Need advice from ex smokers

Have you read Allan Carr's book "The Easyway to Quit Smoking"? If not, you should. That book, and the website www.quitnet.com were the best resources that I used to quit smoking over two years ago. I was a very heavy smoker for 50 years and quit cold turkey using just those two things.

I also loved to smoke, but like you I hated the way it made you smell and how hard it was to breathe. Until you have been quit for about six months you won't really know just how bad it does smell, you only think you know.
:

This ^^^^. Get the book, it's really excellent and will help you to understand all you need to know and keep you strong if you have the willpower and want to be smoke-free. People talk of 'cravings'; I don't agree that they are actual cravings - I'd say that they're more 'fleeting thoughts' of smoking and are over in seconds. The talk of cravings is, I think, what makes some smokers scared to quit.

You can do this - do it whilst you have no ill affects because you'll kick yourself afterwards. Best of luck - get the Allan Carr book. I've been an ex-smoker for five years now, never looked back and don't villify smokers either - I just won't be one of them ever again.

I LOVED to smoke! I started playing around with cigarettes before I was 10 years old. The most trouble I ever got in growing up always involved cigarettes. I was grounded over them more times than I can count. As an adult, I smoked around anyone and everyone. I smoked inside before I got married, in the bathroom while I was doing my hair and makeup. I smoked when I had strep throat. After I got married, I smoked outside. I smoked when it was miserably hot outside, I smoked when it was miserably cold outside. I knew it was harmful, expensive, and unattractive, and I tried to quit over and over and over. I always went back. Because the truth was, I loved to smoke. I really couldn't begin to imagine myself as a nonsmoker.

When I turned 40, I finally got serious. I had been saying I was going to quit for more than 20 years. I had tried everything: cold turkey, subliminal tapes, cinnamon sticks, nicotine gum, nicotine patches, smoking cessation programs through work, drops that made the cigarettes taste awful, etc., etc., etc. When was I going to follow through? I went to my doctor and she prescribed Zyban (Wellbutrin), and the Nicotrol Inhalers. I'm not sure how much the Zyban helped, probably a lot, but the inhalers were what got me past the rough spots. I probably carried one around in my purse for over a year. When I was tempted, I could pull one out and satisfy that hand to mouth compulsion. I NEVER took even one drag off of a cigarette because I knew that if I did, I would be right back at it, AGAIN!

Time passed. I just kept adding one hour to the next, one day to the previous one, one day at a time. The hours turned into days, the days turned into weeks, the weeks turned into months, AND THE MONTHS TURNED INTO YEARS. It has now been 11 1/2 years of those one days! I am completely grossed out by the smell of cigarettes, when at first I used to hang out around smokers just to smell them. I am a nonsmoker. Believe it or not, when I look back on myself as a smoker, I can't imagine it!

Did I mention that I prayed? A lot!!

You can do it, too. Just keep adding those one days, one on top of the other.

I quit smoking in August because I had a Pulmonary Embolism. It was very hard especially since my hubby stills smokes. I was told if I wanted to live I had to quit. The emboli was so severe the vascular surgeon said my lungs will never be the same.

1 thing I did was use the patches for the first 3 weeks and I changed mine when I got up in the am.
2nd thing I did was change my routines. I associated my morning coffee with a cigarette. So I switched to having something different 1st thing in the am for a couple mos.
3rd thing I did was found something with a pungent flavor to replace the cigs with. My thing was good n plenty since black licorice is a strong flavor.
4th thing I did was to shove a fruity piece of gum in my mouth or brush my teeth after I ate to replace the habit of smoking.

I had to edit or delete behaviors that I associated with a cig. For instance, for the first couple mos I didn't have any alcohol either. Not that I drink much, but even 1 beer made me want a smoke. I stayed away form other smokers for the first couple mos other than my hubby.

I still crave one once in a while, but I feel so much better and my lungs have improved so much that the craving isn't intolerable. I also like the fact that I am not spending all that money and can use it for other things.

Hope these things help:) GOOD LUCK!!! If you can discipline yourself enough to exercise and eat right, quitting smoking is doable as well.

