most craves last less than five minutes. knowing this, here's a simple two-step plan to remain smoke-free forever: two step quit plan

early on in my quit (on day 13, actually; talk about lucky...), i ran into one of my still-smoking friends; it was intermission at a concert i was recording, and she asked if i was going out for a smoke. i told her i'd quit smoking, and she said she "wasn't that lucky yet" (or words to that effect). it's all about choice

over 46,500,000 (that's 46.5 million) americans smoke.* the half-percent club

fifteen months ago this morning, i woke up, looked myself in the eye - in the bedroom mirror - and said, "i am a nicotine addict. i cannot afford to feed that addiction. not even one time. so, today, i choose not to smoke". as i waited for the coffee to finish brewing, i sat down at my desk, opened my brand new quit journal and wrote those same words on the first page under the heading, "11/19/01 - Day One". it's all about choice

i had a crave the other day. oddly enough, it had been so long since i had one that it took me a little while to recognize the feeling for what it was. when i finally identified it, my first thought was "i'm a nicotine addict and i can't feed that addiction even once unless i want to go back to slavery". i chose not to smoke, the crave ended immediately, and i totally forgot about it. choose life!