Hey, everyone, I'm Tim. I quit on September 1, 2009, and this is my first intro/journal post, 15 plus days into my quit.
I haven't been able to tell if most of you quit prior to joining KTC. I joined and posted my first roll call after having been quit for a day or two. I had been searching around on the internet for info on "how long nicotine cravings last". Ha!
OK, why I quit...
I'm lean. Not unhealthy lean, actually nicely muscular, unless you include periods when I was dipping. Oh, wait, that's something like 25 years. I did have a 3.5 year period when I wasn't using any tobacco in my late 20's and early 30's, but then I started smoking and dipping again after a stressful episode (yes, I was one of THOSE idiots who caved after YEARS). So I've had a great body, want a great body, have the genetics for a great body, but have screwed it up for (literally) decades with nicotine. Nicotine makes me less hungry, skip meals, abhor workouts, etc.
Dip was also "something else to do", instead of what I wanted to and often should be doing. Ever keep a dip in your mouth for 7 or 8 hours? I did it all the time, maybe take it out long enough to choke down my lunch, and then start a fresh dip or just use the same one. From the time I woke up, until the time I went to bed, dipping was among the first and last things I did every single day.
I'm a cheap bastard, so I used the cheapest dip I could find, in my case (most recently) Longhorn wintergreen long cut. So it didn't cost me as much as some others (I've only saved $28 in 16 days). But I can definitely find a different use for $500-$600 after taxes each year.
Health: I've been blessed with really excellent health my entire life. Nothing lays me out for long periods, no frequent trips to the doc, nothing like that in my life. But there are tons of health risks to me from tobacco I quit smoking at the end of '07, but dip has plenty more risks. Oral cancer, weakened immune system (more serious in my case since nicotine is such an appetite suppressant for me), etc.
I want to get back into bodybuilding again (yep, at 44 years old), avoid all the potential health problems of nicotine, save the bucks, regain my FOCUS, which I suppose has been my biggest setback of all. Right now my focus, 16 days in, she's a no too pretty good.
One of my greatest missions is to help my 5 year old daughter become a healthy, sane, successful woman. Can't do that if I'm tango uniform. So that alone is reason to stay quit.
This isn't going to right all the wrongs in my life. I'll still need to get out and scratch, I'll still come across idiots in daily life, the government is still going to take my money and give it to people who will buy cigarettes but won't buy condoms.
Those things are mostly outside my control. Staying quit of nicotine is COMPLETELY within my control. And it's a worthy goal all by itself.
Today I'm free of nicotine. I hope you are too. And we'll deal with tomorrow tomorrow, together.
Tim/Gump
"Stupid is as stupid does"
