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May 20, 2019 (06:51 AM)
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Posts: 631
Joined: Dec 03, 2013
Last Visit: May 20, 2019
Gender: Male
Country: United States
Occupation: Laboratory technician
Hobbies: Computer nerd, bird watching
1197861
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2027
Smoke Free Days 44,594
Cigarettes Not Smoked $12,263.35
Amount Saved Days: 396 Hours: 16
Minutes: 53 Seconds: 49
Life Gained |
Hi StellaBlue, You've made it smoke free for 11 months now.  One more month and you'll have your first year of freedom behind you. June is just around the corner too, you June quitter.  Congratulations on a journey well done!! Stay strong. Not One Puff Ever
Tim
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May 19, 2019 (06:46 PM)
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Posts: 147
Joined: Aug 13, 2018
Last Visit: May 19, 2019
Gender: Female
Country: Australia
Hobbies: Lover of nature and animals
1196866
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82
Smoke Free Days 1,640
Cigarettes Not Smoked $656.00
Amount Saved Days: 8 Hours: 0
Minutes: 52 Seconds: 42
Life Gained |
Woohoo! Yes it must be so exciting to be coming into June again. Soon youll be in yr second year as a non smoker. Thats fantastic and it must be a wondeful feeling to never miss it anymore. Youre giving yourself a gift that you couldnt have previously......a brand new smile not to mention the countless health benefits. Its so amazing when youve done what you thought was impossible.....its such a victory. Congrats Stellablue 
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May 18, 2019 (07:40 AM)
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Posts: 65
Joined: Feb 27, 2019
Last Visit: May 20, 2019
1195861
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87
Smoke Free Days 1,740
Cigarettes Not Smoked $739.50
Amount Saved Days: 16 Hours: 6
Minutes: 7 Seconds: 44
Life Gained |
Hi StellaBlue! Wow what a great milestone to reach, congratulations ! I am a few days away from my three month mark, I can't even imagine how great it feels to hit the 1 year mark. Thanks for sharing your success is very inspirational.
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May 17, 2019 (06:00 PM)
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Posts: 631
Joined: Dec 03, 2013
Last Visit: May 20, 2019
Gender: Male
Country: United States
Occupation: Laboratory technician
Hobbies: Computer nerd, bird watching
1194877
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2027
Smoke Free Days 44,594
Cigarettes Not Smoked $12,263.35
Amount Saved Days: 396 Hours: 16
Minutes: 53 Seconds: 49
Life Gained |
Howdy stranger.  I think Monday will be 11 months for you if I'm counting right. You're in your fourth season.... I think you've got this for sure!!!!!  Freedom town resident, I LIKE that. It's good to hear that your braces are working out for you too. What a great reward you gave yourself, and paying them off early too to boot! It's been a fun ride hasn't it Stella? A little bumpy at the start but then it smoothed out for you. Now you're on cruse control... but remember those darn triggers, they're everywhere so keep your guard up.  Stay strong. Not One Puff Ever
Tim
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May 16, 2019 (09:16 AM)
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Posts: 172
Joined: Jun 25, 2018
Last Visit: May 16, 2019
Country: Canada
1193862
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I'm a bit bored at work and wanting to avoid my next task, so I thought I'd pop on here (last year this moment would have meant "time for a smoke!" but now I have all these other ways to scratch that itch, like writing here). I haven't updated yet this month so here goes: It's back to easy street, quit-wise. That was just a temporary bump in the road the other month, which we all knew and thank you for your support around it. I am really looking forward to two things in my quit: the 11 month mark coming up in a few days, and rolling into June. My thread is titled "June quitter," and I'm very excited to be visiting June again but in completely different circumstances this time. No more demoralized citizen of Struggle City. Now I'm a cool Freedom Town resident :) I've been surrounded by more smokers than usual lately, and I don't miss it. My quit reward (braces for my teeth) is going well, and due to all the extra cash from not smoking, I am set to pay them off two YEARS ahead of schedule! They were so financially out of reach my whole life, and I can't believe with this one simple change in my life I have been able to pay for the whole shebang in only 8 months or something. By the time I reach the full 12 months of my quit, my teeth will be bought and paid for :) (Although I'll still be sporting train tracks for another two+ years  ). I might still do a little something extra for myself to celebrate the one year mark. It's so neat to have absolutely no doubt that I'm going to get to that date. Thank you guys for cheering me on this past year, I could not have done it without this place to keep my head in the game.
