Frenchfri,

If I can have any influence on you at all, please, please, think of your accomplishment as a huge success...with NO reservations!

You say, "...this time is different... I love not depending on it for my every move...my world is no longer consumed with the thought of ciggs...that is a great feeling..."

Aren't those the most glorious words you ever read? You are in charge of YOU!

Print 'em out and tack them up where you can see them often...or, write them tiny where they can't be seen at all. Every time you enter that room you'll remember they are there! Powerful stuff, indeed.

Reminding yourself of the other, the exception, has no value to you...unless you really WANT to feel 'stuck'.

Giggle with pleasure, girl! You've got it made! The other, the 'stuck' stuff, is only an echo of before. I'd bet my bottom dollar that you'll simply forget to do it one of these days. (Grin!)

Let yourself!

As for me, you've given me pause, I must say.

I effectively slowed down one day a couple of months ago. Hooray! Overnight, I felt wonderful.

The fact that I began to pick it up again over the next few days, doesn't diminish that wonderful feeling in the least.

That feeling is my touchstone...I've marked the place I want to be, and will be again soon.

None of all the 'reasons' I've ever heard, is as powerful a motivation as the memory of what that felt like.

Also, weighing myself the other day was proof positive that 'it ain't gonna hurt', which was my greatest fear. I really like this new way of eating...I enjoy it. I feel better for it.

'Deprivation' is no longer an obstacle. Whoopie!

Don't know where or when the next step will take place, but I know it will!

I've been at this computer for a few hours. My eyelids are drooping, at nearly 10 a.m. on a Saturday morning. Think I'll go for a little nap, since the house is quiet and I have the opportunity.

I'm very proud of you, frenchfri! And I'm glad to know you.

Obstacles melt, trust me.

fledgling

I can't stop thinking about this, my friend.

As many others say, if we think of the obstacle, the so-called 'failing', "We get more of what we don't want."

The point being - we get what we think about.

Our sub-conscious dutifully stores up every impression, fact, and thought we ever experience, even the trivial...then serves it up to us on order.

If we set our minds in one particular way, every time we see the moon we will automatically think of 'green cheese'.

Not that it's true, of course, but, once that thought is firmly planted, the very next time we see the stimulous, the moon, up she pops...'green' and 'cheese'...getting stronger in the physical make-up of the brain with every recollection.

Just for the heck of it, the other day I wondered what would happen if I turned the action, any action or thought, against itself.

...Like I take a drag and say, "Cancel." Or, "I forgot to smoke." Or, "I forget to make (buy) cigarettes." Or, any of a dozen other possibilities.

We all try smoking, perhaps, out of curiosity...but we continue to smoke, beyond our decision not to, for a reason. Maybe the compulsion is FED by our usual efforts to stop.

I mean, haven't we been chastized enough in our lives, already? Wouldn't we move heaven and earth for a sweet and loving smile? And why shouldn't that smile be our own?

Somehow, sometime, the switch to feeling fresh, clean, clear, and in charge of our wonderous lives, got flipped off.

Flip it right back on!

..................

Maybe I'm digging myself out of the quicksand here. Hope so.

lol..... soooooooooooooo funny ... laughed out loud with that one... you can do it cupcake...hang in there girl.....bless that man heart for providing blackberries....go to bed dont get up only to pee... oh forget it put on a depends....tie yourself to your bed...with the blackberries beside you...and water dont forget to drink plenty of water...lol....your too much there girl...go buy the patch...it helps it really does...tell hubby to go and get you the patch....i tell b/f go and buy me some blackberries...hahahah then we will be even...hang in there girl your doing awesome...frenchfri....( i needed a good laugh)