Help! Coffin Nails!

[Petrichor]

Hi guys,

I did a search of the boards, but couldn't really find anything from a cursory browse through.

 

Has anyone here managed to give up smoking and sustain it? If so, how long has it been?

 

What effects does it have i.e. weight gain, detrimental health effects that pass etc.?

 

What did you use to supplement the craving?

 

Any tips?

 

I really think it's time I chucked them in. I know damn well it's not doing me any favours but I just can't seem to shake it. I'd love to replace the craving with the feeling I get post-workout, but I can't do that all day everyday; I'd have no job! 

 

I'm aware of the benefits of not doing it, it's just trying to get over that first hurdle.

 

I'm not sure whether this subject is a point of contention on a fitness forum, but hey, I had to ask!

 

Cheers!

 

Nick

[sheltiechick]

I can't help you from a personal perspective because I've never smoked, but I know plenty of people who have quit.

One of my friends most recently decided that whenever she wanted to smoke, she would get up and go for a quick walk around the parking lot at work.  She wanted to be carrying something to keep her hands busy so she filled up a bottle of water and would drink the water while walking around.  She did great, just one day decided to quit and never looked back, and I'm so immensely proud of her!

Another guy I know bought a big bag of sugar-free suckers and every time he wanted a cigarette he popped one of the suckers.  I honestly don't think he even made it through half the bag before he stopped having such strong cravings and stopped eating them.

She chose to not use a patch or any of that stuff.  She just decided no, today is the day and I am done.  Some people succeed that way - others need the weaning down steps.  Do you know which type of person you are?  If you've changed your diet or anything like that, which method gave you success - cutting out one bad thing at a time, or a total "NO MORE!!" overhaul all at once?  I think part of it is just discovering which of these you are and following through with that method.

 

One thing I also find helpful... don't tell people "I'm trying to quit" or anything like that.  You're not trying to quit.  You quit.  "I quit smoking."  Say it out loud to people and to yourself.  The mind is a powerful thing, and if you think of yourself as HAVING quit rather than just trying, it will lead to better success.  That is your first hurdle (beyond finite making up your mind that you're gonna do it!): saying it outloud.  "I quit smoking."  Also ask people to nail you on it too.  I started telling people things outloud because I knew I wouldn't be able to chicken out if I had.  Once I told people "I want to run a half-marathon" I didn't want to be the loser who went back on what I said, so I did it.  Tell people!  And they will be super proud of you for your decision too.  (If they're not you need better friends.  I'll be super proud of you!)  And maybe they'll cut you some slack if you're cranky if they know the reason why.

 

You can go the punishment route if you want, haha.  Put a rubber band on your wrist and whenever you get the urge for a cigarette snap the rubber band.  Or try to change your mental processes about it through visualization - picture lighting up a cigarette and it turns into a big fat cockroach in your fingers.

 

You can do it!

[Evicious]

Here http://nerdfitnessrebellion.com/index.php?/topic/28726-official-quit-day-is-today/ is the topic I started when I quit/started quitting/kept starting quitting smoking. According to my Cessation Nation app on my Android, it has been

33 days 18:14 hrs since my last cigarette. I haven't gained any weight, but I made a point to watch what I was eating, how much I was exercising, and to manage my new-found appetite with lots of veggies, protein and copious amounts of water. FWIW, drink enough water when you're quitting and you'll find that a lot of the time you would've spent on a smoke break is actually spent in the bathroom! X-D

 

I spent about a year saying I was going to quit and half-heartedly attempting to quit without any kind of plan or other kind of assistance. I finally enrolled myself in a Smoking Cessation class (free courtesy of the U.S. Army). I was given a minimal-dosage prescription of bupropion at the end of the classes, and I personally found it helped tremendously with managing my cravings: I did not accept the patch or any other nicotine substitute.

 

I have no tips other than to drink lots of water, and never, never stop trying to quit! No matter how many times you fail, keep trying - eventually you WILL succeed. :-) I'll be cheering for you!

[Mordechaj]

and there i thought the topic will be about archaeology.

[MrsDethe]

I've never smoked but I do have a personal experience with it. I watched my mom ACCIDENTALLY quit smoking.

She started using an e-cigarette a few years ago from this company http://www.greensmoke.com simply to save on the cost because it was cheaper than buying actual cigarettes. She never once thought or planned to quit. It just happened.

After nearly 20 years of smoking she just slowly weened off of it and hasn't had another cigarette or even touched her e-cigarette in years. She almost immediately lost 20 lbs, complexion cleared, had more energy, and was a million and one times less cranky.

