Quitting smoking - the best motivator in my opinion:

Sorry you're feeling poorly, hope it passes soon for you. For me, I switched to vapor instead of cigarettes and it's made all the difference.

I quit smoking 12 years ago. What did it for me, I refused to smoke on front on my son who was a baby at the time. I would go inside after a smoke was my hands, face, change my clothes, sometimes take a full shower cause the smell was in my hair. I did all this religiously because I did not want to expose my son to smell or toxins. So the routine got old and tiring, too much to handle, I just quit smoking. My health, and my son were way too important. I also keep in mind how my grandmother died from Lung Cancer when I was ten. I was by her side everyday. I only wish I had never picked up a cigarette to begin with. Good luck on
your journey. You can do this, it is possible. Decide what your cause is and go with it.

I know exactly what you mean about the exam - STAY STRONG!! I quit smoking April 2012 and have had 1.5 cigarettes since then. Honestly, all the serious health issues never motivated me that much because I'd read the articles and see just how little smoking actually increased the actual risk of serious lung/throat disease. So much of it has to do with genetics. What really motivates me to stay away from the cigarettes is the quality of life. Seriously, everything is better. My mood is more stable since I'm not in a constant state of withdrawal, I don't react to stress at work/school/commuting as much, I feel SO much better during and after exercise, I have a much better attention span at work and while studying since I'm not thinking about my next cigarette. It all comes together for a better life overall. I actually quit when I first got on MyFitnessPal and started losing weight; I guess I felt like I was wasting all the possible health benefits of the better diet and exercise and basically flushing it away with every cigarette I had. I had tried to quit 2-3 times before, and like you described, either work was too stressful, or I was between jobs and bored at home, or school was stressful, or I was meeting in-laws. And between all those situations, I actually found it much easier to quit when I had work and school to keep my mind occupied and off the cigarettes. (The attempt while I didn't have a job lasted about 2-3 days. The shortest by far.) I think it really helps if you're exercising regularly and proud of the progress you're making, so you want to protect what you've done and build on it to improve. The other major motivator is the stress that smoking placed on my marriage - even if you're not married, it affects all your relationships with friends/family/partners. When I was smoking, we were mostly fine, but even the smallest stressors put me on edge and I couldn't smoke enough to compensate for it. Every time I quit smoking, I got so ridiculously upset ALL the time that I thought it was going to end my marriage. Now that I've stabilized, even when something does trigger a craving it doesn't necessarily send me over the edge emotionally. And that's my final and biggest motivation for staying an ex-smoker. I can't possibly throw away all the support my friends, family and husband gave me and put them through the stress of my smoking and quitting again. Even just for myself, I can't throw away all the hard days I came through to get where I am and face the prospect of going through that again. Hope you make it through this!! It is SO worth it!!!!!

My quit date is August 25th, 2013. This was the PERFECT post - thank you so much. In order to gear up for this...I did make a list of the reasons I want to quit. It worked out to $4,704.00 per year by the way...so in 10 years, that's $47,000 that I have to spend on me - travelling, exercise, classes, ANYTHING I want. I can't believe it's that much. I'm going to put all that money back into myself, just in super healthy, amazingly fun ways. #1) Going to compete in a Spartan race somewhere super fun next year.

This is worth it! :happy: