Well, actually it was the grocery store, but it made for a good title. Ran into a good friend of mine who I haven't seen in a while. Informed me he's quitting smoking. He's the put down the pack and never go back kind of fellow. He's a little uncomfortable for a few days but that's it. He's the most dangerous quitter. He sees this as a habit and not an addiction/dependence to nicotine. He sees it as only smoking. He's the serial quitter, because it just simply comes easy to him to quit. The minute one of his triggers show up, he's right off to the store to buy another pack. He never really gave it any thought about what in life brings him back to smoking. I had a lot of emotional ties to smoking. I knew I had to identify what my triggers are and replace them with different behaviors otherwise I'd be exactly like him. To him, we have two different kind of quits going on, but yet achieving the same goal.
But then again, are we really? What is that really doing for him in that space and time? He said he enjoys smoking. To be honest, I did too. He went back to smoking because he gained 50 to 80 pounds. I said to him, well, you know why that is? Yeah, I quit smoking. Again, he's seeing this as a habit. No, and I did the motion of hand to mouth. You were replacing food with what you were doing 20 to 40 times a day. I gave him a card to take a peek at the site and also to pass along to his wife if they're interested.
This site gave me the insight, the knowledge, the push to keep going. I had somewhere to go when no one else around me knew or even understood what I was going through. At the beginning, I was glued to the site reading and researching things that were going on with me. Is this normal? Is that normal? Why is this happening, that happening. It was reassuring that yes, there are people out there who went through or is going through what I am. The new format on the site allows you now to bookmark things for easy reference. They have groups where if you're interested in COPD, you go to that group and there's many articles about members going through the same thing as you. Check out the group section and see if anything jumps out at you. Hop on the https://excommunity.becomeanex.org/community/celebrations-events/blog/2017/10/07/freedom-train-10720... today or click on Celebrations & Events and find the latest train and post your days of freedom every day.
I still use this site from time to time. When there is a lot of blogging going on by myself, that's just how I work out something I'm having to deal with or something pops up that inspires me to pass along something I've learned along the way. In the beginning, I used blogging to scream out my frustrations or whine a little bit. Now, it's to pass on some life experience or knowledge I've gained. Don't ever feel shy about blogging or publishing something on here. You'll be amazed how many people are going through or have gone through what you are. You see, my friends, we're all traveling the same path; it's just at a different pace sometimes.