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Apr 26, 2019 (07:47 AM)
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Posts: 65
Joined: Feb 27, 2019
Last Visit: May 20, 2019
1180861
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87
Smoke Free Days 1,740
Cigarettes Not Smoked $739.50
Amount Saved Days: 16 Hours: 6
Minutes: 7 Seconds: 45
Life Gained |
Congrats on the 10 months Stella. It is a bit scary to think that even 10 months out that our addition still calls out to us from time to time. It's knowing how to fight back and say NO that makes all the difference. All we can do is learn from every experience. Keep up the good work, I look forward to when I can say I have been smoke free for 10 months!!
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Apr 25, 2019 (06:29 PM)
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Posts: 147
Joined: Aug 13, 2018
Last Visit: May 19, 2019
Gender: Female
Country: Australia
Hobbies: Lover of nature and animals
1179873
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82
Smoke Free Days 1,640
Cigarettes Not Smoked $656.00
Amount Saved Days: 8 Hours: 0
Minutes: 52 Seconds: 43
Life Gained |
Oh wow 10 months is so fantastic. Your quit journey has passed so quickly for me (prob not for you) and mine seems to drag. Congratulations Stella....youve done the valleys and the peaks of it and now yoire oit the other side. Month 9 sounds like it was hectic for you. I can relate to that feeling of craving something external to fix things. At this point l still get it quite strongly sometimes. I hate that feeling of longing for something outside of yourself. It must have been a surprise for you to experience this so far into your quit but thankfully yoire grounded enough now to handle it and see it for what it is. Well done on defeating the devil!
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Apr 25, 2019 (05:41 PM)
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Posts: 631
Joined: Dec 03, 2013
Last Visit: May 20, 2019
Gender: Male
Country: United States
Occupation: Laboratory technician
Hobbies: Computer nerd, bird watching
1179864
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2027
Smoke Free Days 44,594
Cigarettes Not Smoked $12,263.35
Amount Saved Days: 396 Hours: 16
Minutes: 53 Seconds: 49
Life Gained |
Hi Stella, Sorry, I overlooked your 10 month milestone too. Congratulations to you! March was tough on you and tested your resolve and you came out smelling like a rose, good for you! It sounds like you are able to handle stress a lot better now too. That's great because stress will always be a part of our lives. Always has been always will be, just now we don't have to have a cigarette to deal with it anymore. Got any plans for celebrating your 1 year mark yet? It's just around the corner you know. Once again, congratulations on your great accomplishment you June quitter. Stay strong. Not One Puff Ever
Tim
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Apr 25, 2019 (09:56 AM)
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Posts: 172
Joined: Jun 25, 2018
Last Visit: May 16, 2019
Country: Canada
1179861
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My 10 month mark came and went and I forgot to notice. But a belated yahoo for me and my quit :) I have to be honest, March was really tough on me (end of semester for school, end of fiscal year at work, just way too much on my plate personally as well) and for the first time in a long time, I was experiencing a desire to smoke. For maybe 3-4 weeks, I was surprised to find myself wanting a smoke, maybe as often as a few times a week. Again, just like in the earlier months, this wasn't exactly a craving to smoke, but more a desire to reach out for *something* that would alleviate my anxiety levels. I never had any intention of following through on these urges to smoke, but I certainly did not enjoy having the thoughts pop up after quite a long time without them. I kept in mind that what I was feeling really had nothing to do with smoking, and everything to do with wanting something external to fix what really was an internal problem (my own stress levels, my feelings of inability to cope, lack of acceptance that I simply had to get through this mountain of stuff, etc). I also know full well now that ANY feeling, desire, or urge passes along in due time. Waves crashing, weather passing, it all moves on. In sum, my quit wasn't really threatened in any meaningful way, but I did experience a re-emergence of smoking thoughts in month 9 of my quit. I'm really thankful that smoking thoughts no longer scare me - they are only thoughts, and totally meaningless unless I choose to act on them. In fact, these thoughts to smoke actually served me in a helpful way - they were red flags that I needed to recalibrate and rebalance, regain some perspective. I still feel like a non-smoker, I just had a few reminders recently that I used to smoke.
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Mar 26, 2019 (04:20 PM)
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Posts: 147
Joined: Aug 13, 2018
Last Visit: May 19, 2019
Gender: Female
Country: Australia
Hobbies: Lover of nature and animals
1153864
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82
Smoke Free Days 1,640
Cigarettes Not Smoked $656.00
Amount Saved Days: 8 Hours: 0
Minutes: 52 Seconds: 43
Life Gained |
Thats so reassuring to hear. I hope l can get there. Yes there is a grief associated with quitting addictions and it can last for some time. Back into your old jeans? Whoo-hoo!!! ALLL your quitting side-effects are gone. Thats so fantastic and your good health could well be thanks to kicking smoking. So well done Stella.
