STINKY SMOKERS!

McKayMachina
McKayMachina Posts: 2,670 Member
edited October 3 in Chit-Chat
O hai. Welcome to this thread. You must be [this fat] to enter. ♪♫♪♫ Disorients you with creepy carnie music! ♪♫♪♫

Now that that's all squared away...

I used to smoke. Only regularly for like a year but on and off for a year or two before and after that. Now I probably smoke a total of 3 packs a year and usually it's cloves. I get them for special occasions like tubing down the river all day or what-have-you because I still like it, I just don't want to be A SMOKER, as it were.

But, as any ex-smoker will tell you, it feels SO AWESOME not to do it anymore! Like, let's-have-a-party type awesome!

So my questions are...

How long have you been a smoker?

Are you trying to quit?

Why or why not?

Have you quit before?

How did you do it?

Why didn't you stick with it?

Etc...

Discuss...

:drinker:
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Replies

  • taso42
    taso42 Posts: 8,980 Member
    I'm quit about 7 years or so now. Still have a cigarette here and there on a very rare occasion. Usually regret it the next morning.
  • i quita month ago...i didnt gain anything because i exercised (i dont know about now LOL) i smoked for 10 years...pack a day sometimes pack anda half i quit 2x then started back this is my 3x quitting

    gl
    i love being smoke free

    but it also gave me asthma and i couldnt breathe so yeah you should quit
  • getitamb
    getitamb Posts: 2,019 Member
    Hey
    I was a smoker for 4 years and what helped me was working out and eating healthy. It just didn't ,make sense to me why people would go to the gym and them go smoke like 7 cigarrettes. Or they would tell me how I should eat but didn't care about lungs.I don't even do it socially anymore bc I wanna be all the way healthy. no point oin fighting obesity if I have lung cancer. And every time I would try to quit I would gain weight.
  • Sh1tsRainbows
    Sh1tsRainbows Posts: 1,227 Member
    How long have you been a smoker? i started when i was almost 19 (Im 35)

    Are you trying to quit? day one for the 8,764,9832th time

    Why or why not? im so addicted its the hardest thing in the world to do..

    Have you quit before? yes..every time i was pregnant, one time for 1 1/2 yrs..and for over a month in THIS july!!!!!

    How did you do it? twice with the patch...but this time cold turkey cause i cant afford the patch..or the cigs

    Why didn't you stick with it... I got stressed out and thought i HAD to have one...UGH
  • DaniellePF
    DaniellePF Posts: 308 Member
    I quit on March 7, 2009--the day I found out I was pregnant with my daughter. I had been a one pack per week smoker for 12 years prior to that. Never picked it up again--started running instead, because you can't do both :-).
  • I completely agree with you. I am an ex smoker who will go out a have a smoking day or two once or twice a year for a certain things...like a Vegas trip. But it feels great not to smoke. I no longer have a sore throat all the time, and the urges don't control me anymore. I am more calm too!
  • Umeboshi
    Umeboshi Posts: 1,637 Member
    I've been a smoker for 3 years.
    I want to quit but it's very hard to with my anxiety. (Yes that is an 'excuse' but it genuinely is difficult for me especially because my gf is a smoker)
    I want to quit because of my health and because it can prematurely age you.
    I haven't quit before.

    Planning on trying again quitting with e-cigarettes. I was doing really well and wasn't smoking actual cigarettes at all, but my e-cig broke and I couldn't afford a new one.
  • Pollywog39
    Pollywog39 Posts: 1,730 Member
    I am a smoker....although not a "professional", as my 2-pack-a-day friend is.

    I have smoked on and off since I was about 15 (I'm 56 now!) I've quit for as long as a year or more - when I was having kids and such - but started up again when I left my husband (that was about 11 yrs ago.)

    I do not smoke during the weekdays (when at work), and NEVER in the morning. My habit is an evening/weekend/adult beverage habit.

    I am planning, once again, to quit. Have not set a time for that, but will know when it's right. I love smoking...and don't really want to quit. But it's a necessity, so I'll do it soon.
  • jamiesgotagun
    jamiesgotagun Posts: 670 Member
    I'm quit about 7 years or so now. Still have a cigarette here and there on a very rare occasion. Usually regret it the next morning.

