Jeff Oulton
 Jeff quit over 700 days ago (not that he’s
counting.) He’s doing wonderfully now and says his
cravings are gone. But before finally succeeding,
he’d tried quitting perhaps 10 times over the years,
so he speaks from long experience.
He’s got some great advice for others in the same
boat:
- Speak to a Quittin’ Time counsellor. “He
gave me tips and tools to handle both the
addiction and the cravings. Talking to the
counsellor was no charge and basically saved the
rest of my life.”
- Remember, you are NOT a failure for having
tried to quit. Each hour or day without smoking
was really a success!
- Think back to what trigger or triggers made
you smoke again. Write them down. Read them over
and prepare for the next time.
Madeleine, his youngest daughter, was a big
factor too. “Her compassion and understanding made
staying quit very easy.” Madeleine is happy that not
only is her dad smoke-free, her older brother is
also now a non-smoker: “When my dad stopped smoking
my brother thought, well if he was able to quit, I
bet I can too. I think it was hard for him to quit,
but he had the inspiration to do it.”
Blaine Lewis
 Blaine quit smoking on February 20, 2008,
although he’d tried to quit several times before.
“It didn’t stick because I wasn’t committed to it,”
he says. Since then he’s had one relapse when a
family member came to stay, but once they returned
home he stopped again.
He knows it’s not easy to quit; there’s always an
excuse to pick up “just that one” cigarette. His
advice when that happens? “Stay vigilant for those
thoughts and immediately distract yourself with some
other activity.” He reminds himself every day that
he doesn’t smoke, which helps him deal with
temptations and do something positive instead, like
taking Moka for a run on the beach.
Larry Pedersen and Sandra Roe
 Larry:
Larry hasn’t smoked since January 2004 and now
says “I know with confidence I’ll never smoke
again.” However, before that he’d probably tried to
quit “15 times in as many years.”
And although he knew there were lots of reasons
to quit, he wondered with each attempt if or when he
would start again. His turning point came when he
reframed the challenge and asked himself if he
believed his addiction could be broken. He told
himself yes, and the next time he didn’t “try” to
stop, he “did” stop. The rest is happy history.
In the end, after many unsuccessful attempts, he
says “I finally quit on the belief that addiction is
a choice and I chose not to be addicted any longer.”
Sandra:
Although she knew her boss, Larry Pedersen, had
quit smoking successfully, Sandra spent two years
thinking about it before she took the plunge on
March 30, 2009. Seven months later she’s doing
great.
Her final push to quit came in the form of her
brother’s health emergency – he had kidney disease
and needed a transplant. Hoping she’d be a match so
she could give him a kidney, she knew she’d “have to
be as healthy as possible.” So she quit smoking,
went through the testing process and on September
23, 2009 Sandra and her brother Greg underwent
successful transplant surgeries. In this case
quitting smoking improved the lives of two people!
Susan Shea
 Susan quit smoking on November 16, 2004 and she
feels awesome. Before finally succeeding, she’d
previously made two big attempts to quit, along with
a couple of little ones.
Susan’s relapses occurred during stressful times
of her life. She’s learned that when she’s stressed,
she needs to remind herself that going back to
smoking will not help and that she really does not
want to smoke.
She also has this interesting bit of advice: “The
thing that helped me the most was when I told a
friend, who had also quit smoking, that I was
thinking of having a cigarette. He said ‘OK, only
the first couple will make you throw up.’ It made me
laugh and I think about that if I ever have a
craving.”
Cathy Hohnsbehn
 Cathy quit smoking almost 17 years ago. For the
first 10 years she worried she’d relapse, but now
“it doesn’t even enter my head,” she says. May, 1993
was her third and final try, when she quit cold
turkey and never looked back.
Her advice for overcoming relapses? “I would say
that you can’t beat yourself up about it. Pick
yourself up, dust yourself off and try again. Don’t
focus on what you didn’t do (stay quit), but rather
focus on what you can do (try again).”
She also recommends that if you’ve found certain
activities lead to relapse, don’t do those
activities for a bit. Not forever... just a bit. “I
had a hard time going out to the pub with friends
without wanting a smoke, so I held off doing that
until I was certain I was in a comfortable place
with my addiction. I didn’t miss anything, but I
gained everything!”
Ramona Wymenga
 Ramona’s been a non-smoker since February 5,
2001, but she’d tried to quit before – “too many
times to count in over 19 years as a smoker.” She
usually relapsed within a month or less. Since 2001
there’ve been stressful moments when she craved a
cigarette, but she’s found that simply taking a deep
breath can make the feeling go away. “It’s more of a
conscious thought than a physical craving for a
cigarette,” she says.
Her advice to others? “If you have a relapse,
don’t beat yourself up! Almost everyone tries
several times before they eventually have success.
Quitting smoking is one of the hardest things you’ll
ever do, but it’s totally worth the effort, no
matter how many tries it takes.”
So, how do you know if you’re ready to quit smoking?
All you really need is the desire to quit. And
the willingness to be supported along the way. You
don’t have to do it on your own. Let us help you be
a success story –
register
now.
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