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Share your quitting journey

Still finding things to be grateful for after 3 years

SarahP
Member
0 8 1

I’ve been quit for just over three years, and I am still happily surprised now and then by the benefits of being a non-smoker.


I frequently travel to my company’s headquarters in the suburbs outside of Baltimore. The simplicity of flying, staying in hotels, and using rental cars as a non-smoker were evident on my first non-smoking trip. But on a recent trip something new struck me.


Our headquarters is like a campus, it consists of multiple buildings set in a hilly landscape. The cafeteria is in a building that happens to be at the crest of a small hill. I’m usually working in the basement of a building two spaces away. So, to get to the cafeteria, I go up a flight of stairs to get out of the first building, up the hill between buildings, up another flight of stairs to get into the cafeteria’s building, and just to add insult to injury, up a final 4 stairs to get into the cafeteria itself.


As a smoker, by the time I reached the cafeteria, I would be gasping for breath. Dizzy. Unable to speak. Weak-kneed and shaking.


I would make excuses why I couldn’t walk to lunch with my coworkers – I’d tell them to go ahead without me, I’d join them in a minute, that I had to stop in the mail room or some other nonsense. Because I knew that once I reached the cafeteria, I’d have to hide around a corner until I had caught my breath and my heart stopped racing.


During this last visit, I realized that I haven’t had to do that in quite awhile. I can walk to the cafeteria with other people, holding up my end of the conversation the whole way. No more excuses, no more delays, no more embarrassment and shame.


The FREEDOM of being a non-smoker continues to show itself, even after 3 years quit!


As your quit matures, be sure you take the time to notice these kinds of changes and benefits in your life. They will help you stay motivated as time goes on.


I quit making excuses to smoke 1,126 days ago. I have saved $6,907 by not smoking 24,773 cigarettes. I have saved 2 Months, 3 Weeks, and 4 Days of my life.  

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