Wednesday, January 31, 2007

It's my Anniversary!
I have a program on my computer that keeps track of the time that I have been smoke free. This morning, it said this:

I have been quit for 2 Years, 4 hours, 52 minutes and 46 seconds (730 days). I have saved $6,014.19 by not smoking 36,510 cigarettes. I have saved 4 Months, 6 Days, 18 hours and 30 minutes of my life. My Quit Date: 1/31/2005 6:55 AM

What it didn't say is that I smoked from the time I was 15 until I was 54. Some days I only smoked one or two, many days I smoked 40, some days I smoked 60!

I'm ashamed to say that I smoked while pregnant, even though it was only a few...but since they say smoking causes low birth weight and all three of the boys weighed over 9 pounds (some significantly over), I can't help but think that I might have given birth to adults if I hadn't smoked.

I know...it's nothing to joke about!

I'm ashamed to say that when Mark had a heart attack at 43 and the cardiologist said to him: YOU DO NOT SMOKE!, I said I am not ready to quit.

I am ashamed to say that I walked out of a SMOKE ENDERS class that the school district provided when they made all campuses smoke free.

I am ashamed to say that my younger sister's death from lung cancer at 45 did not shock me into quitting.

But I am proud to say I did it myself. I set a date three weeks in advance, bought a ton of sock yarn, a truck load of bubble bath (the only two things I did that I didn't smoke while doing) and quit with two cigarettes to my name.

I tried the patch for a few days, but it made me hyper. I did it cold turkey and alone. I had one bad day (the fifth), but as a rule, I was no more grouchier than I am usually (but it's hard to be more).

I told one friend in advance, but not my family. I didn't say anything to Mark until he asked, three days after I had become smoke free.

My house, my car, I...am smoke free.

YEE HAW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

7 comments:

mimi k said...

go you! Quitting is a major accomplishment!

Mary Anne said...

Yay for you! It's not easy and a great accomplishment so you should feel good about this.

jill said...

I'm proud of you.

Seeing that Celia mentioned PJ Day...you want some of my dragonfly fabric to make a pair of bottoms??? I toyed with just popping it in the mail and then thought maybe Mark might hunt me down and make me wax the boat or something...

Anonymous said...

Good for you! I know I will, one day soon.

MaryO said...

Congratulations on your success! I quit many years ago when one of my daughters became allergic to the smoke. It takes awhile but eventually you won't even think about it anymore.
Thanks for your comment on my blog about the legwarmers! I'm headed to my second lesson in sock knitting tomorrow morning! Tooooo much fun!

Laura said...

Congratulations!!! That's almost EXACTLY how long it's been since my husband quit smoking! I need to send him over here to see how much money he's saved and how much time he's added to his life span! YAY!

What a super fabulous wonderful thing to do. Your family must be so very happy. I still mention to my husband how proud I am of him for quitting. :)

Anonymous said...

Every day is a new celebration. That's a really really hard thing to do, and I salute you. I'm so glad I didn't start (Dad warned me about how hard it was to quit and I heard him), because I think I would have had the same trouble you did.

You go, Grrrl!