the lucky one's

I remember being on a construction sight at age 29 or so and seeing a 78 year old man (the owner of a small carpet company ) installing carpet
Really - like carrying the rolls , kicking , cutting , He was the talk of us all . All us workers knew we were seeing a rare sight .
I asked what did he eat ?
#1 no smoking - salads pasta's meat - simple Italian food , and a glass of red wine . go figure.

Here I am 55 years old
120 over 80 blood pressure
Moving and grooving as I did in my 20's

I don't see any choice to my working as I do
I sorta think i'll work till the good lord says no more .
till then - - - money - money - survive - survive !!!

I am just wondering / worrying / How long can I go .
any input from youngins - my age , and the ones that just keep going .
I wish this ride would last forever & i guess all people before us had the same wish .

Here I am - 65 years old, look 75 and feel 85. Retired for ten years. Take heavy-duty medication for osteo-arthritis (constant pain in all joints). Dr says he's not trying to kill the pain - just take the edge off. Worked two labor-intensive jobs most of my life. Skipped meals and didn't eat right when I did eat. Smoked about 30 years till about 45.

Dr says the arthritis is from working - I just wore my body out. There is nothing that can be done, the cartilage is simply gone and can't replaced. My message is - Take care of yourself. Work smarter, not harder. Thinking back on it, those second jobs didn't get me anywhere. The more I made trying to give the kids the stuff they wanted didn't mean a thing. The more they got, the more they wanted. If I said "No", they'd just tell me how much they hated me till it was easier to keep working and not have to hear it. They tell me now that they love me but it's kind of late.

Not wanting sympathy. Just take the message to heart.

Rather than treating my body like a temple, it has been abused like an extreme sport adventure park, and its still going for some reason.
I have more titanium inside me than I have in my Ti bucket, and arthritis pain is something I have had for a long time due to all the foreign material pinning my bones and joints together (when I finally do skip out, someone needs to fill the rest of my Ti bucket)
Being a builder hasn't helped my joints any either.

I have a ridiculously low blood pressure, most likely from lack of junk food and salt. (they often re-check, thinking I am cheating somehow)
Riding (well crashing) motorbikes has kept my mind feeling young, and my body feeling twice its age.

Staying positive in my mind, despite what my body tells me has kept me going so far.
Laughing at myself, and never taking myself seriously helps keep me on the positive side of things. (which is easy for me because I am a bit of a retard)
I have never been married or have any children, probably why I dont have as much grey hair as my much younger brother

I am going to live forever, so far, so good :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mick

Here I am - 65 years old, look 75 and feel 85. Retired for ten years. Take heavy-duty medication for osteo-arthritis (constant pain in all joints). Dr says he's not trying to kill the pain - just take the edge off. Worked two labor-intensive jobs most of my life. Skipped meals and didn't eat right when I did eat. Smoked about 30 years till about 45.

Dr says the arthritis is from working - I just wore my body out. There is nothing that can be done, the cartilage is simply gone and can't replaced. My message is - Take care of yourself. Work smarter, not harder. Thinking back on it, those second jobs didn't get me anywhere. The more I made trying to give the kids the stuff they wanted didn't mean a thing. The more they got, the more they wanted. If I said "No", they'd just tell me how much they hated me till it was easier to keep working and not have to hear it. They tell me now that they love me but it's kind of late.

Not wanting sympathy. Just take the message to heart.

---

Mick , any tips or tricks to kicking smoking? I have slowed down but after meals and while driving I always seem to want to light up. Just Curious if you went cold turkey or gum,mints,patch,hypnosis . Idk I have been preparing myself for this day . Sadly I do enjoy smoking for some reason . I think it really helps settle my stomach after meals or if fighting some acid reflux .

E cigs worked for Parrothead.

Not Mick but thought I'd point it out.

Sirscrapalot - Rain drops are falling on my head...well not yet, but soon.

Thanks mick. Helps put things in perspective for a young guy.
Doc says i'm in perfect health, but the aches and pains from years of hard labor are definitely felt.

here iam 14 never smoked never will got a bad back my knees are goofed up will work its self out in a few years its an age thing and people tell me i work to hard

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Metalbestos

Mick , any tips or tricks to kicking smoking? I have slowed down but after meals and while driving I always seem to want to light up. Just Curious if you went cold turkey or gum,mints,patch,hypnosis . Idk I have been preparing myself for this day . Sadly I do enjoy smoking for some reason . I think it really helps settle my stomach after meals or if fighting some acid reflux .

---

Cold turkey. Woke up one morning and started going on the computer. Lit up and said "this is BS". Put it out and never lit up again. I didn't keep track of the date but it would have been around the end of 1995. Went against all the popular "tactics". Threw away the rest of that pack and the nine packs in the carton I'd just bought. Threw out all the ashtrays (although I found out years later the wife saved one - as a memento, I guess). Told the wife on condition she not make a fuss and never mention my quitting to me. No patches, gum, groups or that crap. Patches and gum are just another means of getting nicotine into your system. If you want to quit - then quit. I'd just bought my acreage where I wound up building our house. I treated myself to an expensive chain saw as soon as I figured I'd saved the price of it (over $700 in 1996). Kept telling myself that if I started smoking again, all I'd gone through to that point was for nothing and I'd go through it again to quit. One piece of advice - find something else to do for those "triggers" (times that you'd usually smoke). Like I told others - it had to be when I was ready to quit. People who kept harping at me just made me more determined to keep smoking.

be 56 this year stii in good shape been working since i was 12 i think working has kept me in good health i can still outwork a lot of the youngin i know never smoked quit drinking in 2010. cant run no race but can still go hope this heat dont kill me 104 with index yesterday. ill live longer if i can get rid of the female that takes up space in my house

Thanks , you had me wondering . Cold turkey seems to be the way to go . I see the commercials with the crazy side effects and I see how paying for patches or gum is just a band aid . These e cig things scare me . I was at a auction full of people sucking on these battery things , maybe it was me but I found it harder to breath in that room then any smoky bar I had ever entered .

