Jay Ar

Hello everybody, I am brand new in here, only found the site a couple of hours ago. Anyway I stopped smoking after 45 years and thought I would post a bit of a letter I sent to some friends to help them do likewise.

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Hello Peter and Thelma,
Val said that you both quit smoking and I thought I would write you a few words of encouragement. I had my last *** on 13 June last year (2000) and am now past the worst of it, I hardly think about smoking and when I do the thought goes away after a second or two. Believe me it’s a nice feeling after 45 years of non-stop smoking.
It’s also good fun putting no-smoking signs up around the house and car, and watching others who have to go outside like I’ve been doing for years. There was a quit program run at work and I joined in. I planned it about ten days ahead to stop at the end of a working block, I came home after night shift, had something to eat, put on a patch and went to bed.
I used 1 patch per day for the first 3 weeks and then decided I was making progress and went to 1 patch every second day. I got out of it cheap as I only used 4 packets over 5 weeks instead of the recommended 10 over 10 weeks. There are a lot of milestones like, the first hour, first day, first week, first month and now I aiming at my first year. One thing that helps me is I know if I give in I’ll have to start counting again, and the thought of loosing 350 days of my personal battle is enough to bannish the thought from my head. Another thing that helps once you are down the road a little way is that, it takes a week for every year you have smoked to get rid of the gunk in your lungs. After about three months I started experiencing pains across my chest and having trouble swallowing food, and this persisted for a few months but is fairly normal if you are a long time smoker and is easing off now. After being 75 Kgs for the last 45 years I suddenly shot up to 90 Kgs and have stopped there for the last 8 or 9 months and it’s all behind my belly button. Another thing people kept telling me is, I would get my sense of taste back, that isn’t very noticeable but my sense of smell is very acute and almost annoying some times. I also started putting $70.00 into a canister each week but the novelty wore off after a couple of months. OK that’s it, just remember if you do give in, it’s OK to quit again soon after. Also joining the quit program at work was a big help as I didn't want to be the weak link.