quit smoking?!

Chewing on the end of a whole licorice root helped me with the cravings. It has many other natural health benefits, too. Good luck. Everyday struggles.

great to see im not the only one taking control here. im seeing the DR on Thursday to get some champix. i have had a friend who had great success with this. i have tried nicotine replacements and it didn't work.

this time its gone for good, and with that the drinking has to stop for at least a month. time to fit it up,

After smoking over 20 years, Chantix was the ticket for me. Worked like a charm. that was over 8 years ago. I didn't have any weight gain as I was active to begin with. Good luck, it is a bear to conquer but you can do it!

I quit in January of 2012 after 32 years. I started off using Chantix but the stuff made me loopy. I had to come off it so I invested in cinnamon sticks for every location I was at. Those helped a great deal. Changing routines too helps as well. I used to read a lot, but I found when I read, I smoked. Needless to say, I don't read as much now.

My doc told me to focus on quitting or weight loss, not both at the same time because if I did, I would probably fail.

The first year I focused on the quitting. I started MFP in 2013. Yes, I gained as I expected I would. You have to want to quit bad enough for it to work.

Sending you good vibes.

smoked for twenty years...quit 14 years ago.. Used the patch in conjunction with the gym was the formula for me...day 3 sucked. I failed quite a few times but finally kicked it...Good luck.

Yesterday was day 5 and I cracked and smoked about half a pack- even after admitting it tasted awful. (Had a dental procedure last Thursday so kinda had to quit for 5 days, b/c dry socket.... no thanks!) I've been using the markten e-cigarette for about 3 days now. It's not the same- so if you expect it to be you'll be disappointed. But, what I do like is the weight is right, the look is right, it doesn't taste like freaking cotton candy or bubble gum or cherry or whatever. And the cartridges are about $3/each and last me about a day. So that saves me some money, makes me less *****y and my hair doesn't smell like smoke- so those are good things.

I'd like to not use a cheater stick at all, but I did that about a year and a half ago and made it about 3-4 months and then was smoking more than I had before. So for now, cheater stick. And even though yesterday I messed up, today's a new day.

Oh and last year when I did quit for those few months it was when I joined MFP and I lost about 20 lbs in that time frame. Then summer came around and my brain and body went on a vacation until about 45 days ago...

Anyway, today's a new day and I try again.

7.5 mos now - 8 mos by mid September. That's over 4,200 cigs not smoked; $1,500 in the pocket - give or take. Can run a 5k without feeling like I'm on death's bed. Currently training for a Mudder event.

I do vape; no weight gain as I did join the gym the same time I decided to quit smoking. Only gave these tiny stats as an incentive.

Best of luck

I quit smoking back in 2002 and never looked back.... cold turkey basically, and I chewed a little nicotine gum in the beginning until I eventually lost the desire to smoke completely.

I just celebrated 2 months, cigg free. I went to quit the pack dot org and signed up for free nicotine patches ( you have the choice between patches and gum). It worked beautifully for me! I've smoked for almost 20 years so quitting was a really big mental ordeal to overcome. The last few years I'd gotten up to 1.5 packs/day.

You can absolutely do it. Like anything else, it's about being ready to commit and substituting the addiction & behavior with something else. I began walking more and drinking tons of water.

After 23 years of smoking I got a bit of a scare one day while sitting at the computer songwriting. My left arm went completely numb and I was light headed and dizzy for only about 30 seconds. The reason for the scare? I lost my father due to a heart attack at 37 years old, he was buried on my 12th birthday. His father (my grandad) died a couple of months later, same symptoms.

I went to the doctors and had blood taken after explaining what happened. As human nature dictates, after 2 weeks waiting for the results I had convinced myself that I was on my deathbed. The nurse said that everything was fine, totally shocked I asked about cholesterol, etc. She said everything was well within normal limits, in fact I was the fittest bloke they had seen for a while and said come back in 5 years for another checkup. On leaving the doctors I literally kicked my height outside in the street.

When I got home I thought 'If I'm this fit after all these years smoking I don't need them anymore' and threw all my cigarettes into the fire. Found my self a pair of shorts and went out and did a 5 mile run and nearly killed myself lol. Next day, when I started feeling the craving for a cigarette, I put my shorts on and did that 5 mile again. I did this for a full month, every day it got easier. Also i noticed during this month that my urine was a very dark colour, obviously all the poisons coming out of my body.

Since the end of that month I have never ever craved a cigarette again. I can be around other people smoking and it does not bother me at all. I won't let anyone smoke in the confined space of my car though. 2 years ago I had my lungs x-rayed and did a 'lung capacity blow test'. In both cases the Doctor said that there was no sign of damage or any indication that I had ever smoked!!! So, there IS LIFE after smoking, the human body regenerates over 3-5 years. In my opinion this is never emphasised in the campaigns to stop smoking, it should be.

That was in 1992, I joined an athletic club and raced virtually every week. 2 years later in 1994 I got my half marathon PB at 1 hour 27 minutes 41 seconds!!! Today I still run with my athletic club every week, although, I rarely take part in races (I'm 63 now).

Here are my results for the Great North Run Half Marathon in the 1990s (North East England);

15-09-91 - GNR 13.1 - 1:46.45 - Position - 6956 (still smoking, stopped for 6 weeks prior to the race)
20-09-92 - GNR 13.1 - 1:39.08 - Position - 4739
19-09-93 - GNR 13.1 - 1:36.51 - Position - 3699
18-09-94 - GNR 13.1 - 1:27.41 - Position - 1404 PB
17-09-95 - GNR 13.1 - 1:29.24 - Position - 1537
15-09-96 - GNR 13.1 - 1:31.24 - Position - 1254
14-09-97 - GNR 13.1 - 1:30.33 - Position - 1554
04-10-98 - GNR 13.1 - 1:36.23 - Ran with an 'acquired' number
10-10-99 - GNR 13.1 - 1:34.34 - Ran with an 'acquired' number

I quit cold turkey a little over three years ago. I just woke up one day and didn't smoke, and then I didn't smoke for the rest of the day, or the next day after that etc.

Sometimes I still have cravings but you know what? There's nothing a cigarette offers me that's worth undoing all the good I've been doing over the last three years.

You can do it too. Just get real with yourself about smoking... what it does to you, in the short term and in the longer term, what it does to those around you, heck, even what it does to the environment.