I Quit on the 23rd of Dec. I need health reminders

[Bnoq]

24 days quit having had only two cigs. Can anyone help remind me of the health scares of smoking? I need more fuel.

[Bnoq]

Hello Everyone! Ima newb here!!!

[Julie1960]

Hello there I'm 18 days quit smoking.  Have been given great advice and support on ex

[YoungAtHeart]

 Welcome to the community!

Hi!  Congratulations on almost a MONTH of not smoking!   Here's what I found on the harm done by smoking:   Health Effects of Cigarette Smoking | CDC.  Those are the harm to your health.  There is also harm to your LiFE in money wasted, time lost with family, lack of self-worth and confidence, the stigma that is associated with smoking. 

The important thing you can do right now is to educate yourself on what nicotine does to your body and mind. To that end, I highly recommend Allen Carr's “The Easy Way to Stop Smoking.” This easy and entertaining read provided a world of good information about nicotine addiction, most of which I was not aware.  I credit it in large part with my success at quitting.   You can search for it online or at your local library.

 You should also read the posts here and perhaps go to the pages of folks who you think might be helpful. You might visit whyquit.com, quitsmoking.com and livewell.com for the good information contained there. @https://excommunity.becomeanex.org/groups/best-of-ex has lots of blogs written by members of this site with their experiences and guidance. Here is a video to inform you further about nicotine addiction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpWMgPHn0Lo&feature=youtu.be.

It will be easier if you change up your routines.  Drink your coffee with your OTHER hand in a place different from when you smoked. Maybe switch to tea for a bit.  If you always had that first smoke with your coffee, try putting your tennies on right out of bed, going for a quick walk, then taking your shower and THEN your coffee! Rearrange the furniture in the areas you used to smoke so the view is different. Buy your gas at a different station. Take a different route to work. Take a quick walk at break time where the smokers AREN'T.
 
You need to distract yourself through any craves.  You can take a bite out of a lemon (yup - rind and all), put your head in the freezer and take a deep breath of cold air, do a few jumping jacks, go for a brisk walk or march in place, play a computer game.  Keep a cold bottle of water with you from which to sip. Don't let that smoking thought rattle around in your brain unchallenged. Sometimes you need to quit a minute or an hour at a time.  You will need to be disciplined in the early days to distract yourself when a crave hits.    Get busy!  Here is a link to a list of things to do instead of smoke if you need some fresh ideas:
 https://excommunity.becomeanex.org/blogs/Youngatheart.7.4.12-blog/2013/02/25/100-things-to-do-instea...

The conversation in your head in response to the "I want a cigarette" thought needs to be, "Well, since I have decided not to do that anymore, what shall I do instead for the three minutes this crave will last?"  Then DO it.  You will need to put some effort into this in the early days, but it gets easier and easier to do.

Stay close to us here and ask questions when you have them and for support when you need it. We will be with you every step of the way!

 Nancy

[Barbara145]

Welcome to this site.  It was huge in my ability to quit smoking. Congratulations on your decision to quit smoking.  The deal with quitting is you cannot take another puff ever.  For most smokers there is no other way.  When we quit we begin to get rid of the nicotine receptors in our brain.  Smoking puts them back.  I had to promise myself that no matter what I would never smoke another cigarette.  I honored that promise to my self.  That was 6 years ago.  Things are difficult for most people who quit.  It gets better.  It just takes time.  Give it time.

[Maki]

First congratulations on your decision to quit smoking . Awesome !

I don't know if this will help , I hope so.

You wanted to be reminded of some of the health scares ,  so here goes . My experience and thoughts. 

Most harm done from smoking is done from the inside out . The old saying what you don't see can't hurt you does not apply to smoking . Every puff you take is hurting you . You just don't see it yet or maybe don't feel it yet .

Maybe you are , I'm not sure , only you know the answer to this but maybe just maybe that's what led you here for support .  

Your reason is the most important .  We are glad you are here . I'm glad you are here .

I for one , could not have quit on my own and I know how much value online support was in helping me quit . It helped me until I could stand on my own . Remember your reasons for quitting , those are reason enough. 

Feeling breathless I can tell you is scary . I saw it in my father's eyes .  I saw it when his liver was failing and every mark on his back was visible from itching and scratching as his organs began to fail . No matter how gently you scratched that itch every place you touched was painful in my eyes because we were losing him .

I saw my mother with pancreatic cancer as yellow as the filter tip on the cigarette , yes the filter that was suppose to lessen the deadly toxins before they entered our bodies . 

Perhaps you yourself have had family member die of smoking related illness . It's hard to lose those you love . 

I would do anything not to have watched my father go that way . A good man and a smoking addiction got him and he was taken from his family far too young . Iam so proud to say however that he did quit smoking but too late. I miss mom too . She never smoked much , but still cancer took her away . 

Smoking isn't just a lung disease or the C word . Atherosclerosis could mean amputation . It could mean stroke , it could mean heart attack . It's just not worth it .

It's not worth it to feed the beast . We all know it and we all can beat this thing . Starving it will make the craves go away I promise you that .

Smoking kills and it kills from the inside out . It starts attacking us in places we can't see and we don't feel until one day ........ surprise . 

I know scare tactics didn't scare me on a cigarette package until I lived what I saw on those packages in real life. I ignored them and only saw the silver lining  .  I wish I hadn't ignored the warnings now because life is so much better without cigarettes .

Every puff makes its way to our lungs clogging them like soot in a fireplace chimney . Every puff clogging our airways so that we can't get a fresh air supply to breathe .  It's suffocating , it really is . Life is such a precious gift. 

