Just Quit Smoking -Advice

Oh, I'm so good at quitting smoking I've probably done it 10 times and I'm 27. Longest stretch was 3 years and I DID use the e-cig. Worked like a charm. Didn't smoke at all and then I got stupid and proud and thought I was invincible. Started bumming smokes in public while drinking because I thought I'd look like a weirdo with the e-cig. What a dumb thing.

Anyway, I recently had to quit again after another 3 year smoking stint. I did it the same way. I used patches at first, then I bought the e-cig. It is a switchover for me. I will continue to use it so that I don't smoke. 3 years was the longest I'd ever gone without smoking. The patches work for a while, but when I get off the last step, I am always more moody than I'd ever want to be. It sucks.

Anyway, I didn't gain weight any of the times I quit. The thing I did the first time around before I got the e-cigs was chew gum. That was so that I wouldn't try to eat to satisfy an urge to smoke. This time, I would just say "okay, you JUST ate, you are not hungry, you want to smoke" then I'd sit back down and wait to actually feel hungry.

It's different for everyone. Good job making the decision and keep it going! You should be proud of yourself. Read up on how your body recovers the longer you've been smoke-free. That always made me smile and want to continue.

they way I stopped smoking was by reading Allan Carr's easy way to stop smoking. It's a bit repetitive but it really helped. I went into it total skeptic and not even trying to quit, read it over the course of 1 day... and by the time I finished the last chapter, I never touched a smoke again. I think you can pick up the small book for about 10 bucks.

I quit last October using an e-cig. It's awesome, I didn't even want to smoke! It's the only think that ever worked for me.

Just out of curiosity, are you still using the e-cig or have you gone off that as well? My friends have used them differently, some weaning themselves off the e-cig and some just doing a straight swap to full on Vaping enthusiasts.

I quit a year ago using an e-cig (as did some of my friends) and now I'm a vaping enthusiast. If you can manage without them, then do, but e-cigs are a vastly better, healthier, cheaper and tastier alternative to smoking, and after a while with them cigarettes taste disgusting so they're very effective for quitting. If you're really struggling with a craving to smoke, better an ecig than a cigarette.

Oh, and ignore the poster who thinks e-cigs cause cancer. Ignorance abounds!

Congratulations on deciding to quit. You won't regret it. Good luck!

Not sure about the looking like a douche part, but I agree. e-cigs are supplying nicotine just like the tabacco kind. Nicotine is what you are addicted to. Stop using nicotine. As data is collected regarding e-cigs, I believe we will see more and more young people getting cancer from using them. No smokes are safe. I don't care what the marketing says.

Maybe instead of marketing, you should look at actual research done on them.

http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.3109/08958378.2013.793439

http://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/10/10/5146

http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1471-2458-14-18.pdf

http://www.ecigarette-research.com/EUROECHO2013-ecigs.pdf

http://ntr.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2013/12/10/ntr.ntt203.short?rss=1

www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/10/10/5146/pdf

publichealth.drexel.edu/~/media/Files/publichealth/ms08.ashx

http://www.healthnz.co.nz/ECigsExhaledSmoke.htm

http://jpet.aspetjournals.org/content/91/1/52.abstract

While I agree they are better than Cigarette how much of that research was funded by the tobacco lobby? htey are notorious for biased research and have been snce it first came out smoking and cancer were linked in 1964,
Every big tobacco player is in the E-Cig game and they are the ones who fought to allow Nicotine in them. As long as they have you inhaling Nicotine they have you. I quit using several nicotine replacement sytems over the years and always ended up smoking again. You've not truly quit unless you have quit Nicotine. Big Tobacco knows this why do you think they are in all versions of the nicotine replacement game and why they fought to have it so readily available (it's less regulated than cigarettes some places and they are trying to sell vaping as cool - notice all the vaping boards etc, got news for you they are marketing tools for Big Tobacco

The best plan is quit Nicotine cold. it will clear your system in 72 hours. If you need it use the other drug therapies to help with the anxieties and get support form friends and family
(and vaping is not just water, it's water plus additives without long term testing or implications having been done -just substituting one habit for another and that never works long term

Not sure about the looking like a douche part, but I agree. e-cigs are supplying nicotine just like the tabacco kind. Nicotine is what you are addicted to. Stop using nicotine. As data is collected regarding e-cigs, I believe we will see more and more young people getting cancer from using them. No smokes are safe. I don't care what the marketing says.

