This week on TwitterStars.com, I’m featuring a series of guest posts featuring stories from several of my Twitter followers on how they quit smoking. I quit smoking 3 weeks ago and thought featuring stories from other people about how they quit cigarettes would be a fun project for the blog.

Guest Blog Post by AlexisNeely

It’s hard to believe, but I used to be a smoker. Not just a casual, every now and then, smoke when out at a bar, in the closet, kind of smoker. I was a full on, pack and a half a day, smoke in the house, overflowing ashtrays, and yellow walls kind of smoker.

During law school, my addiction was so hardcore that I couldn’t make it through a law school exam without having to take a smoke break. For real.

It’s probably not a surprise that I picked up the habit given that I grew up in Florida where smoking was a status symbol and both my parents smoked for most of my childhood. What’s more surprising is that I managed to quit when I did.

I smoked my first cigarette at 14.

The way I remember it, I woke up one day and just wanted a cigarette. I can’t explain why that day or what preceded it, but I grabbed 5 quarters out of my change pile, walked down to the corner gas station where there was a cigarette machine, dropped the quarters in, yanked on the handle and out slid my first pack.

It was heaven in a box. Suddenly I was cool, hip, mature…a smoker. And just like that, I was an addict.

It lasted through high school, college, and mid-way through law school. Finally, after ten years, I woke up. I can’t say what preceded that either. Maybe it was my dad’s bout with lung cancer. Maybe it was real maturity. Maybe it was just time to be done and move on to the next phase of my life.

All I knew is that smoking wasn’t fun or cool anymore. It was gross. And I wanted to stop. I just had to convince my live-in boyfriend—who later became my ex-husband—to stop with me. Or so I thought.

I persuaded him that it would be a great 30^th birthday present for him if we both quit and in the middle of my 2^nd year of law school, on January 24, 1998, I smoked my last cigarette ever.

Quitting smoking was the most difficult thing I’ve ever done. It was also the most inspiring, motivating, empowering choice I’ve ever made.

Once I quit smoking, I knew I could do anything. I knew I could make it through anything. Quitting gave me a faith in myself that has carried me through the past ten years and allowed me to build two million dollar businesses while going through a divorce and raising my kids as a single mom.

If I was still a smoker, none of what I’ve done with my life would have happened. No way.

Here’s how I did it:

Eventually, the cravings started to stretch farther and farther apart. A few weeks after I quit smoking, I had to have my wisdom teeth pulled in an emergency type situation and I used that as an opportunity to wean off the patch figuring there was no way I could smoke with my mouth like that anyway.

Ten years later, every once in a while I get this weird urge to smoke a cigarette. It shocks me every time it happens because I’m such a non-smoker now (you know the annoying kind who can’t stand even being around smoke). And yet, every now and then I still feel the craving.

When it happens, I take a big old breath of fresh air, remind myself that I’m a non-smoker and smile in gratitude at the gift I’ve given myself, my children, and the world.

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Guest post for Twitter Stars by @AlexisNeely

Alexis Martin Neely is CEO and founder of the Family Wealth Planning Institute, a company dedicated to guiding parents to financial freedom by helping them make the smartest and best legal and financial decisions for themselves and their children. Alexis is best known for sharing her legal expertise on CNBC, NBC, ABC, and Better TV.

Subscribe to Alexis’ Family Wealth Secrets online magazine for people who want more financial freedom in their life that comes not from hoarding money and clipping coupons, but from taking risks, making smart financial and legal decisions and thinking big.

If what you need is inspiration to think bigger in your own life, check out Alexis’ personal blog, The Intrepid Mompreneur, where she lets you watch as she works toward her dream of becoming an inspirational force on TV, while raising two kids as a single mom and being afraid and doing it anyway.

A copy of this guest post has also been posted to The Nicotine Asylum.

This week on TwitterStars.com, I’m featuring a series of guest posts featuring stories from several of my Twitter followers on how they quit smoking. I quit smoking last week and thought featuring stories from other people about how they quit cigarettes would be a fun project for the blog.

Guest Blog Post by @Danacea

You know how it goes. It’s Friday night, you’re at the birthday bash of someone in your office. You’re three pints down and feeling no pain; your confidence is absolute.

Then there’s his breathy, husky voice in your ear, ‘Go on, you know you want to.’ And you do; after all, one won’t hurt.

His touch is utterly familiar—it’s been a while but it’s just like your oldest pair of jeans, comfortable. And besides, you’re only flirting…

The following evening, you stay in—one became two and you’re a little wary about running into him. It gets to about half-eight, though, and his chill, yellow-tipped fingers are teasing your skin; you can hear him saying your name. You want his company. It’s just for tonight, you tell yourself; no-one need know.

In the morning, there’s no sign of him—you’re relieved (after all, you got old enough to deal with this stuff some years ago). But wait: he’s left you his phone number—look, there, it’s on that packet by the sofa where you first embraced him.

