Quitting smoking. Christmas Eve. Day ZERO

3 months here, gained weight from no where about 10 kg

I've been lucky. It's been snowing all day so I've been sleeping most of the day.
The power of the craving is insane.
I dont really want one, but often I can feel my body tell me
to go get one.

Originally posted by NewThor7
I've been lucky. It's been snowing all day so I've been sleeping most of the day.
The power of the craving is insane.
I dont really want one, but often I can feel my body tell me
to go get one.

Its the habbit of actually doing it, the motions and things you usually do when you smoke. Change things up a bit from regular routine and that way the habit will be shaken up. When you have that craving, switch thoughts, and get the mindset that it's disgusting.

You can do this!!! I'm a former 2-pack-a-day smoker who quit cold turkey 15 years ago. Here's the trick that worked for me: find a sport that you can get into -- hockey, skulling, serious mountain biking...anything that requires stamina and endurance. Life abhors a vacuum. If you stop doing one thing, you must replace it with another, or else the pull to revert to your former habit will be too strong.

I should also mention that it took me three tries before I could actually quit. Keep at it, even if you slip. That's OK. Don't let your demons tell you that a slip means you're not strong enough. Get back up and keep going! It's the long run that matters.

Last week, my brother-in-law was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer that spread throughout his bloodstream and lymph nodes to his brain. 'Probably won't live another year, even with treatment. Please cut a different path for yourself.

Love and peace...cheering you on!

Grace

Good luck OP. i'm a disgusted smoker. I quit for eighteen monhs, but fell off the wagon about 12 months ago.

For me the first 3 weeks were the worst. After that it became quite easy provided I wasn't in close quarters with someone smoking. Also during that whole 18 month smoke free period I coughed up dirty black or brown tar twice a day everyday. I hope you don't get this or the weight gain that I did.

When I quit it was explained to me that its a myth that people put on weight because after a week or so your metabilism adjusts. It didn't work for me because I went from about 95 kilos (already over weight despite my large stature, to 135kgs so I went back on the smokes and i'm down to 111kgs with still a long way to go. I found pickled onions were a great hunger killer because they ahve next to no calories yet give your mouth and your brain the idea that you are crunching down on something substantial

Anyways....It's no all doom and gloom (better to be prepared for the worst but hope for the best), food starts tasting better within hours.

Good luck, i hope you make it, and i hope to be following you in the next few months.

reply to post by NewThor7


Congrats and good luck, I have to quit soon,(saving it for the New Years resolution) so, this is a good place to rant. I've tried to quit 5 times before. My friend however, quit smoking cold turkey 3 years ago, still has a desire for it. Look at the money you'll save. I'm a b***** without the smokes the first few days.

Good luck Merry Christmas and good 2013.

reply to post by FeelingPure


It's a very hard habit to kick. Are you sure you want to start?

I quit smoking a couple of weeks ago, haven't smoked since even though I got a pack sitting in the spare bedroom.

My wife stopped too! hope you can quit for good!

As someone who quit cold turkey one random day, the best advice I can offer is don't quit quitting. I tried like 50-60 times, some lasting a day, two, maybe an hour? Some for a few weeks.. Finally, I have been quit for about 9 months now. No pills, no eCigs, no BS, plain vanilla willpower. The other factor is to realize that your life is not going to get better just because you quit. No one is going to pat you on the back, its a cruel world, and the stress is gonna hit you. Specifically, the day you quit, something stressful Will happen, it always happened to me, and you have to fight that. That moment will repeat itself alot, and you will have to keep saying no. I handle this by drinking fresh coffee, and trying to stay focused on things that interest me. Like video games, or watching movies. This helps alot. I can stand near smokers, inhale that delicious second hand smell, and it does not bother me one bit. So much for that peer pressure thing, 'oh how can I not smoke, everyone around me does', well guess what. My whole class does, and I can stand their plain as day, and just say no. Infact the more you say no, the worse they begin to smell again, thus making it easier to associate displeasure, and making it easier to constantly say no. I am at the point where its not even like saying no anymore, the smell does that by itself. 'Ah yes, it still smells like sh**t' says my brain, and that is good enough for me.

It also helps to find motivation, mine was all the people who get hurt and killed in the name of drugs and tobacco. I printed an article off about a few people who were hung from a bridge over some gang dealings, and I said no more drugs, no more tobacco. I posted that article on my bedroom wall, and let it motivate me, have been clean ever since. Good luck to you, and don't feel bad if you can't 'set a date' like all those tv ads want you to, it will come in time.

