Mrs.Troutnut decided to quit smoking 20 years ago and I decided to throw in with her. It wasn’t our first attempt. I had tried many times without success. I know Mrs. Troutnut had quit several times before as well. But I think this time was different for one major reason. We finally knew, in our innermost self, that smoking was gradually killing us, and that having “just one” was impossible for people like us. It was always the FIRST one that got me. Having quit drinking several years before I had acquired some tools that I didn’t possess in previous quits. AA had taught me ODAT (One Day At A Time), that it was the FIRST drink that always got me going, and the value of support. I finally understood that there was no such thing as “just one” for people like me. Quitting was still very hard. Maybe the hardest thing I have ever done. But it was also the second most worthwhile thing I have ever done. The first was quitting drinking which made quitting smoking possible for me.
We had started thinking about this quit a few weeks prior when a doctor had suggested Zyban. But when we went to fill the prescription they had just sold the last of their supply. So we decided to just go Cold Turkey. We wanted withdrawal over, and nicotine out of our systems, as soon as possible. And in the end, that is what worked for us. I’m not against people who decide to stretch it out instead. Or who use products like Zyban or Chantrix. I think too much is made of the method. What mattered in the long run was whether we decided to take, or decided to forego, that FIRST puff, one day at a time.
And Mrs. Troutnut and I have both done that. NO first puffs for either one of us for two decades. Our savings in money alone is now 6 figures. More importantly, we saved our own lives. Mrs Troutnut needed open heart surgery for a bicuspid (two leafed vs three) heart valve a few years ago. She was a ticking time bomb while smoking. And I discovered last year that I have “severe emphysema”, although I have no symptoms and still downhill ski and fish regularly. I was a ticking time bomb as well. Probably neither of us would have survived had we not quit. But at the time we both thought we were healthy.
My suggestion is that it is physically impossible to fail if you simply don’t take that FIRST puff. And if you don’t, you are absolutely, positively, 100% guaranteed to go to bed a WINNER tonight!
Your friend in Montana
Troutnut1-dennis
Ellen
.png "Sootie"){kind=avatar}
