19 days now w/out those nasty things you light on fire and stick in your mouth.

[Rich Engelhardt]

It's nice to be able to breathe for a change.

[glenn bradley]

Congrats. You will reap the benefits now and in the future. Soon you will find you lose the requirement to salt and pepper the heck outta your foods and your sense of smell will return. Keep up the good work.

[Jerry Thompson]

I have no idea how I quit. It is a powerful addiction. I just didn't smoke and every smoker around me did their best to get me back to it. That was Jan. 2 1972. It took 2 weeks to get over the consent craving. I get to be less each day. Then one still has the compulsion for awhile. After a few days I could not stand the smell of them but still wanted one. That never made sense then nor now. You can do it. There is freedom down the road.

[Greg Peterson]

You're over the hump and have a good head of steam now. Keep on going.

For me, the intensity of the urge diminished slower than the frequency with which it occurred. Fortunately, the urge never really intensified, just stayed the same. Meanwhile, the things that would trigger the urge lost their effectiveness and the urge became a infrequent visitor rather than a constant companion. In other words, I had fewer urges with each passing day. Yeah, it gets easier each day.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Congratulations! It's a tough habit to quit!

There will be times when the desire will raise up again but you will be able to ignore it. I quit several years ago and still on occasion will pass by a smoker the smoke smells good but I have no desire anymore.

[Eric DeSilva]

Excellent. I'm now at almost 5 years. You go from thinking about it every minute to thinking about it every hour to thinking about it every day to thinking about it every month or so. So it does get easier.

[Michael Weber]

I admire your will power. I never smoked (well for a few days in high school till my parents caught me [thank God]) so can't imagine what it takes. I know it is very addictive. If you can do it for 19 days then you can do it permanently, congratulations.

[Gordon Eyre]

Congratulations Rich, keep it up and you will never be sorry.

[Jeff Monson]

Good for you Rich! If you made it this far, you are over the hump. Pretty soon the smell of them will make you think "I cant believe I used to smoke".

[Jim Koepke]

Rich,

Good for you.

Hopefully my last cigarette was on July 16th. It made me sick after 3 puffs. My battle with tobacco has been going on for years. For my health I know stopping smoking is imperative.

One day at a time and I just have to remember, I don't smoke, the cigarette smokes and I am just the sucker.

jtk

[Chris Padilla]

I dunno...I stopped putting firecrackers in my mouth when I was a kid, Rich!

[Joe Mioux]

Congrats on getting this far. Ironically, I have quit a forum (not smc) for the same time period. Unfortunately, I still have cravings to go back to it.

[Raymond Fries]

Awesome...

...Congratulations on winning the battle!!

You are over the hump. Enjoy the fresh air.

I used to be a smoker over 25 years ago. Looking back, I do not see how I could have smoked. The smell of smoke really makes me cough now.

[David Weaver]

It's nice to be able to breathe for a change.

Rich, have you incentivized yourself by putting your "cigrit" money in a jar and counting it?

I smoked when I was in college. A lot of people did, it was still OK to do it in the dorms back then. At some point, the "cigrit" taxes went up while I was in college and that was enough for me to put a stop to it. But I know some folks who smoked back then were hooked a lot harder than I ever was despite not smoking more than I did, and they would sell the shoes off their feet to get a pack of "cigrits" if they had to.

[Prashun Patel]

congratulations and keep it up. Now, let's all go breathe in some sawdust!