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Hernando Today

No More Smokes

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By MICHAEL D. BATES

Hernando Today

Published: March 8, 2009

Rebecca Weathers and Joel Kelly have kicked the habit - for the second time.

And this time, they don't plan on falling off the nicotine wagon.
Weathers and Kelly, along with about 33 other people, attended the county's recent Freedom From Smoking cessation class to try to rid themselves of cigarettes.

Both had attended the course once before and successfully graduated. But proving how addictive nicotine can be, both suffered relapses and started smoking again.

They hated themselves for it.

With renewed fervor, the two decided to retake the class again when it was offered in January.

On "graduation day," Feb. 24, they once again walked out the doors smoke-free. This time, they plan on making it permanent.

Ann-Gayl Ellis, public information officer for the Hernando County Health Department, said 12 of the 35 people who took the class "graduated" completely tobacco-free.

Ellis said she had two attendees who are now down to one cigarette every couple of days.

One woman, who had been smoking a pack a day, is down to 3 to 4 a day.

She attributed the high graduation rate to the large size of the class.

Hernando Today profiled Weathers and Kelly just days before they took the county's class. We caught up with them this week to find out how they are coping.

Rebecca: Never Again

"This time I'm going to beat the five-year mark," joked Rebecca. "Every time I quit, I quit for five years then I start up again."

Rebecca, 46, attended the smoking cessation course six years ago and says she started reaping the benefits almost immediately. She felt better and no longer lived for those smoke breaks.

But then she started attending a dance club in the area with her friends. There was alcohol around and the environment led to a smoking relapse.

"I'm not going back to the dance club (at) least for awhile," she says. "Not until I know I have it totally kicked."

Rebecca says she "cheated" last Saturday when she attended a birthday party where everyone smoked.

She succumbed to temptation and lit up a cigarette and took a couple drags.

"It felt like licking the bottom of an ashtray," she says.

She is determined not to do it again.

The first couple of weeks of class were the hardest for Rebecca. To compensate for the urge to smoke, she says she drank "a lot of water."

"I had to replace it with that and it's better than cookies," she jokes.

Along about the third week, the sensation to smoke died down and eventually she reached a point where she can go through the entire day without thinking about it.

Ellis told the class the first day that many of them would not make it through the month and graduate. And, indeed, by the third week, Rebecca says they were down to about 18 participants.

But she and those who remained "were determined to prove her wrong," she says.

She credits her success to Ellis' educating skills and a whole lot of determination.

"You've really got to want to (quit)," she says.

Of course, now she is trying to shed the 10 pounds she says she gained since stopping.

But it's nothing a little exercise can't take care of, she jokes.

Joel: Aiming For A New Car

For some reason, the class seemed harder the second time around for Joel, and he doesn't know why.

"Five or six times, I was half tempted to drive to the store and buy a pack of cigarettes," he says. "I didn't do it. I kept talking to myself and saying, 'I'm going to get through it."

So far, so good.

He even told Ellis before the classes started that he would "give it my best shot."

Joel, 64, says he's taking it one day at a time. And if he falters, he says he will be right back in the next smoking cessation class.

"I'm still getting the urge, but it's not as bad as the first 10 to 12 days," he says.

Joel, who retired from a Manhattan property management company, started smoking Camels when he was a mere 13 years old because, back then, it was the "cool" thing to do.

Fifty years later, the habit wasn't so cool anymore, and Joel wanted to be nicotine-free.

"I wasn't enjoying it anymore," he says. "It was just a habit and there was really no reason to smoke.

Joel says his health was deteriorating, and he's sure it had something to do with the carton-a-week habit.

"I'm getting older and I want to live to see my grandkids graduate from college," he says.

His advice to smokers out there who are trying to kick the habit: "Try your best and for any reason you don't succeed, keep telling yourself that there's nothing a cigarette can do for you. You're much better giving them up. You really are."

He appeals to people's sense of economy during these hard times.

Cigarettes aren't cheap, says Joel, who was spending almost $140 a month on his habit.

If he starts to falter and he feels like smoking, he says he can call Ellis or someone from the class for moral support.

But ultimately, it's up to him, he says.

And he has an added incentive.

"I made a promise to myself that if I make it a year, I'm going to buy myself a new car."

Reporter Michael D. Bates can be reached at 352-544-5290 or mbates@hernandotoday.com.

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