How did you quit smoking?

I used Chantix, I was supposed to set a quit date 7-10 days after I started taking the meds... so of course I chose 10... within 3 days my cigs tasted like licking a 2 year old, never cleaned ash tray and I was immediately down to about 4 a day, had completely quit by day 6, that was back in May, the smell still makes me nauseous and I never want to go there again. I did gain 10 pounds, but they are back off now and I feel better than I did in my 20s, literally! I wish you the Very Best Luck with this decision.... You have to do what is right for You, but believe me.... YOU ARE WORTH IT!!

I quit at the same time as starting MFP. I think that helped because gaining weight was always a concern with quitting smoking. As of this week it has been 2 months smoke free. Knowing the start date for diet/quitting smoking I started to cut back on smoking a few days ahead of time and then went cold turkey. First few days were rough, but it got easier after a couple of weeks and now I hardly think about it at all. You'll do great! Good luck

Cold turkey. I had only been smoking 2-4 cigarettes a day by then, my highest was a pack a day. I had started working out regularly and was having trouble breathing while doing cardio (plus I a lot heavier). I woke up one morning (Oct 31, 2004) and said "enough, I am done." I haven't looked back since. I went through spurts of being a "social smoker." I would have a few here and there while I was out but still considered myself an ex-smoker. I would go back to my normal routine and not even think about smoking nor crave it. Now, I really can't stand them at all.

I used the gum and quit in '96 when my then-little girl pretended to smoke a crayon and said, "When I grow up, I'll smoke real cigarettes like Mommy." :noway:

Great question and I do equate some of the needed tools for quitting smoking as also useful for losing weight. I had felt for decades that I needed to improve myself by quitting smoking, losing weight and probably a few other things but I would try and falter or try and fail and felt like if I couldn't change everything at once it wasn't worth it. So, big psych outs. One thing about quitting smoking I always believed though was that trying and not succeeding wasn't the same thing as trying and failing. And I also knew that the more times you tried the better your chances became of succeeding.

Here's a little funny and even true story I like to tell: I used acupuncture to quit smoking. Yup, I had 3 sessions and 10 years later I quit! (ok, I'm a smart *kitten*, but its true).

So, for my final, successful run at quitting (18 yrs smoke free after 20 as a pack a day smoker) I employed several strategies:

1) listed first because it speaks to my main motivation: both my parents had heart attacks and I had multiple family members from older generations who had died from heart attacks. I faced the fact that heart disease ran in my family and not smoking may not prevent it but it sure wouldn't help me down the road with dealing with it.

2) a friend gave me a smoking cessation self-hypnosis tape (yeah, 18 yrs ago it was "tapes"). One side of the tape was a deep relaxation hypnosis side and the other side was just subliminal messaging you couldn't hear, it was just ocean wave sounds and some flute music set over the sounds. I'd listen to the hypnosis side every night and the subliminal side during my evening bath. The hypnosis side asked you to mentally set a date for quitting. Initially I would mentally say "I will quite smoking when I am ready to". Eventually I picked a date 6 months out. I picked the memorial day holiday because it seemed easy to remember. So, for more than 6 months not a day went by that I didn't listen to 2 hours worth of quit smoking messaging. I smoked a pack the day before I quit. And on the day I quit I bought a pack of nicorette gum to have on hand. I chewed a couple pieces a day for only a couple days. The hit of nicotine made me dizzy. So, I quit and haven't smoked a single cigarette since (nor have I even wanted one!). One thing I did mentally write into my hypnosis program was that I couldn't care if others around me smoked, even in my car or home. I didn't want to care at all about cigarettes. That has held true even to this day. I really don't care (except for some reason I do care that my sister smokes, but I let her smoke in my car anyway). Because I feel strongly that the self-hypnosis method was a huge help to me in breaking my smoke habit, I have now been using weight-loss self-hypnosis CD's for my weight loss efforts and find them very helpful and the messages incredibly positive and reinforcing. It doesn't hurt to reprogram that little voice in your head if its been telling you stuff that undermines your efforts to make positive changes in your life.

