Quitting smoking and losing weight

lauragirl84

Hi all! I’m having a total knee replacement in April and I need to quit smoking before it. I’m trying but find I’m eating more now. Any suggestions to help stay on track while I quit smoking???

Walkywalkerson

I find that trying to do more than one important thing at a time usually doesn't work.
Maybe concentrate on giving up smoking which will be one of the best things you ever do for yourself!
Have your op and recover then work on your diet.
Otherwise it may feel overwhelming.

Bridgie3

I can tell you how I quit, but I can't tell you what will work for you:

After 20 yrs of failed attempts of all manner of kinds I made a bargain with myself.

I did a deal. I said to myself:

"I am going to only smoke herbal (ie nicotine free) cigarettes, I will have as many as I like. I will not quit smoking. I will quit nicotine entirely, completely, cold turkey.

And I will smoke myself blind while doing so.

For the rest of my life I will have any amount of cigarettes I want, but just no nicotine."

This was something I could hang onto in my deepest darkest moments because it was rational and made sense. Logic demanded that if I were just a nicotine addict, the urge would die and I would find myself not needing any more cigarettes. But if it were something else, if it were a 'habit' or a 'crutch' or any of those things, keeping me emotionally sane, helping me and being my 'only friend' then so be it. I would smoke for life, but pay far less for the ciggies as nicotine is taxed and honeyrose are not.

So there you go.

The results surprised me.

I think the first day, I was fine till 11:00am. This is when my body figured out it wasn't getting any nicotine from me smoking.

After that I was smoking maybe 2 packs a day for... weeks? a month? then maybe a pack a day for the next few weeks

And then at some point I realised I hadn't had a ciggie in 3 days. I immediately had a ciggie.

I had very (STUPID but well meaning) friends who said DAFT things like 'you should cut down on the honeyrose' or 'now that you're off nicotine, you should wean off smoking' or other utterly dumbass things.

But that wasn't the deal was it. I was allowing myself the cigarettes. I was not just some puritannical woman looking for things to want and then deny herself for the sake of ... (a predestined spot in heaven? I mean, what?) I was there to find out what was going on in my body, and to let it show me what it wanted.

I have no self control. I could not use head driven control mechanisms on myself. The only thing that works on me is logic.

So yeah. I did whatever, but I didn't break the deal. Many people tried to give me a 'real' cigarette, as those who smoke somehow really don't want anyone else to quit.

And I lost the psychological link between smoking cigarettes and getting nicotine, and that was the best thing of all, because even today if someone lights a cigarette in front of me I have no addict reaction whatsoever.

My experiment proved that I was nicotine addicted, and the mechanism I used to ingest the nicotine would lose all interest if it no longer provided the nicotine.

I don't think I've had a honeyrose in 10 yrs. I don't miss nicotine, I don't feel like I've sacrificed anything, if anything I'm amused. I wasted so much money... And now I just don't care about cigarettes either way.

lauragirl84

Thank you so much!!!