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PostPosted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 1:26 pm 
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Location: UK
I read that book!

And quit!

Quit lots of times really.

But have quit for some years now!!!!!!

Its a good book. Don't worry though guys.... he tells you explicitly to not give up smoking UNTIL you have finished the book!!!!

Its a good read. Really helps!

You dragon slayers you! Poor, poor dragon.....! ....NOT!!!!

x

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PostPosted: Tue Jun 17, 2008 2:08 pm 
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lol...I have to admit that part of me is really nervous about giving up! How silly does that sound??

I keep wanting to take my time with reading the book so I don't have to give up so soon (I could normally read a book this size in a couple of hours)...but another part of me wants to read and quit for good...talk about conflicting emotions right now! lol

Anyway....I only have about a third left to read....so fingers crossed!! :?

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PostPosted: Tue Jun 17, 2008 2:40 pm 
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Celtictotem wrote:
lol...I have to admit that part of me is really nervous about giving up! How silly does that sound??


Doesn't sound silly at all. And I say that as having been tobacco free since only 1976. With a twenty year 1.5 to 2 pack a day habit.

10 years a smoker + ten years quitting = 20 years in all.

Our bodies are built to become addicts.

(Which is why I use the term 'habit.')

We have to develop 'habits' to stay alive. Survival habits. We are wired for it.

Problem is, like all good things, there are risks involved. One can as easily develop a bad (Undesirable) habit as a good one.

Celtictotem wrote:
I keep wanting to take my time with reading the book so I don't have to give up so soon (I could normally read a book this size in a couple of hours)...but another part of me wants to read and quit for good...talk about conflicting emotions right now! lol

Anyway....I only have about a third left to read....so fingers crossed!! :?


If there is a bottom line in ending an undesired habit it is commitment.

Not sweaty, nerve wracking 'commitment,' but rather a simple promise to one's self that cannot be broken. (So one has to be careful how it is worded).

When you know that regardless of how you perform the goal will never go away ...

8)

Namaste

Donald R.

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~~~~~~~~~
So say Don, Altea, and Bonnie the Wonder Filly.


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PostPosted: Tue Jun 17, 2008 3:10 pm 
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Just one thing.....

I maintained my choice all the way to the end... in fact still do!

I started really 'taking responsibility' for smoking. Each and every one I had I would actively choose to have it. "Yep, I am ging to have a cigarette!"

Then when I gave up it was always my choice. When I felt the crave I 'chose' at that moment whether to or not and actually chose not!

I fell from grace lots of times because I kept up the self-empowerment of 'choice'. For me its not about will power. As soon as I play that game, I lie and cheat on myself!!!! But ownership - that's another thing!!

I still have the odd crave! Got one now if I think about it. AND I CAN go and buy a pack of fags any time I want.... could go right now....I have given myself this type of permission. But I choose not to. Not least because I remind myself of the taste, the dizzy head and the ongoing craving once I've had one... I remember that ahead of time.... and that makes my choice easier. So I choose every time I crave! Every time!

I am conscious of the fact that 'it will kill me' and it is a form of self-destruction. Do I want to destroy myself!!!! That was a big one... cos actually I realised that there was a part of me that did!! Or at least needed that to become conscious.

Its all in the choice.

Don't give up. Do give up.

Don't even think of it as giving up...... you can always go back to it... its always there .... but do you want it... sure you want to alleviate the crave but by lighting up each time you only fuel that. Know that you are fuelling/feeding the dragon EVERY time you light up. Be conscious. Choose to feed the dragon or not!!!!

Signing off.....

xx

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PostPosted: Wed Jun 18, 2008 3:07 am 
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Celtictotem wrote:

Quote:
the odd thing was that part of me didn't want to read it. I guess the smoking part of me must think the book is going to work and panicked


I had the very same reaction! But I am whittling away all my excuses...the main one being my weight and not wishing to quit until I had lost some weight, and thinking I was going to eat and eat and eat (and I may....) when I do quite. So I simply didn't lose any weight so I could keep using that as an excuse not to quit smoking.

Well, I am about to go buy new pants, or the ones I am now wearing may fall off one day while running around with Tamarack (not that is a mental image you didn't need :lol: :lol: ).