When we wake up tomorrow , instead of smoking or entertaining a crave , giving a cigarette glory lets just be thankful we have today and the very moment we are in an opportunity to be smoke free . The choice is always ours. 

Journeying with you . 

[Giulia]

Bingo! 

Smoking kills and it kills from the inside out . It starts attacking us in places we can't see and we don't feel until one day ........ surprise . 

You need more fuel.  OK.  I'm trying to figure out what best kind of fuel to give you that will actually make a difference.  I didn't have a health scare, but there are far too many on here who have.  Those who have had lung transplants, lung reductions, lung cancer, severe COPD, heart problems....  You can do a search on the site for that.  Read THEIR blogs, go through THEIR journeys. That's the truth of what this addiction did to them.  And I happen to have been with them on those journeys on this site, so they're not like total strangers.  I've kind of gotten to know them.  That makes a difference.

Do you really need us to tell you about the health scares?  It's not the health scares that are going to keep us smoke free, in my opinion - and I could be totally wrong on that.  They happen to OTHER people, not us.  Right?!  If your fuel for maintaining your quit is based on that, I just don't think it will take you far.  Seeing cigarette packs with warnings and images of people with throat cancer - they don't have an impact.  At least for me.  If watching our loved one die by lung cancer while holding their hand, hasn't done it (which many have stated here - they admit to still smoking after), then what has an impact is when we experience that hell ourselves.  Which I hope you never do.

Now I do grant you that we here on this site telling you about first-hand experiences with the health horrors MAY provide some fuel.  But if you don't know us as people, if you haven't been here long enough to watch our journeys - there's really not much difference than looking at Bryan's story on whyquit.com.  Which I feel is a powerful impetus.  And there are many more there, should you wish to look at those videos.  If you want health scares.  They're moving, but they're still removed from our personal experience.  We don't know those people.

And, not to be harsh but to be truthful - if you quit on Dec. 23rd and you've had a couple of cigarettes since then, HAVE you quit?  Or have you sort of quit?  As one of our members has pointed out here "if you've quit and your still smoking, you haven't quit."  No, actually what he says is "If you've quit and you're still smoking you're doing it wrong."  

If you quit, you never put another cigarette in your mouth.  Right?  Or - do you think I'm wrong in that statement?  Is having one or two every couple of weeks okay for you?  And this is not a judgment.  I'm seriously asking a question.  What does a quit mean to you?  Maybe it's different from what a quit means to me.  To me it means I won't put another cigarette in my mouth.  If I do then I can't call myself quit.  But - that's just me.  Is it okay for you that you've smoked a couple since that day on Dec. 23rd when you declared yourself quit?  I suspect it isn't and that's why you've asked this question. The fuel you want and need is that which will keep a cigarette totally out of your mouth.  Not to say that your 24 days mostly smoke free aren't magnificent.  They are!  And we all know how difficult those 24 days were.  And it's important to continue and make your quit even stronger.  

So what's the best fuel?  I think we all need to discover that for ourselves.  For some it's God.  For some it may be doing it for somebody they love who's always wished they would quit.  And for some of us it's that niggling beautiful Best of Us voice that knows what's best for us and just won't shut up.  It's that voice that says, "You know better."  The voice that says, "Yes, you CAN."  It's the smart voice.  And all we need to do is pay more attention to THAT for our fuel.  My fuel was that I never wanted another day one.  I wanted that more than I wanted the next cigarette.  Truly that became my fuel.  The idea of having to go back to the beginning all over again, the days leading up to the quit, that first wretched day one, the first week...  it truly does become easier to stay quit than it does to start up all over again.  But that was MY fuel.  And I only discovered it after I had begun the journey.  But it was a fuel that I felt emotionally.  It wasn't a fuel based on somebody else's experience.  Find that emotional fuel for yourself.  Connect to that very personal part and I think you'll find your way.

[Thomas3.20.2010]

Welcome! Yes. We can scare you out of your wits with heartfailure, cancer, COPD, diabetes and more! Then asthetically there's early wrinkles, yellow teeth and nails, and the smell! There are literally hundreds of reasons healthwise to know that smoking is simply the little suicide - no less! That goes for the occasional ie social smoker, the closet smoker, the chain smoker....all of us. Read /blogs/Thomas3.20.2010-blog/2014/11/21/the-bucket-list?sr=search&searchId=ac9adcdf-2e7a-412c-816d-7a...‌. That can still be me - or you! I can't think of one single "reason" to smoke but I can think of thousands of reasons to quit and stay quit. Breathing, heartbeat, brain cells, dna come to mind. Freedom from addiction alone is worth the effort!

Live Long and Prosper!

[sweetplt]

HI and Welcome to Ex’s Bnoq Congratulations on 24 Days Free...super duper job...be sure to do the readings offered by YoungAtHeart Nancy above...also, you want to know what smoking does...well you have a higher precedent of having a brain aneurysm and being fatal to you...I know I had one and fought for my life 10 years ago...it has been surgical fix, now I have another they are watching...the effects to your brain is tough....and really felt it was caused by smoking...google the health effects of smoking...scary...You can do this, you are doing this, keep close to the support site for help and to encourage others on this journey....~ Colleen 410 DOF  

[Barbscloud]

Welcome to the Ex and congrats on your 24 days smoke free.   It's been proven that scare tactics usually don't work to get us to quit smoking.   Focus on the positive aspects instead  -- breathing easier, exercising easier, smelling good, saving money, etc.