One month tobacco free

[rft63]

Hi all,
I don't post a whole lot, but I had to tell someone. It's been one month since I have had any tobacco. This is after 29 years of smokeless tobacco use. I told myself when I started my weight loss last June that I would quit when I reached a fifty pound loss. Started at 280 and am now at 225 this morning. The weight loss seems to have slowed a little with no tobacco, but maybe that is due to not riding as much during the winter. I really enjoy this forum and have learned a great deal from all here.

Richard

[jyossarian]

Congratulations! Quitting smoking is great for your health and wallet and terrible for your peace of mind. The cravings just won't go away!!!

[v1k1ng1001]

:beer: Glad to have on board Richard.

[CastIron]

Congrats. As someone who's been there, I'll offer two things:

The hard part is over.
Never ever touch anything with tobacco again.

[jakereed]

That's fantastic!
I plan to join the ranks of the non smokers this weekend. I have been smoking about the same length of time as you.

Again, congratulations. Very inspirational to read success stories like yours.

[EasyEd]

Hi Richard, good job man! My boss and I both gave up chewing tobacco on December 31st. Both of us still clean. I have gained about ten pounds though. I will never go back. Twenty plus years of that garbage is enough. Hang in there man. I still struggle some, but my attitude is starting to improve. Riding helps.

[Mazama]

Skoal Brother or Copenhagen Cowboy?

At any rate, nice work. It isn't easy kickin' cowboy crack.

[Barabus]

Good for you. Stick with it one day at a time.

[rft63]

Skoal Brother or Copenhagen Cowboy?

At any rate, nice work. It isn't easy kickin' cowboy crack.

You're sure right, it makes think back to when I started, Walt Garrison and a pinch between the cheek and gum. Copenhagen was the flavor of choice for the last twenty years.

[rft63]

Hi Richard, good job man! My boss and I both gave up chewing tobacco on December 31st. Both of us still clean. I have gained about ten pounds though. I will never go back. Twenty plus years of that garbage is enough. Hang in there man. I still struggle some, but my attitude is starting to improve. Riding helps.

You are right about riding helping, that seems to be the only time I don't think about it.

[Mazama]

Coffee and Beer tend to bring on cravings too. There is a beef jerky alternative, but I'm sure you've seen that.

[jaxgtr]

good for you.

[v1k1ng1001]

why does everyone who's serious about smokeless tobacco chew Copenhagen?

is it because the fiberglass additive delivers a better kick?

[wayne pattee]

Good job. Its been 2 years since my wife decided it was time I quit the chew after using it for 18 years. But she's just doing her job.

[lubers]

Nice job I have been tobacco free since 1996, with my savings the first year I bought a new set of golf clubs. Never had the desire to go back.

[natebrr]

I hope to join in on this one really soon. I need to get my eating under control, first. I have quit before, but I gained 15 lbs in the process. I don't want to do that right now. I am finally headed in the right direction with my weight. I like your idea of a goal weight to start quiting on. I think I am going to borrow that idea.
Good job.

[slorick]

Good for you way to go. Just turn one month into two and the next thing you know a year will have been past. I have been smoke free for over 5 years now and sometimes I still get the cravings but now it is easy to get past the cravings. Good luck to you.

[haenous]

Quit over a year ago after a 30 year 2 can a day habit.....it gets way easier....and congrats.....

[Spartan112]

why does everyone who's serious about smokeless tobacco chew Copenhagen?

is it because the fiberglass additive delivers a better kick?

There is no fiberglass in chew...there's a lot of other crap...but no fiberglass.

http://www.snopes.com/business/alliance/menthol.asp

[v1k1ng1001]

So it just that Copenhagen is so fine ground? I chewed it once in high school and it felt like I had smoked 37 cigarettes simultaneously.

[neilfein]

Not bad! Keep it up, and keep in mind that weight loss often slows down in the winter, from my intensive research into myself.

[Daveyboy]

Way to go. I'm sure it was hard so keep it up!

[Trucker_JDub]

Never ever touch anything with tobacco again.
+1
I quit a 15 year smoking/chewing habit on 11/10/06 and its a tough road to take but as time passes you will be so much happier and feel so much better. The one thing that I hate is that me and a select group of close friends liked to go camping at a cabin we have in the middle of nowhere and close out the night by smoking cigars around the pot belly stove. I don't smoke one on the trips now because I know thats all it would take to get me back to smoking regularly again. Just fight the urge and don't let your self have 'just one'.

Congratulations and keep fighting the good fight.