Maybe instead of marketing, you should look at actual research done on them.

http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.3109/08958378.2013.793439

http://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/10/10/5146

http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1471-2458-14-18.pdf

http://www.ecigarette-research.com/EUROECHO2013-ecigs.pdf

http://ntr.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2013/12/10/ntr.ntt203.short?rss=1

www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/10/10/5146/pdf

publichealth.drexel.edu/~/media/Files/publichealth/ms08.ashx

http://www.healthnz.co.nz/ECigsExhaledSmoke.htm

http://jpet.aspetjournals.org/content/91/1/52.abstract

While I agree they are better than Cigarette how much of that research was funded by the tobacco lobby? htey are notorious for biased research and have been snce it first came out smoking and cancer were linked in 1964,
Every big tobacco player is in the E-Cig game and they are the ones who fought to allow Nicotine in them. As long as they have you inhaling Nicotine they have you. I quit using several nicotine replacement sytems over the years and always ended up smoking again. You've not truly quit unless you have quit Nicotine. Big Tobacco knows this why do you think they are in all versions of the nicotine replacement game and why they fought to have it so readily available (it's less regulated than cigarettes some places and they are trying to sell vaping as cool - notice all the vaping boards etc, got news for you they are marketing tools for Big Tobacco

The best plan is quit Nicotine cold. it will clear your system in 72 hours. If you need it use the other drug therapies to help with the anxieties and get support form friends and family
(and vaping is not just water, it's water plus additives without long term testing or implications having been done -just substituting one habit for another and that never works long term

Well said....completely agree with this.

I quit a little over a year ago after 16 years of smoking. I quit cold turkey. I just decided that I wasn't going to smoke anymore.

The advice I have:

STAY AWAY FROM SITUATIONS WHERE YOU USED TO SMOKE ALL THE TIME.

I don't know what your habits were, but I used to smoke at bars a lot. So, for a few months, I stayed away from them.

I also used to smoke while cooking. No, not in the kitchen, I smoked outside. I had a horrible habit of timing everything in the kitchen by how long it took to smoke a cigarette. When I'd get the urge to have a smoke while cooking (which was the biggest urge I had), I'd just pace around a bit. Chew some gum. A hard candy. Just something to get that oral fix out of the way. The pacing around my house (my house is built for pacing, since the hall leads into the kitchen which leads into the dining room which leads into the living room, which leads back to the hall) just kept me from going crazy. I won't lie, that took a solid four to five months to crack.

Those two were my biggest triggers. You just have to look at what your big triggers are and find ways to cope with them.

I am not even close to referring to myself as an ex-smoker

Actually, my very first piece of advice IS to refer to yourself as an ex-smoker. As soon as I changed my mindset from smoker to nonsmoker, the game changed for me. (I quit 5 years ago after smoking for 14).

Nonsmokers don't smoke. Ever.

I also agree with just stopping - I don't personally agree with swapping one habit for another. I do not believe e-cigs are "just inhaling water vapor". There is nicotine in some cases and also chemical additives. If it was just water vapor, which has no flavor or nicotine, no one would do it.

Good for you! I know how hard that is. After 3-5 days, the nicotine will be gone from your system, but the addiction will certainly not be gone. I quit about 5 months ago, and I still think about it constantly. Like choosing to eat better, and live healthier, choosing not to smoke is a decision you'll have to consciously make everyday.

Things that helped me were drinking TONS of water (it helped me keep my mouth busy, and it helped me detox my body), knitting (seriously...), and making mental and physical lists of all of the reasons that I don't want to smoke anymore. My shortlist:

1) It makes me feel gross
2) It causes a lot of diseases that I can easily avoid if I stop, and I want to live a long and fruitful life
3) It makes me smell bad
4) It's bad for my teeth, my skin, and my hair
5) It cost me almost $300 a month. Saving money is a huge incentive
6) It was a crutch for me to cope with bigger issues.

