[Salt-Man Z]

Kudos, Ray! Keep on keepin' on.

[Raymond Luxury Yacht]

Oh, I will keep keep on keepin on. Thanks for the encouragement. It's been morethan a month now, so I've got that going for me, which is nice.

Hey Bubba, you quit again yet?

[bubba]

I'm at half gum half smoking......progress.....life is just just too "F"ing stressful right now to give it all up.

[Raymond Luxury Yacht]

 Bubba, on Aug 12 2009, 04:26 PM, said:

I'm at half gum half smoking......progress.....life is just just too "F"ing stressful right now to give it all up.

Well, good luck.

Inside the spoiler tags is some sanctimonious talk about why you should just say screw it and quit. You won't hurt my feelings if you don't feel like listening to that and don't read it, that's why I used the spoiler tag.

Spoiler

Remember though, smoking isn't actually helping you deal with stress. That's just the addiction talking. While the withdrawals will make the stress harder to deal with for the first week or so, once you break the physical need for the nicotine, you will actually be less stressed as a non-smoker. Blood pressure is down, heart rate is down. Money will be more plentiful. Women will like you more. The smokes aren't helping you cope with the stress, they are just feeding your addiction which you need to do to just feel normal. Cold turkey. Do it. The satisfaction of having quit will make up for the loss of the emotional crutch.



I made excuses for years of why I hadn't quit yet. Eventually I admitted to myself that they were just excuses. Life is always too stressful, there's always something going on that makes right now a bad time, next week or next month will always seem like a better time, it's always too hard right now, it's always a bad time to be grumpy from quitting, the withdrawal symptoms are always too much to deal with right now. There's never going to be a time where it's easy, it will always be just as hard to quit as it is right now, so you might as well quit right now.

Plus, you get to make self-righteous speeches to all your friends, both real life and internet, who still smoke about why they should quit.

[Adjutant Stormy~]

Wow, that's some tough talk. And true. You've got my vote for whatever you're running for. I'm sold. I'm going to finish the pack sitting on my desk. After that, I quit smoking.

I've been smoking since I was 16, and I've got to quit sooner or later. I may not be the towering pillar of willpower and manhood that you are RLY, I may have to go the Bubba route. I mean, I smoke heavily as it is. It'll be better to do it now, since I've got 2 free weeks to be agitated and edgy.

I suppose it get harder before it gets easier.

This post has been edited by Adjutant Stormy: 13 August 2009 - 12:21 AM

[caladanbrood]

Good luck Stormy

[Adjutant Stormy~]

Thanks, I'm already dreading it.
I'm one of the most addictive (and addicted) people I know. It's a good thing I'm virtually immune to many narcotic pain-killers of I'd be addicted to those too. Living 2 blocks from a pub doesn't help much either.

Oy, it's going to hurt.

[caladanbrood]

At least soon you'll have Dust of Dreams to distract you

[Raymond Luxury Yacht]

I've got the most addictive personality of anyone I know. I smoked 2 packs a day until a month ago. It's rough. Glad to have you aboard the quitting train Stormy.

[Adjutant Stormy~]

 caladanbrood, on Aug 12 2009, 05:51 PM, said:

At least soon you'll have Dust of Dreams to distract you

Oh my god you have no idea.

And yeah, two a day sounds about right, but probably a little less. It's worse with company, especially when the aforementioned company smokes. Fortunately my primary smoking buddy is going abroad (leaving on Saturday) to study in Gallway, Ireland.

[Raymond Luxury Yacht]

Yeah, it sucks but you might need to avoid your smoking buddies for the first few weeks.

[cerveza_fiesta]

so did you decide what to buy with the money you're saving yet?

I would for sure buy power tools. In particular, a drill press and a tablesaw.

Been doing good lately...went through the weekend with nary a one.

[Raymond Luxury Yacht]

Rent, groceries, that sort of thing. I'm no working right now because school is out and i never found anyone willing to hire me over the summer. Money is super tight. That's actually the main reason I quit. Can't justify dropping hundreds of dollars a month on smokes when I'm rolling change to be able to pay rent.

[cerveza_fiesta]

ah, so not smoking is really a stress relief more than smoking is. Financial stress relief is the best kind imo.

The wife and I just got out of debt in June and are loving the double-income-no-kids-no-debt lifestyle atm.

I need to give up another habit to be able to afford my powertools though cause I never spent more than 10 bucks a month on smokes. Maybe.......booze???

Ack. That would be tough.

[Raymond Luxury Yacht]

But worthwhile.

[Binder of Demons]

Well done RLY, you are a great example to those others that want to stop.

@ Stormy,
I hope you give it a go. The first 3 weeks will be the hardest, and i think it is actually easier to do the zero tolerance route like RLY. The "I'll just have one" is a slippery slope.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.

[cerveza_fiesta]

Last night was actually a pretty good test. Mojito party with the upstairs neighbors...got fairly drunk...all of em were smoking and I resisted the urge.

[D'rek]

 Raymond Luxury Yacht, on Aug 12 2009, 08:08 PM, said:

Money will be more plentiful. Women will like you more.

I hope you weren't implying a correlation by putting these two right next to each other RLY!

But both are true!

 cerveza_fiesta, on Aug 13 2009, 09:07 AM, said:

Last night was actually a pretty good test. Mojito party with the upstairs neighbors...got fairly drunk...all of em were smoking and I resisted the urge.

Good work CF, keep it up!

Stormy, we're proud of you for jumping on the wagon as well!

[Raymond Luxury Yacht]

 D'rek, on Aug 13 2009, 06:15 AM, said:

 Raymond Luxury Yacht, on Aug 12 2009, 08:08 PM, said:

Money will be more plentiful. Women will like you more.

I hope you weren't implying a correlation by putting these two right next to each other RLY!

But both are true!

No, no correlation there. The women liking you more isn't from you having more money, it's from you noy smelling like shit all the time, coughing up phlegm, burning random things on accident, etc.

[Aptorian]

Cerveza, your new Avatar is amazing!