    ^^^^I probably over 10 years ago, but I still have one on occasion too (usually while drinking) and always regret it the next morning!!!
  • I've been a smoker for about 6 years. I've tried to quit a few times, I made it to two months once then for no reason at all I started again. I want to quit, but I dont. I don't want to be a "smoker", but I love smoking and I wont lie. Everytime I quit its usually cold turkey, and for a stupid reason I know im not going to keep up with. I've cut back from a pack a day to about a pack or two a week. (mostly 2). I keep saying I will quit soon, but as long as I'm surrounded but it as much as I am, it's going to take a while! Whatever, it's my vice and I'm sticking to it. lol
  • kapeluza
    kapeluza Posts: 3,434 Member
    I've been an ex smoker for 3 years now. Smoked for 10 years. Never going back. I cut cold turkey after getting this gnarly bronchitis. I get nauseous now when I smell cigarette smoke.
  • rmsrws
    rmsrws Posts: 639 Member
    Gosh......I have been smoking for bout 10 years off and on. I had quit for about 2 and half years than decided I needed to smoke again. The hubby and I quit another time or about 4 months, then back t it again. In the last year I have quit like 6 times the longest I have made it was 2 months. I want to be smoke free. I light up and don't even finish smoking a full cigarette. My doc said it is just something I think I need to do, and in time I will be smoke free. I just need to keep trying because he said I will get it!! The smell is repulsive, and I am asahemed to have people see me smoke. I have worked hard to lose all this weight and I am smoking, sorta makes no sense! I have used chantix in the past and nicotine patches. I started smoking because my hubby did. If he and I could quit together and stay quit would be so much easier! One of the times I started up smoking again, I was In Vegas. It just smelled so good, and I had a drink and it just seemed right. So I walked up to lady and asked to buy a cigarette for a buck! LOL.....and well within an hour the hubby and I had bought a pack and were smoking in private so my 14 yr old son woudn't catch us...LOL
  • stellcorb
    stellcorb Posts: 294 Member
    I was a smoker for 16 years (started when I was 14) and alternated between a heavy smoker, social smoker, light smoker and non-smoker. I quit 6 mos before my wedding on Chantix...I quit cold turkey the day I found out I was pregnant and had no issue with being smoke free for a year... would always let myself be pulled back in b/c "I only smoked while I drank" which turned into "just when I'm stressed, hungry, angry..." you get the picture. I quit again this past March b/c I just don't want to be a smoker anymore... I read "The Easy Way to Stop Smoking" and it seems to have stuck... I no longer envy the smokers around me... I'm enjoying be a tru non-smoker.
  • serena569
    serena569 Posts: 427 Member
    I started smoking in high school and was up to a pack a day when I decided to quit 15 years later. It was the first time I tried.

    I left work one Monday night, lit the last cigarette in my pack, and decided then was the time. I picked up on box patches and 5 packs of Wrigley's on the way home. I chewed the gum whenever I had the urge to smoke. I used the patches full strength for a week then cut them in half for the next 2 weeks. Then I was done

    That was almost 12 years ago and 50 pounds and is the main reason I am now fat enough to read your post. :wink:
  • rks6902
    rks6902 Posts: 29 Member
    I quit 2 years ago using Chantix, I tired everything to quit before that and nothing worked. However, the taxes went up that a pack started costing $7. I did the math, one pack a day times 30 days was a minimum of $210 a month. I could pay a bill or two with that money. I smoked more if I was out at a bar. But now Wisconsin is all smoke free in public places and the price of them along with the help of Chantix, I can prougly say I am a non smoker. I have had one puff off a smoke since quitting. I still think about it but I am an all or nothing kinda girl. I know that if I had one it would soon turn into 2 and next thing I know I would be a smoker again
  • I have been a smoker for 20years, I am not trying to quit because I don't feel quite ready to say good bye to, really, the only thing that keeps me sane most of the time. I have quit a few times before, the longest being when I was pregnant with my oldest son. I think It was easy to do it then because I had pretty much just started smoking, because I couldn't with my other three...I didn't stick to it because, I rely dont know, I think maybe I was bored or the stress of having 4 kids before I was 25 was to much to handle(ya think?!?!?)...LMAO

    I really do want to quit, now the kids are much older but NOW I'm afraid of gaining the weight I lost(40lbs!)...the vicious nicotine serpent is alive and well and giving me alllllll the reasons why I shouldn't quit...lil bugger.......
  • I quit on xmas eve of 2010 after trying to quit for the last 22 years. I've finally kicked the disgusting habit.
    But the real miracle is when I was able to drink beer and not have the craving for a cigarette creep up on me. Thats when I knew I was completley done.

    I quit cold turkey and by avoiding my smoker friends.
    I got an app on my phone that tells me how long since my last smoke, how many I havent smoked, money saved and days gained.

    I remind myself that smoking makes me smell like ****
    smoking degrades my stamina
    and most of all , I'm no longer a weak slave who contributes to the wealth of people in the tabacco industry who get rich off of people killing themselves.

    I'm completley ****ing smoke free and I'm very ****ing proud of myself
  • juleseybaby
    juleseybaby Posts: 712 Member
    I had smoked off and on for 24 years. (Minus pregnancies and a couple of other 'I quit' periods.)

    I had tried everything. Hypnotism, Chantix - you name it. All it ever took was a bad day to get right back in to it.

    Finally just came down to a decision that I did not want the poison in my body. I did not want my kids to have to smell it on me. (Didn't smoke in the house or with them in the car - but they could still smell it.)

    Haven't smoked since August 28th of this year. Nothing.

    I have still had bad days and have been VERY tempted to smoke in the past month - but I haven't done it. I take a walk. Or breathe. I don't allow myself to buy any.

    This weekend will be a test of my will. I have avoided bars and smoking areas for a month. I will be going out for karaoke. Smoky bar + beer = difficult for me. :drinker:
  • rks6902
    rks6902 Posts: 29 Member
    I quit 2 years ago using Chantix, I tired everything to quit before that and nothing worked. However, the taxes went up that a pack started costing $7. I did the math, one pack a day times 30 days was a minimum of $210 a month. I could pay a bill or two with that money. I smoked more if I was out at a bar. But now Wisconsin is all smoke free in public places and the price of them along with the help of Chantix, I can prougly say I am a non smoker. I have had one puff off a smoke since quitting. I still think about it but I am an all or nothing kinda girl. I know that if I had one it would soon turn into 2 and next thing I know I would be a smoker again

    Oh and I should say I started smoking at age 15 or so and quit at age 40. I also tried many time but never made it more than a month,m usually never more than a day or two. I loved smoking too. But now I think about it and think I would probably cough up a lung if I tried it again.
  • manderson27
    manderson27 Posts: 3,510 Member
    I had my first ciggarette when I was 16 and I was hooked, I smoked pretty consistantly until I was in my late 20's everyone I knew smoked and it was the "norm" for my family and friends then it became uncool and all the health issues started to emerge I managed to quite just before I hit my thirties and that lasted for two years, then my dad died and I was right back on them. I have tried to give up over the years so many times I have lost count.

    But recently I found myself wheezing at night and coughing so badly in the morning that I felt quite sick so I quit again, that was in June and so far so good I think I may really have made it this time. I used an inhilator so I could get a nicotine fix wihout putting smoke in my lungs but soon found that I really wasnt that bothered so it went in the draw where it sits just in case I get stressed.

    One of the things I love about not smoking is that I can run up and kiss my husband knowing that I don't I smell and taste of cigarettes. He doesnt smoke and how he has put up with it all these years I will never know but that is him, he loves me with all my faults. But soon he will be rewarded not only smoke free but weight free, I will be like a new woman for him LOL

    I know it will never happen because of all the tax smokers pay the government but it should be banned like any drug that kills you. Most normal people would not hang around on the street corners in the middle of the night to score a nicotine fix. After the outcry from dedicated smokers most people would just accept and move on to a healthier life. Those who have been trying for years to quit would probably welcome the help of not being able to buy them.
  • Xaspar
    Xaspar Posts: 726 Member
    I am a smoker.
    I started when I was 9.
    I quit when I was 19 (pregnant with child #1)
    Mostly stayed quit until after the birth of my 2nd child at 23. Had a REALLY bad day! and I was back to the old habit.
    Quit again when I was pregnant with child #3, but shortly after she was born (at age 25) I began smoking again.
    Quit again in 2004 and that stuck until 2006 - stress is always my trigger. Haven't tried to quit again. Not sure if I will any time soon...
    At this point I have smoked for more than half of my life (even if you take out the years I wasn't smoking).
  • McKayMachina
    McKayMachina Posts: 2,670 Member
    Wow! So many quitters among us! That is so awesome!

    Sounds like a lot of us have the same triggers, too.

    p.s.: I quit using an e-cig but it took months of weening off of real cigs to really work. Now I don't use the e-cig at all! But the NJOY starter pack was only like $100 and it totally helped me kick the habit. :)

    Oh...I should mention...I do smoke hookah about 10x/year. I didn't include that in the first message. Hookah and a good turkish coffee is just too amazing a combo for me to skip it. :) But I still don't consider smoking less than once/month a "smoker," per se. :)
  • kapeluza
    kapeluza Posts: 3,434 Member
    Honestly what keeps me from touching another cigarette is watching a person die from lung cancer. Have you ever seen anyone die from smoking all their life, I have. I watched my uncle die gasping for air and eventually suffocating because he had lung cancer. I don't want that for myself. That was traumatic to say the least.
  • McKayMachina
    McKayMachina Posts: 2,670 Member
    Honestly what keeps me from touching another cigarette is watching a person die from lung cancer. Have you ever seen anyone die from smoking all their life, I have. I watched my uncle die gasping for air and eventually suffocating because he had lung cancer. I don't want that for myself. That was traumatic to say the least.