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Mar 26, 2019 (01:49 PM)
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Joined: Jun 25, 2018
Last Visit: May 16, 2019
Country: Canada
1153862
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Sparrow - I have actually given some thought to whether *something* could ever make me smoke again. The truth of it is that there is simply no situation that can ever "cause" me to smoke, ever again. It would only ever be me using some situation as a justification to smoke. I have earned the gift of choice back in my life, and so if I ever smoke again it will be because I, for whatever reason, decided to smoke again. Does that make sense? As for me ever deciding to smoke again, I imagine that that will only happen if there is a perfect storm of intense emotional unrest, a severe case of the ****-its or desire to act out, some sort of external pressure or ease of access present, and a temporary loss of judgment or ability to connect to foresight. I don't think there will ever be a casual *oopsie* relapse for me. In other news, I have officially got back into my pre-quit jeans. Throughout my quit, I put on roughly 10 pounds (which is noticeable when one barely clears five feet), and wisely chose to just not care about that end of things until my quit was secure. Well, those pounds are gone, through pretty minimal effort (and I suspect it was really just a case of my body, metabolism, and appetite re-calibrating once the smokes were gone more than any concerted effort on my part), and I feel like my old self. Scratch that - I feel betterthan my old self. Again, this is an issue that used to really cause me stress when I was trying to quit. Had I known that pretty much everything I was afraid of would be entirely resolved within a year of my last cigarette, I might not have been so fearful. One other thing - this is the first winter of my life when I did not get sick. In fact, I have not really been sick since at all since I quit. A couple near misses with some cold germs, but nothing ever came of it. Could this be a magic byproduct of the quit as well, or just a really lucky year?
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Mar 25, 2019 (04:42 PM)
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Posts: 147
Joined: Aug 13, 2018
Last Visit: May 19, 2019
Gender: Female
Country: Australia
Hobbies: Lover of nature and animals
1152865
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82
Smoke Free Days 1,640
Cigarettes Not Smoked $656.00
Amount Saved Days: 8 Hours: 0
Minutes: 52 Seconds: 43
Life Gained |
Ohhhh Stella....you sound so free. I really envy your position. The ugliness is all behind you and how wonderful for you to be heading into Spring (the best season imo). You sound so elated and you should be. You have freed yourself of the slavery of ALL addiction....thats such an awesome thing to do. Many people never get there. Truly with your writing ability you should write a book about conquering your demons or write your story online. I love reading stories about conquering addictions and conquer you did. Enjoy your first Spring as a non-smoker. A hypothetical question....coming as far as you have is there anything under the sun that you think could make you smoke again?
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Mar 20, 2019 (09:39 AM)
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Posts: 631
Joined: Dec 03, 2013
Last Visit: May 20, 2019
Gender: Male
Country: United States
Occupation: Laboratory technician
Hobbies: Computer nerd, bird watching
1148862
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2027
Smoke Free Days 44,594
Cigarettes Not Smoked $12,263.35
Amount Saved Days: 396 Hours: 16
Minutes: 53 Seconds: 49
Life Gained |
Hi Stella, A big milestone for you today!  Can't believe that it's been 9 months already. Keep on keeping us updated with your progress, we love to hear about success. Stay strong and enjoy the aromas of the blooms this season. Not One Puff Ever
Tim
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Mar 20, 2019 (09:03 AM)
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Joined: Jun 25, 2018
Last Visit: May 16, 2019
Country: Canada
1148860
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9 months! And also the first day of spring, which means as of today I have entered the fourth and final season of my first trip around the sun as a non-smoker. This is very exciting for me. Next stop will be first circle. I can't believe I am now closing in on my first complete year as a non-smoker. That is crazy talk. I love not smoking. I never want to smoke again just because I never want to have to quit again. I know that one smoke will light up the pinball machine and I'm simply not interested in playing that game anymore. Thankfully my brain is now cool with my decision, and has stopped suggesting it to me as an option. FREEEEEEEEEEEDOM. Keep on keeping on everyone.
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Mar 14, 2019 (07:54 AM)
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Posts: 65
Joined: Feb 27, 2019
Last Visit: May 20, 2019
1142860
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87
Smoke Free Days 1,740
Cigarettes Not Smoked $739.50
Amount Saved Days: 16 Hours: 6
Minutes: 7 Seconds: 45
Life Gained |
HI Stella! In the amount of time I have been a non-smoker (3weeks tomorrow) I have sure noticed that my wallet is getting fatter. What a great feeling to regain the money that I was once using to feed an addiction that was slowly sucking the life out of me. But even more important for me is how I am noticing in such a short period of time how my body is beginning to heal and that I am actually beginning to notice the wonderful effects of being a non smoker. It continues to motivate me even more to kick this addiction even harder in the a@#.
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