [B]Smoke-Free Days:[/B] 112 [B]Cigarettes Not Smoked:[/B] 4,495 [B]Amount Saved:[/B] $1008 [B]Life Gained:[/B] [B]Days:[/B] 18 [B]Hrs:[/B] 11 [B]Mins:[/B] 13 [B]Seconds:[/B] 13

Another day. I believe 112 days. thats 16 weeks I have stopped celebrating that week thing and I need to start again. Celebration is like the play thing. So 16 weeks, 112 days, 2688 hours, 161,280 minutes, 9,676,800 seconds. WOW I've not smoked 2258 cigarettes and saved $840.00. That is the return flight to Venice and hotel for one night, by Winter I will have the hotel for two weeks! Hooray! Lots of ups and downs and I am sure I had ups and downs when I smoked, they just weren't as clear in the fog of chemicals that I was spellbound by. So here I am starting a new week and rolling up to 4 months WOW. To all you newbies go for it! Cheers Phillip [B]My Milage:[/B] [B]My Quit Date: [/B] 2/17/2006 [B]Smoke-Free Days:[/B] 112 [B]Cigarettes Not Smoked:[/B] 2,258 [B]Amount Saved:[/B] $840 [B]Life Gained:[/B] [B]Days:[/B] 18 [B]Hrs:[/B] 9 [B]Mins:[/B] 44 [B]Seconds:[/B] 3

MC, no I have never been to Venice. It is going to be a fantastic reward. At Christmas but then I enjoy being a damp cold turkey! I will have been quit for nine months and I have bonded my word to a few people about smoking or rather not smoking if I smoke I can not go. Duffis thanks I am not sure why but I totally enjoy your acknowledgement, (I really do know why and it is because I so admire you and am totally in awe of your quit and your attitude). Rewarding and acknowledging myself has been one of the hardest things for me to do in my life. I have always been an over achiever and a perfectionist. Slowly and surely I am effectively letting go, to live life more freely and having a bit more of just floating on the river. Colleen I totally get how the excitement and the wonder of the first few days were like a miracle for me be able to be quit and actually doing such an awesome and challanging thing. Dropping the weed, not smoking, being free of the pull of nicotine. Rob I kind of like the roller coaster, I wouldn't know what to do if it was stopped or that slow grind at the end, that would be too freaky. I like the thrill of the ride, Glad I'm not doing it with tobacco any more. Reward for the day was to have a nice nap with the puppy in the afternoon. Then a good swift swim to wake up. Cheers Thanks for being there. Phillip [B]My Milage:[/B] [B]My Quit Date: [/B] 2/17/2006 [B]Smoke-Free Days:[/B] 113 [B]Cigarettes Not Smoked:[/B] 2,275 [B]Amount Saved:[/B] $847.5 [B]Life Gained:[/B] [B]Days:[/B] 18 [B]Hrs:[/B] 13 [B]Mins:[/B] 2 [B]Seconds:[/B] 21

Yes another day. The weekend down and another week coming across the horizon. This weekend for some reason has been tougher than most, at least since the beginning. Thanks Rob for your PHEW post. Informative and lots of good information. BFS/Pam what you say about how you think and crave, what you are saying all makes such total sense and it is challenging to do. Notice I don't say difficult or hard, and for me it is a time consuming and provocative experience to change my thoughts in this way. Part of what I do when I get real busy. AND the getting busy thing has not always worked this weekend. I had a meltdown in the pool today because I had so much anxiety about doing and getting a workout done. I totally melted down and left a half hour early, thinking I need to go and do an aquasize class. I paniced in the water and could not get it together, then I got mad/angry at myself for panicing and lost it I came out of the pool in tears. Oh well we all have bad days and I have not got to the root of this. I know it has a lot to do with what I will call performance anxiety and if I can keep up what I am doing. The quit and my commitment to myself. I keep second guessing myself thinking "oh there you go, this is it, you have lost it". AND I keep going in the other direction each time the temptation arises. Each time the thought is there to go and buy, bum, "borrow" a smoke I simply turn in the opposite direction whereever I am and go. This is not the action of a coward this is my intelligence, higher power,if you wish, watching out for me, helping me keep my commitment to myself. I hope this way I feel, crave, goes away, changes, morphs into different energy cause I am getting tired. I think this fatigue is why many quitters loose it at this time in their quit. Plain and simple fatigue, exhaustion after fighting and fighting. I personally am looking forward to the second wind. It has to come soon. Lots of stuff on the site today about partners and quitting together. Can't imagine what it would be like. I revel in the support I get and the pride that is poured upon me for doing what I am doing. I weight 5 pounds less than the lowest I have been in perhaps close to ten years and this is very good. Lots and lots of physical work and a bit of monitori

