I just quit smoking.

1340jas

There I had to say it out loud.
It has taken me quite a while to stop as I was really hooked o the dam things. I was riding the other day with my head in the clouds and worked out just how much they were costing me. £5.50 a pack, 7 packs a week. Thats a lot of nice bike parts / clothes etc.
Thats without what theywere actually doing long term to my health.
Well I turned 44 last week and have really been a smoler since I was about 15, although I have always tried to stay fit, played lots of rugby and have always had a bike.
I live near to Cwmcarn and so have some really great countryside to ride in.
Any way I have never felt quite like this about stopping, I know I was a bit short with the wife and kids yesterday, but today I feel so much better.
I took the day off work so I could play with the bike.
I have just got back from a very long ride had a cup of tea ad some grub and guess what I'm going back out before it gets dark.
I know that the majority of you will never have smoked a fag in your life (which is the way it should stay ) but if there happens to be a smker or ex-smoker out there, let me know how you stopped the evil habit. Or why you still do it.
This site may just make it a bit easier.
Feel much better now and I'm off for a ride.

lexiekay

Hey, well done!
The hardest thing i always think is making the decision in the first place, and really meaning to stick to it.
First time i had a cigarette i was 12, and i'd smoked on and off since then. Not really heavily, but definitely enough to affect my health and finances.
I stopped once for 3 years, and have recently stopped again (3 months ago). Both times because i started going out with people who dont smoke, and the knowledge that me smoking would be horrible for them was easily enough to make me stop. Luckily for me I've never had a problem giving up once i'd made the decision. Its just that i find it an awful lot easier to not smoke when I know i'm partly doing it for someone else.
Anyway good luck, hope you carry on enjoying the bike - I'm sure you'll see some improvement pretty quick (and be able to buy some lovely new bike parts too!)

kevinharley

Well done you!! Keep it up!

I gave up 2 1/2 years ago. Wasn't a heavy smoker, but was a 'secret' smoker, and had underestimated the level of addiction I had to it. For me, in the end, it was pretty straightforward; the first step being honest with myself (and my partner and kids) about the problem I had with fags. I'd tried giving up numerous occasions before, managed a couple of weeks, and then thought "Oh, I'll just have one - it'll be OK - it will all be under control" and within a couple of days, was back to 10-15 a day!!

Also read a book - think it was called "how to give up smoking and stay stopped" which, whilst quite 'hardline' proved really useful in understanding the nature of nicotine addiction and re-framing my attitudes to smoking and giving up (eg getting you to think not about what you are missing when you give up, but what you are gaining etc)

I think I'd also reached the age (approaching 40) where you have to invest more time and effort to stay fit, and where that effort has the potential in the future (into my 40s and 50s) for increasingly marginal returns ... in the end, being (and staying) healthy and reasonably fit proved more of an attractive lifestyle than the (deceitful) pleasures of having a fag.

Never looked back since ... and I KNOW that I won't ever become a smoker again. It was hard to give up at times ... but nothing like as hard as I thought it was going to be.

Good luck in staying stopped ... and good luck to anyone esle in a similar boat!

meagain

Well done!
As it's my sole remaining pleasure I've decided it's too late to bother quitting. Well, 50 years is a pretty long term life style!

adrianb1066

I used to smoke 35/40 a day when one day in the shower I felt a lump under my armpit!

Totally crapped myself and thought it's only a subaceous cyst from an ingrowing hair but I don't want to go to the doc in another 20 years with another lump and be told it's the big C - from that moment I haven't had a cigarette or even wanted a puff on one and that was 8 years ago!

GP said it was only a cyst from an ingrowing hair so all was good. Previously I had given up many times sometimes for 6 months , sometimes for 6 hours! IMHO when you really choose to give up you will! - Good luck and all the best - ps. if you succomb and have a ciggie don't buy a pack of 10 just start giving up again in the morning!

Never give up giving up!

bilbo164

I gave up smoking two years ago, saved the money and bought a cheap mountain bike. Got my self going on that just to keep away from the evil weed. I then kept putting the money from my dirty habit into the bank and bought a good decent bike with good waterproofs, shoes, helmet etc. Now my missus is moaning shes a bike widow. :oops:
I have lost approx four stone and about six inches off my waistline. btw I was smoking eighty to a hundred a day which works out to 20/30 when you tell the doctor

Where are my stabilisers?

I gave up about 3 years ago and it's not easy if you've got an addictive personality like myself! I'd say the first 3 months are the hardest, but I warn you, I still have the odd craving now :twisted: ! These are few and far between now thank god!!

