Glad to be here

[Athan]

3/12/18
The addict mind.
It can and will rationalize ANYTHING.
ANY reason to justify the next fix is valid to the addict mind.
The addict mind runs on auto pilot UNTIL is is refused that fix.

You need to make a decision.
Do you want to quit for a couple of days.....or would you rather nicotine no longer played a role in your life?
Your life.
Your call.

[Athan]

3/11/18
Hello Time Traveler!
How would you like to go back just 5 years from now and start your quit. Imagine that. Looking back 5 years and having the satisfaction of having beaten it, of having successfully putting it down and doing some serious and advantageous changes for your health. Think of all the money you would have saved. We’ve covered all the stupid things you do in recent posts, well you could look back on the previous 5 years with a solemn pride that you are a free man. Wouldn’t that be amazing?! Cause I can do that for you. Really.
Flash forward with me 5 years and look back on yourself today, right now, reading this, and decide to quit.
BOOM.
There ya go. Just gave your future self 5 years of freedom to look back on!
Nice traveling with you, please check the seat back pocket in front of you and watch yer head as you exit.
As always, thanks for travelling with KTC!

[Athan]

3/10/18
Wake up calls.
You ever put one in at a hotel?
Maybe with your spouse or roommate?
Not sure if you’d get up on time for whatever reason and needed the extra kick in the pants to wake up.
Ran across a brother who needs gum grafts.
That’s gotta be some kinda wake up call.
For me it was waiting for the results of a biopsy after an endoscopy; that was one intense wake up call.
What about you? Can you wake up on your own?
Or are you waiting for the wake up call?

TIME IS NOT ON YOUR SIDE

[Athan]

3/9/18
Had a guy give up on his quit today. Wasn’t surprised really; he was late when and if he posted. He didn’t offer support.
So I had some issues yesterday with my little outburst in this forum. Within the hour I was contacted by no less than four people. They are as invested in my quit as I am in theirs. We support each other. I wasn’t on my way to the store and I shouldn’t even have intimated that; but these brothers of mine weren’t taking any chances. We don’t get to where we’re standing on the precipice of using again because we take action before that happens.

Noah built the ark BEFORE the flood; he didn't wait for it to start raining.

I’ve got my ark.

What are YOU going to do when it starts raining?

[Athan]

3/8/18
In 1953, Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay climbed Mount Everest. Took them 7 weeks.
Know how they did it?
One step at a time.

[Athan]

3/7/18
You stare at the floor. You are alone in a crowded waiting room. You’re finding it hard to breathe; as if a weight were actually on your chest compressing it. Though it’s 65 degrees in there you are bathed in a cold sweat. Cancer. The word itself instills fear in just about everyone. “What is that stuff Daddy? That stuff you put in your mouth?” You remember his little words, spoken so long ago like they were yesterday. Your little man. Little nothing. He’s a strapping young man now. You’ve never been more proud of anything or anyone in your whole life. You were there at his graduation from boot camp. The pride on his face was nothing to what you held in your heart. One of your greatest joys is introducing him to acquaintances, “This is my son…”
“Sir?”, the doctors words shake you from your reverie. “Sir, your son is going to be fine. We had to take some 60% of his jaw and 30% of his tongue. But we think we got it all.”
True. He might have learned to chew from someone else.
But he didn’t.
He learned from you.

[Athan]

3/6/18
You might be its bitch if:
You've deferred sex for nicotine
You've been broke and paid for it with a credit card (you friggin financed your addiction you idiot, you actually paid interest on it!)
You've looked for the round silhouette on strangers in a crowd so you could bum a chew
You've lied about using
You've stashed cans to ensure your next fix was never out of reach
You've driven cross town because your normal stop was out
You've fallen asleep with a chew in
You've recycled a chew because you were running low
You've put a chew in and experienced pain because your lip is shredded
You've stolen from your kids piggy bank to finance your dirty deed
You've not only eaten with a chew in, you've actually gotten proficient at it

Aren't you tired of being it's bitch?

