smoking!

I quit smoking in two steps.

First step was to quit cigarettes. I used nicotine gum. I didn't use the gum the way you are supposed to. I just chewed however much I needed to for a few months. I did it knowing full well that, on the gum, I was still an addict. Getting off cigarettes was almost cosmetic.

Once I felt I had a handle on not smoking cigarettes, I quit the gum. I got on Bupropion and, when it had built up in my system, I quit the gum cold. I didn't wean myself off of it or any of that nonsense. I had heard it was quite common for people to just end up chewing the gum for extended periods and did not want to be one of them.

I put on 15 lbs after my successful attempt. There were many failed attempts before that and I gained each time then took most off again. All told, I put on about 20 from quitting smoking. But I wasn't trying to prevent weight gain. I was too afraid of making it too hard for myself by piling on the things I had to worry about.

E-cigarettes are how I finally quit in April 2011 after smoking for 25 years. I tried gum, the patch, and cold turkey in earnest (3 months of not smoking with each) before, but ultimately failed. I'm stil addicted to nicotine, but I don't have the smoker's endurance troubles I had when I was 100 lbs lighter than now, and my blood pressure and heart rate are excellent.

They're WAY less expensive than smoking, and the nicotine liquid comes in non-tobacco flavors (which are the only ones I use). Here's a link to a forum with anything and everything you could ever want to know: http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/

I quit three months ago after an almost fifteen year, pack-a-day habit. I made a plan to quit on a particular day by planning to run out of cigarettes the night before. I had been out of work so I could plan on going through withdrawal without caring about how I would affect others--besides my roommate who was a witness to my insanity. I made sure that I had enough food and videos to last weeks. Since then, I've been smoke free.

Ok, so I gained between twenty and thirty pounds between then and a month ago. Was it worth it? Absolutely. Most of that gain wasn't on account of a metabolic change but a change in my eating habits. I made it ok for me to eat a half a tray of brownies in one sitting because I knew both that I was going to be very hungry because of the changes my body was going through and also that I could easily lose it. The good part is that I've already lost ten of those pound and am on track to being a healthier and longer living person. I already feel better than I have in very long and can breathe better than I have since I was a sixteen year old.

Even if I had gained one hundred pounds I'd still be healthier than had I gone on living as a smoker. Smoking will kill you and sooner than you think.

It's harder than quitting heroin. It's harder than almost anything. But it's worth it. The weeks after I quit I had moments of incoherent babbling and rambling, cold sweats, needing to crawl into a fetal position and cry, and a feeling of profound loss and futility. Now, I'm happy and have maybe a craving a week. This is only three months later.

Dude, you can do this because a few vanity pounds aren't worth your life. Hell, maybe you have the skills now to account for that 200 calorie metabolic change and maybe you'll even be closer to your goals after the first month.

Good luck,
BC

Have you thought about trying Chantix?

If you're ready, you'll do it. Exercise is good. When you get the urge, go for a walk. I'm coming up on my 1 year anniversary of quitting after smoking for 20 years. Keep your eye on the prize and try to remember it will get better!

This made me think of how a friend of mine quit. He made a rule that he could smoke, but only at particular park about 3 miles from his house, and he had to get there on foot. He ended up smoking a lot at first, but got into running as a result. 20 years later, hes still running 10 miles most days.

I used the NHS Quit Smoking service. It consists of an app that counts the time since you quit, a 'tangle', which is a little plastic toy that gives your hands something to play with and a 30-day calendar with motivational stickers etc, since the first 30 days are the hardest. I also chewed regular sugar-free gum.

If you're not in the UK, I'm sure you can put together something similar for yourself. I did try nicotine gum, but I found it didn't really help with the nicotine addiction.

Another two things that helped were the Smoker's Vow and a fact about cravings. You can find the Vow on the internet. It's basically something that you can read to yourself each time you want a cigarette that reminds you how awful smoking is. The fact I read is that the average smoker has three proper cravings a day, each of which lasts three minutes. If you have twice as many cravings a day and they are twice as bad, that's still only 36 minutes - a little over half an hour per day where proper willpower is needed.

The last thing I found that helped was eliminating the smell of tobacco. When I moved flats I decided not to smoke indoors anymore. That way there was no smell of smoke to remind me. When I actually did quit, I washed/dry cleaned all of my clothes in a single weekend so that none of them smelled of smoke anymore.

All of that in combination meant that I smoked my last cigarette on 19 September 2011 and have not had a single lapse since and have not used nicotine gum, spray etc.

The world smells better!

Your sense of smell does improve. But that is not always a good thing.

On the other hand, standing next to a smoker in a grocery story line/queue is always revelatory--smokers smell worse than someone who hasn't bathed in weeks.

I quit before I started worrying about my nutrition so this may not be the best advice, but the thing that really worked for me was...POPSICLES! It takes about as much time to eat a popsicle as it does to smoke a cigarette and it satisfies the oral fixation aspect. During the times when I used to light up, like when I first get into my car or finish a good meal- I would have a popsicle. You can also get single popsicles at the gas station for a "fix," lol. They have all kinds of super low calorie popsicles now and you can buy molds and make your own from fresh fruit and juice. I know it sounds silly, but it worked for me! The floor of my car was littered with popsicle sticks for weeks! I have also heard having carrot and celery sticks around or chewing on a toothpick can help.

The patch and the e-cig made me really nauseous, however my girlfriend had success with the e-cig. She used blu brand.

Tell the people in your life you are quitting so you are accountable to stick to it and they will know to be a little lenient if you are a bit grouchy! The times when I have been tempted to smoke again, like if I am having a couple of drinks or on vacation, I know I am an addict and I cannot have "just 1," it would be the whole pack...and I tell myself "QUITTING IS JUST TOO HARD TO DO OVER AND OVER AGAIN!"

Good luck! It is a hard thing but so is weight loss! You can do it!

I quit 2 years, 5 months, 1 week, 6 days, 3 hours, 25 mins and 45 secs ago... I know this as I opened up my Silk Quit meter which I haven't look at in, ooh, probably about 2 years :-) I found it invaluable, I like that I can see that (at the price they were then) I've saved £6,378.18 and that I haven't smoked 22,378 cigarettes - wow! It'd be a lot more than that in money though, cigs are much more expensive (download it, it really helped me) But, anyway, I'm another firm believer in Allan Carr - the man was a god in my mind - I quit twice, the first time I stayed clean for about 5 years then in a fit of stupidity started again. The last time I had had enough - I had lost a lot of weight, was running, but was getting off the treadmill and lighting up - how stupid is that?? I was putting off quitting due to gaining weight again, so I was never fully committed to my weight loss as I knew I needed to quit smoking. I injured myself, read the book again and quit again. It wasn't easy, but it is never as hard as you think it is going to be either - its hell for a few weeks but you keep busy, you push through. I always figured that eventually I would have to quit, now it might be when I had lung cancer and was on oxygen, then I would be tied to a bed with drips and forced not to smoke - that would be hell - this way it was on my terms :-) I did put on weight - about 3 stone (40lb?) but that was mainly due to enforced inactivity and being stupid - I ate, I knew what I was doing, it was almost self destructive! Now I'm losing it again, but without the cigs and I will NEVER go back to smoking :-)

I quit on Feb 23rd and i read Allen Carr's easy way which really does work I also joined this forum http://quitsmoking.about.com/ which I go to daily for suppport and encouragement. It can be hard but living is far more important to me now than smoking. You can do this!!!