LEENIE'S PLACE

Giulia just called in the cavalry for one of our newbies who's having a rough Day 4. Several of us responded to her sad post (hope you are feeling better now, Demetra). You know, it made me think back to my Day 4. I was spacy, sleepy, grumpy, teary, irrational, ravenous and way too honest - pretty much the Seven Dwarfs of Quitting. And I thought how great it is to revisit that long ago god-awful week (especially since I don't actually have to go through it again!) - it's proof of how far I've co… Continue

Here's a funny (sort of) story: when I was in Italy I went to a big outdoor market in Cortona and bought my grandsons each a futbol (European soccer) shirt. I took them with me when I met my daughter and son-in-law's friends for lunch. One of the guys asked to see what I'd bought. I pulled out the shirts and he said, "Uh-oh!" I said, "What!? What's wrong?" He told me to turn the shirt around. There on the back was the name of a very famous futbol player from Brazil who plays for Madrid: Kaka. Ge… Continue

It has been 5 months today since I quit smoking this final time. I am still carrying most of the weight I gained, but I lost 5 pounds while battling the flu when I was in Italy and most of that has stayed off. Here's something weird: I had stopped taking the mulit-vitamin/mineral that I usually take (for no apparent reason) and the calcium and Vit. D and the extra Vit. C and started taking those again a couple of weeks ago. Since then my body has changed in that the fat is moving to places other… Continue

My daughter's bachelorette party took place this weekend - lovely setting, LOTS of fine wine and great food and really fun and interesting people. And was I tempted to top off all of this with a cigarette? No, not really. And when the three smokers near me all began nervously rummaging in bags and pockets for their packs and then getting bummed out when their lighters weren't working and then finding an out of the way place where they wouldn't bother the rest of the 20 or 30 people, was I missin… Continue

I missed my 3-month anniversary (2 days ago) and I think that's a good thing. I'm more comfortable with my quit and don't have to check my calendar all the time. I'm going to keep my guard up this month until I hit the magic 4-month point (people say you actually begin to enjoy your quit more at that point). Hang in there everyone! Yay for each of us wherever we are on our path!