-DP

stay strong brother man, its not easy but after the first week you wont even care anymore.

reply to post by NewThor7

OP. I gave up smoking 4 weeks ago. I honestly did not think that I could quit. I was 3/4 of a pack a day, and over a pack an evening when I was drinking..6 weeks ago,out of the blue, I decided I had enough, with all the chest pains, wheezing etc. I went out and got a gas station e cig. That did not last long. After a lot of trial and error, I got a good vape machine for around $50. Even when drinking, I have not had the urge to smoke. It is not difficult as long as you get a good machine.My sense of smell is coming back and now I can smell smokers. Good luck. You will be glad you finally rid yourself of this nasty habit.

I'm trying to quit also,newthor.
I am slowly phasing out my regular smokes in exchange for the ecigs.
So far it's working out .

E- Cigarettes and Quitting Smoking

Mind over matter. By quitting a highly addictive substance, you are asserting your mental dominance over your body.

Think of it like playing a game with yourself. A game where you make the rules, you are the referees, the players, and the coaches. It's simply a matter of choosing not to smoke for whatever reason you've created. Don't think of it like battling a powerful demon - the more powerful you imagine it to be, the weaker your resolve will be.

Btw, I quit about 3 months ago. I smoked for 11 years, every day. All of my friends went through phases "I'm gonna try to quit smoking, guys" they'd all say. As if they were joining the army, or attempting to climb Mt. Everest. They always failed.

It's just a game. Re-write the rules.

Originally posted by kdog1982
I'm trying to quit also,newthor.
I am slowly phasing out my regular smokes in exchange for the ecigs.
So far it's working out .

E- Cigarettes and Quitting Smoking

edit on 26-12-2012 by kdog1982 because: (no reason given)

I am currently smoking blu e-cigs. I made the switch on thanksgiving and havent smoked a real cig since. I smoked for seven years and now its been over a month with out one.

If you are quilting to quit and not save money an e-cig habit will cost about the same as real cigs at first then they will start lasting longer and eventually you start saving money.

I feel a heck of alot healthier smoking the blus and a positive note I really do get to smoke where ever I want now dont have to ever find a smoke area again.

reply to post by NewThor7

Smoking has things that are bad, and other things as well, so you have to choose what you believe about it. Overall its a very unhealthy thing, but can help with depression. I know someone who was seriously depressed, and refused to go for any modern drugs, with their side affects, but his depression was causing him to do nothing, everything was meaningless to him, and for almost 2 months he just sat. Then I convinced him to use the winter light and I told him what quitting smoking had done to me, and that I had to use nicotine substitute, ie the puffer, which they're phasing out here and as they don't allow the electric smoke in canada, will get their menthal spray. And that is a very real choice. I will not go into the place I was at, my kids need me to be as happy as I can be in stressful situations.

Anyway he started using 1 cartridge a day, of the puffer, got himself a puffer, and is doing OK, and the winterlight, full spectrum light, and started lifting out of the depression. He said he'd rather be addicted to a small amount of nicotine, no smoke, no carcinogens, no additives, just nicotine, than take risky big pharma meds.

Nicotine fires off all your feel good brain chemicals. Thats why its like herionne addiction.

When you quit, which I could never do cold turkey, if you're single and can be in any kind of mood, without kids around who need you strong and happy, then maybe you can torture yourself. Maybe you're not really strongly addicted even, some arent.

But I used the patch. Didn't waste money on step 2 or 3, and couldn't take the whole patch anyway, would have shooting pains in my neck. So I cut it down to 2/3rds, and used the puffer when I needed it.

Then after going through some problems adjusting, in a few weeks, slowly, every week, cut it down evenly a bit more. Stay on half a patch, ie ,like step 2 for a few months, then slowly cut it down again, to 1/4 and stay for 2 more months, or just work your way off it, and just use the puffer.

But if you have severe anxiety, depression, can't breathe, crying alot, and you can't function in your life its DOPAMINE. And that has messed with the production of your feel good chemicals. Apparently I read somewhere about 1/2 smokers have this, and that 1/2 half has a really hard time quitting.

The solution is to use the puffer, or any other form, once in a while. Its not something you enjoy alot like smokes so you dont increase them. Who cares if you need that once a day or twice a week, for life?

And if an emergency happens, the SHTF, its not a big enough addiction to cause unending stress if you have to quit suddenly, its like smoking 2-3 smokes a day. BUT you may need to find something like sungazing, excercise works a bit, and other ways to get your chemicals going, and lift out of depression.

