Thank you! I’ll post my results here, if you’re interested. I honestly never would have predicted, at any point in my life up to now, that I’d be running long distances and loving the hell out every moment of it.
Almost at 2 and a half days and going strong. Tomorrow I have to go to the doctor for a medical clearance for arthroscopic surgery. Let see what changes are occurring with the absence of nicotine in the bloodstream!! 
Missed the edit window.
Per the Quit Smoking Counter website, after 48 hours all of the nicotine is out of your system already!
Good for you and keep it going!
3 days, no smokes! This morning I really wanted one for a bit. But I managed to fend off the feeling. I assume it will start getting easier at some point here.
Yes. After 1 week, the actual physical part is mostly over.
The difficult part, at least for me, is the psychological association in one’s mind between “smoking” and “having a break/fun”. You know, that 10 minutes away from work to have a smoke, the sitting-on-the-dock-watching-the-sun-go-down with a smoke, etc.
That takes longer to fade, but it does - as you replace memories of having fun/breaks with a smoke, with memories of having fun/breaks without having a smoke.
To my mind, the key was conciously countering each happy smoking memory with an unhappy one. For “ah, what a break - having a smoke” I would remember those times I was jonesing for a smoke during something I wanted to do - or those times I “took a break” freezing my ass off on the street, ankle-deep in dirty slush outside the building where I work, feeling a cold comming on as I miserably fed my addiction.
Congrats! Good work! 
We’re with you, dude!
Good point. The worst had to be the first time I flew international and could not have a cigarette. I remember that it was driving me nuts as it was a 12 hour flight.
Then there is always the “sneaking out” for a smoke break as there is no real smoke breaks. The worry about not having enough cigarettes, going to run out before I can get to the store. Yeah, look at all the bad things that go along with smoking. That should keep me from slipping!
I think my mother was the all time crazy addict… we had a fire in the house, and after Mom made sure we were all safe outside, she started to go back in…for her cigarettes. :eek: We stopped her.
:eek::eek::eek: Holy cow!!! :smack::smack::smack:
Thank Og I never got that bad!!
My dentist - actually my periodontist - told me that smoking is really bad for your teeth. I never heard that before, but after he mentioned it I thought about all the smokers I knew who smoked for a long time and they’ve all lost teeth.
I quit 5 years ago, after trying a few times. I understood exactly what you meant about the difference between trying to quit and quitting. I knew at the time it was for good.
You know sometime in the future you’re going to get stressed and come up against a craving that’s going to make all the other cravings look like a piece of cake. Hang tough and don’t give in, if you give in to it you’ll just feel bad on top of being stressed.
I’ve known a couple of people who have quit as long as I have and they tried one cigarette after all that time and started again. How stupid is that? Promise yourself you won’t have even one puff ever again.
Keep it up, we’re all rooting for you. Let us know what the doctors say.
The all time crazy addict really ought to not have the qualifier “…after Mom made sure we were all safe …” in that sentence. 
Well, I kinda understand it… if you’re going to have to stand around and watch your house burn, you’re gonna wanna have a smoke, for sure! 
A co-worker is a 4+ pack/day smoker and 57 years old. He recently found out that he has an elevated PSA level. The Dr. told him that it would be best treated with radiation and/or chemo instead of surgery. It seems his lung capacity is diminished to the point that he would not be a candidate to be under general anesthesia for an extended time. He is constantly missing work with respiratory issues and colds quickly develop into bronchitis, which has turned to pneumonia a few times in the last few years. He has a beautiful home in a great neighborhood, but I can hardly stand to be in it because it’s like being in a 3800 sq. ft. ashtray.
I just can’t understand the struggles of a smoker. Every aspect of their life revolves around smoking. You have to plan where you go and how long you stay based on the need for a cigarette. The pool of potential mates is decreased significantly by being a smoker. You spend a ton of money on it, not to mention the added costs of higher medical bills, insurance costs, clothing replacement, etc. The smell of a smoker is almost always obvious from a distance. Employers are slowly beginning to use smoking as a reason not to hire someone.
There are just no benefits to it, and countless liabilities.
–Rafe Hollister, who has never smoked, but lost several loved ones to slow, painful deaths due to it. 
Yeah, I know – this is how I screwed up the last time I quit. “Oh, just one…” Bad Idea ™
I’ll be checking in late this afternoon or early this evening with results from the doctor. I really hope everything is fine…
Rafe, the reason you can’t understand it is that it is an addiction, not a “bad habit” or something. And addiction is not sensible. Ask a smoker if he has ever pulled a half-smoked cigarette out of an ashtray – I’ll bet he has, eventhough a half-smoked cigarette is totally disgusting. It is because he has to have his hit. It is a drug and nicotine is addictive. It happens to be legal, so it does not get the same kind of treatment as heroin or crack. But it is a drug addiction and makes you do things you would never imagine you would ever do. Trust me, been there, done that, got the t-shirt.
I’m glad I don’t understand it. The closest I can come to it is Mountain Dew. If I’m around town in my normal working day, I will get a Dew sometimes, though I’m breaking away from it in favor of tea. I spend 4 days all by myself up in the timber deer and turkey hunting and it never crosses my mind to drink a Dew. I think it’s just a situational addiction, if that makes sense.
Those who have not actually experienced a drug addiction really can’t understand it, and as you say, should consider themselves fortunate that they don’t.
Between my smoking and my weight, it’s amazing I ever got laid.
Now that I’m a non-smoker, I find that unlike some of my former lovers, including the love of my life (ex…sigh), who handled it with me, god bless 'em, I cannot tolerate intimacy with a smoker, I just can’t. They can brush, swish, go hours without… doesn’t matter. I have very finely tuned senses, I’m particularly sensitive to smell, and kissing someone who smokes makes me want to vomit and instantly kills any desire I have.
Meh, it’s not THAT disgusting. Really, even if it wasn’t your cigarette originally, how much more lethal does someone else’s dried saliva make it? And a free smoke is a free smoke!