How to put down that last cigarette!

when i quit almost 3 years ago ..i went down to smoking 2 or 3 for a couple of months so that when i actually quit i wasnt missing so much nicotine. it seemed to work for me..hopefully it will help you

I started to get sick from smoking. When I was stressed I would smoke 2 packs a day. I quit smoking and went on the patch... then I got stressed and the doc said I could smoke up to 5 cigs with the patch. I did and got sick. Now, its been 8 months and I am smoke free You just have to be ready. I could have gone back but the urge to quit has to override your smoking. I miss it, I can't lie but it is the best choice health wise!

even after 3 years i still feel like i want one i just remember why i quit in the first place)

I can't tell you what will work for you, I'll just tell you what I'm going through. I too was having a hard time putting down that last cigarette. I'd been "quitting" for a while too. But really you just have to make the commitment and STICK TO IT. I had a nearly full pack of cigs that one morning I just crumbled up and threw away. I've been cigarette free for 2 weeks now (I know it's not long) but my cravings are going away and when I do get them it's easier to overcome them. The hardest is when I am drinking. But while we are on our fitness/weight loss journey we are doing MUCH less of that too.
So a few tips:
-try your hardest to keep yourself out of situations that would typically include cigs.... like drinking.... or even hanging around a bunch of smokers.
-tell people that you are quitting so they are less likely to ask you to smoke with them or offer you one, and hopefully will be encouraging.
-stick to your guns. Just like your weight loss decision, make a commitment and stick to it.

The first week is the hardest. Get through that and you are good. GOOD LUCK!!

Edit- Not to mention, that I suddenly started having breathing problems at night, wheezing, went to the doctors and he gave me an inhaler prescription. I've NEVER been asthmatic or anything, that was obviously a result of smoking for so long.

Can you perhaps smoke a ton so it becomes repulsive? That always seems to work with some types of alcohol? Just a thought from an ignorant non smoker.

this worked for my mom....she smoked 3 packs an evening, for three evenings in a row while at bingo lol (on purpose) and hasn't smoked for over 10 years since that time!

I started to get sick from smoking. When I was stressed I would smoke 2 packs a day. I quit smoking and went on the patch... then I got stressed and the doc said I could smoke up to 5 cigs with the patch. I did and got sick. Now, its been 8 months and I am smoke free You just have to be ready. I could have gone back but the urge to quit has to override your smoking. I miss it, I can't lie but it is the best choice health wise!

even after 3 years i still feel like i want one i just remember why i quit in the first place)

5 years for me and I still want one. But like you, I remember why I quit along with realizing my triggers that want me to go back to smoking (stress mainly) and then I remember that smoking won't help me with stress and I try to deviate to something else

I started to get sick from smoking. When I was stressed I would smoke 2 packs a day. I quit smoking and went on the patch... then I got stressed and the doc said I could smoke up to 5 cigs with the patch. I did and got sick. Now, its been 8 months and I am smoke free You just have to be ready. I could have gone back but the urge to quit has to override your smoking. I miss it, I can't lie but it is the best choice health wise!

even after 3 years i still feel like i want one i just remember why i quit in the first place)

See!!! That's scary as hell.

I quit April 11, 2011 using Zyban (wellbutrin). I started smoking when I was 15 and I turned 40 last year so I smoked nearly 25 years. And honestly, if I had known how much easier than expected it would be - I would have quit years ago. I'm sure it was a combination of the meds and me being truly ready to quit, but I had anticipated it being way worse than it actually was. The first week or so was the hardest - I ate a LOT of tootsie pops (wasn't on mfp yet. lol). I had even warned my kids I might be really cranky but it never really happened. The first few months I had several dreams that I was smoking and I would wake up totally disgusted with myself that I had to start over with quitting. I would be so relieved it was just a dream! I also still miss it occasionally, but in a very mild nostalgic kind of way. Not at all a painful craving or anything. And my hubby still smokes too. Doesn't bother me surprisingly. It stinks, but it doesn't make me want one at all. I am just really proud of myself, and so glad I quit before I "had" to because of health issues, etc. It is SOOO worth it. Good luck!!

My husband tried the patch. I think it's a 3 step process, but it worked for him. Good luck.

I smoked for about 25 years since I was 15. I knew how bad it was for me and just kept telling myself how much I enjoyed it and that I would never be able to quit anyway do I never even tried to quit.

What changed? My wife quit 8 months ago which was an inspiration, I am in my 40's and overweight so I figure if I want to make it to 50 I should probably quit, the money I wasted on it was getting painful. Imagine, paying thoussands of dollars to die a slow and painful cancerous death. How idiotic is that?

Anyway, here is how I quit 59 days ago:
-Stopped lying to myself about how I liked to smoke.
-Decided that I will be damned if I am gonna let cigarettes rule me, what would that say about the kind of person I am?
-Started eating better and losing weight before my quit date so I didn't end up at 300 lbs.
-Set a quit date and time that coincided with a good time to let go of it.
-Loaded up on sugar free gum and hard candy to get me through
-Fought the urges the first few weeks by exercising, drinking water, chewing the hell out of some gum, and telling myself over and over that I can never ever do it again. Not even once for any reason. EVER!!!

