[hotrodsally]

I quit smoking many years back. I was just getting over a particularly nasty bug one winter and was on my way to the fridge to get something to eat after 3 days of hell, when I grabbed a cigarette (the first one in 3 days) and lit it up. It felt like I was sticking a knife down my throat. I crunched it out in an ashtray and proceeded to crush and toss the remaining half-pack and another spare pack into the trash and never looked back.

Within a day or two I was at coffee shop having coffee and kept the little plastic stir stick and started chewing on it. Amazingly, it satisfied that hand to mouth motion. For the next 6 months or so, those plastic stir sticks became the surrogate for cigarettes.

Here's the good stuff that happens as a result of quitting in addition to the obvious stuff like improved health for you and those around you (including your furbabies) and the money factor:

1) Your sense of taste and smell improves.

2) Your clothes and hair no longer smell of smoke.

3) You may have to clean carpets/upholstery/drapes to get the smoke out of them, but that's a good thing (see number 1).

4) Your lips no longer taste like burnt tobacco, making you more kissable .

5) When you wake up in the morning your mouth won't taste like somebody washed an ashtray in it.

6) You'll feel better and have more energy.

7) Your accompishment is of you, by you and for you. No one can ever take that away. Ever.

8) You'll be less stressed. You don't worry about being down to your last half pack of cigarettes or running to the store late at night to make sure you have a cigarette to smoke in the morning when you get up. You won't have to seek out "Smoking Areas."

9) You'll look better.

10) You'll open new doors socially (a lot of non-smokers flat out avoid smokers).

11) As a non-smoker you'll pay less in health care and insurance premiums.

12) You can through away your ashtrays.

13) You won't worry about starting a fire while driving because you won't need to flick the ashes out the window.

14) No more "burn holes" in your clothes and upholstery.

15) When some one asks if you smoke, you can say, "NOPE!"

The list goes on and on.

There is no downside to quitting. A lot of people are concerned about weight gain. If you can find a no-cal surrogate ( no wise a$$ remarks please ), like a stir stick, you might avoid weight gain alltogether, but even if you gain a few pounds, dumping that weight will be a breeze with all your new found energy.

Good luck! You can do it!