Rob1985’s HOF

I’m not really sure what to write here, so I guess I can start out by saying “One Day at a Time” and “Never Again For Any Reason”. Those two acronym/phrases have been key to my success. They are in every single one of my daily roll posts. A simple daily reminder.

So, when I stumbled upon this site back in February 2013, it wasn’t by accident. I was desperately looking for a tobacco free option. Plain and simple, I needed to quit. Not because of financial reasons or because a family member wanted me to quit, but because I wanted to quit. I wanted this, I earned these first 100 days. The first 30 days was the most challenging thing I have probably ever experienced. I have seen many fellows June 13 quitters fail, some have returned and others haven’t.

So, the story goes… I came here having dipped for 8 or 9 years. I am in my late 20’s, I have stained teeth and beginning to enter that stage of sensitive teeth and switch “dip sides”. Of course I just switched from the right side to the left, but the night of February 22nd I decided I have had enough of “burn” and the “nic bitch”. It hit me like a ton of bricks, “I am killing myself on the installment plan”. I look at the garbage can at the gas station and decided to toss the can and went inside and bought a couple of packs of cinnamon gum. Form there my journey began with a simple Google search for “tobacco free dip alternative”. Smokey Mountain, Jakes and Hooch all came up, but right in there was this little website called “Kill The Can”. So here I am thinking, “WTF is this?” I browsed for a while and then realized that KTC is exactly I was looking for. I signed up and Day 1 began at approx. 1am on February 23rd 2013. That day will forever be remembered as the day I took my life back! No longer will I let a substance run my life!

From there on I began the process of meeting veteran and newbie quitters. All of whom gave me encouragement as well as entertainment… DIRTY TROLLOPS! The first week went by in a fog. The second week went better, but sleeping was awful. It wasn’t until the third week that the fog had lifted, I felt a serious sense of accomplishment and pride for what I had just accomplished. I just fought through the toughest part… the fog! As the weeks progressed I slowly began to forget about my cravings, they became less and less intense and my need for gum became less and less (my tongue thanks me, I bit it a lot!) . The most remarkable change I began to notice is my digest for tobacco, smokeless or
smoked. I began to become that friend or family member that has never done it and always thought you were gross for doing it. Of course when I was a dipper I didn’t notice nor did I care. So, along this journey my mindset changed, I feel healthier (albeit a few pounds heavier) I gained seven pounds overall, not too bad. I began working out on a more consistent basis, food tasted much better and my food choices became healthier. When I reached 100 days I couldn’t believe it, it almost felt normal for me to be quit that long. I felt amazing and immediately pledged 200 days! I look forward to continuing my journey with excitement and will add a 200 day speech that will cover my journey from days 100-200. I will keep doing so something new at each milestone.

NOTE: This piece written by KillTheCan.org forum member Rob1985