quiting smoking

brbelly

for the third time i'm trying to quit the weed to get my fittness up.

the doc has perscribeded zyban a non NRT as iv'e tried them before. but apparently i tried to throttle the wife in my sleep last night. told the lads at work and at least 50% wanted to go on the same medication.

geoff_ss

When I gave up 30/40 years ago the coughing after a bit of effort was just about enough. I suppose I was never a heavy smoker (nothing like 20/day) but I managed without any artificial aids. When I started all it was supposed to do was stunt your growth - I wonder how tall I would be if I'd eschewed the crafty fag on the train on the way to school

A strategy employed by a friend of mine was to use the money he would have spent on fags to buy an expensive camera on weekly instalments. He ended up with a good camera at no apparent cost and improved his health at the same time. You could try a similar strategy with something you fancy for your bike - a new pair of wheels for example. It might be more difficult now, I suppose. When my friend did it it he actually handed over cash each week.

Whatever method you adopt, I wish you every success. It's a vile habit that only puts money into the pockets of tobacco companies who need to replace the clients their product kills.

Geoff

Captain Turok

Good luck with giving up the dreaded, its a right arse.

I had my last one xmas eve, it gets REALLY TOUGH after a few beers.

Crazy thing is that I don't feel any better for it?!..

brbelly

thats my plan i spend £70 a week at the moment so in 10 weeks i can upgradge my scr2 to a scr 1.5 in ten weeks.

iga

brbelly wrote:

thats my plan i spend £70 a week at the moment so in 10 weeks i can upgradge my scr2 to a scr 1.5 in ten weeks.

Wow, I work that out at 40 a day! I've been about 10 a day for years, tried umpteen times to quit, so good luck and I hope you see it through.

wolvesandy

This book worked for me :- http://www.amazon.co.uk/Allen-Carrs-Eas ... 835&sr=1-5

bikerbill

I used to get through 40 a day, but gave up through will power alone. It was hard for a while but slowly got easier. The extra cash in the the wallet was a great incentive for me too.

4 and a half years on, I still get the odd pang, but they go as quick as they come. Anyway, good luck with your attempt. If you really want to stop, you will breeze it.

Bill

socrates

I gave them up 15 years ago on 13th April. Used the heart attack method. Great incentive when the doc said during my recovery. "smoke again and you will die". Keep trying, you'll do it eventually.

meagain

Good luck!

After 50 years I don't think I can be bothered trying ("smokers die younger" it says - younger than what, I wonder?). Money is only possible incentive - but I ain't quite that skint....YET.

vermooten

Took me 2 or 3 goes to give up a 60 a day habit - jeez I don't miss them though. I enjoyed having all that free money though.

CHRISNOIR

vermooten wrote:

Took me 2 or 3 goes to give up a 60 a day habit -

:shock:

Good effort, Sir!

brbelly

I tried that book 2 years ago lasted 6 hours and was down the down the shop for 20 smokes.

Anonymous

'Quit 32 years ago. My health, other people's health and got tired of people whining about me smoking around them.

Disgusting habit.

dennisn

All I have to do to convince myself never to smoke is visualize my late father-in law
in his later years of life. Emphysema really bad, various lung operations, oxygen and
other breathing devices, coughing spasms that, literally, took him to his knees, barely
able to walk up even the shortest of stairs, always sick, and a quality of life that no one
should have to endure. All preventable.

Dennis Noward

geoff_ss

meagain wrote:

Good luck!

After 50 years I don't think I can be bothered trying ("smokers die younger" it says - younger than what, I wonder?). Money is only possible incentive - but I ain't quite that skint....YET.

Younger than people who don't smoke. Moreover, the ways smoking kills isn't a good way to die either.

Of course these statistics refer to large populations not individuals, so you may be lucky, but that's not the way to bet. It's like saying male cyclists are stronger and faster than female ones. I'm probably a lot stronger than the majority of female rides (certainly of a comparable age) but I can think of quite a few who would make me look silly ... Vicky P for a start

You're effectively gambling that you're like the rare female cyclist who's stronger than most men. You're also submitting to the big corporations who are happy to kill people and get paid to do it. I know there used to be a lovely smell from the Player's factory as you cycled up Alfreton Road in Nottingham but it was a syren smell, calculated to trap the unwary.

Geoff

SteveR_100Milers

Willpower and patches for when you're in the pub. That's the hardest part (unless you give up drinking which is really serious....)

meagain

"Younger than people who don't smoke. Moreover, the ways smoking kills isn't a good way to die either."

