I started out the first year of my journey to become a non-smoker with weekly updates for about 6 weeks. Then moved to monthly ones when I hit 2-3 months. It’s been a few months since I’ve done one. Today marks 1 year, 9 months. That sounds better than 638 days. Both are impressive for close to a 3-pack a day smoker.

I’ve said many times before how horribly sick I became during the withdrawal period. It was more like a detox as I can only image it would feel to come off heroin or oxycodone. My quit date was 11-19-13, and Thanksgiving was about a week later. I never got off the couch. I barely watched my family bustling about me to feed themselves. To me, detox was a blessing. The sicker I felt, the angrier I got. I was not going to let this mother F get the best of me.

I am impressed by many of my stats:

• I have saved $4045 (would have been higher, but I smoked cheap cigarettes) and 200% of that has been donated to charity.
• I have NOT smoked 27,422 cancer sticks. That figure is mind blowing.
• Since my quit date, there have been 6,115,310 smoking related fatalities.

If you are still a smoker, please consider stopping. Especially if you are young – you can avoid many hidden health risks. No one else can give you the reason to stop (kids may make you think about it, health issues, too) it has to come from inside you.

When my uncle passed away in 2005, his obituary made reference to his 31 years of sobriety – written by another priest who knew him well in his last years. That’s how I feel about no longer being a prisoner of the cigarette. I imagine I will celebrate every year and maybe my years smoke free will make it to my obituary. It’s that big to me.

Happy 21 month anniversary to me!! Over and out.