Happy 10th anniversary to me. I hadn’t planned on doing this but after giving it some thought I decided I ought to post my thoughts here for two reasons. First, I couldn’t have quit without a website for those who have quit or are thinking of quitting, www.quitnet.com. There it is, plain and simple. The “Q” is where I found support and kindred spirits and laughs (lots of laughs) and made friendships that will last a lifetime. I will always owe a debt of gratitude to the Q members who blazed the trail ahead of me, who walked alongside me, and even those who came behind me.

Those who went before me gave me hope, inspiration, and support. They invested their valuable time and experience in my quit and gave me confidence, and I owed them a good try; those alongside me gave me support, encouragement, distraction, laughs (lots of laughs), were strong when I couldn’t be, and required that I be strong when they couldn’t be. Those who came after gave me a sense of obligation to pass along what had been given to me and added to my growing group of people who held me up as a role model. How could I let any of them down?

Second, I will always clearly remember how difficult it was for me to quit. I think sometimes in the early stages of our quits we believe that long-time quitters somehow had an easier time of it than we did. Bah humbug! It was every bit as difficult and sometimes even more difficult. Why, when I was a newbie I had to walk 10 miles through the snow just to get to my computer and when I reached it, it was dial-up, for crying out loud – gasp! Seriously, though, quitting is hard no matter how you slice it. But it does get easier to stay quit because, like most other things, we get better at those things we do often.

So if you smoke and you tell yourself you can’t quit – and if you tell that to yourself often – you’ll get better at not quitting. But if you stop smoking and tell yourself often that you used to smoke but you don’t anymore, you’ll get better at not smoking.

Take it from me. I’ve been not smoking for 10 years now and it sure is grand. Plus it’s pretty darned easy these days.

Oh, and because I earned every bit of them, here are my stats:

I’ve been quit for ten years, 21 hours, 9 minutes and 9 seconds. 127850 cigarettes not smoked, saving $30,364.58. Life saved: 1 year, 11 weeks, 2 days, 22 hours, 10 minutes.

One final note worth mentioning: it’s at the Q where I first took my online moniker, imeanit. The names I’d tried to register with were all taken and I was intensely committed to quitting, so “imeanit” seemed appropriate and it truly was.

Keep the quit, people!
imeanit

And a very important postscript: I owe a lot of my quit to three very special people I met at the Q – bump54, withoutmerit, and jkay. We’re joined at the hip, the four of us. Always.

I've been following my friend, Nancy Makin, as she promotes her new book, 703: How I Lost More Than a Quarter Ton and Gained a Life, which was released April 15. As you may already know, Nancy and I met when I was working at Women’s Resource Center and she was looking for ways to get her story out to the rest of the world.

Nancy’s tale of losing more than 530 pounds is at once shocking, hilarious, sad, and motivating. She didn’t diet or exercise her way to a healthy weight; she reached out and reconnected with other people through the internet. In that anonymous environment Nancy could not be pre-judged by people based on her physical self but rather her intellect and keen wit. The nurturing, human interaction she experienced helped Nancy regain her self-worth and leave behind the isolation and restriction her weight had imposed on her, something the medical establishment failed to accomplish.

Nancy’s journey to that peak weight of 703 pounds was fueled by many things, not least of which was a troubled childhood and a traumatic experience when her parents abandoned 9 year old Nancy and her sisters at a religious cult in Canada. Her Dickensian experience there – where she was forced to steal food to survive – most certainly played a role in her subsequent weight gain and self-imposed exile.

I was privileged to work with Nancy as she hammered out her book and once again faced some of those painful memories and I’m so very pleased to now invite you to follow her as she achieves her dreams of reaching out to others who struggle with massive weight issues, or any obstacle that seems insurmountable. She is a rare individual with a personality that even 703 pounds couldn’t eclipse and her story is full of humor, insight, and even compassion for those who failed her.

Nancy will be appearing at Schuler Books at the Eastwood Town Center in Lansing on May 13 at 7:00 p.m. and on 28th St. SE in Grand Rapids on Tuesday, May 18, at 7:00 p.m. Nancy is also seeking means of reaching out to others who struggle as she used to, so if you have any ideas, please don’t hesitate to let me know and I’ll pass the info along to Nancy or put you in touch with her.

Nancy’s particular target audiences are the medical community who still react with revulsion and judgment and who are less than successful in helping the obese, and also the obese themselves. Nancy’s message is one of spirit, hope and compassion and she is living proof that no matter what the packaging, within us all is an inherent value simply because we exist.

Testing 1-2-3-4 Testing

Don't mind me; I'm just test-driving this blog a little bit and wanting to see how a photo looks with it.

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!

So, what do you think about this moody, turn-of-the-century photo taken at the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego, California? It's the work of photographer Harold Taylor and quietly captures the pace and mood of the idyllic life at a popular resort in those days.

On the left is my "aunt" Lottie Hatch Neufeld and on the right is her cousin, Anna Hatch, standing over their aunt, Grace Bierce Hatch.

Where am I?

Hmmm... all of this lovely blank space and not quite sure what to do with it. It's much like telling yourself you're a writer, sitting down at the computer, staring at a blank screen, and suddenly your mind goes blank to match. Talk about performance anxiety.

Well, I'll simply use this opportunity to invite you to come by from time to time and join in as I discuss various aspects of personal history and preserving family memories. I may also test drive some of my humorous essays so stay tuned.

Now back to your regularly-scheduled programming...