I sort of thought that that might be the general drift! Lots of people who don't smoke die younger than I am, so I've already won the gamble! No way is a good way [to die], but cancer at least gives one time to put one's affairs in order and, if so inclined, to end the game early. It also lessens the chances of sorry mental decline, the "care" home and being forced to spend the kids' inheritance on simply sitting and starving to death.

Alcohol very very nearly did for me almost 5 years ago. IF I get through another 5 years dry I shall be 65 and will celebrate/spend my OAP on taking up the bottle again. A generous estimate would be that I have 2 years from that point!

So I shall carry on contributing to the Exchequer's tax take.

synchronicity

It's funny to see the ways that smokers justify their habit. Do you even believe yourself?

My girlfriend here in Spain quit smoking. Spain is much worse than England. I think the common figure quoted is that 50% of people smoke. Maybe not that high in reality, but it's no where near as low as 5-10%.

Allen Carr's book really helped her (along with my unwaivering pressure :twisted: ). I even read many parts of it to understand the mind of a smoker & I've never smoked in my life!

I suggest you take a look at that book meagain. From what I gleaned from the book, *no one* actually enjoys smoking. You just convince yourselves that you do. In the beginning, it's such a vile habit you think you can easily quit whenever the hell you like. But you're soon hooked mentally as well as physically (chemically I mean :oops: ).

What happens is that somewhere along the line you become "a smoker". Eventually you convince yourself that your life will somehow miraculously change for the worse if you quit. Like life won't be worth living without cigarettes. Oh please. :roll:

Just getting my partner to declare that she was an ex-smoker took months of effort. At first she wouldn't say it. She actually flatly refused to say it even though the hardest part was already over. She'd gone from 10 per day to maybe 1 or 2 every 3 weeks.

The worst part for me was seeing the peer pressure to continue. Practically all of my partners' friends smoked. Even knowing when someone was trying to quit, they'd still offer them smokes. And when in the company of good friends, the last thing you think about is 20 years down the track. New years eve was the hardest. I had to threaten, bribe, blackmail... etc :roll:

So I had to constantly remind my best half of two things:
1. Take any one of those friends outside the circle, ask them outside, and I bet they would gladly give up the vile habit if they could just snap their fingers. Ie. they would all quit (if they could).
2. When you quit, it's "all or nothing". What makes you think that ANY cigarette you smoke is ANY different from the very first one that got you hooked in the first place? Smoking just 1 ciggie, even after years, and you'll be right back where you started.

GEPC

I finally gave up for good by going on the Alan Carr easyway one day course. I had given up previously by reading the book but then gone back to it. It really worked for me. You don't have to use any patches or any drugs. You go in a smoker at the start of the day and you smoke most of the way through the course but at the end you come out a non smoker. I have not wanted one since, and have not felt I was missing anything either. When I see smokers now I can't believe I used to do it. If what you are doing now doesn't work out then give it a go. It really works. Good luck.

Desert Orchid

I did 2 things, spent next months cigs money on something I had wanted but couldn't afford,this meant I had no money to buy cigs,
and second, which people can't understand is that I carried cigs and lighter with me for months, so if took away the craving of not being able to get a cig. If I wanted one I just told myself that if I still had the urge in 1/2 hr I would have one, never needed to open the packet.
strange but it worked for me on 60 - 80 a day.

meagain

"that smokers justify their habit. Do you even believe yourself? "

If you can't read beteen the lines I'll expand.

I am an alcoholic. There are two types of alcoholic. One wants a drink every waking moment and has one as frequently as possible. The second wants one every waking moment and doesn't have one. For 4 years 11 months 3 weeks and 2 days (if ever someone says that they are in recovery but don't know when they last had a drink they are lying - either it was an hour ago or they aren't a drunk) I've been in the second category. I want a drink from the minute I awake until the minute I go to sleep and every moment in between.

I really do not believe that I could handle two abstinences (in rehab there is never ANY attempt to get folk to quit fags as well as booze or H etc) and tobacco is definitely the lesser of two evils. If I gave up smoking it would indeed be ever so easy to JUSTIFY "just one drink" to myself.

That do?

Mark Alexander

brbelly wrote:

thats my plan i spend £70 a week at the moment so in 10 weeks i can upgradge my scr2 to a scr 1.5 in ten weeks.

good luck

brbelly

thursday is my quit day. made it that day as i'm off work on a wednesday and would climb the walls.
:evil:
So on thursday when i've had my coffee first thing i'm going straight out to work on the bike and doing an extra ten miles.

red dragon

brbelly wrote:

for the third time i'm trying to quit the weed to get my fittness up.

the doc has perscribeded zyban a non NRT as iv'e tried them before. but apparently i tried to throttle the wife in my sleep last night. told the lads at work and at least 50% wanted to go on the same medication.