For me, I had anxiety that was quelled by smoking. After I quit, my anxiety spiked. I realized that there was probably more to it than just being in withdrawal. That's when you should see your doctor or a counselor. Just like food, sometimes we smoke for more complex reasons than just nicotine.

Best of luck to you! It gets easier every day

congratulations to you!!!! best thing you could do for yourself. I quit 5 years ago and had no negative side effects at all. I was ready to quit and I just did it. Didn't gain weight (possibly 1-2 water lbs) and only good things happened including not stinking LOL!

First of all, Congratulations on quitting!

I quit smoking last July. I had been smoking for 15 years. I didn't take anything to help with cravings except I used an e-cig. I just made up my mind that I wanted to quit. There is a brand of e-cigs that is nicotine free, they're called Smoke NV, you can purchase them online. I found that they helped with the hand/mouth cravings. I found that I craved the habit more than the nicotine, especially on my morning drive to work, the e-cig helped a lot.

The best advice I can give you is this:(this is what helped me)
1) Keep working out! When you start to notice how your workouts are becoming easier and easier every week because your lung capacity is improving, it will motivate you to stick with it. It is such an amazing feeling to be able to push yourself until your muscles scream at you instead of your lungs!
2) If/When you start to crave a smoke, instead of saying, "No, I'm not going to cave in", tell yourself, "I DON'T smoke" or "I'm not a smoker". Tell yourself that you HAVE quit smoking, not that you ARE quitting. This is a battle that has to be won mentally.
3) Put the money that you would use to buy smokes in a bank account. When you get bad craving, go look at the balance and ask yourself if you want to pi$$ it away again. After a month, or what ever time you set, use that money to buy yourself something.
4) Smoking is a very social activity, so that makes it hard when you have friends who smoke. Tell them all that you have quit. Hopefully they'll be supportive. I found that the e-cig helped with this. When I first quit and was out with friends who smoke, I would still join them with my e-cig. They laughed at me at first, but seeing me smoke-free for 9 months has caused many of them to come and ask for help to quit also.
5) Any time I got a bad craving at home, I went and worked out. After my workout, I didn't want to smoke.
6) To help fight snacking: chew gum. Have plenty of healthy snacks ready to go like carrot and celery sticks. Drink lots of water, it keeps you full and you won't want to snack.
7) Go online and look up the benefits of quitting, find the list that shows the changes in you body after so many hours, days, and weeks. Also, look up things like "smokers face". If you crave a smoke, look up the bad things about it. Train your mind to associate smoking with all the gross and disgusting aspects about it.
8) Log everything that you eat. I logged with MFP and only gained 5 pounds over 2 months. Without tracking my food, I'm sure I would have packed on at least 20 pounds more.
9) Don't be afraid to kick your own *kitten*!!!! No one else can do this for you!

These are a few things that helped me. I didn't look to see where you live, but some places also have help lines where you can call for free help and advice on quitting. What I found most effective is #7, then each time I craved a smoke, I started to automatically think of all the bad things and the craving would be gone. Now, I hate the smell of cigarette smoke. Three months after I had quit smoking, I had to go for a fit test to see if I could wear a respirator at work. Part of this test was a lung capacity test. I had to blow in this little machine until it beeped. My lungs would be empty within a couple seconds, but you still had to sit there and keep blowing. My report told me that my "lung age" was 30 (which I was at the time). I asked the lady doing the test what kind of results she sees from smokers, she said that most smokers my age who get tested will get a "lung age" of 65 years or higher!!

As for those who are scared of weight gain, I looked at it this way: "I can either quit smoking, put a few pounds on now that I will be able to take off later (and it will be much easier without smoking); OR I can keep smoking and not work out and be unhealthy, stinky, and fat for the rest of my life. And instead of earning a smoking hot body, I'll have pi$$ed thousands of dollars away and will have an ugly, wrinkly, leather-bag smokers face".

I hope this helps! Good luck!!! Remember you're stronger than you think!