My Dark Secret

UnworthyPapaLazaru

I'm a smoker.

I'm currently attempting to give up and it has now been 1 week and 1 day without a tab. Im finding it relativlely easy. In fact, I didnt plan to give up, its just kind of happening. My baccy ran out and I just thought, 'I'll not buy any more', if you dont have baccy you cant smoke can you! I was never a heavy smoker but the test for me was drinking, and I have now been out twice, once for a few beers and the other I cant remember coming home. I do know I didnt smoke though so that is a 'pass'.

I was reading some stuff today about the benefits of non smoking and one of them was 'a 10% increase in lung capacity after 3-9 months' - that is as good as a programe of EPO as far as the bike is concerned!! Bring it on!!

Anyone else giving up/given up? How did you find it? Did you hit any stages that it got difficult?

The Chingford Skinhead

I don't smoke. I was rather lucky in that I had a gold crown and for some reason smoking reacted with it and it had a taste of acid - a bit like licking the top of one of those 9v batteries.

I know lots of people who have given up and a few who have tried and failed. So, very best of luck with it. Be warned however, as well as better lung capapcity your sense of smell improves. You may find the presence of other cyclists less palatable :twisted: :roll:

Crapaud

I'm attempting to give up again. Got 5 days last week; don't really know why I started again, but I stop tomorrow!

UnworthyPapaLazaru wrote:

I was reading some stuff today about the benefits of non smoking and one of them was 'a 10% increase in lung capacity after 3-9 months' - that is as good as a programe of EPO as far as the bike is concerned!! Bring it on!!

You'll get a boost 24-48 hours after your last smoke; that's how long it takes for the carbon monoxide to leave your system and be replaced with oxygen.

I've been trying to stop, of and on, with various degrees of failure, for some years now, so I'm probably not the best person to be giving advice. No doubt others'll be along with loads of it, but I'd suggest that, if what you're doing's working for you at the moment, just keep doing it.

You're over the worst of it now, but don't be tempted to have even 1 ciggie or, from my experience and others, you'll be back to square one.

Bon chance.

nicklouse

UnworthyPapaLazaru
thats the way i stopped. had run out and could not be arsed getting any more. Also it was one month into the pub smoking ban out here.

Been a few years now, used to smoke 20 a day. Now that is a lot of money to spend on toys.

UnworthyPapaLazaru

Thats the thing mate, Im doing nothing! You cant smoke if you dont have tabacco. As of tomorrow dont buy any. Its working for me.

The Chingford Skinhead

Crapaud wrote:

I'm attempting to give up again. Got 5 days last week; don't really know why I started again, but I stop tomorrow!

UnworthyPapaLazaru wrote:

I was reading some stuff today about the benefits of non smoking and one of them was 'a 10% increase in lung capacity after 3-9 months' - that is as good as a programe of EPO as far as the bike is concerned!! Bring it on!!

You'll get a boost 24-48 hours after your last smoke; that's how long it takes for the carbon monoxide to leave your system and be replaced with oxygen.

I've been trying to stop, of and on, with various degrees of failure, for some years now, so I'm probably not the best person to be giving advice. No doubt others'll be along with loads of it, but I'd suggest that, if what you're doing's working for you at the moment, just keep doing it.

You're over the worst of it now, but don't be tempted to have even 1 ciggie or, from my experience and others, you'll be back to square one.

Bon chance.

Now, if you commit to give up tomorrow and the pair of you keep in touch with your progress you'll find your natural competitive spirit will drive you on far better than trynig to give up alone.

My brothers and I had a weight loss challenge last year. I'd go to the gym, be dying on the treadmill or rower and then visualise big bro next to me and discover I still had juice in the tank Good luck to the pair of you (and anyone else in the same smoke-free boat

Tranced

Woke up 10 mths ago, went outside with my coffee & smoke & just didn't feel like smoking. Had coffee & though to self, oh well, I'll have one when I get to work. Haven't touched one since.
No cravings, no extra eating, no weight gain, nothing. Juststopped.
Left over smokes lying in closet somewhere.
Feel 100% better for it. And now that I'm riding quite seriously againI can feel the difference.
Last year first thought on getting back from a ride was to have a smoke. Now that does not even enter my mind.
So far so good.

