Quit Smoking Suggestions Needed

I used patches to quit. The first week I work both a setp 1 and a step 3 to get over the hump. I then stayed at each level for about twice as long as the plan called for. I figured patches were better than smoking and the longer term made it stick for me....

Good Luck!

That plus a lot of encouragement from loved ones!

I smoked from age 15 to age 42 and have now been quit 8 years. I went cold turkey. I used a support group similar to MFP called quitnet. It told me how much life I had added each day quit and how my lungs had changed. The 1st month - I air smoked. I just used the motions and took very deep slow breaths - inhale, exhale -invisible cigarette. After that, I just would tell myself - wait out the craving, if you really want it in 10 minutes you can have it but eventually, I didn't want it. I celebrated successess like going to a bar and having a cocktail without smoking, watching a football game without smoking, etc. I used the cigarette money to treat myself to gifts. It took months, but I finally reached a point where I did not want a cigarette at all. Now - I am a hater! I hate the smell of my hair and clothes when I go somewhere that allows smoking. My contacts burn when in a smoke filled room. It now turns me off so bad that I'm almost a ***** about it - ok, maybe not almost .............but it truly turns me off. It is all about really wanting to quit. I am using that approach now to my weight loss. It took me getting very, very large to face the truth but I plan to succeed at this that same way.

BTW, on my last night of smoking, my beloved Cowboys got pummeled by da Bears, and I gave 10 cigs plus a lighter to an older guy asking for a cig at the bus stop. My previous quit record was 30 days. I am looking to beat that by a longshot.

I am already running longer runs, and breathing easier. It is quite rewarding, and I do not stink! I am loving it!

When I finally quit I was at 3 packs a day and had smoked for 20+ years. I had been trying to quit for 5 of those years. I tried everything. Gum, patches, lozenges, hypnotherapy, acupuncture, brushing my teeth, exercise, Popsicle... EVERYTHING.... nothing worked.

Why?

Because, even though I was on a quest to quit smoking, even though I knew the health factors and the expense, even though I watched my Grandmother die of Emphysema, I WAS NOT READY.

Then one day I woke up and was done. I gave the rest of my cigs to my mother...who lived with me... and never picked them up again.

Out of everything I did to assist me in stopping smoking, none of it worked. I kept saying I wanted to quit...but I didn't, not really. When I was finally ready to quit, I did.

I wish you luck on your journey.

Totally. You have to want to be done. I didn't quit for years because I wasn't ready.

I am ready now. Especially when I look into my children's eyes. Hell if I'ma die some horrible death and leave them before my time.

For me, I just one day made the absolute decision I didn't want to do that anymore. That day I washed all my clothes, cleaned out my car, got rid of all the ash trays, smoke butts, and chucked them out. I cleaned out my house from top to bottom, cleaned everything...

then ran out and got patches... LOL

You need a hand, pays to know what your triggers are, mine were, coffee, alcoholic, after meals... So I cut out the alcohol and coffee... and stayed inside after I ate a meal.... I had a couple of slip ups... but I never went back to it full on. I allowed myself hiccups... which will happen. There was a few months where I smoked when I drank... but when I got home, I would shower all the smoke smell out of me. brush teeth and start a new...

Great for you to... its not easy quitting... but it is so worth it

Jay

...even though I was on a quest to quit smoking, even though I knew the health factors and the expense, I WAS NOT READY.

Then one day I woke up and was done. I gave the rest of my cigs to my mother...who lived with me... and never picked them up again.

Out of everything I did to assist me in stopping smoking, none of it worked. I kept saying I wanted to quit...but I didn't, not really. When I was finally ready to quit, I did.

This is me exactly. One day something just clicked into place and I never went back. It was almost spooky.

---

OP,

There is only ONE way to quit smoking: THE WAY THAT WORKS FOR YOU!
Some quit with nicotine gum.
Some quit cold turkey.
Some quit on the patch.
Some quit by stepping down.
Some quit with Chantix.
Some quit with hypnotherapy.
Try the one you think will work for you. If it fails try something else until you find what does work. For me, and a few others it was as simple as having something go off in our brains saying "I'm not a smoker."

I quit 25 days ago! Yay!

I now use that money for a monthly pedicure.

You are bigger than the addiction. TAKE CONTROL. The first few days SUCK *kitten* as the nicotine is leaving your system ...but after the first week, I never felt better. Holy crap. I LOVE IT! I'M FREE!!

Bump!!!!

I was a pack a day smoker while working in a non-smoking environment--so I really smoked in my free time. It took about 3 serious tries for me to quit. Using nicotine gum worked best for me. I used a lot of it for 3 years before I switched to regular gum. I am now nicotine-free as well as a non-smoker. I still have cravings sometimes, but remind myself that it would take almost nothing for me to be back at a pack a day, so I do not act on the cravings.

Driving new routes so you do not stop at stores or gas stations where you have bought cigarettes helps, also. I would sometimes say to myself "Drive by this store, if you still want a cigarette when you go by the next store, stop there" Usually, the craving was gone by then. Like all addictions, one day at a time. Good luck.

Be like that guy in that Nissan commercial, and go give your "gas station gear" back to the counter guy lol. Pay for gas at the pump and do not go into the store. You got this!

Just quit 3 days ago, finally, after a few false starts. Started in early teens; mid-30s now. Quit for a year and a half in there.

