My "I have quit smoking story"

Hi everyone.

Just thought I would document my experience so far with quitting smoking. I was a smoker for almost 25 years, off and on. Much more on then off. I have quit in the past and managed to get to the 11 month mark before I started again. I said that if I ever made it to 1 year I would be through with them for good.

Well this time around, I approached it differently. I said to myself, I don't have to quit for a year to be through with them, I just need to quit for a day. Each day was another day 1 and I quit all over again.

On March 16 I started. I woke up without cigarettes and decided instead of going to get more, I would quit. Just like that. I hadn't planned it or really even thought about it. I mean, I have wanted to give them up for a while but just didn't have the motivation to do it for what ever reason. So I just quit. Cold turkey. No patches, no nicotine gum, no pills, no hypnotizing, nothing. Well thats not true. I used sunflower seeds when I had real bad cravings. Which was often the first few weeks.

The day times weren't bad. I could get up and go and do things. I was walking on average about 15 km a day at the start. I ate a lot too. Plenty of fruit and vegetables as snack food. I also had a lot of other things around the house to eat. But despite that, I lost weight. I might be the only person I know that quit smoking and lost weight. 4 lbs in the first month.

The nights on the other hand where terrible. I am a single parent so I couldn't just get up and leave the house to take my mind off of it. I felt like a caged animal at times and wasn't sure it was worth it. I had some help from a friend though who would talk to me and help me think about other things besides the cravings. I don't think she realizes how much she actually helped. If it hadn't been for her and my daughter, I doubt I would have kept at it.It was still pretty freakin' hard though. I did an awful lot of pacing and very little sleeping.

At about the three week mark or thereabouts, I decided to start running. At first, it was run a few 100 metres, walk a km or 2. I gradually managed to get it too walk a few 100 metres, run a km or 2. Right now, I have manged to get myself up to about 5km. When I started running and knew that I was going to stick to it, I thought about some goals. At first I figured I could run a 10 km race by the end of the summer. Well, because of the progress I see in myself, I have changed that. I think I might try for a half marathon by the fall. There is a 5 mile run in a few weeks here in my city, I think I am going to give that a go as my first official race.

I'll use this thread to post about my adventurer in quiting smoking and running too, as right now for me, the two kinda go hand in hand.

Anyone else have stories about quiting? How did you do it? What worked for you?





[edit on 23-5-2010 by GAOTU789]

reply to post by GAOTU789


You know that voice....the one telling you to stop?

This is what confuses me. The voice is in my head. It's not pleased with smoking and tells me to quit all the time, only my body wants it.

This is where I'm confused. If my body wants it, why does my head tell me not to do it.

The worst part is, cigs are no mystery. They strait up kill you. My head knows this, my body even knows this.

If my head and my body are saying stop, well my body not so much but it knows. What other part am I missing to kick this thing in...I do want to stop.

Regardless, thank you for your story. So few smokers or "EX" smokers out there now, it's hard to garner any "I need a smoke" comrades, but all the same, I wish these little things had never come into my hands.

Think about this...Marlboro means "Defecation Heap"...literally. They have been turning us into fertilizer.

Peace

So proud of you buddy!