3) I was dating a pulmonary doctor during the time I was trying to quit. Whenever I saw him I asked him to tell me about any of his patients battling smoking related illnesses. It wasn't pretty. Negative imagery may or may not work for everyone, but I tell ya, imaging my nostrils eaten away by cancer scared me a lot! He also told me an observation he had about counseling people to quit smoking: 1/3 can quit cold turkey, 1/3 can quit via a program and 1/3 can't or won't or don't quit. I resolved to being one of the people who COULD quit.

SORRY this was so long!!!! I know that everyone needs to come to their own method that will work for them, but gathering information about how others succeeded can be very helpful. I also think that often a multi-faceted approach is very helpful. Go at it from several layers.

GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

JoJo

i quit smoking cold turnkey on March 18th, 1999. i put that cigarette out telling Jesus that He would no longer smoke through my body. that whatever he wanted for me, i would do.

my Husband, took Chantix. he set his stop smoking date according to his work schedule, he wanted a couple days off for his start date. he took the first week of meds, stopped smoking the next week, got a stomach bug, stopped taking the meds and never went back to the meds or the smokes. he has been smoke free over 2.5 years.

cheering you on!

I posted something about 2 weeks ago. Well more like replied on someone else post regarding smoking. I have been a smoker for a very long time. Out of everything I have tried Chantrix was the only thing that worked but I stopped taking it when it caused my abdomen soreness and I was angry all the time for no reason. I have thought about quitting cold turkey. But I will be honest, eventhough I know all the risks and benefits, quitting cold turkey really scares me. BUT, I will try because I really would like to quit. I know its more of a mental thing than anything else. I have begun smoking at scheduled times now instead of smoking at random. I will have a smoke about every 2-3 hours now. And thats a great start for me since i'm somewhat of a chain smoker. I will quit cold turkey. The day after Thanksgiving will be my first cold turkey day.... I will pray and see how it goes from there. I want to bring 2011 in smoke free. Hmmmm maybe those of us who are trying to quit can form some type of smokers support group. Just a thought though.

I quit cold turkey. Just decided one day that I should quit instead of going to the store for a pack cause I had run out. Instead I spent the money I would have spent on the cigs on something nice for me:) I wasn't a heavy smoker though. I usually was only smoking 5 to 10 a day. Wish I could give some advice on what to do to quit though. I just toughed it out until I didn't have anymore cravings. My husband did the same thing when he quit.

I really hope you find something to help you out. I know I'm not much help right now....But I'll help support you on that journey as well:)

Cut back/ then cold turkey nearly 20 years ago, after many many attempts. I was down to 5-10 a day by then.

I had to quit drinking at the same time, I found that when my inhibitions were lowered after a couple drinks, I would smoke.

It was way past time. I did it for my peace of mind - not giving in to an addiction that was going to kill me. I smoked for many years.


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That's what I think would be my worst challenge,drinking and not smoking.I want to quit as well.Good info on this post

Cold turkey and I stopped hanging out with other smokers. I still want to sometimes.

Hey :bigsmile:

Cold Turkey :drinker: I was a 20 + a day smoker and am now smoke free the last 13 days :bigsmile: For me this is my 3rd attempt and not to put a downer on it but the previous 2 times were over 2 years :grumble:

In saying that the reasons this time for quitting are for my new lifestyle It's hard to be working out when emmm you cannot breathe lol Also I wasn't a member of any kind of support group ie MFP the support on here is priceless update your status you are having a bad day, need a ciggy etc and within mins usually you have someone helping you out :laugh:

I agree you have to set the idea in your head and really want to do it For me it was after my hols I said to myself once the Duty free smokes are gone that is it I am QUITTING!! I had the ritual with the last box and made sure I enjoyed every last one and said right ... that is it!!

Once I had quit before I went to bed I washed all the ashtrays and sprayed the rooms with a nice airfreshener so the following morning I wouldn't get the smell of stale smoke That did help :flowerforyou:

Now when I feel I need one I go and burn some cals instead by going out for a walk, getting on treadmill or doing a workout DVD

You can do it :flowerforyou:

I was ready to quit for a while before I put them down. That's the key. You have to really WANT to stop (and thinking "I really should stop" or "I'd like to stop" while happily lighting up doesn't count). I was smoking for a good month or so and each time I lit up I thought "I really don't WANT this".