I tried to give up twice before but as soon as I had one, I was back on twenty a day and that first one which is meant to taste horrible, always tasted like heaven! The worst thing about starting again is having to go through the giving up stage again - so my advice is to stick with it because you don't want to have to do the hard bit of giving up again :roll:

Good luck - it's well worth it at any age! Plus, where's the pleasure anymore, you can't smoke anywhere - that would drive me crazy!!

pilsburypie

I'm in the same boat mate..... stopped a week ago Monday - for the 100th time! I have got over the worst of it now, but the more you go on the more challengesyou meet.... Here is my observations

day 1-3 - short tempered, real nicotine cravings
day 4-7 - feeling a bit better
day 7 - 14 feel as if you have broken the habit and why not just have 1 to celebrate? one won't hurt eegh?
day 14 onwards - pubs, smoking mates etc need to be avoided for a while

Having done a week now, I'm in the 1 won't hurt stage - don't really crave them, just fancy one because the simple fact remains I like smoking!

I smoked 10-15/day. Always wondered how someone can smoke 80-100/day.... Do you get up really early and go to bed really late to squeeze them all in?! That has got to be a full day chain smoking...... In a sick way I feel congratulations are required for that effort!

Keep up the no smoking

1340jas

Thanks for all the encouragement guys and girls.
I have got to agree with Pilsburypie, I'm still at the craving stage and a little bit short tempered but i'm sure this will pass. I keep reminding myself about a friend of mine who smoked 80 a day. He just stopped smoking one day and never went back to it. If he can do it then so can I.

I keep thinking that just one won't matter but I know that is crap as I have been there before. This time I know I won't be able to have that one fag.

I also agreed with MEAGAIN up until the end of last week. Smoking was my best ever hobby and the only pleasure left in life. Well today at lunch I sat down and wrote out a short list of all those small but very expensive things I would like to own. Like Kylie or a Rolex or a Gibson les Paul. Well at over two grand a year for fags it don't take long to save for something nice. Kylie might take a tad longer but thats what is going to keep me going. The thought of what I can now buy.
I know the health benefits are there, but the shiny bits and pieces I can get are my way of concerntrating the brain. I know that is what will help me.


Thanks again to everyone, you have made the first days quite a bit easier, and by christ I could do with the help.

xgeek

Good job mate you can do it if you really want to.

I used to smoke 60 a day and just stopped end of June (cold turkey). To help keep me focused I took up exercise and started to do a brisk walk 4 miles every night. This soon turned in to a jog. I then bought a MTB and found this site. Been cycling a fair bit and have joined an off-road club which has been real fun.

At the age of 42 my fitness has never been so good (well since I was a teenager). The up side is that I am still not smoking and I am down from 22 stone to just over 17. I still have a way to go with my weight but am getting there. Can't ever imagine going back to my old ways

1340jas

Today wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I did think about having a fag on quite a few occaisions. But didn't give in.
Strange really but I found myself reaching for the pack a few times, and had to laugh how stupid I was.
I popped into the LBS on the way home and spent some of my fag money on new brake pads for the bike.
It felt quite good to think that I would only have set fire to the money otherwise.

I've got to say Xgeek, you did well to quit fro 60 a day and loose all that weight. Keep it up.
I think I'm going a bit crazy as I keep telling myself about all the positives rather than dwell on the negatives and the cravings. In fact the more I think about it I can't actually think of anything negative.
I have noticed that my heart rate has dropped. Lying in bed this morning it was about 58 a minute, and I just checked it again now and it was about 60.
I drink about 20 cups of black coffee a day and figure my heart would stop if I cut out the cafine as well.
Not long now and I have done my first week.

meagain

"Not long now and I have done my first week."

WELL done again. And at least for a while it will be one day, one week, one month ....at a time.
I've never even tried it with fags, but I am an alcoholic and so far I've done 5 years and 7 months (as of tomorrow, yes, I still know to the day) dry.
I think that an additional "motivation" - money or more especially what it can buy - to health is probably a "good thing", particularly in the short term.

1340jas

The number of days do seem important. I can either multiply them by the cost of fags to see how much I can now spend. Or just get that sense of achievment
Nearly a week seems soooo nothing when you have done 5 years 7 months.
I think your right what you say about money and motivation. I can see the money I just can't see the benefit to my health. Don't get me wrong I know I am going to be healthier but I just don't think I will see it in the short term. Perhaps the climb at Cwmcarn may get a bit easier, but will I notice it?
All I know is I will have money in my pocket and a better set of lungs.
Hats off to you MEAGAIN, that is really some going.