I think sunflower seeds or bubble gum could help , one thing I noticed has been avoiding the early am cig . Seems like that makes the urges less later in the day . I appreciate the info being that I can buy 2 scrap comp for about the same price as a pack of smokes .
Finding at my age I can spend the money on better things that won't kill me lol

I'm hardcore ... don't know if i'll ever quit. The doctor was getting on me about it and the only way i could get through to him was to say " Think of me as being a guy with a chip on his shoulder." All of those years of people nagging didn't change anything. It just made me bitter and stubborn.

It's pretty cut and dried ... either you are a smoker or you're not. Having a couple of smokes a day is like being a little bit pregnant.

Best reason i can think of to quit ?

Don't do it for yourself. If you've got kids, they're depending on you to be there for them till they're old enough to fend for themselves. If you quit there are better chances that you'll be able to do that. It sets a better example for them to follow too.

61 today and quit tobacco when in the hospital for an extended stay(about 2 months total). That was about 8 years ago. Still had craving tobacco long after I stopped using. I'm with Mick those who harped on my quiting just made me dig in my heels. Best of luck to all who use tobacco it can be very difficult stop.

If you start again don't beat yourself up just prepare to succeed the next time. Like Mick suggested, know your triggers and find a way to get past them. Mike

Live life to the fullest. Be fair in all dealings. be kind. Be humble.

When they put me in the hospital the first time I was badly sick with what they thought was congestive heart failure. They gave me a choice; keep smoking or live for awhile longer. Well, I knew my youngest daughter still needed dad's foot planted for a few more years to guide her, so I made my choice. Probably the toughest thing I've had to do.

Do it for your kids or family, stick around to be a pain in their a$$es.

The body is healthier than I deserve. It has been abused from work and sports. Two knees have been replaced, major surgery on both shoulders, elbows, and one chipped vertebra. Chewed tobacco since I was 16 and drank beer since 17. This started as a tactic to cut weight for wrestling throughout college and this and my diet have continued to my upper 50's. Biggest challenge of any day is getting upright and then it is all downhill from there. When I was younger, if I hurt a part of my body I felt the pain right away. In mid-life I did not notice the pain for a day afterwards. Now the pain does not hit me for several days and by then my brain cannot remember what I did to cause it.

With that being said, the good lord allows me to be physically active and I can keep up with most of the guys on the crew. In the younger days I would go out of my way to lift and carry as much as I could to get in better shape. Now I pick my times trying to save my health. Any advice to younger members, live a healthy lifestyle with exercise, good diet, moderation, and using your head. For me, I would not change one minute and plan to be physically active until the day I wake up on the other side of the grass. Attitude goes a long way, and yes I am one of the lucky ones.

Yes I would give up the cigarettes if there were children in my life. The times I did give up for a few months (cold turkey), and went back because I thought it acts as stress relief, I just ended up smoking more each time I re-started. I do know that the biggest change in your own life has to start from within, pressure from external sources only can cause resistance. It's you that needs to want to stop smoking, the rest is just doing what you need to do, well, not doing what you don't need to do really.

Smoking is just such a hard addiction to kick, both the physical and mental parts. Anyone that has done it gets my full admiration (that's if they aren't banging on to me about giving up anyway)

Stress, worry, and fear are very underrated toxins to humans, and it is really hard to feel lucky in life if there are any daily doses of any of them happening to you. For me, I avoid them all like they are more poisonous than my peanut butter jar of mercury, and I think it really makes a difference in how happy I feel despite my flaws. I am really lucky, not because I have anything to prove it, just because I keep telling myself that I am.
Either that or I was just one too many broken crash helmets, away from avoiding brain damage...... I do hope I didn't brain my damage

I'll say it again as I have before, but it's always ignored....maybe this time sine Mick said the same thing..

You won't be successful at quitting unless YOU want to.

Everyone I know is like that smokes or did. The ones that are ex-smokers now, all did it cause they wanted to. Nagging doesn't work, shaming people doesn't work, guilt doesn't work(Do it for the kids, your wife, etc) YOU HAVE TO WANT TO REALLY QUIT!

My grandmother, is 77 still smokes. She can drop it tho anytime she feels like it. She'll go ten years without one, then decide to start smoking an quit 2 years later. It amazes me her ability to turn it on/off.

TO all you trying to quit...Good luck. Just make sure you do it cause you want to an are ready to quit.

Far as e-cigs. I've never had a an issue with the smoke. Been in bars filled with it, a shop that sell them, never been bothered by the vapor/smoke. Not saying it's the best method to use to quit, but one of our own used it. If your not a cold turkey person, ecigs might be the way to go.

Me, till I'm ready to quit, will enjoy a smoke now an then til that day comes.(Saves the rants an preaching. I"m not ready to quit, an yes..I know full well what it can do to someone.) Soon in order to stay healthy you will have to avoid everything. Tobacco is bad for you, the crap they put in our food is bad for you, the emissions we kick out are bad for you. What exactly is good for you? Besides growing your own stuff an killing your own food..nothing. ;)

Live long an prosper...however you choose to do so.

Sirscrapalot - Really hates being nagged, especially when he tries very hard to be respectful of others with his bad habit.