Stop Smoking

Any tips to stop smoking? I’ve been smoking on and off for years now but this time I’m finding it a bit more difficult to stop. When I try to stop, I start eating way more than I usually would. I want to quit but I also don’t want to gain a lot more weight in the process as I’m still working on getting to my goal weight. I’ve lost about 35 pounds this year and I still have about 25 more to go.
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Replies

  • ghudson92
    ghudson92 Posts: 2,061 Member
    I quit overnight using an app created by Jason Vale. I tried loads of times before and failed miserably. For some reason, the app just made something click for me.

    My partner was able to quit cigarettes through vaping.
  • RAinWA
    RAinWA Posts: 1,980 Member
    ekim2016 wrote: »
    Ok I quit cold turkey after 1.5 packs a day for 20 years. First of all, you have to be ready / and want to STOP. So what I did was buy bags of navel oranges. Every time I wanted a smoke I would begin peeling the large orange. Slowly and slowly I would peel and nibble on the tasty segments. I must have gone thru 5 bags of oranges that 1st week but it WORKED. I dunno if it was the sheer will power, keeping my hands busy or the flood of vitamin C but my cravings stopped after a few days. tip, the oranges taste better chilled in the frig... good luck! You CAN do this...

    Congrats on quitting. I heard somewhere (don't know if it's true) that Vit C can help flush nicotine out of your system, so that may have been part of it.
  • ghudson92
    ghudson92 Posts: 2,061 Member
    RAinWA wrote: »
    ekim2016 wrote: »
    Ok I quit cold turkey after 1.5 packs a day for 20 years. First of all, you have to be ready / and want to STOP. So what I did was buy bags of navel oranges. Every time I wanted a smoke I would begin peeling the large orange. Slowly and slowly I would peel and nibble on the tasty segments. I must have gone thru 5 bags of oranges that 1st week but it WORKED. I dunno if it was the sheer will power, keeping my hands busy or the flood of vitamin C but my cravings stopped after a few days. tip, the oranges taste better chilled in the frig... good luck! You CAN do this...

    Congrats on quitting. I heard somewhere (don't know if it's true) that Vit C can help flush nicotine out of your system, so that may have been part of it.

    Not quite. Nicotine makes it harder for the body to absorb vitamin C.
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,933 Member
    A friend of mine who quit had the opposite strategy as me using a system of extreme restriction instead of frivolous treats. When he quit smoking he quit everying that's fun to put in your body: alcohol, caffeine, sugar, meat, salt, dairy. Every week, he would re-introduce one thing--except for the cigarettes.
  • lgfrie
    lgfrie Posts: 1,449 Member
    edited August 2019
    Johnd2000 wrote: »
    Argue all you like. Smoking hardens the arteries, and lots more besides. Nicotine does not.

    The problem here is that people equate nicotine with smoking. Your Dr was referring to the known effects of smoking.

    You are badly misinformed.

    The tar and some of the other non-nicotine ingredients in cigarettes cause lung cancer. Nicotine itself does not cause lung cancer.

    Separate from that, nicotine causes narrowing of the arteries, increased blood pressure, increased resting pulse, and vasoconstriction, which lead to heart attacks, strokes, and many other cardiovascular ailments. The smoke and tar in cigarettes are not the primary culprit here; it is nicotine. This is established scientific fact. No doctor, no cardiologist, no medical professional of any type, would argue otherwise, or ever has.

    If you think that the high BP and cardiovascular problems understood by all in the field to be caused by nicotine use are somehow limited only to the other ingredients in cigarettes, I just don't what else can be said.

    Nicotine is a poison. Anyone trying to live a healthy life owes it to themselves to get off it 100 %, in all its forms, forever. You cannot be a healthy person living a healthy life preparing for a healthy future while ingesting nicotine.

    But of course, we all know that. Does anyone truly believe that if you went to see a cardiologist and asked him if using nicotine in any form was OK, he'd say "Sure, why not." No, he'd tell you to stop a.s.a.p.
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,933 Member
    Correct me if I am wrong, but I read that nicotine is water soluble, so the physical addiction of withdrawal is resolved in 3 days. Compare that to heroin addiction where physical withdrawal syptoms last a month. Any remaining habit after physical withdrawal is pyschological addiction. I don't discount the seriousness of psychological addictions. Ask any gambler.

    I decided to quit smoking after getting a bad case of bronchitis where I didn't even feel like smoking for a week. I really enjoyed smoking cigarettes but thought I should take the opportunity to quit, seeing as the physical addiction to nicotine was already out of my system.
  • whmscll
    whmscll Posts: 2,254 Member
    Last I heard, caffeine has not been linked to cancer, high blood pressure or hardening of the arteries. Nicotine is way worse than caffeine.
  • whitpauly
    whitpauly Posts: 1,483 Member
    I vape and the warning is to never let the vape liquid touch your skin and if it does wash it immediately,also I watched a show once where someone was actually killed by nicotine poisoning that was in a garment they wore🤷 who knows
  • SCoil123
    SCoil123 Posts: 2,110 Member
    lgfrie wrote: »
    Johnd2000 wrote: »
    Argue all you like. Smoking hardens the arteries, and lots more besides. Nicotine does not.

    The problem here is that people equate nicotine with smoking. Your Dr was referring to the known effects of smoking.

    You are badly misinformed.

    The tar and some of the other non-nicotine ingredients in cigarettes cause lung cancer. Nicotine itself does not cause lung cancer.

    Separate from that, nicotine causes narrowing of the arteries, increased blood pressure, increased resting pulse, and vasoconstriction, which lead to heart attacks, strokes, and many other cardiovascular ailments. The smoke and tar in cigarettes are not the primary culprit here; it is nicotine. This is established scientific fact. No doctor, no cardiologist, no medical professional of any type, would argue otherwise, or ever has.

    If you think that the high BP and cardiovascular problems understood by all in the field to be caused by nicotine use are somehow limited only to the other ingredients in cigarettes, I just don't what else can be said.

    Nicotine is a poison. Anyone trying to live a healthy life owes it to themselves to get off it 100 %, in all its forms, forever. You cannot be a healthy person living a healthy life preparing for a healthy future while ingesting nicotine.

    But of course, we all know that. Does anyone truly believe that if you went to see a cardiologist and asked him if using nicotine in any form was OK, he'd say "Sure, why not." No, he'd tell you to stop a.s.a.p.

    I have to disagree, as does my doctor. When I smoked cigarettes I had chronic bronchitis and high blood pressure. I vape now at 3-6mg low dose nicotine and have low blood pressure and no signs of bronchitis at all.
  • RFC2549
    RFC2549 Posts: 14 Member
    edited August 2019
    To all those saying there is dangerous misinformation out there, you're right. Potentially millions of smokers with a 95% less harmful alternative available will die because of an illogical, "moral" panic about nicotine and/or vaping that is simply not backed by science.

    Article written by a doctor and molecular biologist at the Pacific Research Institute.

    Summary of UK study.

    "Nicotine is not a cause of cancer, cardiovascular disease or the respiratory conditions that dominate the ill health from smoking." Quote from UK recommendations to policy makers.

    Sources for the above statements.

    Also important when talking about the increase in vaping, whether in adults or teens: "The available evidence to date indicates that e-cigarettes are being used almost exclusively as safer alternatives to smoked tobacco, by confirmed smokers who are trying to reduce harm to themselves or others from smoking, or to quit smoking completely." - Royal College of Physicians

    Another good article. Interview with Professor John Britton, director of the UK Centre for Tobacco & Alcohol Studies at the University of Nottingham.

    Some key quotes:

    "They are effective quitting agents, so we should be promoting them."

    "They aren’t new. They’ve been around for 15 years; they’ve been in widespread use in the UK for about seven years. There’s been no appreciable reported adverse effects, with use by millions of people. So, if that was a drug, you’d be pretty confident that there are no major adverse short-term effects."

    "If you look at the general physiological profile of effects of nicotine on the body, it’s on a par with caffeine."


    The percentage of adults smoking flatlined in 2005 at 20%. Just wouldn't budge. E-cigs came on the scene. Do you know what the media doesn't report? That as vaping increased, the rate of smoking fell by a comparable percentage - in both adults and high school students. E-cig use doubled in the adult population, and smoking rates fell to 14% by 2017. High school smokers dropped from 15% in 2011 to 7% in 2017 - while vaping increased to 11%. Logical indication is that, while kids shouldn't be using these products, they were already trying regular cigarettes.

    Why so much UK stuff? Maybe because they took a more reasonable approach to this issue than the US. Maybe because the US has a Big Pharma/Big Tobacco/big tobacco taxes problem.

    By the way, the FDA ok'd long-term use of nicotine replacement products back in 2013 and removed certain warnings from the packages.

    And for those who don't care to read through links, this video is a pretty good summary:



    https://youtu.be/cLBfZe2sppg





  • RFC2549
    RFC2549 Posts: 14 Member
    edited August 2019
    lgfrie wrote: »

    Don't know if you're up on the news this week, but the CDC is investigating over a hundred cases of mysterious lung diseases that have suddenly popped up all over the country from teenage vapers.




    Those kids in the news lately all were using cartridges purchased off the street. These happened in clusters, aka similar geographic areas. They were buying narcotics - not typical electronic cigarette liquid or store-bought nicotine pods.

    https://cei.org/blog/if-you-vape-illicit-street-drugs-it-may-kill-you-duh

  • RFC2549
    RFC2549 Posts: 14 Member
    lgfrie wrote: »

    Please do not promote nicotine use here. It's irresponsible. Adults can do whatever they want with their bodies, but there has got to be something better to talk about on a diet and health forum than encouragement for people to suck nicotine vapors into their lungs.

    Please do not promote fear-mongering that may dissuade a smoker who is unable/unwilling to quit cold turkey from using an alternative product, whether nicotine gum or e-cigs, that could potentially help them eliminate cigarettes and greatly improve their health and longevity (as well as the air of those around them).

    If you're unwilling to read through the links I posted and give the information any consideration, then you're simply confirming that your real issue with these products has very little to do with health.

  • lgfrie
    lgfrie Posts: 1,449 Member
    edited August 2019
    RFC2549 wrote: »
    lgfrie wrote: »

    Please do not promote nicotine use here. It's irresponsible. Adults can do whatever they want with their bodies, but there has got to be something better to talk about on a diet and health forum than encouragement for people to suck nicotine vapors into their lungs.

    Please do not promote fear-mongering that may dissuade a smoker who is unable/unwilling to quit cold turkey from using an alternative product, whether nicotine gum or e-cigs, that could potentially help them eliminate cigarettes and greatly improve their health and longevity (as well as the air of those around them).

    If you're unwilling to read through the links I posted and give the information any consideration, then you're simply confirming that your real issue with these products has very little to do with health.

    I did not fear-monger. I said that nicotine replacement products can prove useful for people attempting to quit smoking as a short-term therapy, but that they are dangerous and ill-advised for long term use and/or recreationally. Also, I have pushed back in this thread on the absurd and anti-science argument that everything that's harmful about smoking is in the other ingredients and that nicotine is somehow excluded from the harm that cigarettes do. That is ridiculous.

    I spent a long time trying to wean myself off nicotine replacement products, and it was a harder-won battle than quitting cigarettes, because they are just as addictive but also more discrete, socially acceptable, and you do get sucked into the "healthier than smoking" thing as an excuse to keep going with them. Meanwhile, you have not made even a tiny dent in the real problem - your physical addiction to nicotine, which causes immediate vasoconstriction and, longer term, potentially very serious cardiovascular problems.

    I have said my piece on this. We disagree, both about nicotine and about the appropriateness of promoting its use on a health forum. We will have to simply disagree, because the chasm between our views on this is enormous. Sometimes politely disagreeing is the best that can be done. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
  • Lynzee79
    Lynzee79 Posts: 5 Member
    I was a smoker and i struggled for years trying to quit. I mean off and on multiple times. It wasn't until I joined a boot camp and really struggled breathing when running that I realized I needed to quit for good. Also I was completely embarrassed to be a smoker being around all of those fit and healthy people. 3 weeks into my boot camp I quit cold turkey. Totally mind over matter!! I also like to have a few drinks which triggers my cigarette cravings. I avoided alcohol for at least a month and focused on exercising. Dentyne Ice chewing gum was my best friend LOL (still is).
    Starting my exercise program helped me avoid any extra weight gain.

    Good Luck to you: )
  • Hollis100
    Hollis100 Posts: 1,408 Member
    Any tips to stop smoking? I’ve been smoking on and off for years now but this time I’m finding it a bit more difficult to stop. When I try to stop, I start eating way more than I usually would. I want to quit but I also don’t want to gain a lot more weight in the process as I’m still working on getting to my goal weight. I’ve lost about 35 pounds this year and I still have about 25 more to go.

    I quit smoking many years ago. I got mad at myself for depending on cigarettes like a drug addict, not being able to do anything without smoking. I quit cold turkey and told myself too bad about the physical suffering. I also paid for a 6-week stop smoking course, even though I'd stopped on my own, because I knew I would start again.