Have you read Allan Carr's book "The Easyway to Quit Smoking"? If not, you should. That book, and the website www.quitnet.com were the best resources that I used to quit smoking over two years ago. I was a very heavy smoker for 50 years and quit cold turkey using just those two things.

I also loved to smoke, but like you I hated the way it made you smell and how hard it was to breathe. Until you have been quit for about six months you won't really know just how bad it does smell, you only think you know.

I waited too long to quit and am now living with COPD...please be smarter than me and quit now...your lungs will thank you for it! :flowerforyou:

This is a brilliant starting point. The trick is turning it around. At the moment you are trying to give up something that you love, whereas the focus should be on changing your mind set to "I don't want to smell and wheeze and cough any more, therefore I don't WANT to smoke."
Once I had turned my head around to this way of thinking, and with the help of Champix for a couple of weeks, I can honestly say that I never want another cigarette and can even stand with a bunch of smokers and truly not be tempted. In fact I sometimes have to remind myself that I used to smoke! The hardest thing is finding that reason to not want to smoke any more.
My big reason was the fact that every time I had a *kitten* outside, my daughter would stand on the other side of the glass door just looking and waiting for me to come back in the house. It was breaking my heart to see her alone 10 times a day!
So as you can see my reason wasn't medical but emotional.
I hope this helps. And good luck, it is sooooo worth the effort.
PS, If the first one in the morning is before breakfast, get someone to bring your morning drink and breakfast to you in bed!

I gave up over a year ago and I really WANTED to quit. It wasn't easy but if you really want to do it - you will. :flowerforyou:

I gave up smoking when I took up running. Couldn't breathe well. That was 2-1/2 years ago. I just walked away from it and whenever I wanted a cigarette, I had a glass of water. Best thing I ever did for myself, quitting smoking and taking up running. Truth is they say you don't really give up a bad habit, you replace it with something else. So, find something HEALTHY to replace it with and just power through. As said earlier in posts, it is indeed mind over matter. You don't have to grumpy, etc. and it only lasts for a little bit. But you don't need to give yourself extra permission to gain weight or be mean. LOL.

When I quit smoking, I found myself having to find something to take the edge off. I took up weight training and running and I pretty much lifted or ran until I didn't have that urge anymore. It's been going on 7 years and I haven't picked up a cancer stick since.

Find something to substitute that urge, hopefully you'll find something less harmful and more beneficial.

Maybe this wont work for you.. but to be honest, when I was craving the satisfaction of inhaling and exhaling.. I would take a hit of marijuana. And once I was buzzed off of that hit, I was like.. "yea.. F smoking "

YES!!!!!!!!

But yeah, I quit because I wanted to....I think that made it easier. I still get cravings at strange times (its been 4 and a half months since I quit) so I keep some TicTacs around..seems to calm me. I can definitely promise that if you do stop, you'll feel sooooo much better and have tons of energy!!
Good luck!!!!

I took Wellbutrin to quit and it really worked. I have been smoke free for 2 years. I still think about it sometimes especially if I'm around a smoker. I feel so much better since I quit though. I used to have the worst cough and it was embarrassing. You will feel so much better in the long run!!! Good Luck!

I quit smoking && It's been a year and a half almost since I've had a cigarette. Was it easy - NO WAY! But you have to remind yourself that this is going to be for the best! You'll smell pretty, you'll be able to push yourself harder with working out, you'll be able to BREATH! Not spending all that ridiculous $$ on cigarettes all the time!

For me it was always in sets of three that it got easier - after 3 days it got easier... then after 3 weeks it got even easier... then after 3 months it got even EASIER! Until one day you just get so disgusted by the smell of smoke, you can smell it on people all the time and it's disgusting! I would say if you were ever a person to go hand in hand with drinking/smoking to hold off on drinking for awhile. The first time I drank I was craving cigagrettes SO bad, but you just have to hold out and remind yourself that those first 3 days were the HARDEST and do you ever want to have to repeat them AGAIN?! it only gets easier, just remember, 3, 3, 3!!