This is just a warning about the dopamine. And suggestions for mercies sake. How to be good to yourself when you quit.

(Oops, didn't notice that others had already posted on e-cigs. I hope this post will be helpful anyway.)

I just wanted to make a quick post here for people that have posted about wanting to quit smoking but finding it too difficult. I recently switched to e-cigarettes, and I've found them to pretty much satisfy my desire to smoke in every way. In fact, I actually prefer them to smoking now.

I stopped being a full-time smoker many years ago, and I quit cold turkey and didn't touch a cigarette for probably about 3 or 4 years after that. I found when I went back to college, though, that smoking was just one of those things I really enjoyed and decided to allow myself the indulgence in certain situations.

Anyway, after switching, I've found that I really have zero desire for "real" cigarettes, and I actually found them rather disgusting when I bought a pack after running out of e-juice.

As far as the health consequences of e-cigs go, all of the research I've found has basically indicated that they are almost completely harmless. Nicotine itself doesn't really seem to be much more harmful than caffeine, and propylene glycol, which is the primary component of e-juice and the same stuff that's used in artificial fog, hasn't shown any adverse health effects and is considered to be safe. The only real wild card seems to be the flavoring agents, but if you eat artificially flavored food, I would imagine that the risks would be about the same.

Obviously, the technology is relatively new and the full effects and potential consequences aren't yet completely known, but I think it's safe to say that e-cigs are worlds safer than actual cigarettes, as they cut out carbon monoxide, tobacco-specific nitrosamines, and all of the other thousands of horrible chemicals in tobacco smoke.

There are a ton of options available, and www.e-cigarette-forum.com is a great resource for finding information. I would recommend against buying one of the more well advertised starter kits, such as V2, blu, etc., because they really aren't cost effective at all and don't really provide as good an experience as more "advanced" options. Most of those companies have ridiculous claims that their cartridges are equivalent to one to one and a half packs of cigarettes, but in reality, it's more like 4 cartridges to be equivalent to one pack, so when you add it up, those are actually much more expensive. A refillable setup can actually be a lot cheaper in the long run, though.

If you want to get a simple, relatively cheap, and effective setup, I'd recommend going with an eGo type battery (look it up and you'll find plenty of info) and some sort of cartomizer. I'm currently using an eGo Twist battery with Boge Low Resistance cartomizers, but you may also want to look into tanks like the Vivi Nova, which eliminates some problems inherent in cartomizers (like accidentally burning filler when juice runs dry).

There are a ton of e-juice vendors. I'm buying stuff from mt baker's vapor now, but that's mostly just because they seem to be the cheapest. I'd recommend doing your own research though before buying anything.

Anyway, I didn't mean to hijack the thread. I just wanted to let people know that there are great alternatives to cigarettes that will save you a lot of money and likely prevent a lot of health problems in the future. To me, a somewhat casual smoker, but someone who really enjoyed smoking, this discovery has been like magic, as I can now "smoke" without feeling guilty every time or feeling like crap being unable to breathe when I run, etc. There are so many benefits and pretty much no downside (plus, there are tons of fun flavors to play around with), so I really hope the smokers here, even those with no interest in quitting, will take a bit of time to do some research.

Well, good luck!

there are 2 things u have to overcome to quit smoking.first and strongest is the habbit,ppl including me tend to combine smoking with many things like having a drink after meal or when having fun...which makes it very hard not to smoke when doing these things.
second is the addiction to the substance-nicotine.

i have to agree with the guys above that e-cigs are the way to go,cause u get the nicotine without the tar so its less damaging to ur lungs.plus u lower the amount of nicotine as the days pass by so u eventually smoke e cigs with zero nicotine and the quit entirely.this way is 100% working myself and many friends of mine tried this and it works.
if any of u want info about ecigs and eliquids feel free to ask cause there is much bull#$@#$@ from china storming the market so be carefull.

reply to post by Nanocyte


Yes, the e-smoke. I took the info into my doctor and she was really enthusiastic. Its not dangerous, no cancer risk, she thought it was an excellent idea. Then our mafia gangster government made them illegal.

That is what I would have switched to.

reply to post by Unity_99


That's really too bad. There does seem to be some resistance to them in the US as well, which seems to be entirely based on paranoia. I've also seen some criticisms akin to the "gateway drug" nonsense and that they are targeting kids with fruit flavors, etc. It would really be a shame if these are banned in the US too, since they seem to be the only smoking alternative with consistently positive results.