Go for it - I went down the heart attack path(15 months ago). I consider myself lucky in that respect. I just stopped. But the downside is because i can taste my food I must have put on a good few pounds. But on the upside I do have more cash to spend down the Bike shop. Just try you`ll get there.

mark145max

wolvesandy wrote:

This book worked for me :- http://www.amazon.co.uk/Allen-Carrs-Eas ... 835&sr=1-5

Hey, I also used "the book", so did 3 friends and we all managed to stop. Previouslyover a few new years of trying we used other aids and all failed.
I would highly recommend this book it's like reverse brainwashing, only takes a few days to read..go for it and good luck!

woodford2barbican

meagain wrote:

"that smokers justify their habit. Do you even believe yourself? "

If you can't read beteen the lines I'll expand.

I am an alcoholic. There are two types of alcoholic. One wants a drink every waking moment and has one as frequently as possible. The second wants one every waking moment and doesn't have one. For 4 years 11 months 3 weeks and 2 days (if ever someone says that they are in recovery but don't know when they last had a drink they are lying - either it was an hour ago or they aren't a drunk) I've been in the second category. I want a drink from the minute I awake until the minute I go to sleep and every moment in between.

I really do not believe that I could handle two abstinences (in rehab there is never ANY attempt to get folk to quit fags as well as booze or H etc) and tobacco is definitely the lesser of two evils. If I gave up smoking it would indeed be ever so easy to JUSTIFY "just one drink" to myself.

That do?

Perhaps the salient point here is that eveyone is different and that giving up practising an addicition is a very different thing from giving up the addicition.

Brian B

I used nicotene gum and will power. First you have to really want to stop! Take a day at a time then when the first week is in thats another mile stone and then so on.

I had to stay away from my friends who smoked for a while and avoid a few social gatherings until I became one of those ex smokers who hates people smoking near me. I know I am a hypocrite but thats how I feel.

Its realy hard and unless you have been addicted to something or gave up smoking like on the other posts nobody really knows what your going through. I had dreams about smoking for days.

Its amazing how your body responds though and it takes at least a month to break just the physical thing to do with your hands and what to do with the free time. Its amazing how your life will change, as my day was measured out in sections to when I would stop for a break to have a smoke.

Dont worry if you have failed before - everybody usually fails until they really want to stop.

Good luck.

synchronicity

meagain wrote:

"that smokers justify their habit. Do you even believe yourself? "

If you can't read beteen the lines I'll expand.

I am an alcoholic. There are two types of alcoholic. One wants a drink every waking moment and has one as frequently as possible. The second wants one every waking moment and doesn't have one. For 4 years 11 months 3 weeks and 2 days (if ever someone says that they are in recovery but don't know when they last had a drink they are lying - either it was an hour ago or they aren't a drunk) I've been in the second category. I want a drink from the minute I awake until the minute I go to sleep and every moment in between.

I really do not believe that I could handle two abstinences (in rehab there is never ANY attempt to get folk to quit fags as well as booze or H etc) and tobacco is definitely the lesser of two evils. If I gave up smoking it would indeed be ever so easy to JUSTIFY "just one drink" to myself.

That do?

Not that it's any of my business, but you've shared some personal info, & I think its great to see you are totally honest with your alcohol addiction. I wish you the best of luck!

meagain

"I wish you the best of luck!"

Thank you. Quite apart from the "good" openness might do me, statistically speaking (and they are not alway wrong!) there must be others with similar problems on this Forum. Any encouragement I can offer simply by way of "it can be done" is surely worthwhile. I'm lucky in that I no longer have any need to hide the truth either from myself or anyone else, for many it is more difficult to admit an addiction.

And unlike many ex-SMOKERS who would have all of their previous persuasion exterminated I am not on any tee-total crusade!

cakewalk

Brian B wrote:

I used nicotene gum and will power. First you have to really want to stop! Take a day at a time then when the first week is in thats another mile stone and then so on.

I had to stay away from my friends who smoked for a while and avoid a few social gatherings until I became one of those ex smokers who hates people smoking near me. I know I am a hypocrite but thats how I feel.

Its realy hard and unless you have been addicted to something or gave up smoking like on the other posts nobody really knows what your going through. I had dreams about smoking for days.

Its amazing how your body responds though and it takes at least a month to break just the physical thing to do with your hands and what to do with the free time. Its amazing how your life will change, as my day was measured out in sections to when I would stop for a break to have a smoke.

Dont worry if you have failed before - everybody usually fails until they really want to stop.

Good luck.

Gum is brilliant. Worked for me.