So far so good. I feel better, sleep better, digest better, breath better, feel more verile, can go up dozens of flights of stair without passing out, have lost 35 lbs, plan to live into my 80's, started running, realized I am awesome and so am I!!!

I hope you can do it. You will be glad you did.

THIS! I quit 5 days ago and I made a plan and am sticking to it! I am using patches, but take them off at night as they cause me horrible, vivid nightmares. I also use a lozenges for urges....which I keep in my mouth about 30 seconds because they make me instantly nauseaous!

I smoked for 40 years, about a pack a day. I also refuse to gain back any of the weight I have lost, therefore I continue to make healthy choices. AND I drink a ton of water....

If I CAN DO IT....so can YOU. Good Luck! You have to want it!

Proud of you Cyn. I am an ex smoker too. My husband and i quit cold turkey nearly 35 years ago.. Marie

also, if you want to go the medicated route, i've heard wonderful things about wellbutrin making a massive difference in people who are quitting.

I think ANYONE can quit. It's just a matter of just damn well doing it.

I started up at 19 and told myself I'd enjoy it until 21. And I did. I quit ... not AT 21 but a few months into that year of age.

I went cold turkey.

A HUGE help for me was finding a support group. The government provides a lot of aid for things like this. They can give you packages of the gum or patches. I thought they were nasty so I went forward with cold turkey but used the support website which gives you a countdown.

I use Quitnet.com.

I had to grasp the fact that I will be around smoking and smokers for the rest of my life and I didn't want to smell like rank nasty shiz anymore. Sorry.. but when you smoke you smell like something died LOL.

I'm around my parents, my husband, and his friends that ALL still smoke years later. I never gave back in. For some reason it never was something I wanted ever to do again.

I quit 4/11/2010. You can quit too!

You have to realize it's a WASTE of money. It's DISGUSTING. It's OFFENSIVE. It ruins your teeth. You smell like crap everywhere. It ruins your car and house and clothes and blankets and everything else in between. It hurts the environment with the stupid butts. And who the bloody heck wants to freeze their ace off or sit in a building for 2-3 hours being cracked out for a cigarette??? I don't miss that. I know nobody else would. And aren't you tired of driving up to the stupid gas station and having to go in to throw away $5 more dollars for a pack of crap? Plus isn't it embarrassing going to the doctor's office or dentist and having to fess up to smoking.... ? Or working out and not being able to go as far as you really could because your lungs are caked in tar gunk? Or what about the fear of cancer and other nasty diseases? Do you want your family to be left behind because you couldn't put the cigarettes down?

LOL! Here is some food for thought. Brutal and honest and it will get your mind thinking. IF this cannot convince you... I don't know what to say!

Oh and my husband's gums are receding and he has chronic bad breath because of smoking. He still hasn't quit. Not my body but still... if he stopped smoking we could fix his teeth. I lost my uncle, my grandparents, and will probably lose my mother to smoking. Don't be one of those people. Live for yourself... not for an addiction.

I smoked for 10 years and for at least the last 7 of them I tried cold turkey, patch and gum. It was pretty hard to quit, people I worked with and a few of my best friends smoked.
In 2007 my company provided us a free quit smoking program, Commit Lozenges. They were given out for free and so I gave them a go. The Lozenge was not doing anything for me for the first few days and I went and smoked a cigarette, somehow the taste was off and I couldn't even finish my cig. A few days later I tried to smoke again and it really threw off my taste buds, the taste was pretty foul and just gross.

Weird thing is I never even finished the bottle of Lozenges, I only took it for 3 days.

August 12, 2007 is the last time I smoked a cigarette.

Funny thing now, if I smell a cigarette now it actually makes me feel sick if I smell it for too long, I can't stand the smell anymore. When I was a smoker being around the smell never bothered me.

I also tried everything (gum, patches, mini carrots...). My advice is to buy LOTS of sugarfree gum and sugarfree mint and eat as much as you can or want, but my best advice would probably be sunflower seeds with the shell. I could spend an hour or 2 eating sunflower seeds as it occupied my hands and my mouth, and it doesn't ruin your diet even if you binge, plus it's so much work for so little that it won't fill you up. By the time I was sick of eating them I wasn't thinking of smoking.

Setting a specific date helps a lot too as you can see it coming and plan for your non-smoking life. You could also determine how much you smoke every day, then remove one cigarette every 4 days or so; write it on a calendar so you know when you have to remove one and when you'll quit, so you'll stick to the plan. You can also write the pros and cons of smoking as a reminder.

Finally, you could watch ads on youtube to quit smoking... the ones about cancer are quite convincing.

Everyone is different, so you have to find what works for you.

i quit cold turkey. i had only tried about 4 or 5 times (while pregnant, and a few other times)

i didn't leave the house for a week, and i took lots of sleeping pills.

good luck.

Green Smoke! The electronic cigarette!

They are awesome. Just remember to drink a lot of water, as they tend to dry out your mouth.