Cookie Jar Stash

[Liam]

I smoked for many years and quit a number of times, most recently for 8 years. I had previously had stopped for 9 years. My advise is to quit cold turkey, and never think you can "just have one". When the urge hits, go for a walk, or do something different. Be prepared for about 2 weeks of poor sleep. After the first 2 weeks things get easier.

Good Luck!

[GMan]

Glad that you stopped smoking, I agree it is wicked.

I do like the idea of a cookie jar.

[MacCathmhaoil]

Congratulations! I know all too well the struggle, keep at it. Year and a half for me, I quit on my birthday, the savings paid for my kilt from John at Keltoi in no time.

[plaid preacher]

I smoked for many years and quit a number of times, most recently for 8 years. I had previously had stopped for 9 years. My advise is to quit cold turkey, and never think you can "just have one". When the urge hits, go for a walk, or do something different. Be prepared for about 2 weeks of poor sleep. After the first 2 weeks things get easier.

Good Luck!

I was never so happy than when I quite cold turkey. I never realized how hard it was to roll cold turkey until I quite! Oh... and congratulations TJ. Kicking the habit is a big accomplishment.

[Riverkilt]

Nice to still be alive when you quit smoking. Congrats from another former corporate slave of big tobacco. Friend of mine did the same thing. He put the amount of money he would have spent on ciggies in a jar. After a year he saved enough to pay for a week's raft trip down the Grand Canyon.

[McClef]

Strange as it sounds, what worked for me was joining Freemasonry.

Knowing that I would be in the Temple for some time and not able to sneak out for a quick drag, I stopped two days before my Initiation, cold turkey and have never felt like starting again in the over 800 days since.

I have a little program which I check from time to time which tells me how many days it has been since I last smoked, how many cigarettes I would have smoked since and how much it would have cost me as well as how much tar and nicotine I have avoided.

[TJ Kelley]

Thanks mates for your words of encouragement. And for those who have also quit... props to you!

Over the coarse of 23 years I have quit several times. For me, it is not the quitting thing that is so difficult, its the starting back up is so easy. But the time in my life to do it for good is now.

McC the program you have sounds very interesting, can I get the name of it?

[dutchy kilted]

Congrats and good luck. Your next jar can be used for hand-sewn kilt!

[McClef]

Over the coarse of 23 years I have quit several times. For me, it is not the quitting thing that is so difficult, its the starting back up is so easy. But the time in my life to do it for good is now.

McC the program you have sounds very interesting, can I get the name of it?

I believe that Mark Twain once said that "giving up smoking is one of the easiest things to do, I have done it many times!"

There isn't a name I can give to the programme - I guess it can work in different ways with different folks but is based on achieving something you have wanted for a long time where one's money is better spent on something that has a lasting value in one's life rather than something that ends up in an ash tray. In my case it just happened to be Freemasonry but there are about three members of my Lodge who smoke which they have to do outside, not because Freemasonry dictates that they must, but because of the Government legislation banning smoking inside any building, even of a private nature, where people gather in a public or semi public way.

[Moski]

Congratulations on quitting. I quit 6 years ago on the urging of my 3yo daughter after my last cardiac incident. We bought a camper with the money saved and still had left over. And my chronic sinus infections dropped off the map, first time they were clear since I was 17. YMMV but the benefits outweigh the difficulty in quitting.
So, ruck up and drive on. Good luck.