18 Months Ago I Quit Smoking

Here are my statistics from this morning: 


545 days, 10 hours, 27 minutes and 18 seconds smoke free. (that's 18 months.)


18,000 cigarettes not smoked.


$6,621.61 and 4 months, 17 days, 11 hours of your life saved.


Your quit date: 11/1/2009 9:00:00 PM 
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Quitting smoking is one of the most difficult things I have ever done.  I have smoked regularly since age 11.  By the time I quit I was up to 1-2 packs per day depending on the day.

After I quit, I gained 40 pounds.  I was already so big, it was demoralizing and discouraging on one hand.  On the other hand, I was completely energized by the fact that I was able to actually quit smoking.  It was hard, I had to learn to have a little patience, I had to learn to sit with my feelings, and I had to learn to live life without turning to nicotine to ease my emotions or fill up my loneliness.

But what I learned the most was that I am capable of way more than I knew.  I learned that I can do anything I set my mind to do. I learned that I am stronger than I knew.  And that doing the hard work to reach a goal really is its own reward.

Quitting smoking set me on a new path in my life.  It really did.  I can breathe so much better and can move so much more freely.  I can exercise now and not get winded.  I can walk, jog, ride a bike....and not feel like I'm going to pass out from a lack of oxygen.

But most of all, I now know that I don't have to be a slave to my past.  There was a prison, and I was locked inside it for decades, but I always held the key.  I just either didn't know it, or was afraid to use it.  Well, I'm using it now, and unlocking a future far better than I knew I could have.  One of true freedom.