You slam it in a drawer; you promise yourself you’re not going to think about him. Evening comes, you have a bath and pack your stuff and pick out your clothes for the morning… every time you open that drawer, though, you find you miss his touch.

Cursing yourself, you pick up the packet. After all, if you finish it then you can put it in the bin and be rid of it. He joins you again on the sofa; smiling through yellowed teeth. You tell him this is it, that after tonight you’re not going to call him again and he needs to leave you alone.

He says nothing. He doesn’t need to.

In the morning, he’s still there.

Those hands that were cool and compelling are now stained and soured and stinking. You run for your morning train and they’re wrapped around your ribcage—as strong as steel. Suddenly, you can’t breathe. Coughing doubles you over; you drop your bag…

…somehow, there’s a second packet among its scattered contents—you swear you didn’t buy it, he must’ve put it there.

You cough denial until your eyes water.

But your own breath tells you—it’s already too late.

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Guest post for Twitter Stars by @Danacea

Danie Ware is behind the PR, marketing, and event organizing for Forbidden Planet (London).

If you’ve enjoyed Danie’s guest post on digital culture, please consider reading her fiction at:

danieware.googlepages.com

I’m a professional on and off-line Marketeer for Forbidden Planet London as well as being a Mum, a keen cyclist and weight-trainer, an old school geek, a bit of a longhair, and a social media convert. This is my professional and personal thoughts, stream-of-consciousness style.

A copy of this guest post has also been posted to The Nicotine Asylum.

This week on TwitterStars.com, I’m featuring a series of guest posts featuring stories from several of my Twitter followers on how they quit smoking. I quit smoking last week and thought featuring stories from other people about how they quit cigarettes would be a fun project for the blog.

Guest Blog Post by @YaelBeeri

I smoked my first cigarette when I was 19. I loved smoking.

From that day until 2 years ago, I smoked an average of 10 cigarettes a day, which brings me to the about 60,000 cigarettes.

60,000 cigarettes.

On December 16 2006, after a night of drinking and smoking, with a terrible hang over, I could hardly move and felt as if I was trapped in a balloon of smoke.

I decided: no cigarettes today.

That night I thought, what if I tried to do that tomorrow too, check myself and see if I can do it.

And I did.

Then I did the same thing the next day and the next and so on.

Some days, I still ‘feel like one’, but I am so happy I quit. I look at people smoking and I am so glad I am not there. So glad I kicked that horrible addiction out of my body. It makes me feel the strength of independence.

One last thing. I made a rational decision beforehand. I knew I wanted to stop smoking. I have been thinking about it in my head and having inner monologues about it for a few months before I actually quit. I believe that maybe that helped.

Whatever helps you (doctors, pills, shot, books, group hugs etc.), grab that help and do it. Stop smoking, no one really wants to be doing it.

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Guest post for Twitter Stars by @YaelBeer

Yael Beeri is the Director of Marketing for RealScoop. RealScoop rates the believability of statements made by celebrities, athletes and politicians.

A copy of this guest post has also been posted to The Nicotine Asylum.

This week on TwitterStars.com, I’m featuring a series of guest posts featuring stories from several of my Twitter followers on how they quit smoking. I quit smoking last week and thought featuring stories from other people about how they quit cigarettes would be a fun project for the blog.

Guest Blog Post by @datingpapers

I started smoking just after my 21^st birthday. We were in bed. Quietly basking in the post-coital glow, she took a drag off her Camel Light and pressed the moist filter to my lips. She was a chemical goddess handing out cancer sticks. I couldn’t say no. That positive association with nicotine, with the process of smoking, meant cigarettes became my cure-all. It wasn’t until years after that I realized the goddess was a troll that I found a way to quit smoking.

I quit because I wanted to breathe. Not just in a physical way, although constantly coughing and running out of breath isn’t any fun. I wanted to be able to look at myself in a mirror and see a guy who was making choices based on reason and the pursuit of dreams. Not some guy fumbling in his jacket pocket for a cigarette every time something stressful came up. I quit headlong. I was insane. Check with your doctor before carrying out good ideas in a stupid way!

My headlong rush into quitting a deeply entrenched habit kept me busy and was extreme enough that I think my body was confused about exactly what was happening. I was able to quit and when the dust settled, I still wasn’t smoking. But if I could go back, I’d do things differently:

A few days ago, I was basking in that same sort of glow that started all the smoking. It was a brunette this time. She is smart, funny, and beautiful to the point of being difficult to describe. She turned towards me and reached out with that same languid gesture of the chemical goddess years earlier. With a quick motion, she unwrapped a piece of gum and slipped it into my mouth. “You had garlic pizza last night.” She said.

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Guest post for Twitter Stars by @datingpapers

A copy of this guest post has also been posted to The Nicotine Asylum.