Still kickin'!

It's been more than five years since I quit smoking and more than two years since I started getting serious about my diet...

I'm the healthiest and happiest I've been in decades. My heart works great, my weight is below the "requirement" set forth by the US government standards, my sleep is great.

I get more than 6 hours of sleep every day, more often I get 7 or eight. This is incredibly unusual for me: I haven't slept this well for 30 years.

My pain level is managed consistently. I have better strength in my spine because I handle my pain and I sleep better. The walking I do helps a lot, too.

Here I am at 206 lbs, completely nicotine-free, and I'm glad to get up every day.

Life is good.

Almost like it never happened: Nicotine is not your friend

Interestingly enough, Nicotine is not your friend. Capische? It's a seriously-addicting drug that trains the brain to love it.

Today, it's almost like I never smoked. I've been nicotine-free for more than 5 years now. No looking back. The nicotine monster doesn't live here any more.

Talk to a competent medical professional and find a way to understand what your quitting options are and how to find support.

Still humming away!

Today is a milestone for me.

Today, I have been a non-smoker for 4 1/2 years. On January 22, 2007 at 10:00 P.M., I had my last cigarette - it was foul and I didn't like it at all.

I've never looked back.

At the peak of the most difficult time of my life, I weighed 237 pounds and my heart had begun a spiral downward.

Today: I have the healthiest heart I've had since my teenage years.
Today: I am down to 211 lbs.

Here we are in March of 2010. No Smokes, weight is OK

It's been a long time. Just more than 3 years and 2 months...

It seems, in some ways, that I never smoked. Time's blurring capability has made it such that smoking is just an old nightmare, and old dream... a dream that can be forgotten.

Last night, after a night out taking my daughter to the movies (Alice in Wonderland! how cool!), we walked from the theater after about 10 P.M. Someone was smoking outside and I caught whiffs of freshly-lit cigarette smoke. It smelled sort of faintly good from a great distance - like the sound of an old friend's voice. Then, my non-smoking mind took over and thought, "Naw. You don't need that. It will taste nasty and feel bad. Besides, who wants to break open that old chestnut anyway?"

As I got closer to the smoker and her cigarette, the smell became noxious. My mind then reminded me that it really is nasty, and that the nicotine demon really isn't my friend: it is my MORTAL enemy.

Still not smoking.

Life is very much renewing. A bright Flower now grows in the Garden of my life. My children are finally on the mend. I am making progress towards a better life.

And I still don't want to smoke. Really. I might have one on my 125th birthday... yeah, that's it!

980 Days, and still no Nicotine, no smokes

As I sit and work (listening to The Alan Parsons Project's Some Other Time), I realize that it has almost been a thousand days since I last smoked.

Despite topsy-turvy world, smoking doesn't even figure into my life any more. The rare thought of smoking usually is the vaguely occasional far-off call of nicotine - like whispers at a seance. The thing is, I'm not listening.

Back to work. There are more important things in the world than nicotine. So there.

Working in a new place now, no smokin' still

New job, kids at camp... still no desire to smoke.

I never would have guessed that I could make it this far...

"891 days, 22 hours, 49 minutes and 20 seconds smoke free.

31218 cigarettes not smoked."

I'm glad I'm alive and employed, even if the employer isn't very nice.

Remember, "Let yourself be awesome."

June, 2009 - Still free of nicotine!

863 days, 11 hours, 41 minutes and 51 seconds smoke free.

30222 cigarettes not smoked.
$4,379.73 and 7 months, 20 days, 20 hours of your life saved. (And that was when smokes were about $2.75-$3.00 a pack.)