Littigator

I gave up almost 2 years ago now but have slipped a few times which is very very bad. The difference it makes to my cycling is huge. If I smoke when drunk over a weekend I can really feel it when I get back to my commute.

Well done UWPL and Crapaud, it'll make a huge difference but don't get complacent about it espcially when you're out drinking.

Also, as Chingford Skinhead mentioned with you and Crapaud trying together it ashould help. Well done both it's hard work but worth it.

Jamie

Jen J

I started smoking at the age of 12, and was on 20-40 a day depending on night life.

One day I said to myself that I was only going to have a cigarette if I really wanted one. It never happened. That was over 5 years ago.

UnworthyPapaLazaru

Well done stoppers and thanks for the words of support!

When do you think you can finally say you have quit? A month, two months a year???

Jen J

UnworthyPapaLazaru wrote:

Well done stoppers and thanks for the words of support!

When do you think you can finally say you have quit? A month, two months a year???

Think positive - you've quit. You're a non-smoker

nicklouse

Jen J wrote:

UnworthyPapaLazaru wrote:

Well done stoppers and thanks for the words of support!

When do you think you can finally say you have quit? A month, two months a year???

Think positive - you've quit. You're a non-smoker

I am still a smoker, But i have just not had one for 3 years. (TBH i cant remember the year).

secretsam

Be strong. Smoking is a filthy, disgusting, vile, anti-social habit that will kill you, slowly, painfully and unpleasantly.

Source/background: work closely with the NHS, have seen cancer patients dying in a hospice, etc.

And I quit smoking 11 years ago. I just stopped. Packed in drinking and went on a diet at the same time (might as well really go for it, the full hell experience :twisted: ).

Don't regret it for a minute.

secretsam

UnworthyPapaLazaru wrote:

Well done stoppers and thanks for the words of support!

When do you think you can finally say you have quit? A month, two months a year???

It's a year, totally smoke free i.e. not one drag.

Eat My Dust

I gave up almost 3 years ago after starting again after a 2 year break! until I went to a wedding in Scotland a fortnight ago and smoked one rollie and one fag. I don't think this will have done me too much harm considering how many drams I had before hand!!

giltkid

I quit a 10 a day habit a year ago - found it reasonably easy although I've had the odd lapse which I try to be philosophical about . It does make a big difference to cycling fitness and just seems crazily expensive.

ride_whenever

I'm smoking atm along with the GF, but we really ought to quit or she'll never make the blue boat, and then she'll be sad. The issue is that she's just started working for a her degree again and she's always smoked when stressed... It's a bit of a pickle.

secretsam

ride_whenever wrote:

we really ought to quit or she'll never make the blue boat

Eh? Blue boat? :?:

UnworthyPapaLazaru

The only thing I have really noticed is an increased appitite. Im actually hoping to put some weight on, turn that to muscle and turn that to speed!!

GEPC

I struggled for years to give up using will power, patches, you name it. I eventually did it by going to one of the Alan Carr group sessions. It costs about £180 (when I did it over a year ago) and its a slighly strange experience but essentially you go in a smoker, smoke loads of fags while you are there and at the end walk out a non smoker.

I didn't have any withdrawls even when drinking, and didn't gain any weight. It really was very easy. I truely believe I will never smoke another cigarette. You need to want to give up for it to work, but they give a money back guarantee. A couple of friends have been and done it since and it worked for them too.

What ever you do it is actually better being a non smoker so good luck.

msw

I got hypnotised in (errrrrr.... 2003?) and it worked first time. £50, one session, fairly mainstream including a bit of an interview and some NLP techniques I think. I was lucky and I haven't smoked since, but a friend of mine went a month or so later and still smokes today. So I can't unconditionally recommend it, but it's definitely worth a try for the price of 8 (?) packs of fags.