[Athan]

3/5/18
So we had a guy cave yesterday. Said he was “half-assing” his quit.
Can’t begin to convey the sense of loss I felt.
Here was someone who made a conscious decision to stop using a dangerous substance but in the end was unable to resist the sirens call.
6 days into it.
I won’t sugar coat it; it’s a trial. The cravings are real. But so is freedom.
I’m 63 days free today because I didn’t cave yesterday.
I and most of the guys in our group communicate and actively lean on each other.
The guy that caved didn’t. He neither sought out nor offered help.
He tried alone and he died alone.

[Athan]

3/4/18
Time is not on your side

How old were you when you started?

Time is not on your side

[Athan]

3/3/18
Hard.

It's a word used by the weak to describe that which requires effort.

[Athan]

3/2/18
Take that can out and look at it. Really, go ahead. Take it out and look at it. It’s not made of gold or anything.
What if I told you that you paid $50,000 for it.
What, you didn’t know it was an installment plan?
Didn’t know with the first can you were signing up for LIFE?
You weren’t planning on that were you?
If a slick salesman were sitting before your son with a legal contract and was pushing your kid to sign the dotted line that would obligate him for $5 a day for the REST OF HIS LIFE and you had a baseball bat, how would that all pan out?
What person in their right mind commits themselves to a financial contract in perpetuity that could cost them their life?
I wouldn’t even do that for a cool pickup truck.
And for a can? Really?

[Athan]

3/1/18
You ready to be all in?
Because there's no point entering unless you are.
There's no such thing as half-quit.
I mean, you don't get half-syphilis.
The doctor isn't going to tell you, "I'm sorry, but you've got half cancer"
Your objective, should you choose to commit, is to quit every day.
You'll post roll with others promising to do just that, every day.
You'll notice some that post late, some that miss days.
They're not all in. They don't make it. They're on their way to getting half-herpes or half-diabetes.
What about you?
You ready to be all in?

[Athan]

2/28/18
xxxxxxxxx

Polonium-210 (Po-210) is a radioactive material that occurs naturally in the earths crust.

Similar to banana’s and their affinity for potassium-40, tobacco has an affinity for Polonium. That means that the plant will naturally absorb the nuclide whereas other plants won’t.

Now here is the interesting part, Po-210 emits alpha particles. Of all the radioactive particles, the alpha particle is the largest, has the highest charge, and does the most biological damage.
Because of its large mass and high charge, it is stopped by the clothes that you wear or even your skin. So it’s a radiation hazard only if it is taken into the body through breathing or eating.

Polonium has a half-life of 138 days. That means that after 138 days, you will still have half of what you just ingested.

Much of Po-210 is passed through feces, although the remaining amounts that enter the bloodstream can concentrate in organs such as the spleen, kidneys, and liver.

And you thought oral cancer was the only risk; think again. You can’t pull your spleen out and look at it to see if you’ve been chewing too much the way you can look at your lip or gums in the mirror.

Ready to spit that dip out and quit for real now?

Sources:
https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/radiation/polonium-210.htm
https://www3.epa.gov/radtown/tobacco.html

[Athan]

2/27/18
There was a slight chill in the air so I grabbed a light jacket on the way out. When I got there a buddy starts busting my balls about needing a coat.
"Yes it's true, a real man can endure the elements." I said. Then I added, "But only an idiot does it needlessly."
So it is with the quit. A real man can bear that burden alone.
But only an idiot would do it needlessly.

[Athan]

2/26/18
Know what makes my day?
When a young father comes along. He's got a little girl he wants to be there for. He's got a little boy he wants to watch become a man. And he's made a decision that they are more important than the can.
I've heard it said that urgent things are seldom important while important things are seldom urgent.
Well that craving you feel for that next pinch is an urgent thing.
Watching your children grow up, well, I think you'll agree with me that that's important.
Yeah, if you came on in outa the cold and posted by the fire where all the quitters stand round and support each other, that'd make my day.