Steve

"My wife and I both quit on June 30, 2006. We are both tobacco free for over 2 years, thanks to the Quit For Life Program through the Oklahoma Helpline."

My wife and I both quit on June 30, 2006. We are both tobacco free for over 2 years, thanks to the Quit For Life Program through the Oklahoma Helpline.

I first picked up cigarettes before the age of 10, and as a regular habit at 13. I maintained a pack-per-day habit for two years, until I was age 15. I quit for about a year, but picked it back up through habits of my peers who contantly asked if I wanted a cigarette.

From age 16 to age 37, I smoked regularly at least a pack per day. Before we were married, my wife used to always encourage me to quit, but I had no desire to stop. She later picked up the habit through her friends after we had split up for awile and continued to smoke for about 10 years.

It was a co-worker who passed along information on the OK Helpline. He had got it from a relative who worked in nursing.

Other co-workers wanted to form a "buddy" group to stop smoking together. There were four of us at the office who started the program together and I got my wife enrolled.

However, none of the other people who went through the program stayed tobacco free for very long. Even though each had success with the patches, all are currently still smoking.

How we quit was mostly by changing our habits and removing the "routine" of smoking from our lives. Before our kits arrived, we left for a week vacation as smokers but were at a resort where our opportunities for smoking were very restricted. We continued to smoke, but set a date and time for our last cigarettes. My wife crushed her remaining cigarettes at 11:30 p.m., at the same time I extinguished my last cigarette. We both started July 1st as non-smokers and never looked back.

My kids are proud that we now have a tobacco-free home, and I share the story with them all the time so that they do not make the same mistakes that I made. For a time, I reached for the cigarettes that were no longer there, but they were replaced with gum or mints.

Once I re-trained myself, I didn't need to reach for anything after a meal or other "trigger" activities. Soon, my senses of taste and smell returned and I enjoyed food a bit too much (gained weight).

Two years ago we wouldn't have been able to walk (we walk at least a mile or more) or ride bicycle more than a block. Now I take regular walks, can take the stairs at the office and not be out of breath after two flights, and am now riding bike 10+ miles every week.

Living life on the sidelines is now a thing of the past...thanks to Free & Clear and the OK Helpline!

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