Nicotine's very addictive. Don't feel like it's a personal failure if you slip; all you ever have to do is not have the one you're about to have next. One thing the guy did point out to me is that I was already going from 10pm to 1030am without a cigarette, which is far longer than it took for the nicotine to leave my body, so he argued that I wasn't really physically addicted in any case. Still, 15-20 a day for 15 years is a hell of a psychological addiction.

The really weird thing was that afterwards it felt awkward even to hold a cigarette -- something I'd done 20 times a day for nearly 15 years. I did for a few weeks drink more when I went out, just to have something to do with my hands really. Now I'm just a non-smoker.

Two of the most helpful things for me were:

1) learning to interpret cravings differently - the tingling feeling happens when your blood's ability to absorb oxygen goes up again as the nicotine leaves your body, it's a good thing

2) visualising myself at 60 if I kept smoking and if I didn't, and the realisation that if I didn't want to be smoking when I was in my 60s, I'd have to give up at some point between now and then. So it might as well be now. I was helped by vanity - knowing someone who smoked at least 40 a day and looked cadaverous even though in their late 40s.

Of course every now and then I do lose a day and another one of the hypnotherapist's enemies goes missing. But that's probably nothing.

best of luck
M

lost_in_thought

I quit when the smoking ban came in, after about 9 years of smoking in various levels of intensity... yes, I went to boarding school!

I used what I refer to as the pride method - set a date, and then proceeded to tell everyone I know that that was the date I was quitting for good several times so they would remember. I'm a lady of my word, so the idea of going back on that was enough to get me off them. It's been a year and 3 months now, no patches, no gum, and I now find them repulsuive.

Hurrah!

chuckcork

lost_in_thought wrote:

I quit when the smoking ban came in, after about 9 years of smoking in various levels of intensity... yes, I went to boarding school!

I used what I refer to as the pride method - set a date, and then proceeded to tell everyone I know that that was the date I was quitting for good several times so they would remember. I'm a lady of my word, so the idea of going back on that was enough to get me off them. It's been a year and 3 months now, no patches, no gum, and I now find them repulsuive.

Hurrah!

Don_Don will never catch you now.

attica

I gradually gave up, I ended up smoking about one a week, then even that stopped.
I last had a cigarette in May or March last year, it was so uneventful I'm not really sure which month, I just remember thinking "Oh, I haven't had a cigarette since..."
Mind you I did have a slight road to Damascus moment leading up to that.

I'd been looking ahead to the smoking ban and thinking how I'd solemnly sit down wih a pint and smoke for one last time in a pub to mourn it's passing.
Sat one night with a group of friends, most of whom were smoking heavily, my eyes streaming, I said to myself, "God I can't wait for the smoking ban". That was the moment when I won the battle, I think I went from looking at what I'd lose to looking at what I'd gain from stopping smoking. Once I started thinking like that it was easy, I'd been a smoker for about 14 years on and off.

Incidentally, to demonstrate one of the benefits, a small tale:-

In an attempt to give up I went along to my local road club's Sunday morning ride, a couple of years ago. I fessed up to being very unfit and was promised that they'd look after me. 10 miles down the road two of us got stuck at some traffic lights, me and pretty much the fastest guy in the club. He dragged me onto the back of the pack, it was all I could do to stay in his slipstream, we caught them, but I knew I was done and turned tail and grovelled home, wheezing like goodness knows what.

Last weekend I went ot for a 50 mile training ride with a friend (she's gettig ready for the IM70.3 Worlds in Florida, so no slouch). The 50 miles turned into 80 as the weather was so nice. heading back into town we ended up mixed up with three guys from that same road club, including the same guy who had helped me out. Heading
down a ruler straighht road with a motorway bridge at the end of it about 1/4 mile ahead, I suggested a sprint for the top of the bridge (still don't know why as I was sure they were all faster than me). Anyway I ended up leading out, I wound up to 30mph and held it there, nearing the bridge though I realised i'd gone too soon, I was losingg momentum, 29... 28... One guy came past - yep fast helpy guy - and took the lead with 50 yards to the bottom of the bridge. I held his back wheel thinking 'ah well second is pretty good'. Then as we started the climb, he just went backwards I re-took him and crested the brow clearly in the lead, I don't even know where the other two were.