Tomorrow I am going to the doctor to get some Wellbutran...the milder form of Zyban. I was going to get the new drug, but my doctor cautioned me that although it has great potential for many, some people are having bad reactions to it (that it can actually cause depression). I was going to try it anyway, but now it is so stressful and busy at work (our busiest season) that I figure with the stress of work, that I didn't need anything that may in fact hinder my ability to cope with that stress. So I am opting to try again with the Wellbutran (and will tell her that when I see her tomorrow). It almost worked last time, so why not? Now I have book to help with the task, and so perhaps the combination will be my magic this time.

So I wish to quit smoking, get more and more active, and keep to my commited diet of eating appropriately, and start a new chapter to my life. So Glen, I am still with you...just a little behind!


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PostPosted: Mon Jun 23, 2008 2:04 pm 
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Location: Natal, South Africa
:lol: I'm down to about half my previous consumption.

Now for the next step - how long can I delay every morning until I have the first one?

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Glen Grobler

Words that soak into your ears are whispered...not yelled. Anon


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PostPosted: Tue Jun 24, 2008 10:39 am 
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Location: Southampton, UK
I finished the book last night....had my final cigarette at about half ten last night!!

No cigarettes today so far at all....(and hopefully no more cigarettes again...ever!!)

Wish me luck....actually it'll be everyone else that needs the luck....I can be rather grumpy when trying to quit smoking (or I have been every other time I've tried) :D :D

I can do it!!! (quite excited at the prospect actually!!) :lol:

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PostPosted: Tue Jun 24, 2008 11:09 am 
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Location: Natal, South Africa
Oh Yeah! Go, girl, GO!

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Glen Grobler



Words that soak into your ears are whispered...not yelled. Anon


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PostPosted: Tue Jun 24, 2008 5:10 pm 
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Celtictotem wrote:
Wish me luck....actually it'll be everyone else that needs the luck....I can be rather grumpy when trying to quit smoking (or I have been every other time I've tried) :D :D

I can do it!!! (quite excited at the prospect actually!!) :lol:


Yeah but you don't need any luck because you are not 'trying' anymore!!!!!! You've done it! You've quit! :D :D :D

It just gets easier and easier from here on in - just don't have the first one cos that leads on to all the others; keep that one in order and it gets sweeter and sweeter! Promise! x

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PostPosted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 6:01 pm 
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Joined: Tue Oct 30, 2007 5:01 pm
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Location: Quebec, Canada
For those who really want to quit, don't do it just for the money, it won't work.
I quit about 20 years ago because I was fed up of having the cigarette lead my life. You see, I'm a Taurus and very hard-headed. I couldn't take it anymore, getting up in the middle of the night to smoke and hurrying up in the morning to eat my breakfast so I could have a smoke.
When I was at the hospital, I remember there was a special room for smokers and with serum in place, I would smoke. What a pitiful sight!

I tried quiting about 5 times before I succeeded. Each time I started was due to a fight with my boyfriend. I couldn't take the stress.

When I finally decided, I knew it would be hard, I knew I would have dizzy spells, I knew I would be cranky. but I also knew it would go away after time.
I guess my will to quit was alot stronger than excuses.
So I went to the bathroom and screamed my head off each time I was having an attack. People thought it was funny. Every time I wanted one real bad, I would drink a glass of water or go to bed.
After 3 days, it got a little better (sometimes I had a moment but I knew it was temporary and I would repeat it that it was temporary).

It took me a full year to stop thinking about it everyday. At first, I would think about it every second. Then every 10 minutes, then every half hour, etc. But when you want to quit, you can.

This is a legal drug. The only reason it's legal is so the governments can make money (taxes). You know this shortens your life. In addition, it shortens your healthy life (can you see yourself carrying an oxygen tank while going to see your horses).

Glen and all of you who want to quit, try everything in your power to quit (hypnosis, acupuncture, everything). Cigarette smoking is not worth all the damage it's doing to you. The good feeling you have when smoking is like taking cocaine. It's temporary.

I know you all probably heard all this before but I saw my father who quit at 50 but it was too late. He was diagnosed with chronic bronchitis due to cigarette smoking. He would cough and cough and cough every morning. It was so gross but we didn't want to hurt his feelings because he couldn't do anything about it anymore.
But you guys can. It's a question of when you'll have chronic bronchitis not if. Then it's emphazema. I'm sure with your healthy life, that is not something you want to have.
Please, for your horses, quit smoking. They want you around, healthy for a long, long time.