    That sounds just awful. :'( I'm so sorry you had to go through that. And I'm sorry for whomever you lost, as well.

    The silver lining is absolutely your desire to live a healthier life. So, good for you. Most people would probably just have resigned to a similar fate.
  • Nogo
    Nogo Posts: 105 Member
    I smoked for 14 years. Quit here and there but am finally DONE! Done for 4 years or so. Saturday at the gym a chick got on the machine next to me and I could smell she just smoked a ciggie & nearly moved to another machine. I thought "You're running your *kitten* off on the treadmill so you must care about fitness but you still smoke, WHY?!?!"

    Oh, and I quit because of hearing it dries out every cell in your body. And one day I just...quit. If only unhealthy food was so easy for me...
  • Iamfit4life
    Iamfit4life Posts: 3,095 Member
    Quit 4months ago.
    Should have never started. Literally every grandparent I have had has died of smoking related illness.

    :(

    I quit because I didn't want my children to EVER remember their mother smoking. I don't want them to s moke.
    if they did I'd blame mysefl.
  • ZebraHead
    ZebraHead Posts: 15,207 Member
    I smoked my first cigarette when I was 7 I carried a pack when I was 10 I smoke for 40 years. I quit about 7 years ago and never looked back.

    Easy to smell cigarettes and the smell it leaves on people and places they have been.
  • Jennjenn1974
    Jennjenn1974 Posts: 350 Member
    I quit almost 3 years ago. The reason? Because at the time I was single and all the the guys who smoked and I dated tended to be *kitten*. Please note I am not stereotyping...just from my experience. So I decided to quit. 3 months later I met the most amazing man. We are still together after 2 years :love:


    Edit -- if I have been drinking and there are smokers around...I tend to steal a drag or two. Thankfully, that doesn't happen often LOL!
  • Started smoking, like many, because friends in school convinced me it was "cool." Didn't actually start in earnest however until I was in my mid-20's. Oddly enough, when I picked it up at that point, it was the pipe (with tobacco... no "wacky weed" for this kid!) I actually "graduated" to cigarettes because the place where I worked gave us 10 minute smoke breaks, and by the time I went downstairs to the smoking area, loaded the bowl, smoked it for a while, tamped it, smoked a bit more, then dumped and scraped the bowl, it was too high maintenance for the brief break period.

    I basically gave it up about 8 years ago... I was unemployed, and New York has THE highest excise taxes on cigarettes in the country (currently around $4.30+ per pack. The price for a pack of cigs in NY state is between $9-11, sometimes higher.) Not to mention I kept getting respiratory sicknesses, related directly to the smoking. Early in 2010, when my mother was hospitalized with a serious and nearly life-threatening condition, I picked up a couple packs. They were nasty, I couldn't even enjoy them anymore.

    For a little over a year now, I've been "vaping"... using electronic nicotine inhalators, or "ecigs" if you prefer. There's no combustion or burning of material, so you don't inhale smoke. Instead, an electronic atomizer heats up an inert liquid, turning it into a vapor that is 99.9+% water. You can choose to have varying strengths of nicotine to the "juice", or none at all. I find it keeps the cravings at bay, satisfies the various "fixations" smokers typically have, and is healthier by orders of magnitude than smoking any sort of plant-based materials. There's no ashes, no tar, no stained teeth or fingers, and no stinky clothes or furniture. And best of all, it doesn't screw up your breathing. I haven't picked up a regular cigarette since around February 2010.
  • Honestly what keeps me from touching another cigarette is watching a person die from lung cancer. Have you ever seen anyone die from smoking all their life, I have. I watched my uncle die gasping for air and eventually suffocating because he had lung cancer. I don't want that for myself. That was traumatic to say the least.

    I had a guy I "adopted" as my uncle. He was very close to my family. I was around 8 when he really started wasting away from the lung cancer.. The cancer spread badly. And I remember the very last time I saw him, when I went to hug him I could feel every bone in his back because he was so thin. I was so young, but I knew what was wrong, and why he was dieing right in front of my very eyes. It really hurt my family to lose him, and my dad was especially disturbed by it. So much so that he almost ended up cutting up Henry's picture he kept in his desk. Thankfully, none of my family members are smokers.. Not my mom or dad, my siblings, aunts, uncles, etc. Nobody in my close or extended family. A few had been, but they kicked it and they haven't once regretted it.
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