Struggling with diet and quiting smoking

jenfur74

Hi all, I'm Jenny and I am new to the forum,
I wonder if anyone else has attempted diet change and quiting smoking at the same time.
Some facts:
- I have been using nicotine patches for 10 days now.
- I am trying to maintain between 1200-1300 calories per day.
- I have also reduced my cafine intake, 1 morning coffee per day + 1 decaf mid morning.
- I have been getting headaches.
- I have been getting sugar cravings that are driving me mad!!!
- I have been running 3-4 times per week, using iPhone Counch25K (couch to 5Km) training app.

My motivation is getting low this week, and it's only my second week...
I need some help and motivation, and some pointers from fellow forum members...

jessieleah

My advice would be to not try to cut everything back all at once. You'll end up caving in.

Try changing part of your diet while you quit smoking, but don't try to cut back caffeine as well. That's just asking too much of yourself.

ahweber

Hi! Let me tell you as a smoker and being overweight I decided that I would tackle one thing at a time. I spoke with my doctor about this and he agreed that it was better to get one thing under control before taking on another. This would as he says "increase the chances of success." I was a bit confused at first, but when he told me that it was easy to get discouraged with one task that it would be a major set back if two things were unsuccessful. So I decided that I had to get my diet and exercise under control first. What this did for me was get to where I was so focused on other things, working out and watching what I ate, more than I was smoking. I am not going to lie and tell you it has been easy, but I tell you I am one step closer now to obtaining both goals I have set for myself. I hope this helped!

mrphil86

First of all, Congratulations on committing yourself to a better lifestyle!

I have gone through that and had the same things happen with me. But here is the thing, patches are just a slow release of nicotine. They never give you the burst that your body craves which is why you have the problems. (Especially the headaches.)

For a lot of people this has worked. I honestly gave up on it and went a different route with an e-cig. I love it because it is vapors instead of smoke. You can lower the nicotine levels till you are done. I use it still but with water and menthol (no nicotine) before and after I run.

Just hang in there! Whatever you do, stick with it. If you need motivation, don't be afraid to add people as friends including myself.

Good luck to you. It's a hard journey but it is worth it.

WifeMomDVM

Kudos to you for all these big changes at once!

I've never been a smoker but 2 ladies at my work place are using the patch and trying to quit for their health. One of their doctors told one of the ladies that lung cancer is even more prevalent than breast cancer!

I'm sure the headaches are from cutting down on the caffeine. If you can just stick with it a while longer- they will go away I promise! I used to drink a coca cola every day. I've had one or two in the past 3 years. When I first quit I had a HORRIBLE headache that would not go away. But one day it just disappeared.

I've avoided caffeine for the most part ever since. (I occasionally will have hot tea that has a little in it).

Anyway - just wanted to encourage you to try to stick with this - esp. the not smoking! I'm sure it is so so so hard (I constantly nag my co-workers to try to understand why they enjoy smoking so much!) I understand that it's VERY difficult to quit. They are sucking on lots of hard candy and the hardest time for them is after meal times.

Stick with it, stick with it, stick with it. ONE.... DAY..... AT.... A .... TIME....

Soon all those one days will be a whole lot of days! And you will be successful! :flowerforyou:

chris0912

I'm actually doing the same. I started almost 2 months ago. I went cold turkey on caffeine. I eased into healthier eating by gradually replacing crappy processed foods with better choices (still have a little lurking in the cabinets, but it's slowly disappearing). And I've managed to reduce my cigarettes from a pack (or more) a day to just 7 a day. (I've tried cold turkey before and it just doesn't work for me.) I started reducing my cigarettes by forcing myself to wait a specified amount of time between. I started with 1 hour and am now up to 2-1/2 hours. I am struggling currently to get below the 7, but I know it will happen. I am enjoying them less every day! So stick with it, it's worth it in the long run. The headaches will go away as your caffeine dependence lessens. The more you replace unhealthy food with healthier options, your cravings will change. And exercise will help with quitting smoking. Good luck!! Add me if you'd like a friend with similar addictions (LOL)!

TDGee

Wow! Congrats on taking charge!
I'm about three weeks without a smoke now, no patches, just the occasional piece of nicorette. (1pack/day X 13 years) I've noticed that my coffee intake is WAY down and I've pretty much stopped sodas as well. All of this since I just started paying attention to what I ate more and beginning to log my food. I don't have any real explanation for it, other than I guess for me it was just time to be healthier. My best advice is to drink LOTS of water! Good luck on your journey, feel free to friend me, I seem to have several friends here that are quitting smoking... We can all use the support!!
Ted

cjduckie

I too am trying to stay on this particular wagon... it aint easy I tell ya! Lol :happy: Huge kudos to those who have been able to leave the ciggies... I'm down from about 15/day to about 6/day at the moment... my plan was to go cold turkey - but it just aint happening. I'm leaving my job in two weeks and tensions are running high - excuses I know, but still true.

Good luck :flowerforyou: we can do this!