Thanks TaraSue.

You can do it rj. Quitting's easy - I reckon I did it over a hundred times!

But the last one did stick. Echoing what burkemi said, I finally wanted to want to. For me. My choice. Not just to shut the wife up for a little while...

my dad was a 2+ pack a day for over 30 years...went to group hypnosis and was supposed to follow up in individual hypnosis 2 weeks after hte group. he walked out from the group and never smoked again, didn't even need the individual session. for some people it works, for others it does not.

I just went to the store and bought my normal ration of snuff......15 cans (3 rolls). $123.45. Comes to $8.23 a can. At roughly (or at least) a can a day, that's just over $3000 a year. That comes from my disposable, after tax income. But i had the thought....if today was the last time i ever bought snuff, from a disposable income standpoint, it would seem like the equivalent of maybe a $4500 annual raise (well, for everything but my 401k). $4500 a year isn't huge, but it's not nothing. At least i'm thinking about these numbers......

$375 per month is not chump change...you could take a nice vacation with that savings...

True.

After 9 months you and someone else could take a 17 day cruise to Hawaii
https://www.hollandamerica.com/en/us/find-a-cruise/h4h17b/k466

I'm not sure if it's related to my dipping or not, but (once again) i am noticing a different sort of smell in what feels like my sinuses.....it's a familiar sort of smell, and it could be unrelated....but it has me motivated to once again try to quit dipping...

Yesterday felt like a good start (it may not sound like it)--i didn't have my first dip until about noon, and then intentionally made it smaller and of a much shorter duration (about 30 minutes.....i can go 3 or 4 times that long at times) ......then had another small, short dip about 5:00. I didn't do as well after that.....one sort of normal dip (not quite as much snuff as usual) that lasted probably 90 minutes...and then a small dip after that that i shouldn't have had.

No first dip this morning (the dip i get as soon as i brush my teeth).....having my 'after breakfast' dip right now, but i made it small and hope to get rid of it soon.

The most powerful tool i am finding is this (and it relates to a book i read that has really been very very helpful in other areas of my life)....focusing on this moment in time. How i hope it works for me (and i am already seeing the strength in it) is this--i just ask myself in the moment something like "am i ok not having a dip right now? After all, even when i was dipping like crazy, there were many hours of the day when i didn't have a dip.....so in this moment am i ok? Any bad ramifications of not having a dip in my mouth this moment?" Another tool that i intend to use is this: if i get a dip in my mouth and spit it out even 10 minutes later, i really don't want another dip for quite a while. If i can just have the discipline to get them out of my mouth soon after packing them in, i think that will help.

In that spirit, i am taking this dip out as we speak.

My doctor keeps harping on me to quit, and it would be nice to have an extra $3000/yr....that's about what i spend on this stuff.

Congratulations! Take your pick of words - Determined (or) Stubborn!

Besides the money, I heard that dipping can be the basis for different mouth/gums cancer. You're doing an amazing thing - just keep thinking of the vacation with the savings and how you really don't miss it as much as you thought.

Congratulations! Take your pick of words - Determined (or) Stubborn!

Besides the money, I heard that dipping can be the basis for different mouth/gums cancer. You're doing an amazing thing - just keep thinking of the vacation with the savings and how you really don't miss it as much as you thought.

Smell and taste are interwoven. If you found that cutting back is causing you to notice scents and odors that you hadn't before then you may find that the taste of your food will change. I can tell you from experience that after nearly two decades having a dental partial that covered the roof of my mouth replaced with implants/bridge that did not after, it was like floodgates opening for both senses. Use what motivates you.

Thanks Paul.....maybe i didn't explain it well.....the smell in my sinuses i'm associating with my dipping.....i don't associate with it cutting back. The smell is (hopefully) a motivation to cut back and then stop. I know this--the mind is a funny thing. I think the key to stopping for me is going to be what i posted above....when i talk (or think) about how hard stopping is, i don't stop. The key if i'm ever going to stop is what i said above....living in the moment, and realizing in that moment that i'm not suffering because i don't have a dip in in that moment.

No congratulations in order...still very much a work in progress and i posted mainly to motivate myself.

if cutting down slowly like you're doing is what will eventually get you to where you want to be, then you are doing great! this is your marathon, you know the risks associated with it, no one needs to tell you that and no one telling you that can scare you into quitting...it's an addiction as you know.
Just one small step today leads to big accomplishments tomorrow! Take a bigger step / break tomorrow and a bigger one the next day!
You got this!

Thanks NE--

My biggest progress so far is that for about a week now, i have been able to eliminate that 1st dip in the morning and also my "drive home from work" dip. I am also generally (not always) keeping dips in for a shorter period of time. I appreciate the tone of your response...you are 100% correct...i know the risks and you're right that no one can scare me into it.

Ratchjay how's it going? We haven't checked in with you in awhile?

I always try to be honest...I'm not doing as well as I was..."back-slidden" might be the correct term. Hopefully I can regain my form.

Raitchjay, I "backslid" a bit on my diet during the holidays. I did not gain weight, but my weight loss stalled a bit because we ate less healthily. After everyone went home, I had to kick myself back into gear.

Life is hard - do the best you can each day and know your BOL friends are cheering you on!

Crazy snow and cold weather has thrown me a lot of life curveballs and just messed with my routine...I'm hopeful these 10 inches of snow will be mostly gone by Sunday evening and I can refocus. Thanks for the encouragement all.

Walks for exercise are a lot harder when you're sliding around on black ice like we've been doing here the past couple of days.

I bet so.