Today is a Milestone

 Today marks the day I have been Smoke-Free for 1 month.  I even got a certificate from the Quit Plan that I can print out to prove it.  I have to say, after smoking for almost 30 years I didn't know if it would "take". I DID however use smoking cessation medication to help and I'm glad I did.  In the past I've tried the Cold Turkey and Taper Off methods and they just didn't do it for me.  I used lots of little things to help quit.  One month prior to quitting I changed my routine in a number of ways to break the smoking association.  I also started to only smoke outside.  This accomplished two things. I only smoked when I really wanted to and thereby cut down on the "mindless light one up" syndrome.  Secondly, it kept the house smelling better.
 The night before my quit day, instead of dreading it like other attempts, I welcomed it as a new day and a new start of sorts in life.  I hope that doesn't sound corny.
  I also read the Quit Plan forum to see how others were doing, what they went through, and to see what kind of withdrawal symptoms I could expect.  I found out that some quitters had smoked up to 3 packs of cigarettes a day.  Uff-da as my grandpa would say.  
  Another thing I did was give myself a hobby to occupy my mind.  So I started to learn ActionScript 3 and Koolmoves.  Fun AND useful at the same time.  About a day into the quit I was looking at someones Flash site and can you believe it - a smoking cigarette used as a pre-loader!  Not what I needed, but still kind of neat.  As the movie was loaded the cherry would burn down! 
  I've saved about $255 in one month not smoking.  Maybe I should say that's $255 that didn't get spent on smokes. 
  "So what?" you say? I know I'm not the first person to quit smoking, I just had to shout it from the rooftops a little.