Another day busy busy busy crave crave crave busy busy busy cope cope cope no smoking thats good and don't know that that is the piece I am simply empty and blah kind if like a few weeks ago. and another day done :| [B]My Milage:[/B] [B]My Quit Date: [/B] 2/17/2006 [B]Smoke-Free Days:[/B] 115 [B]Cigarettes Not Smoked:[/B] 2,313 [B]Amount Saved:[/B] $862.5 [B]Life Gained:[/B] [B]Days:[/B] 18 [B]Hrs:[/B] 20 [B]Mins:[/B] 26 [B]Seconds:[/B] 57

Out in the garden for a good part of the afternoon. Just puttering, and watering and weeding and cleaning up. And A revelation, like something that I had been looking for and not found, a piece of knowledge that actually will help me get along. As most of you know, having read any of this thread that it has not been easy for me for the last little while. I am full of anxt, not panic or depression just plain anxt, worry, not liking what is going on in the moment, things taking too long. Well one of the things that I did superbly for many years was slow that wanting everything right now down. I can smoke and take ten minutes and slow this down, I can smoke 2 or 3 and a half hour will have passed. Well I am in a situation in my life where I would have been getting a lot done and smoking a lot at the same time. Nothing is different except I do not have the crutch of the smoke to drag things out, slow things down. The smoke gave me a false sense of control, a false sense of security. I am having to give myself that security, the sense of if not controling actually being in a place of choice and determination of what is happening in my life. That smoking crutch was a place where I would go to take my time, think for a bit, wait for what was happening next. Well there is just the plain waiting, hanging and I know that I need to find something to replace that smoke that drew things out with something. Candy is not working, water is not working I could drink a gallon, of anything, and not feel satisfied. Coming here to read can offer a bit of solstice, and I really need to be with my own stuff to find the way through for me. Reading here helps, finding what others have done helps. Sticking it through is okay and I find that I have more anxt if I simply just wait it out. Talking on the phone with my family has helped, emailing them and conversing with them has been good. They all live between two hours by car and ten hours by plane away. Talking with my neighbour has helped. Just breezing away talking about nothing really, the garden, what is happening in the world, soccer????, the park next door where a tree was cut down by the city and ... . Just talking, connecting myself to the world around me. That has helped to ease the anxt. Takes my mind of the constant

I totally agree Phillip. I think we need to be as amazed and as grateful as we were in the very beginning. Its not that I'm feeling cocky about my quit cause I'm soooo not but those first three days for me were such a MAJOR accomplishment. And I need to remember that today is just as big an accomplishment as those first few days were. I'm gonna wait till I get my year in before I get cocky :) Colleen [B]My Milage:[/B] [B]My Quit Date: [/B] 2/20/2006 [B]Smoke-Free Days:[/B] 109 [B]Cigarettes Not Smoked:[/B] 2,749 [B]Amount Saved:[/B] $1280.75 [B]Life Gained:[/B] [B]Days:[/B] 11 [B]Hrs:[/B] 23 [B]Mins:[/B] 57 [B]Seconds:[/B] 29

Hey, RD-Man, 112 days is an accomplishment. I can certainly remember a time when 112 consecutive days w/out a cigarette would have been unthinkable. So, Venice for two weeks is the reward you're looking forward to? Sounds great. Also sounds like you might have done Venice before. Am I reading too much in? Don't smoke, okay? It's bad for you. Mc [B]My Milage:[/B] [B]My Quit Date: [/B] 8/31/2005 [B]Smoke-Free Days:[/B] 282 [B]Cigarettes Not Smoked:[/B] 4,244 [B]Amount Saved:[/B] $1128 [B]Life Gained:[/B] [B]Days:[/B] 27 [B]Hrs:[/B] 12 [B]Mins:[/B] 45 [B]Seconds:[/B] 43

RD Man, Your doing fine, we all get through this one day at a time. Some times its even one minute at a time. I know that you have heard that. I find for myself that the craving gets alot easier for the most part. There are days that go by that I never even have a thought of smoking. Then some one will walk by who is or has been smoking, or I get a new stressor, and BAM! there it is again. A little breathing and some redirection of thoughts usually takes care of it. So don't let the thoughts get the best of you. ANd do not consider seriously giving in. Really the hardest part is behind you. The rest is maintance. Keep on moving! Cheryl [B]My Milage:[/B] [B]My Quit Date: [/B] 7/4/2005 [B]Smoke-Free Days:[/B] 343 [B]Cigarettes Not Smoked:[/B] 8,233 [B]Amount Saved:[/B] $977.55 [B]Life Gained:[/B] [B]Days:[/B] 44 [B]Hrs:[/B] 20 [B]Mins:[/B] 41 [B]Seconds:[/B] 33