Updated June 09, 2015.
One Year!! 8 hours, 9 minutes and 50 seconds. 7306 cigarettes not smoked!!...saving $1,278.69 WHEW!! Life saved: 3 weeks, 4 days, 8 hours, 50 minutes.

It feels GOOD to have a year of freedom under my belt! This year has been full of surprises and changes in my life, and I've learned that I can do things I thought I could not.

When I started this journey, I had perhaps 80% of my resolve in place. I was very sick of being sick of smoking, and I wanted to be free of the habit I'd grown to hate.

HOWEVER, I was addicted, and like any addict, I doubted my own ability to quit. People had always told me, "you'll quit when you're ready." I finally decided that the day may never come, or when it did, it might come too late. I knew I had to take action, even if I wasn't 100% there. Thankfully, I found this forum within a week of quitting, and it filled in the holes in my resolve, and then some. I have not only learned how to get along without smoking, I've come to see this all as a tremendous gift I have given myself.

I've noticed lots of the benefits we all talk about in here - my breathing is vastly improved, my energy is better, and rest is more rejuvenating than it was when I smoked. I can taste subtle flavors now, and my sense of smell has really improved.

Cessation has taught me patience, faith, and belief in myself. It has also taught me in a very real way to be accepting and how to let go. The approach of surrendering to the process works. It has put ME in control of my recovery, rather than feeling stressed from "fighting" the addiction.

It's just a small shift in perception to regard a craving with acceptance rather than something I must fight, but it has made a huge difference in my comfort level!

Kim recently mentioned in a post that in general she just simply enjoys her life more as a non-smoker. I couldn't agree more. What a relief not to have that nagging fear in the back of my mind that I am killing myself slowly, one cig at a time. It is a wonderful feeling to not have the tethers of that addiction pulling at me to replenish the nicotine in my system every hour on the hour. I never crave a smoke when I wake up, eat a meal, have a stressful encounter, etc. Amazing!! I was a slave for so many years, and now I am free, and I gained that freedom in just a matter of months!

I have learned that the many years of smoking trained me to avoid dealing with issues when they would come up. I would take that moment to go have a smoke and think things over. Sound familiar? So often I would decide after that cig to just let whatever it was go...over time this chipped away at my self-confidence and it was such a gradual process that I never realized it was happening. In reality, cigarettes made me a nervous wreck! I thought they calmed me, imagine that. It took getting some distance from the habit to understand how much smoking had stolen from me. I now deal with issues as they come along - there is no smokescreen between me and the world any longer. This has given me a calmness and peace-of-mind that I would not exchange for anything in the world. It is a wonderful benefit of cessation, and one that I didn't know I was going to receive.

I got a full-blown head cold for my one year anniversary. I was delighted! This cold never produced as much as a cough. It stayed in my head where it belonged, and did not threaten my lungs. In recent years, all colds would result in bronchitis, and usually a nasty cough which would linger for weeks. My body is healing itself, and I know it thanks me for the 7000+ cigs I've NOT smoked.

I cherish my non-smoking life! I'm grateful every day for this freedom. I know that I am indeed strong enough to do whatever I set my mind and heart to. We all are.

Terry's Smoke Free Milestones:
Terry's Quit Story
Terry's 2 Year Milestone
Terry's 3 Year Milestone
Terry's 4 Year Milestone
Terry's 5 Year Milestone