It really meant a great deal to me.
On February 12th 2006 I quit a 30 yr pack a day smoking habit.
I was very scared that I would gain weight so I started searching for help online and I found this wonderful place.
I have mostly lurked and read what wonderful advice was given by some very caring people.
It was an inspiration to keep going.
Through the birth of 7 children I gained 30 pounds over the 21 yrs (tomorrow!) of my marriage.
With the help of this website I have lost the 30 pounds, learned how to change my eating habits, learned how to walk the treadmil AND add little walks here and there for the rest of my life.

I just wanted to let everyone know that even tho some of us only lurk, you guys are such great examples!
Thank you!!


My before and after pix
(sorry, best I could find!)

Meeting any goal - no matter how big or small - is a great accomplishment! And you look AMAZING!

Congratulations!

You look fantastic. Thanks for sharing the pic's. WTG on losing the weight and maintaining at such a great place for you. You're radiant.

Congratulations and welcome to the wonderful world of maintenance! Reaching goal for anyone is a HUGE achievement, so don't sell yourself and your hard work short. You look fabulous and I can't believe that you have seven children and that you're old enough to have smoked for 30 years!! You could easily pass for someone in their 20's.

You are GREAT!!! Losing weight and quitting smoking? You should be so proud!! AND weight loss is hard, no matter how much you have to lose.

You look fantastic!!! And I love your mermaid avatar.

You look fantastic and way to go on hitting your goal!!!!

Congratulations!! 30 pounds, 30 years of smoking done and seven kids, you should be proud!!! That is awesome!

Wow you guys, that's why I could do it. You people here are very supportive and caring.
Many many times I came here upset with a perceived failure and got inspired reading some of your threads and just knew I could keep going!

Meg, I think the picture was just blurry enough, lol! I'm 45 as of my goal date of Aug. 7th.


harpochico, thats my mermaid I drew. I have a larger scan of it if you want to see more detail.
She's special to me because she's my alter-ego!

Any goal met is a wonderful accomplishment. This is a very inspiring story!! You've done great! Keep it up!

You rock gal!

And you can DRAW!

Wow, you don't call that stunning? You quit mega smoking AND lost all that weight. You look absolutely fantastic! Congratulations. And I'm so glad you came out of lurksville to share with us.

It's you that is the inspiration - well done, you look fan-bloomin'-tastic!

Thats great!!! I needed to read your story!! I have been thinking very hard about quitting smoking but have been afraid of gaining the weight I have lost back. How hard was it to do both at the same time?
Congratulations!!!!!

Congratulations on the weight loss AND quitting smoking!! You did AMAZING things for your body!

sli, I won't kid you, it was VERY hard sometimes, but on a whole, I can't believe how every single day it got better and better.

I kept a journal for about 3? 4? days and reading it now is kind of funny.
I just so thought it was too hard and I couldn't do it, and life was not worth it if I couldn't smoke etc. etc. blah blah blah!

It WASN'T too hard, I COULD do it, and life IS worth it!
I feel so good that I can't believe I ever smoked!

I used that herbal "Smoke Away" for the 1st week and I think it did help.
Mentally anyway, after the 1st week you are supposed to keep taking it for 3 weeks or something? Anyway, I thought the herbs were causing a rash (wasn't!!) so I quit them, but I stayed quitting smoking.
My biggest help was walking, EVERY SINGLE DAY!
Even if that day you don't want to, don't have time for, etc.
Just DO IT!
It helps with the smoking craving.
Go to www.whyquit.com and read, Read, READ all there is to read there.
I found that I had to change a lot of what I did.
I saved alot of my calories for night time, including a glass of wine, (NEVER more than 2-5oz cups)
because I knew I would get craves at night for a smoke. I quit watching tv at night because I was so restless.
I quit reading books cause I couldn't read without wanting a smoke.
So what did I do in the PM? LOL, read this site and the why quit site, and prevention.com and fitday
over and over and over. And I read this site!
I looked up recipes, recipezaar.com and fitness tips and nutrition tips and so many things. And I read this site!
My snack in the eve was usually Wasa bread and Laughing cow lowfat cheese cause the crunch helped the cravings.
And I read this site!

I was just VERY determined that I WAS going to quit and I WAS NOT going to gain more weight.
I got it stuck in my head that I would get down to my pre-marriage weight by my 45th birthday, and it happened!

I would say, make a goal, a do-able goal and then Go For It!
For you!

Sheesh! Didn't mean to write a book here! Sorry.