Giving up smoking

I've been trying to quit for a month or so now. I'm using a e cig most of the time. I want my lungs back so I can exercise harder. If you find an e cig that you like I'd say its a good stepping stone for quiting.

Good on you! Quitting smoking is the best decision you'll ever make for yourself. :happy:

Tips from an ex-smoker (I've been quit now for 9 years):

- Drink up. Ice cold water, with extra ice cubes. Believe it or not, you'll feel better. Even if you have to be in the bathroom for hours on end.
- Peppermint candies. Not the soft stuff, but the hard ones that you can let dissolve in your mouth for a while. It'll take the edge off and they taste great.
- Quitters' support groups. I used QuitNet (Google for the address). It made a huge difference in my motivation.
- Patience. It's like losing weight - it takes time to see results, but you will.
- Senses. Your sense of smell will come back and it'll hit you like a freight train (I got back mine after only 9 days - I was passing by a rose garden!!!!!). Be warned - your tastebuds will wake up, too - this is where you have to be careful, because once you can taste food again, you may not want to stop.
- Don't worry about the weight. Seems odd that I say that on MFP of all places. But... I'll put it like this - my doctor said that even if I gained 30 - yes, THIRTY - pounds of extra weight, it was STILL healthier than my pack-a-day habit. So don't worry about it for now. Work on what you can.
- The three day rule. The first 72 hours are the very worst of withdrawal. After that, it slowly gets easier. But don't quit quitting! Because you don't want to go through those 72 hours again and again. It gets worse every time you have to redo it.

I hope I've helped. I can genuinely say that, after 9 years, it was WORTH it!

:drinker: :flowerforyou:

ETA: The above methods were done as a "cold turkey" quit - no patches or gum, etc. E-cigs didn't exist in 2005 so I can't comment on their effectiveness. But ANY method is a good method if it helps you quit.

I quit 5 1/2 years ago last week. That was before e cigs were around but I used patches and they helped me.

On my 3rd month; I exercise so no weight gain either - using the eCig. Feel free to add

I quit a few years ago using the gum all while improving my diet and exercising. I actually lost 15 lbs.

I got my wife on the e cigs recently, they seem to do the trick.

I bought her the "E-Puffer" start kit. You can get varying doses of nicotine and flavours from the website. Shipping was super fast.

http://www.epuffer.com/eshop/magnum-snaps-ecigarette-epack-pcc-starter-kit.html

I was a 2 and a half pack a day smoker for 31 years till 3 weeks ago. I started on Champix and I already feel so much better.

Did you have any problems or side effects when you started taking the full dosage, two 1mg tablets per day? I had to cut mine back to only 1 a day. It was making me depressed and angry at everything. The total opposite of my personality.

I quit smoking on 12/31/2013 and haven't even look back since then

I haven't had a smoke since March 29. I'm pretty proud of myself. I've only had a few major awful cravings, mostly stress induced, as it's the end of the semester, I'm about to graduate, and we've been shorthanded at work.

This is one of the best things you could ever, ever, ever do for yourself.

I quit cold turkey on Feb.2, 2014. Nothing like a heart attack at 53 to scare me straight. Since then I am eating well, exercising and feeling better than I have in probably 10 plus years. My husband stills smokes and I can not stand the odor and I am shocked that I smelled like that for 20 some years.

Sniped

... Are there any other quiters out there? If so maybe we can make a group :-)

I quit in Nov 2012 and over the next year, gained 50 lbs. So on Jan 9th I figured I might as well go for broke so I quit eating sugar, grains and starch. Over the next 3 months, I lost 33 lbs and that included 29 days of vacation in the Caribbean (just returned to Canada Sunday night) ...

Am feeling very proud of the weight loss, my ability to sustain the no sugar, starch or grains way of eating on a 1400 calorie restricted, low carb, moderate protein and enough fat diet, in addition to my 16 months plus of smoke free living!

Vacation was the true test... and I sailed through it. I'm 54 yrs & 11 months old, post menopausal and have subclinical hypothyroidism... and still I managed to do now what previously I used to make excuses to avoid doing.

And now I am ready to add resistance training to the mix. Life is good. :-)

Quit about 5 years ago. I tried several times before. I used Chantix (US), Champix (EU/AUS). It worked great to get me to stop. THe side effects were a bit brutal. Then again dropping that habit is brutal period.

These E-cigs help, but only if you use them as a "dosing down" idea. Converting from cigs to e-cigs still involves nicotine but no tar. Still bad. If they help you stop then great. Anything the helps you stop is good.

Good luck, it ain't easy, but it's well worth it.

I have been quit for 4 Years, 1 Month, 2 Weeks, 1 Day, 16 hours, 49 minutes and 36 seconds (1,507 days). I have saved $7,538.50 by not smoking 30,154 cigarettes. I have saved 3 Months, 1 Week, 5 Days, 16 hours and 50 minutes of my life. My Quit Date: 3/1/2010 12:00 AM (yes that is an app) :blushing:

These E-cigs help, but only if you use them as a "dosing down" idea. Converting from cigs to e-cigs still involves nicotine but no tar. Still bad. If they help you stop then great. Anything the helps you stop is good.

Congratulations on quitting. I agree that quitting nicotine altogether is the best approach, but what works for some people doesn't work for everybody.

There is no evidence that I'm aware of that nicotine is any worse than caffeine. The real health hazards of smoking are in the tar and the thousands of gasses given off when tobacco burns. One of these days there may be a study linking e-cigs and health dangers. It's unlikely that they'll ever be shown to be as harmful as regular cigarettes, though.

I think everybody ought to try quitting cold turkey. If that doesn't work, try some of the smoking cessation aides like Chantix, the patch, nicotine gum or any of the other nicotine delivery systems. If they're not working for you, switch to e-cigs. They're not quite like smoking, but they're close enough to satisfy most people. And you'll immediately start to enjoy most of the health benefits of quitting smoking. You may also want to quit e-cigs one day, but even if that day never comes, your health and finances will improve dramatically.

I JUST QUIT 10 DAYS AGO!!!

Wow, I have been smoking a pack of cigarettes for 10 years and on April 6th I quit cold turkey! I was finally done, the first few days, my head was in a fog, the first day I started a fire in my kitchen that I had to stomp out, I couldn't focus on anything, I lost my sense of humor the first 3 days, I found nothing funny and just spaced off into my own head. couldn't carry conversations.

By the first weekend I had to literally sit on my hands so I wouldn't move, I became emotional in the grocery store for no reason, I was abruptly and randomly rude out of the blue to a few people. I had anxiety.

Since I stopped to this day I haven't slept well, I wake up twice in the middle of the night sweating.

BUT I DON'T MIND I HEAR IT'S JUST TWO WEEKS OF HARDSHIP AND THEN YOU'RE IN THE CLEAR!! I WANT THIS MORE THAN ANYTHING. Because I deserve it. I DERSERVE IT.

I quit smoking November 2012. I quit cold turkey by replacing cigs with DumDum lollipops. Also quitting on a Friday and sleeping through the weekend helped. I just kept telling myself "3 days and it's done. 3 days and it's done." Once the nicotine is out of your system it gets easier and easier.

Best of luck to you all. It's worth it.