Posted on 09/07/2012 1:20:27 PM PDT by Randy Larsen
I've smoked since I was 15 years old. I turned 55 last March and now it's time to quit!
I know many here on FR have quit smoking and I would like to hear how they did it.
Please help me on my quest to be smoke free?
I’ve quit 20, 0, 40 times.
I need to quit. Again. Was using Chantix. I’m going to do it again. Knowing now what I didn’t then until later.
You sound like my Dad. He was very young when he started smoking (maybe 14); smoked 3 packs a day; went to smoking cessation and stopped, cold turkey, the year he turned 59. Hasn’t smoked since then. Quit the day before he drove on a trip form Dallas to Denver. Sucked on cinnamon sticks and hard candy. I have a sister who did the Chantix thing—hasn’t smoked since. Good luck. It’s nearly as hard as losing weight.
I stopped with e-cigs.
I like the stuff they have at Halo
http://www.halocigs.com/
Quitting’s easy.
I did it dozens of times.
I know what you mean...
I quit for 12 years and gained 70 + lbs.
I couldn’t tie my own boots until I started smoking again. After losing 65 lbs. it was still a struggle.
I have found e-cigarettes to be helpful.
Worse case, you can keep your nicotine addiction and get a lot less nasty stuff in the process with them.
But, if you refill the cartridges with liquid, you can control the dosage and slowly step yourself off nicotine.
I find I like the e-cigs so much I keep vaping even without nicotine. I like this brand http://www.vapor4life.com/ but there are plenty of others.
Lots of roasted soy nuts, helps habit of hand to mouth thing
I started smoking when I was 13, I quit when I was 31, cold turkey thats it. First month the hardest, after the first year much better. Form new habits especially in the morning and after meals. You can do it. Think of how much money you will save (less for Uncle Sam), it has been 12 years since I quit.
Just lay them down and create substitute behaviors to deal with the craving until it passes. I did two things. First, whenever I wanted a cigarette badly I’d go for a brisk walk if I was able, get winded, that helped. If I was unable to do that, a very strong breath mint, the burning sensation upon inhaling was close enough to get me through it. You need to have something to counter the weight gain, it isn’t all food substitution, your metabolism does seem to change.
There is an hour by hour list of the physiological changes that occur upon stopping, that was helpful too, two hours, blood pressure declines X%, on and on. It reminded me that there was immediate benefit which helped keep me from going back.
My Dr. recommended E-Cigs, what do they taste like?
Keep the list handy for three days. After the end of the third day go collect your guns because you no longer want to kill yourself (because of the Zyban) and you don't want to kill others because of the withdrawal and keep telling yourself that life gets easier.
I have had mixed results with the battery-powered e-cigs.
But I’m in front of a computer most of the day and got myself one that plugs into a USB port - no charging. My wife calls it my hooka. I’m puffing on it right now and do throughout the day and occassionally at home at night when I’m checking email and FR.
I’ve been smoking since I was 13. I recently decided to quick & am on day 3. It’s been easy since I replaced Marlboro 100s with an E-cig.
Good Luck!
If you want info on e=cigs start here- I haven’t had a cigarette in over 2 years.
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/
If you quit smoking, you will still die some day.
I smoked 2 packs a day 7 years ago. I moved to another state and they didn’t carry the brand I liked. I smoked a generic menthol and didn’t like other brands. I just stopped when I moved here. It was hard let me tell you. For at least 1 year I craved to smoke. My husband still smokes so it was rough.
I just stopped. I know my neighbor now has stopped and she smoked for her whole life and she is in her 70’s. She just stopped as well. She also had health issues which helped her to that dicission.
2 other neighbors just stopped as well. 1 went back to smoking then quit. the 2nd person is going on 2 years.
All the best in your quest to be smoke free.
What did you do with the extra skin after you lost the weight? I told my obese mother in law that if she gets one of those fat surgeries maybe she could recoup the cost of the surgery by selling her extra skin at a burn ward.
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No you didn't, you paused. There is but one way to quit smoking. Cold turkey. Everyone who has quit smoking was a smoker one day and a non smoker the next. I smoked for 15 years. 1.5 packs of One Humpers per day. I picked a day a few months in the future on which I would pick a day to quit. A cute little psychological step. I picked the day and quit on that day with the resolve I would never smoke again. NO MATTER WHAT. Pick a day, cold turkey, resolve. |
Cold turkey, Jan 91. 4 packs per day. Hardest thing I continue to do.
If I quit smoking, there will be a thread on FR with a reference to the local newspaper, chainsaws, axes, hostage situations, and tactical nuclear strikes.
Best I don't quit. I tend to get grumpy. ;)
/johnny
I was 49 when I quit; just a few months short of 50! I had smoked since I was about 16—probably 1/2 pack a day. My son was still in college and visiting home and had just quit the habit he had begun a few years before. We were discussing his success and he asked me to tell him ONE good thing about smoking. Obviously, I couldn’t think of anything! So, just kiddingly, I threw all my cigs away and never smoked again! (I am 56 now!) There is a website www.quitnet.com that was instrumental in my quitting. Lots of people helping, advice. Good luck!
LOL!! As Rush says if you eat carrots you will die as well!!!