We pulled up and waited just after and I realised that I wasn't wheezing at all, my lungs were singing with the air screaming in and out of them and I felt so alive. I don't know anything about the guy I beat, he could well be injured or anything, but I do know that I would still be spluttering today if I was still on the smokes.

UnworthyPapaLazaru

Nice one Attica.

Well that's one more day without smoking (dont worry I wont bother you with this every day!) How did you get on Crapaud? Have you started stopping again?

linsen

Keep at it, Papa!

With us lot to nag you at every available opportunity you'll surely stick at it!

Put the money you're saving in a pot and buy yourself lots of nice shiny bike kit

UnworthyPapaLazaru

Thanks Linsen. Its been worryingly easy so far!!

I do have my eye on a new road bike around christmas/new year...

don_don

chuckcork wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

I quit when the smoking ban came in, after about 9 years of smoking in various levels of intensity... yes, I went to boarding school!

I used what I refer to as the pride method - set a date, and then proceeded to tell everyone I know that that was the date I was quitting for good several times so they would remember. I'm a lady of my word, so the idea of going back on that was enough to get me off them. It's been a year and 3 months now, no patches, no gum, and I now find them repulsuive.

Hurrah!

Don_Don will never catch you now.

But I don't smoke either 8)

Sounds like you've cracked the hard bit UPL, if you can go out for a social drink and not end up with a ciggie - well done mate.

My sister gave up after smoking 20 a day, had one in a moment of weakness a month later and it nearly made her sick. From reading the thread it seems that everyone has a different way of dealing with it.

Enjoy the bike shopping

Crapaud

UnworthyPapaLazaru wrote:

Well that's one more day without smoking (dont worry I wont bother you with this every day!) How did you get on Crapaud? Have you started stopping again?

Yeah, I started stopping yesterday, but re-started.

If you look at a list of side effects of giving up the only one that I've never suffered from is mouth ulcers. The first few days of misery are just something to be put up with, but one side effect, light-headedness / dizziness, is the one that worries me the most and it's fairly unpredictable; I don't always suffer from it.

Anecdote:
A few years ago, when I had a normal job and a commute, I arrived at work cigless and decided to chuck them there and then. Everything I'd come to expect from giving up then ensued: irritablity, restlessness and bad temper (I resolved to not talk to anybody), poor concentration.

I determined that, as I worked on an industrial estate where the only access to smokes was the greasy burger van, if I could last to 2pm when the van left I'd be in with a shout in seeing the day out. 2pm came and went and light-headedness came in; suddenly I was walking into things: desks, door frames, bouncing off of walls. Although I realised that this wasn't normal I ignored it and focused on just not smoking.

Eventually, 5 o'clock came and I jumped on the bike and set off for home. 200 yards later I blacked out. One second I'm out of the saddle, powering up a short rise, looking at the tarmac and the next I'm looking at blue sky with fluffy white clouds. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but I found myself lying on my back, still clipped into the pedals, in the middle of a mini roundabout. The whole episode was very unnerving.

In hindsight, this was a fortuitous event; I now know the signs to look for.

At present, I have the misfortune to have a driving job and yesterday I spotted the signs. So I parked up for half an hour while I had a couple of drags.

One advantage of my job is that I can take time off when I want (providng the personal financial weather's favourable) so, as I'm planning on going out with the newly re-formed Glasgow CTC this Sunday, I'm thinking of taking Monday and Tuesday off - that'll give me 3 days to get over the worst of the withdrawal.

TL;DR: Chucked the smokes, had dizzy turn, started again. Will stop again on Sunday.

I can only fail if I stop trying!

UnworthyPapaLazaru

Stop re-starting and start stoppping...em...yeah.

That all sounds pretty heavy. Ive had nothing at all apart from snacking more. Supposedly the addiction thing is genetic with some more prone that others. I obviously dont suffer to badly.

SPOODZILLA

I stopped 6 weeks ago and feel like a new man. More energy, feel motivated, generally feel fitter. Best thing i've done in ages. I have swapped the nicotine addiction for caffine and chocolate, but all the extra days commuting i'm doing are just about cancelling that out!!