Quitting Cigarettes

Good for you firecracker_77!

Never, never give up. Even if you cheat sometime in the future. Stop again! Immediately! And never go back! Ever!

I started smoking when I was around 17. Smoked off and on until I was 37. Fairly light smoker at the beginning, but then a little heavier in my young partying years. (That was quite a range of years there though! ) But anywho, I tried many, many times to quit cold turkey. Sometimes I went a few days, sometimes a few weeks, sometimes a few months, and a few times I went over a year and went back. Foolish. But young and drinking with friends, most of whom smoked. That is the toughest time. When you are drinking, or after you have a had a nice meal and are relaxing with friends. But here is something I think of. Even if you have to change who your friends are, the atmosphere you hang out in, whatever. It is worth doing it. You have to for your own health, your family and friends who need you, etc. So I quit cold turkey again after looking in through the window of my house, I never smoked inside my house, and seeing my wife in there with the little kids in there playing. And then thinking of my older daughter who still needs me around. My parents and the rest of my family.

When I quit cold turkey for the last time, at the age of 37, I started working out a little more. Gradually, slowly adding more. Walking, walking, and walking more. Then began to jog and walk, both. Gradually jogging a little more, and walking a little less. Still walking on my days off from jogging though. And after one year and a few months I ran my first half marathon at the age of 38 years old. I have since run the same half marathon, every year, for 8 years. I missed one year because I had developed Achilles tendonitis. OUCH! Had to take some time off to let that heal.

My suggestion to you is to stick with it. You can do it. Start getting out and walking. Start looking into functional strength training. Very good stuff. You got it man!

Congratulations!

 

Firecracker you can do it! Quit cold turkey twice in my life. FIrst time
stayed off them for ten years. Second time was much more difficult but have been
off them for eight years now. At 52 no way I'm going to make the mistake
of starting again. You have the support of the people here. Power to ya!!!

 

My motivation comes from the fact that I have an existing disease. Every cigarette for a diabetic is way more damaging than to a healthy person. That is motivation enough. Fortunately for me, my addiction is mental. I never smoked during the day, so I wasn't physically addicted or at least not as physically as those that wake up and light up and go 1+ packs a day.

I hear these horror stories of people that have what I have dying in their 40's and 50's from smoking. I'm not doing that...so it won't be that hard for me.

And, I didn't post this to be attention seeking...just what was going on at the time...great to hear everyone's stories and encouragement...Sounds like there's a lot of positivity in the collective and their efforts to make changes for the better.

 

Yeah..I hear you. This site is full of good people. I am good now. I just needed the right motivation. Premature death before my baby grows up is not an option.

 

Great thread! How are you doing?

I quit in April of 93. I was smoking 2.5 packs of Marlboros a day. I used the patch, by the directions, 30 days on the big ones, 30 days on the mediums and then about 2 weeks on the smalls. Patch worked great for me, and I have no will power, but I did have the desire.

Helps to quit drinking if you're doing that, it's a natural to light up ...they go together, at least they did for me. Putting the plug in the jug was what I did first, that helped a lot.

 

Only had a handful of cigarettes in the last 2 weeks. None for a week. I'm not having any major problems. I'm kind of enjoying having that monkey off my back. Only desire it when I think about it, but the feelings pass.

 

Keep working it. I found putting some licorice in my shirt pocket helped. Everytime I would reach for a cig, out of habit, I'd get a piece of licorice. I'm still buying licorice.. but it won't kill me.

 

Fact. Smoking + diabetics = no lead in your pencil. That ought to be a motivator.

 

Glad you're working at it. Not an easy task but if you want to
stop you will. Quit cold turkey in 1988 when my Dad died.
He was 56, I 26. He didn't pass from cig smoking but it
sure didn't help so I decided cigs weren't going to be what takes me.
Ten years later during the stress of watching my Mom start to develop
alzheimers at only 65 yrs old, I picked up smoking again.
In 2005 I was sick of coughing and so went cold turkey yet again.
The first time was tough, second time was so much more difficult.
I've stayed off them and vowed never to put myself through that again.
Much luck to you. If you want something bad enough you will get it.

 

Lol....

 

From what I've seen, the worst thing you can do is try to quite by cutting down. As long as you allow yourself to have a cigarette (just when you really need it), you'll likely never be able to quite. I've seen it too many times. The reason that method is flawed is because it leaves the door open, and you end up fooling yourself to walk back through that door. The truth is you never really (need) that cigarette. You're not going to die if you don't have one. So every time you have just that one, you essentially have to fool yourself that you "need it", and it puts you back to square one, and so it goes until the next time you fool yourself. Don't be a fool!
Sorry if it sounds callous, I wish you all the best, but I think it's best to be tough, and be tough with yourself. There are much, much worse thing a person could have to endure in this world (loss of a loved one, terrible illnesses, horrible accident), quitting smoking is kids stuff in comparison, and the best part is this is one thing you can actually have control of.
And yes, I use to smoke and quite long ago, and it wasn't the hardest thing I ever had to do, not by a long shot. One thing I'll mention, when I quite I had no support, nada. All my family smoked, as did all my friends (not married or kids at the time), in fact I found I had to isolate myself from them a lot of the time when I knew I'd be putting myself in circumstances when I knew they'd all be sitting around smoking. If you have family and friends that support you, you are way ahead of the game my friend.
You just have to be rational, everybody knows there is nothing good about smoking cigarettes, why people start in the first places now is insane if you ask me. It really is not a pleasurable thing to start doing when you first start. It was different years ago when the tobacco companies had free reign and it was freely and openly promoted in ads and on TV as being cool and "healthy", but now they've curbed a lot of that, and we know better, cigarette packages even come with such strong warnings, it defies all rational thought to start ever start smoking in the first place.

 

Haven't had one in about 10 or 11 days. Not so hard. All the smokes are gone, and I'm not buying more. Only think about it briefly and the feelings pass.

 

Awesome! Don't ever go back! It's over and done.

 

I couldn't agree more with Lumberjack on that one. Those damm things led me around by the nose for too many years. Just start thinking of yourself as a non smoker.

 

I quit cigs about 8 months ago but did it with the e-cig vapor thing, can't seem to kick them so am still addicted to nicotine....

 

Don't loose faith, keep that mind set that you will kick the habit. We are pulling for you!

 

I think you can lower the dosage on the e-cig or change to a smaller e-cig in terms of it's output.