I tried the inexpensive one’s and hated them. I bought the Smoke Smart brand & find they taste better. They’re not cheap, but it’s a good substitute.
I’ve never smoked, but my late mother smoked until she was well into her 60s. When she started having shortness of breath, she prayed and asked God to take the desire for cigarettes away from her. Starting the next morning, and for the rest of her life, she never wanted—nor smoked-—another cigarette.
God bless you; I hope you succeed.
I quit 3 times. Once for 6 weeks than again for 3 years and then finally for the past 13 years. I would say I am now cured. All three times I went cold turkey.
The two times that it really worked I had a terrible upper respiratory infection and cough so I didn’t smoke for about 2 weeks. By that time I was through the worst of the withdrawal and I just did not pick them back up. Its actually a lot easier that way.
I applaud your decision to quit. It will be the best decision of your life. Get the monkey off your back.
The company I worked for got me a new Chevy Caprice in March of 1986. I couldn’t bring myself to smoke in it, so I quit.
12/9/09
Picked up an e-cig.
Threw away most of a pack of Marlboros.
Haven’t smoked since.
I CAN BREATHE!!!
They taste like anything you want.
There are HUNDREDS of flavors. No pepperoni pizza, but I’m sure someone’s working on that.
Right now, I’m “vaping” coffee-flavored juice in one e-cig, and butterscotch in the other one.
I change flavors now and then. I might to to caramel-cappuccino, or a tobacco flavor.
I avoid fruit flavored liquid. Don’t know why. I just do.
Marlboro 100 Lights are my favs.
Hope I can find a substitute.
I smoked for fifty years Randy. I was told how hard it was to quit many times over the years, and believed it.
April 9, 2009 I stashed my last pack of cigarettes that had a grand total of 18 cigarettes left in it in one of the little cupboards up over the stove. That’s the same cupboard that has about a cup of Scotch still in the bottle from when I quit drinking alcoholic beverages in 1997, but that’s another story.
From that moment on I simply ignored any urge to smoke. That was it. Never smoked since, and last year I threw out the cigarettes that I had stashed above the stove in 2009.
There was none of the tearing out by the roots of my hair. No bashing of the head against the wall. No tears, no pain, just ignored the urges, and kept on truckin’.
BTW I’ve never had a drink since 1997, but I don’t throw away the Scotch as I did the cigarettes, ‘cause someday somebody who does drink might drop by, and I can let them have the stuff. The Cigs would have been pretty stale after two years above the stove, so in the trash they went.
I am now on a diet to lose about sixty pounds, and I do accredit that weight gain to quitting smoking. I have no problem with dieting at this time. I’m over anything that might be associated with quitting smoking after three years me thinks.
Hopefully us Randy’s are alike that way, and you Randy can quit smoking as easily as this Randy did.
One time, I quit smoking, chasing wild women, swearing and drinkig. To this very day, that was the longest 20 minutes of my whole life,
Agreed, and sooner than non-smokers, but I would like to be able to go out and do things without gaining a bunch of weight.
I had not given hypnosis any credence before going.
Mel
HOWEVER since I didn't want tobacco to rule my life forever, I have intentionally smoked a cigarette here and there, probably 50 or so in 25 years just to know that I was in charge. (they tasted great and I could have gone bact to 3 packs a day instantly)....it does not get easier as you go along....you just have to make up your mind and DO IT !!!!!
I quit smoking cigarettes 13 years ago at the same time as my wife. She used the patch, I used the gum. It took about two weeks before I was comfortable physically, although I was somewhat at a loss what to do with my hands, and a cup of coffee was just not the same for awhile. So, I carried a nice new pen to hold onto, and switched from coffee to Pepsi for about 3 or 4 months. I’m very glad I am rid of the damned things.
I was hoping this was a thread about Sister Simone Campbell.
I vowed that when cigarettes got to cost 28 cents a pack I would quit. Now they’re over $6. a pack. I’ll never quit now, because the cost will never get back to 28 cents again.
The way I quit my two pack a day habit was one winter I got a cold and I kept smoking anyway. I forced myself to smoke no matter how much it hurt or how much I didn’t want to. Did that for a couple of weeks, then just quit smoking entirely and I finally got over the cold. Never really felt like smoking much after that.
LOL
I smoked less, then used dip, then sunflower seeds. This is over a couple of months. I also drank no booze during this time.(well, I drank a couple times)
P.S. Did you tell anyone off, or hit on any hotties at your retirement party?
I did it my self and about the same years - you can do it.
For once in my life I kept my big mouth shut!
I think it was because my wife was my DD and much of my family was their.
I did outlast all the drinks though, sticking to Coors Light only.
I had smoked for many years and had quit 30 times only to come back doing it again. 8 years ago my wife begged me to quit, she had a friend who used welburtin to quit.
A doctor was able to get me that drug. I followed the plan,
have never smoked again nor did I have a craving to do so again. Clean for 8 years and money ahead!
Good job. I hope you quit smoking and enjoy your retirement. Keeping busy will help as well....for both.
Good luck.
I quit after 25+ years cold turkey.
I drank A LOT of water(Flush out your system) for 4 days and a lot of prayer.
I’ve been smoke free since 11am Feb. 27 2012.
I’m going to need the money after retiring.
That part is my biggest motivation!
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