(hope I've convinced you - I'm not at all judging you. I know how hard it is and I heard that today's cigarettes are even stronger than in the 80's (alot more chemicals so it's even harder to quit). But for yourself, do it.


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PostPosted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 8:58 am 
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Location: Natal, South Africa
:oops: I'm backsliding a bit! I have to get control of this, fast!

It's that "wake-up" one that I can't resist, and then I smoke all day! Sish! At least I'm still at half my "normal" consumption, but I REALLY must fix this!

:wall:

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Words that soak into your ears are whispered...not yelled. Anon


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PostPosted: Thu Aug 07, 2008 9:08 pm 
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Oh, Glen, I hear you!

I read Carr's book. Made it five hours (and had a sobbing fit) and broke down and had one...and then another, and another, and another...wasn't ready, I guess.

Damn, but nicotine is noxious!

For the last several days, I've cut my regular consumption (about a pack daily) by a third, then in half...

I'm now trying for five a day. Yeah, I know that this is, by some people's read, just prolonging the withdrawal agony, but emotionally it's some baby step stuff for me that I'm hoping will help get me past the "I'll NEVER have another one again!" mindgame that my head plays (reference above sobbing fit...).

Good news is that I am getting lots of house cleaning done, as I'm trying to do that every time I get the urge!

But I've GOT to do this -- am going to the oral surgeon again this afternoon to start the next round of bone graft surgery in my poor little mouth, and I know that nicotine is horrendously bad for the bone...

At least I'm seriously fighting for it, for the first time in years and years and years.

And what I'm reading is that 72 hours is the magic number --- at that time, our systems will be clean of nicotine, the worst is over. 72 hours...what else happens in 72 hours? What could I do for 72 hours to keep myself away from these horrendous things? Then, it's about two weeks for the next layer of psychological triggers to soften a little...

Claire -- how are you doing? Karen?

Hugs,
Leigh


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PostPosted: Thu Aug 07, 2008 10:03 pm 
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Location: Natal, South Africa
:cry: :oops: The dog that died blew me right back into my old, baad ways! So then there was Laska ... it's a conspirac, I tell you!

Sigh! I'll have to start again! Uhhmm, but after the weekend ...

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Glen Grobler



Words that soak into your ears are whispered...not yelled. Anon


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PostPosted: Thu Aug 07, 2008 10:29 pm 
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Location: Pacific Northwest U.S.
Glen Grobler wrote:
:cry: :oops: The dog that died blew me right back into my old, baad ways! So then there was Laska ... it's a conspirac, I tell you!

Sigh! I'll have to start again! Uhhmm, but after the weekend ...


It may not be about deciding to quit, so much as deciding to commit to quitting.

I "quit" for 10 years, after smoking for 10 prior years. Problem was during that last 10 years of quitting, I didn't commit.

One day I did.

And unlike all my prior "tries" it was without anxiety or discomfort. I actually gave myself permission to smoke.

.....

If I really wanted that particular cigarette now.

I discovered I didn't really want it.

"I" not my body. ME. "I" did not want it.

But I could have it if I did want it.

And in the end I couldn't FORCE myself to smoke one. But I did do a lot of laughing at myself. I even tried to convince myself I really did want it. I'd list to myself the things I liked about smoking...but oddly enough I'd find myself thinking about things I liked to do much more that smoking affected negatively.

Do I want you to smoke?

No.

Would I give you my "permission" to if you asked?

Sure ... If you could convince me you really actually wanted it.

Not your craving in the moment wanting it but YOU, the real you.

Donald R. (last cigarette smoked in 1976)

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Love is Trust, trust is All
~~~~~~~~~
So say Don, Altea, and Bonnie the Wonder Filly.


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PostPosted: Fri Aug 08, 2008 4:26 pm 
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Location: Natal, South Africa
Good point, Donald. I think it is my habit in control and not me in control. Well, as long as I don't give up on giving up I'll eventually get there!

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Glen Grobler



Words that soak into your ears are whispered...not yelled. Anon


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