How I Finally Quit Smoking After 30 Years of Trying

THIS IS FREE: How I finally quit smoking for good after trying everything else for over 30 years. This is some of the best work I have ever done, as far as journeys go, and hopefully worth the read.

I recently shared this with a friend via PM and realized I should be sharing this with everyone. After all, if it worked for me over every other process I had tried, why wouldn't I share it? This is not information that should be sold, and I care more about how the end result continues to impact me and potentially all of you - than any amount of money I could make by trying to sell this information like you see online all the time.

So before someone else figures this out and tries to patent it as a marketable information packet that you can buy for only $9.99 ("But WAIT - there's MORE,"), I am giving it away for FREE. PERMINENTLY! Enjoy (pardon the pun)!

Following my (and others) share today of the news article, ""E-cigarette chemical linked to 'popcorn lung" (an important read for vapor users), one of my friend's good comment to my share was, as I had experienced in years past:

"Well that scared me to death about the e-cigs. I am with you. Only difference is I still smoke. I have tried I swear 100 times to quit. It is so hard to do. I have gone several months and then started back in again. Always the same pattern. I have tried the patches and didn't work for me. Now I find myself trying to smoke cigs less and use the e-cigs. What the hell am I going to do now, lol.  Guess I just needed to vent. Thanks for letting me do that."

Here is a modified version of my reply on how I finally quit myself, after experiencing the same battle for over 30 years from the date I started at approximately 19 years old (a new habit I picked up at Uncle Sam's), to over 3 full-time tobacco and nicotine-free years later:

I get it and was the same. Same pattern. I even saw family and close friends die from lung cancer - and I told myself I would not allow that to happen to me. Then a few weeks or months later that pattern did it to me again.

I finally got to the point where I wanted to quit smoking more than anything else - not for just my kids and Grandkids, not for my wife, but finally - just for me.

So I committed to a smoking cessation process that I thought of, that used the nicotine patch again, only this time starting on step 2, not step 1 (for me personally step 1 was just way too much stimulation for me...gave me the shakes and generally made me feel too uncomfortable; for you step 1 might be what you need) and then using exactly as prescribed.

Previous attempts I did NOT use as prescribed. That was MY fault - not the patches inability to work for me. I found myself using them on flights, in business meetings, or in environments where I couldn't smoke until that event ended.

I would then get outside, remove the patch, and smoke a cigarette. Come on - some of you've done it too!

Prior to starting my idea, I learned that after 7 days the body changes - blood starts moving oxygen more properly, and dulled senses like taste would come back, so I integrated into the process proper nutrition and good holistic food and even juicing into the program to help my body during the detox period. Yeah organic food costs more, but so does smoking.

I also learned that the nicotine addiction only needs about 7 days to be broken, and that after that, the real battle is managing temptation and habits over the next 3-4 weeks, so having a plan in place ahead of time can make or break any smoking cessation effort. I have read and heard that, "It takes 21 to 28 days to make or break a habit". So, I also added a strategic plan to manage temptation and habit. 

Being a social person and involved in many meetings (team-building, business, entertainment, construction sites around big burly men that could smoke ME, being a road-warrier, and parties...), I knew I would continue to be around smokers and in environments that I smoked in habitually, so I added the disposable NJoy E-Cig (electronic cigarette, without any flavorings or re-charging requirements), Medium (to match the light tobacco I was used to smoking) in to the program as a crutch just so I would not slip and allow myself to say,  "It's OK for tonight - I'll just start over again tomorrow".

Then I realized that each time I did that I created a new Day 1. Even when I went several weeks or even months without any cigarettes or nicotine of any kind, each time I started over from a "slip", I had to start all over again! And the mind tells you it's OK, or worse, it convinces you 'why even bother?' - then anxiety settles in. And one more cigarette gets smoked until that pattern wins again.

Did you know that tobacco use is one of the most proven anxiety management tools? This is why the military handed out Cartons of free Lucky Strike cigarettes during past wars. Proven fact.

I finally got disgusted with myself and had my "get mad" day and decided it was enough. So 2-3 months on the patch, plus utilizing the NJOY (it is or was the lightest and feels the closest to the real thing, so simulation was easier) in those tempting environments to keep me from smoking a real cig long enough to get the nicotine and addiction out of my system.

I could then focus on replacing the habits involved in smoking, and then adding in preferred activities I used to do before I started smoking, such as swimming, lifting weights, running, walking, etc.

Shoot, you want to make significant change in ANY part of your life? WALK. Just - WALK. EVERY DAY! Start off for 10 minutes around the block. Then add a block (or another ten minutes) here and there. Then a mile. Two miles...forget about the clock. Walking inspires thinking...pure thinking. 

The kind of thinking that made you discover who you are over 30, 40, 50 or more years ago, not who you are now. 

IT WILL MAKE YOU LIKE YOURSELF AGAIN!

You want to be loved? Be lovable. You want to be liked? DO YOU WANT TO LIKE YOURSELF AGAIN? Be likable. 

You want to have a life partner that loves and likes you unconditionally for the rest of your life? Then find a person you truly love liking - and that does the same for you - all the time. That requires maintaining the ability to manage change, particularly bad habits that want to continually manage life for you. 

A life squelched and choked by old habits that increases anxiety and depression that you CAN control will always get in the way of this important life goal. 

"Focus on these things that you CAN control, rather than the things you can not control". We have all heard that. And for those areas in your life, seek help from people and processes and programs that CAN help you learn to control those areas of your life.

But I digress. Back to my smoking cessation program. Sorry - "SQUIRREL!"

Again, only 3 months to prove to myself I could do it. Cold turkey did not work for me. This process did. It can work for you. 

But you have to want it more than anything else.

It is amazing once you get past the first few months, and years, and I am now only 38 months (at time of this publish date) completely nicotine free. Can't wait to see what I feel like after 5 years! At 52 I feel like I am getting younger!

Frickin amazing! Good luck to all of you!

Robert Olmstead / Copyright 04/21/16