Immediate reason: I got bronchitis AGAIN, and I have a scary wheeze, and feel (& have been told) that while obviously no one should smoke, *I personally* am not allowed to smoke anymore. Cancer and emphysema are no longer distant spectres, and COPD's, like, breathing down my neck. (Or not, as the case may be.)

I'm using puffers again, and hope like hell I won't have to permanently.

I have felt this way before & forgotten about it months later. Not happening again. I have more to do on this planet, and would be pissed if I didn't get more time.

***
Other things:

- I read Allen Carr's Easy Way to Quit Smoking some years ago. It helped me frame things in a way that's stuck. Rereading it now. Highly recommended.
http://www.theeasywaytostopsmoking.com

- In part with the help of that book, I formed a vision of myself as a healthy, capable, vital person. I connected that image with myself as a kid. With things I have yet to do. Cigarettes and addiction have no place in that life. They are a kind of enslavement. No person should be a slave to anything or one.

- When I quit last time, I found myself with so much more energy. And time. To do things that matter. I honestly was a better person. (And am on the way again

- Smoking ages skin & hair, & I don't want to look older than I am. Or FEEL older than I am.

- I persuaded the people close to me not to smoke in my presence. Thankfully, they agreed, and it's made a difference. (Some people are highly sensitive to cues; I'm one of them; it makes a difference. Though it obviously comes down to me. But it makes a HUGE DIFFERENCE.)

My intention is to avoid smokers & smoking situations for some months. I'm glad it's fall/winter now.

- I'm almost the last person I know who's my age to smoke. It's considered a sort of low thing to do. It's embarrassing.

^ mostly motivational factors. Important to build them up, make them matter.

- I am using the PATCH BACKED UP BY NICOTINE LOZENGES. I haven't had a problem with physical cravings yet. This is recommended by lots of experts now, by the way.

***
Good luck! You deserve health.

BTW, on my last night of smoking, my beloved Cowboys got pummeled by da Bears, and I gave 10 cigs plus a lighter to an older guy asking for a cig at the bus stop. My previous quit record was 30 days. I am looking to beat that by a longshot.

I am already running longer runs, and breathing easier. It is quite rewarding, and I do not stink! I am loving it!

OMG!!!! I so wanted a cigarette that night! And every day I had to look at the bear logo on my FB profile for losing a bet. But I didn't smoke ... Not yet. 21 days ... It seems like it has been so much longer.

Didn't read all the responses you got, but here's how I finally did it (smoked for 15 years, quit 15 years ago):

1) BEFORE you stop, concentrate every time you smoke on how the back of your throat tastes. Really notice that rancid, rotting flavor that lives back there at the base of your tongue. That *kitten* is gross. Tattoo it on your brain.

2) Again, before you stop, concentrate on the tight, almost head-achy feeling you get in your temples when you over-smoke (if that term makes any sense). That just feels so unpleasant. Really seriously yucky.

3) Still before stopping, notice yourself clearing your throat. Notice the texture and the taste of that stuff you're moving around when you do that. That is some of the nastiest goop ever. Like just so disgusting it's hard to imagine. Now notice it some more.

4) Stop any of the behaviors that encourage your smoking before you try to quit cigarettes. Like if you really enjoy a cup of coffee and a cigarette, stop drinking coffee before you tackle smoking. When I stopped cigarettes, I first quit coffee, drinking, and my loser boyfriend. I have since gone back to the coffee and drinking. :drinker:

5) On the day you quit smoking, get rid of the smokes. Either by smoking them or by wetting them down so they disintegrate.

THEN

6) Begin fantasizing about the next time you smoke. Yes, I know the whole point is to QUIT, not to think about starting again. But much of what you're doing when you stop smoking is training your brain to stop (mental stuff), not just getting over the physical withdrawals from nicotine. When I first stopped, I woke in the morning thinking about how I would reward myself at lunchtime with a cigarette. I told myself I would concentrate on getting through the whole morning and then going to a certain store to purchase a certain brand and then go to a certain spot to enjoy it. Then when lunchtime came, instead of actually going out and buying cigarettes, I'd move my reward out to after work, then after my drive home, then tomorrow morning -- each time building my perfect smoking moment in my mind, beginning with buying a pack of smokes. I was very specific. There were times I wanted to smoke something dark and foreign -- Gauloises perhaps -- and other times I wanted more of a straight-forward American flavor like regular Marlboro's or maybe Camels. Sometimes I wanted to smoke on the balcony at my work, sometimes on my sunny back porch, sometimes in my car. Get creative -- this is YOUR fantasy. And it's pretty amazing how satisfying it can be if you give it a shot. Pretty soon I noticed my stretches of time between thinking of smoking grew longer and longer until they were just gone. Was it easy? Oh, hell no. But it worked.

7) This is actually a disclaimer, not an instruction: I made this "system" up. It occurred organically within my own little mind and it worked for me. There is no science behind it and I have no proof that it works except myself. It may help you, it may not. I certainly hope it does!

8) This IS an instruction: Remember to be kind to yourself. It's a hard addiction to kick.

I can't name the source, but I know this HAS to be scientific fact:

People who are non-smokers have better sex!

It has to be true! Guys, this should be a good chunk of motivation!

I love how much we recent quitters are into caps, in this thread, lol.

Wish you the best....Shoot me a message if'n ya ever want some support or just want to chat....I quit March 3, 2010.
Hugs
Shelly

i used the patch step down method along with quit tea, or other tea and a quit smoking app on the front page of my phone with achievements and such telling me my progress! since i lost the taste for a cig by using the patch im not tempted to light up and i am so happy i am where i am right now