{"id":46392,"date":"2021-02-04T16:01:38","date_gmt":"2021-02-04T16:01:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=46392"},"modified":"2021-02-04T16:01:38","modified_gmt":"2021-02-04T16:01:38","slug":"proud-of-this-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=46392","title":{"rendered":"Proud of this decision"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By JOHN KANELIS \/ johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Forgive the boastfulness of this post … but I just gotta share it.<\/p>\n

Forty-one years ago I made one of the more profound decisions of my life. It doesn’t rank with marrying my wife, which resulted in the family we produced together. But it’s a biggie.<\/p>\n

I quit smoking cold turkey<\/em>. The decision came actually on Feb. 2, 1980, a date which I marked silently a couple of days ago.<\/p>\n

Smoking had placed my health in jeopardy. I had developed a “smoker’s cough,” which isn’t surprising in that I was incinerating two packs of smokes each day.<\/p>\n

I awoke on Feb. 2, 1980, lit up cigarette, took a drag on it and choked. I had been suffering a cold, with a sore throat, snotty nose and a cough.<\/p>\n

I crumpled up the cigarette and the pack from which I took it. Tossed it all in the trash. And never looked back.<\/p>\n

It turned out over time that quitting cold turkey was easier than I thought. I had tried to quit before. I would go a few weeks, or months, without lighting up. Then something would happen. I would stress out. Gotta have a cigarette!<\/em> So then I would fire one up. That did it.<\/p>\n

Not this time! I quit cold turkey and learned a lesson that I share with others who tell me they are “thinking about quitting.”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

It is this: Do not “think”<\/em> about quitting. Just do it. Now! Do not wait until the weekend, or when you finish the pack you’re smoking, or after your next meal. Just quit!<\/em><\/p>\n

Take my word for this bit of reality: If shedding a nasty habit in that manner can pay off for someone like me — an individual who has abandoned countless unfinished tasks along my life journey — then anyone<\/em> can do it.<\/p>\n\n

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By JOHN KANELIS \/ johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com Forgive the boastfulness of this post … but I just gotta share it. Forty-one years ago I made one of the more profound decisions of my life. It doesn’t rank with marrying my wife, which resulted in the family we produced together. But it’s a biggie. I quit smoking cold … Continue reading Proud of this decision<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,11],"tags":[4291],"class_list":["post-46392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","category-medical-news","tag-smoking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46392"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46393,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46392\/revisions\/46393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}