Quitting smokes.

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YouBlowMyMind
YouBlowMyMind Posts: 552 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
What should I expect once I've quit

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  • Marilyn0924
    Marilyn0924 Posts: 797 Member
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    You're going to be cranky. Just breathe through it. It will pass.
  • lulalacroix
    lulalacroix Posts: 1,082 Member
    edited February 2018
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    I quit 5 years ago. My best tip is to find a replacement stress reliever. Most smokers I have known, smoked when stressed. It's good to have a plan for stress, such as deep breathing, screaming into a pillow, kicking a box, etc.
  • Jancandoit7
    Jancandoit7 Posts: 356 Member
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    I quit a month ago and feel tons better! Join the quit smoking site "Quitnet,"
    You will get tons of support there and lots of helpful info from fellow quitters. You may want to consider nicotine replacement if you can't do it cold turkey- that's a personal choice. I am an avid walker and this has helped me more than anything else- any kind of exercise will help tremendously- I just like being outside, breathing in the fresh air. Quitting is not easy, but totally doable if you REALLY want it- that is the key. But seriously- join "quitnet" to keep you motivated.
  • bandwidthbandit
    bandwidthbandit Posts: 74 Member
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    I found vaping really useful when quitting. Only time I quit smoking where I didn't gain weight. Your mileage, of course, may vary. Bottom line is you can do it if you want it badly enough. Good luck!
  • jenilla1
    jenilla1 Posts: 11,118 Member
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    lulalacroix wrote: »
    I quit 5 years ago. My best tip is to find a replacement stress reliever. Most smokers I have known, smoked when stressed. It's good to have a plan for stress, such as deep breathing, screaming into a pillow, kicking a box, etc.

    My husband quit cold turkey and succeeded on his first time trying. He used lollipops as a replacement for the first few months. Then he transitioned to just plain old chewing gum. Now, he just pops a piece of gum into his mouth when he gets stressed. Good luck! :)
  • StevefromMichigan
    StevefromMichigan Posts: 462 Member
    edited February 2018
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    My experience was that the first 3-4 weeks were the toughest. If you can make it past that, things will get better, so just keep telling yourself that the cravings and urges will get less if you can just hold out for those first few weeks.

    Alcohol always made the cravings worse for me. I would try to avoid it, especially the first couple of weeks. This also gets better with time. Granted,I haven't smoked in 20 years, but I no longer have cravings when drinking alcohol.

    Not sure if you are trying to go cold turkey or not, but you may want to look at the nicotine patches if cold turkey doesn't work. That's what I used. There are some prescriptions on the market to help as well.

    Best of luck!

    P.S. Whenever I got the urge to smoke, I found that holding my breath for 8-10 seconds and then slowly exhaling helped. YMMV.
  • Wakx
    Wakx Posts: 105 Member
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    You should actually expect that you will likely fail - now - please keep reading! - Prepare for this realisation - the failure will badly humiliate you. Regret will set in immediately after you take that 2nd or 3rd puff. Thereafter, your self-esteem will enter a downward spiral that only makes you more addicted.

    So, the only reason you might start again is that single first puff. That puff releases dopamine and, indeed, dopamine tickles a central part of your brain quite nicely, but it does so only for a mere nanosecond. And that is it. All the rest is damaging and all other 100 reasons why you want to stop.

    So, you smoke to upkeep that sense of high (which is definitely 'up' from where non-smokers are) by taking a new puff, a new cigarette, a new pack. Up and down, up and down it goes. If you do not smoke, there's no such unrest but, true, those nanoseconds of 'ahhhhh' are not there for the non-smoker.

    There are fantastic other ways to get that momentary sense of high, such as by running. With a bit of training, a good run will give you much better happy highs, possibly during the run after 40mins and surely after completing it. It takes some time and training before running stops being so painful, but this is not dissimilar to your past 'training' to get properly addicted to smokes, which - after all -, taste really awful when you think about it.

    Unless you allow that devilish little voice to continue selling you non-sense about all great things that you will now have to forego, only good will come from quitting. Don't feel guilty about the past; you'll be amazed how fast your body recovers. Get an app that helps you track the hours, days, weeks, months.

    Just do it & good luck!!
  • LiveInLeggings
    LiveInLeggings Posts: 222 Member
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    I replaced one bad habit with one good one, I started running.

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