100 Day Journey, Adventure, Hell and Freedom

I think back to 100 days ago and try to figure out what I was doing, I was finishing off a chew heading into see the dentist cause I had one extremely sore tooth! I filled out the paper work sat and waited to be seen, got called back and when the oral hygienist looked in my mouth and well just shook her head and said “Get the camera!” I would say the freak out factor for me went kind of high, not sky high. I had been to the dentist before and got the lecture on not chewing and taking care of my teeth and heard them say how they had never saw teeth that looked like that before.

I then had something inside of me change, I really can’t say exactly what all it was but here are my guesses. I had never saw pictures taken of my teeth and gums before, that truly freaked me out. I had never seen the extent of damage 28 years of chewing had done to my mouth, teeth, & gums! I would say the next thing was the treatment they did that very first day, you know the one where they blast away plaque and bacteria from your teeth all the way down to into the gums!!! I can honestly say they beat the hell out of me for an hour and a half, I was beat ashamed and disgusted! The next thing to happen was they showed me what all they had done and how great my teeth looked on one side, they could only do one side at a time. I was so happy to see how great my teeth looked especially after seeing the pictures, to say it was a life changing moment wouldn’t be strong enough!

I started my quit that day, everything went rather smoothly other than the fact that I had no filter between mind and mouth for quite a long time, and to some degree still don’t. I found KTC about day number12-15ish, my sister-in-law who works at a hospital came across the site and she knew I had been trying to quit and suggested I check it out. I went to the site read a lot and thought this could be the edge I have always needed. I joined did a practice post in the test thread and thought ok I got this!!! Then I didn’t come back and post like I was supposed to, I got an email that well quite frankly pissed me off which at that time was exceptionally easy to do! The email was from chewchew calling me out and saying I was a failure…… I can honestly say that really wasn’t what I wanted to hear but it was exactly what I needed to hear! I started posting that day and read more that day drinking as much of the kool-aid I could possibly drink. I have been drinking the kool-aid since that day and have contacted so many people along the way that have inspired me to for one stay active and not get complacent, secondly I read how to truly beat this nic-bitch I had to never let my guard down and figure on kicking nic’s ass one day at a time, one hour at a time, one minute at a time everyday!

I can remember the first phone call I got from another quit brother (Cbird) that totally got my quit in the right perspective and focus, I cannot thank him enough for the phone call. I can think back to a few other phone calls I had with some now HOF’ers and former HOF’ers, the next person who truly helped my quit was SWJ, he had caved came back took all the crap when he came back and was still wanting to help as many new quitters as he could help, quite inspirational! I had a great conversation with him on the phone where I totally realized that the people using this site and drinking the kool-aid are exactly like me, I would have to say he is far funnier than I could ever imagine to be, lets just hope he never sets his monkey army after any of us!

I have needed some coaching along the way as well and that came in the form of “Quit Like Fuck” from Coach Steve. I will say that just the phrase was perfect for how this battle goes but then it is a mindset & an attitude. I had a great conversation with Coach and we conversed about many things I truly believe I got way more out of the conversation than he did but like so many things on this journey, it was exactly what I needed when I needed it!

I would also say there were times during this quit adventure for me that I needed to be inspired and well re-enthused and the ones for that were mthomas, Suckit, & jonathanrivers, these are the guys I definitely want on my team going into any battle. I had many moments during my quit where I was coming into a situation where the nic-bitch had always been a companion, these situations are the worst for all of us. I really leaned on these guys and they responded, they responded so well that the situations never came close to getting the better of me!

I know this is getting rather lengthly and I most likely haven’t thanked nearly enough people. I can say thank you all the bad ass quitters’ of April2012, June2012, & of course from my quit group May2012. Thank you for all the support in getting to this milestone, without your support I would have never made it to this point!

Stay Strong!
Stay Focused!
Stay QUIT!!!

Grizzly25 / Lou………..Out!

NOTE: This piece written by KillTheCan.org forum member Grizzly25