What's harder? Quitting smoking or quitting overeating?

When you plan your meals are you cooking them yourself? or buying them semi or pre-prepared? or using additives like spice mixes or "helpers" etc.? If you are not making food from scratch chances are there is a lot of salt and sugar (not too different from nicotine) which just makes you crave more food.

Also it might be where you live... if you look at the Tulsa area there are two whole foods and a organic co-op for almost a million people. https://www.google.at/maps/search/whole+foods/@36.1009119,-95.8370627,12z/data=!3m1!4b1

Now look at the amount of fast food eateries... https://www.google.at/maps/search/fast+food/@36.1009119,-95.8370627,12z/data=!3m1!4b1 Even if you've been good and haven't eaten (much) junk food... just driving around the metro area you are bombarded with the idea and imagery of burgers, burritos, chicken, steak, bbq, etc. (not to mention the aisle after aisle of options at a supermarket like walmart or wherever).. so it is no wonder your struggle is never ending.

I had a harder time quitting smoking here in Europe, because everyone seems to smoke, there are cigarette machines and ads everywhere sort of like junk food options in the US. For the overeating it was much easier for me because, even though they have fast food here, it is nothing like in the states and to make the food I like, you have to cook it from scratch which allows you to remove the unnecessary fat, salt and sugar from your favorite dishes.

I have a much harder time limiting my eating than I ever did quitting smoking. I quit smoking cold turkey…………mmmmm, cold turkey

The tough thing about quitting over eating is you are still forced to eat. So you're re-engaging every day. I find that pretty hard.

But I will say that I never cried like a baby so hard as when I gave up smoking. And I gave up alcohol and drugs because I was an addict. But the withdrawal from cigarettes...more brutal than I thought it would be.

Everybody is different. For me, quitting smoking was infinitely harder. Except for the dying thing, I could quit eating all together, or I could do as I'm doing now and just control and restrict what I'm eating. Giving up or cutting down on eating is a cakewalk compared to smoking.

Note: 14 months ago I did quit smoking, but I did it by switching to vaping. The e-cigarettes keep "the voices" at bay.

The tough thing about quitting over eating is you are still forced to eat. So you're re-engaging every day. I find that pretty hard.

But I will say that I never cried like a baby so hard as when I gave up smoking. And I gave up alcohol and drugs because I was an addict. But the withdrawal from cigarettes...more brutal than I thought it would be.

Yup this...the first time I quit..I cried like a baby too...it was hard...mind you I have cried after some of my exercise too...:bigsmile:

Giving up smoking is hard...it's a physical addiction along with mental, emotional etc...all those things that overeating is...except it is often harder to give up an emotional crutch vs physical crutch.

OMG Smoking. Smoking is my crutch when I want to eat. Vicious, vicious cycle.

smoking

I think food is more difficult than any other addiction. You have to eat it every day. You have to learn and utilize new and different tricks not to fall into old habits every single day. My good friend is a member of OA (Overeaters Anonymous) and she absolutely swears by the program. There's a lot of support, sponsors, trips they go on together etc... It may be worth you looking into if you're having trouble!

My friend has been extremely successful. She has lost and kept off a lot of weight for years now.

I disagree. I was addicted to heroin and oxycontin and kicking that was the most difficult thing I have ever had to do. If you don't have the drug, you can't get out of bed, vomit constantly, and lose control of bodily functions.

Quitting smoking so much easier for me

I didn't realize there were still cigarette machines out there (*sigh* ignorant American). It was very interesting to hear your perspective!

Well they are cracking down on it and have banned smoking in many countries, but here in Austria it is still pretty much legal except for trains.

my husband is doing an 11 day clense and I am ready for a divorce! when he quit smoking at least he had the chantex!

I've done both and quitting smoking is WAY harder, no doubt.

I did both at the same time and giving up the smokes was by far harder. Curbing my consumption was only difficult when I started out and had too aggressive of an energy deficit...once I realized that a 1,000 calorie per day deficit was simply not something that was going to work for me and adjusted that back to 500 calories per day, it was pretty easy...cutting out 500 calories per day is as easy as cutting out a snack or having a single serving at dinner rather than going back for 2nds or skipping desert on certain days, etc...I thought it was really easy.

Quitting smoking was much harder for me. I still remember those first couple days like they were yesterday.

Changing my diet was (and remains) a struggle, but it's nothing compared to when I stopped smoking. I went cold turkey. I don't know if it makes a difference because I haven't quit all the different ways and can't compare them.

Both things got easier with time. When I smell smoke, I am a little disgusted now. When I see people having cheeseburgers, I'm so glad I stopped eating them. I feel better now that I don't put any of it in my body. I'm glad to be done with it.

I no longer want a cigarette or a cheeseburger. Both were tough to eliminate at first, but the cigarettes were tougher.

I know how you feel, I am fighting both of these battles right now.

I quit smoking using Nicorette gum, but the gum is too expensive for me now, and since I'm fighting the overeating I'm smoking again. I can't fight both battles so right now I'm concentrating on the lifestyle change of changing my eating habits and reaching my goal with weight loss and no more binge eating. And once I have achieved that I will start fighting the other battle.

I tried to quit smoking while doing this and found myself starting to lean towards binging again.