Topic: 1st anniversary

[lottie lou]

Today is the first anniversary of giving up smoking.  I must admit I don't feel any richer, nor healthier and it does have some serious side effects:
1.  Loss of friends due to extreme flatulence caused by sucking peppermints
2. Washing machine malfunction - it has strunk all my clothes considerably
3. Risk of being arrested for harassment - sidling up to any person in the street who is smoking a cigarette
4. Bad temper

[kGarden]

Well done you, I'm full of admiration for anyone who quits.  Luckily for me I never started, so have never had to give up, but I have given up drinking and that's been 2 or 3 years now. (Given up alcohol in the sense that I choose not to drink, rather than that I don't drink :) )

[Tee Gee]

Well done Lou

You got me thinking about when I stopped and have just realised come 24th April I will have been stopped for twenty five years!

Like you I can't say I feel any different apart from being twenty five years older.

But equally I don't feel any worse so I will put that down to the fact that I have not been smoking for all of these years,

In regards to money........money is round to go around.....And my money certainly does that!

So this department is no different either but equally I don't think it any worse either!

So carry on with the good work.........just think of it.........you can do worse!

[pumkinlover]

 Congratulations 
I am a bit confused over the flatulence  bit though unless you are on the low sugar ones ?  (Sorbitol)
I thought peppermint aided digestion!

[Paulines7]

Well done Lottie Lou; you will benefit from giving up smoking in the long term.  Don't ever think that you can just have one as you will start all over again.  It happened to me when I was 25.  I eventually gave up when I was 30 and that was 40 years ago.  I have never looked back. It was the hardest thing I have ever done but the most satisfying once I was over the withdrawal symptoms. 

A very close friend of mine, whom I had known for 60 years, passed away on Friday.  She had lung cancer and had smoked since she was about 14.  She was very well when I saw her in the summer when she and her husband came to stay for the weekend to celebrate my 70th birthday with me.  We had a wonderful time.  I feel so distressed now at losing her and upset that she will never see her own 70th birthday.  It seems such a waste of a life.  If only I had been able to persuade her to give up smoking when I quit all those years ago.  She didn't suffer for long though and passed away a week after diagnosis.  That I am very grateful for. 

[goodlife]

  WELL DONE you!
None of those 'side effects' matter and can have good sides to it too...
'where ever you may be, let wind blow free' (plants grow better with some 'gas')...you can have new lot of clothes...you might do good deed with your temper, frightening somebody else to stop smoking too...and if you get arrested, you never know who you might get to meet in your travels, it might turn to be fortunate trip to police station...

[Obelixx]

Well done Lottie Lou.  Keep up the good work and yu'll feel the benefits.   I gave up 34 years ago and haven't missed it.

I see friends and acquaintances my age who still smoke and they smell like dirty ashtrays, their skin is aging faster, they can't shake off coughs and colds, they get breathless easily and they have to stand outside in all weathers to indulge their addiction when at work and when we go out dancing.

[Bill Door]

Very well done.  It is hard but worth it.

Not sure about combating the flatuence (perhaps Ace can make a suggestion).

Just remember you have coped this far and you can now cope with most things.

Bill
(25 years and counting)

[Ellen K]

Well done, it's a great achievement.  All you have to do now is not be a smartarse and think you can go back to having one on special occasions.  And just think about all the tax you are not paying any more.  YAY!!!

[Silverleaf]

Nice work, people who have given up! I'm proud of you all. :)

I imagine that the best thing about not smoking is not having to interrupt fun times to go outside for a cig.

I play a lot of geeky complicated board games and roleplaying Dungeons and Dragons stuff, and honestly it's infuriating to have to stop in the middle of the game when you're really getting into it so someone can go for a smoke. You wait five minutes, lose your "momentum", forget whose turn it is, and then they come back in stinking of horrible smoke. Yuk. Exactly the same when they interrupt a conversation.

I worked in a nightclub for years (before the smoking ban) and it really put me off. I'd get home after 4am completely exhausted but had to shower, wash my hair and put my clothes in the machine before I could go to sleep.