I quit officially in July when I changed jobs. So not only did I WANT to quit, I was in a totally new environment when I had no smoking buddies, not smoke breaks built into my day, a commute that didn't involve my car...

It was the perfect storm and I've not looked back

Charmagne

I used Chantix, I was supposed to set a quit date 7-10 days after I started taking the meds... so of course I chose 10... within 3 days my cigs tasted like licking a 2 year old, never cleaned ash tray and I was immediately down to about 4 a day, had completely quit by day 6, that was back in May, the smell still makes me nauseous and I never want to go there again. I did gain 10 pounds, but they are back off now and I feel better than I did in my 20s, literally! I wish you the Very Best Luck with this decision.... You have to do what is right for You, but believe me.... YOU ARE WORTH IT!!

I'm on week 10 of Champix ... I still smoke ... but I'm down to4 a day from 20 a day ... Hypnotherapy didn't work either... I have no idea how to quit, I'm at a loss ... completely lost on this. champix though was the first pill that made me feel like i couldn't be bothered to smoke. They make me want to throw up after taking them for about 20 minutes - even with food...

I'm convinced it will take me getting preggers to quit

I'm on week 10 of Champix ... I still smoke ... but I'm down to4 a day from 20 a day ... Hypnotherapy didn't work either... I have no idea how to quit, I'm at a loss ... completely lost on this. champix though was the first pill that made me feel like i couldn't be bothered to smoke. They make me want to throw up after taking them for about 20 minutes - even with food...

I'm convinced it will take me getting preggers to quit

You will get there. I've been smoking for 20 years, back then two of my best friends and I would smoke all the time when we get together, even now we still hang out together. The only difference is, one of them has Emphysema(still smokes at age 35), the othe had quit for 6 months(smoker for 20 years and non-filter at that), using Chantix, and me that's trying to quit smoking. You will noticed while using Chantix you wouldn't want to smoke as much, the time you do want to smoke is in your head, give what I do a try(actually this is from the friend that had quit), buy some dum dum pops(small suckers) and take one whenever you want a smoke, it takes about the same amount of time to smoke a cig as eating the sucker, it helps take the edge off. If you still need to smoke after that, just push it off till your next smoke break.

Hope this help.

Oh, to test my will power, I have an almost full pack of smokes in my pocket that tease me all the time, but I am telling it that I am stronger than it is, instead I reach in other pocket for my dum dum.

PC

That is GREAT Advice, and you're right about when I need a smoke. I told my doctor that the morning smoke is the only one I truly crave, and the only one that I enjoy in the day, the other three are out of pure 'habbit' - 2 at lunch and 1 on the way home from work ... When I'm at home, I don't even think about it ... it's just that morning one that drives me nutty.

I just did this. I'm 1 month of not smoking.(20+ year smoker).. I took champix, and it does take away the cravings.
Smoking out of habit is a different matter. You need to keep busy, and change your routines slightly.

I used gum and a straw for my first week to get through the oral fixations.

This website helped.
http://whyquit.com/whyquit/A_Benefits_Time_Table.html
There are 3 stories near the bottom, and I didn't read all of them, just Bryan's
http://whyquit.com/whyquit/BryanLeeCurtis.html

This FREE 200 page Ebook was VERY VERY informative, and a lot of stuff I was not aware of as a smoker.
http://whyquit.com/NTAP_large_print_212_pages.pdf

I've changed the normal question of "how much do you smoke?".
The normal answers are always "a pack a day, or 1/2 pack a day". (never sounds like a lot) :smokin:

Now I might ask them, how many is that in a month, (let the smoker calculate it ):noway:

If I knew I smoked 750 cigarettes in a month, I might have quit a long time ago. :embarassed: :grumble: :explode: :mad: :embarassed: :sick:
That's just gross, and stupid.