[smilin buddha]

Congrats. I am working towards that. I realized how bad I have become with weight and smoking. WHen I spent 6 hours ripping up tile. I thought I would collapse several times. I quit before. But like an addict I keep coming back for more. I have started to work on the diet. Dinner is now chicken and salad. I appreciate all you guys you give me strength and hope.

[Wogsterca]

I hope to join in on this one really soon. I need to get my eating under control, first. I have quit before, but I gained 15 lbs in the process. I don't want to do that right now. I am finally headed in the right direction with my weight. I like your idea of a goal weight to start quiting on. I think I am going to borrow that idea.
Good job.

This probably has a lot to do with chewing, when your used to chewing all the time for years, you want to substitute something else, and food would be a natural. Smokers also get this problem, but in that case it's due to cigarettes making your taste buds, not work well, so when you quit stuff starts tasting better, that could be part of the problem with smokeless as well.

I had an uncle that chewed, and I have only one comment, yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeach! I think it's much more common in the US, then here in Canada. I have met only two chewers in my 46 years during which I have met a lot of people.

[dobber]

I dipped for nearly 20 years, starting in college. I remember going to the store and buying an entire sleeve of tins for $10. I'd wake up and grab a pinch, eat and drink with a pinch in (I was an upper decker), fall asleep with one. For maximum impact, I'd have a smoke and a beer going. Youthful mortality.

I'd quit for a couple months and then fall victim to an offer from a friend for a pinch. I use to walk past the store displays and salivate from the smell.

I finally quit for good after having some terrible gastrointestinal issues and seeing what mouth cancer really looked like, that scared me ****less.

For me the key was replacement, I started using Pure Mint (http://www.mintsnuff.com/). At first I cut it half/half with Skoal, then 1/4, a little less, etc, etc.

Pretty soon I was down to just the mint itself and after a while, nothing.

I've still had the occasional cravings but all I need to do is look at what a tin costs now and make the purely economic choice.

[CliftonGK1]

Don't know so much about the chaw, but about 4 months ago I quit cigarettes along with my fiancee. (She quit in preparation for a surgical procedure.) Neither one of us has gone back to 'em.

Good on ya for quitting.

[Spinz@50]

Congratulations ------- nothing but good can come from this decision. Lp

[b_young]

Good job Tex. I quit kodiak and Cough-n-gagen Dec of 99. It wasn't easy and like me you live in a place where it is accepted and most of your friends probably do it which makes it harder to quit.

Get rid of all the tin lids, spittunes...any thing and everything that reminds you of it needs to go. It makes it easier and kind of is telling yourself that all of it is gone.

The hardest part for me after the first couple of weeks was the first dentist trip. When they cleaned the plague off I could taste it all over again for a full day. So wait until your strong enough to do it. I believe in the power of prayer and I used it often. I still have dreams about it every now and then but there aint no way I would ever go back.

This is one of those rare instances where a Razorback will be pulling for a Texan, but keep it up it only gets better.

[BigBlueToe]

Congratulations! That's a big deal. My advice: never drop your guard and think you've got it licked, or you'll be right back where you were. It's a lifelong battle. The good news is that the longer you stay clean the easier it is to fight, but you'll still need to fight.

Focus on the positive, rather than the negative. Maybe you have cravings occasionally, but remember how much better you feel now. You don't really want to give that up, do you?

Congratulations again!

[Spartan112]

Chew has significantly more nicotine than cigarettes, it's also more addictive and often gives you cancer and a variety of other illnesses much quicker than cigarettes. Google "Chew related cancers" click on Google images and hope you haven't eaten for awhile...urrrppp...

I smoked for 18yrs before quitting, thankfully my dance with chew was very brief.

[bautieri]

So it just that Copenhagen is so fine ground? I chewed it once in high school and it felt like I had smoked 37 cigarettes simultaneously.


For me it was the flavor of the Copenhagen, not the cut or the cowboy image. After awhile in your mouth flavored skoal tends to taste terrible inducing a gag reflex upon removal that I never got with Cope. Also being in a tighter sealed plastic can it has a much longer shelf life then a comparable Copenhagen product (minus Cope Black which is the apex of s_ck). The problem with that is snuff begins to taste like raisins after awhile, even if it hasn't been opened and appears moist. Now imagine mint and wintergreen flavored raisins. Copenhagen on the other hand comes (or at least use to when I chewed) in a wax lined cardboard can with a metal lid with the date stamped on the bottom. Any more than 3 weeks old you tell the counter help to pull you one from the top. It dries much faster than a can of skoal so you get the freshness. Oddly enough quiting Cope was much easier than quiting smoking for me.