    You asked for tips. Here are mine:

    (1) Take a stop-smoking class. Many hospitals offer free ones. I paid for mine, which was worth every penny. They give support and train you to think like a nonsmoker.
    (2) Realize the suffering is temporary. If you can live through the flu, you can live through cigarette withdrawal. It doesn't last forever. Eventually, I promise, you will feel like a normal person and go through your day without thinking about cigarettes.
    (3) I didn't tell anybody I was quitting. I didn't want people judging me and adding pressure.
    (4) I took quitting seriously. I made it the most important thing in my life. I stayed away from people and places where I might smell smoke for about 4 months.
    (5) I planned treats for myself -- bought things that smelled nice, went to interesting places.
    (6) If you gain back a small amount of weight, well, so what. You can lose it. Exercise more. Buy yourself some great new exercise clothes or shoes. Quitting smoking is more important.

    Good luck. You can do this, too.
  • geraldaltman
    geraldaltman Posts: 1,739 Member
    edited September 2019
    It will 10 years come January that I quit and despite all the cessation aids, courses, and products out there, many of which I have tried with ZERO degree of success, it came down down to the simplest of things; wanting to quit, finding the motivation that is truly mine to drive me, which was just the purest of self-directed rage! Anger that my next to last attempt to quit failed so quickly and miserably despite all will and planning. That rage and my desire to never, ever again have to listen to anyone talk to me about smoking fueled me and once I started facing all the so-called obstacles and found they were ALL complete nonsense each hour, each day, week and month became easier and easier!!! I have not looked and not one single cessation product was ever used!! And every single thing I used to do with cigarettes, I still do today without them; AND THEY ARE SO MUCH BETTER!! E-cigs was kind of new when I quit. I had no interest in them as I was convinced they'd do nothing but drive me right back to tobacco. No, Thank you! Smokers!! Quitting is totally doable!! Just quit over-thinking it!! Find that reason, find that drive, that fuel latch on to it and make it yours and yours alone!!! You will be amazed how far it will take you!!
    This message brought to you by a man who never, ever thought he could or would quit. Be inspired by him!!
  • healingnurtrer
    healingnurtrer Posts: 217 Member
    From what I've read on the topic it seems the most effective way to quit involves some type of counseling, support system, accountability system - accountable to a doctor seen regularly, coaching, etc. Some human connection.

    I've heard of these "natural" things to try- found a website the includes them all: http://www.altmedicinezone.com/how-tos/quit-smoking-naturally/

    Items Needed
    Unsweetened grapefruit juice
    500 mg vitamin C tablets
    Cinnamon mouthwash
    Cinnamon toothpaste

    Maybe it could help. Good luck.
  • geraldaltman
    geraldaltman Posts: 1,739 Member
    I wrote the following in another thread today and decided to share it here:

    "Congratulations to all who have 'pulled the trigger' on quitting 🙂
    I quit 'cold turkey'. Please trust me when I say if your drive and fuel is sufficient and your's, it really isn't that cold!!! My strong motivation was the inward rage created when my last planned and prepared attempt failed...in hours! I didn't use any aids or apps or e-cigs. I had no further interest in nicotine or any of the other addictive aspects of smoking as I believed all that would do was propel me back to cigarettes. I wasn't going back!
    Let me share some guarantees:
    You will see it get easier by the day, by the hour because you will see that all the obstacles to remaining smoke free are bogus and mental! You will bust right on through them!
    With the current prices of packs and cartons (at least where I live) you will see your spendable money increase a bit depending on how much you used to buy.
    You will find that everything you once did while smoking, you can still do without them...and they will be more enjoyable! Example: How many of you have been in a smoke free place having dinner/drinks with people and left them to out into weather because you needed that 'after dinner smoke'?
    The food and drink you enjoy will taste better!
    You will soon begin asking yourself incredulously "I did that!!?? I smelled like that!!??" You did! I did!! Your perfume/cologne should smell better. I don't know that as I don't use it.
    Months and years later you will be able tell when a smoker is approaching or where a lot smoking has been done or smokers gathered, as that stench which we never noticed when we smoked will be in the ground and their clothes. It will be strong and it will be very noxious to you!! It will be the best reminder you have to never let yourself go back there!!
    This is not a guarantee but a plea; once you get to that point where you will never 'go back', please, please do not be afraid to speak to others and let them know just how doable and easy quitting is!! Please be straightforward about it but also be kind and respectful especially when directed at any family members who may still smoke. Be an example but don't risk driving them away from you. Once again, congratulations. Keep it going, one day at a time!"