I'm not promoting any specific brand but I definitely think they're worth looking into. If anything, you can take my mom's approach and just switch to save and to get JUST the nicotine and none of the other crap that's normally wrapped up into cigarettes (kind of a paleo mentality if you think about it).

Good luck! Hope it helps!

[Spinflip]

I quit cold turkey last month. Basically, what I did was, whenever I lit one up, I thought about the first cigarette I ever smoked, and I realized that I wouldn't want this cig now if I had never smoked that one back then.

 

The cravings for me were only bad for about 4 days. After that it's been pretty much smooth sailing! Good luck!

[El Exorcisto]

I've quit cold turkey a few times and stayed that way for up to a year. It never felt natural and it always felt forced. This last time I switched to electronic cigarettes and it was the easiest quit ever. No more stink, tar, random psychoactives, or carbon monoxide. Nicotine is largely harmless in these concentrations, and serum levels end up only being about 1/10th of the real thing anyway. Whether I ever put this down is pretty irrelevant since the cost is minute and the negative health effects are non-existent.

[MrsDethe]

^That.

[Nuribaby]

I'm so glad to see this topic, because I need to kick the filthy habit too. Working out and eating right is all well and good, but then I supplement it by... slowly killing myself every day. Great plan ><

Best of luck, Petrichor! I'll be following you in your quest, I think it will help me pluck up the courage to get over that first hurdle myself.

[El Exorcisto]

Nuribaby, seriously try out electronics. I started out on the Halo G6 and now the idea of buying a pack of smokes is as foreign as wearing a thong. Stick to it for a couple weeks and you'll wonder why it took so long. It's effortless, cheaper, ad far less detrimental to your health than the real thing.

[ShadowSilk]

I bought my first e-cig kit (eGo 650 MAH) on June 8th of 2011.

I smoked my last "analog" cigarette -- you guessed it!  On June 8th of 2011.

Not everyone can switch from analogs to e-cigs that quickly, and honestly there are lots of people who do both, but if you can switch from one to the other, you'll save money, you'll get your breath back, you'll get your sense of smell back, your sense of taste back, really, really quickly.  And if you have "chronic bronchitis" every winter?  It goes away!!!

 

I am currently using an eGo "plug-in" which means it plugs into a USB port or I can take it off the port.  I started vaping at 24 mg, and am down to 12 mg.  The goal is to get to zero, but after two years, I'm still not sure when that will be.

I admit that sometimes I do think about the weirdest thing.  It's not even the act really of smoking analogs, it's lighting them.  Sometimes I miss that.  But that's few and far between, and really weird of me.

 

Check out the ECF forums.  They're really helpful to n00bs.  And at least try it, and I mean drop the $25 for one eGo plug-in, a good bottle of juice (my personal fave: Roar Punch 2.0 from Roar Vapor) and one packet of cartomizers.  My bad, if you bought all of that, it would be around...honestly, $50 with shipping.  BUT it's so worth it.  And then after you try it, if you like it, you've already got the stuff you need, and all you're shelling out for after that is juice and cartos.  (BTW one carto is NOT equal to a carton of cigarettes.  More like...two or three packs?  Depending on how hard/often you vape, how often you refill the carto, and stuff like that.  A carto can last me three-five days, easily, but I know how often to refill them and stuff, and that's just something you pick up, it's kind of personal.  So I buy four five-packs of cartomizers once a month, and that gets me through the month easily.)

[rrababit]

I quit 985,465,362.54 times before I quit for good almost a year and half ago. I used the lozenges. For me, the ability to satisfy that craving for nicotine and separate it from the actual act of smoking worked to kill it. I still get cravings and have been know to steal a drag from my sis when drinking, but overall I feel so good about having quit. My clothes don't stink anymore, my teeth and nails are no longer yellow, and I save all that cash. I strongly recommend deciding what to do in advance when your in a trigger situation. For me, right after I ate, I wanted a smoke, so I started brushing right after a meal. The commute home from work got packs of gum and some new tunes. You gotta learn what's gonna trip you up and how to overcome it the next time. Good luck, you can do it!!

[timelovesahero]

I've read that a craving, while it might seem to last forever, really lasts about 8 minutes.  Just keep that in mind, that you need to only fight the craving for at max 10 minutes.

[shredisdead]

I used this to help quit: 

 

http://www.amazon.com/Allen-Carrs-Easy-Smoking-ebook/dp/B00FADSJ9Q/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1379811525&sr=1-1&keywords=easy+way+to+quit+smoking+by+allen+carr

 

I am now two years and 6 days smoke free.  The book also worked for my girlfriend, her uncle, her father, and my mom (who smoked for 40+ years).

 

Best of luck to anyone grappling with this.