Giving up the fags

STEFANOS4784

Ev'nin all, i've been riding more recently and absolutely loving the lack of seering pain in my hands from the cold

Now i think it's time to give up the ciggies, but i'm weak.
Has any-one on here given up? Any tips?
I tried just spending all my money but as soon as a mate offers i get strait on it, i probably just need to get a grip but any tips would be appreciated and i WILL try them :roll:

STEFANOS4784

STEFANOS4784 wrote:

Ev'nin all, i've recently been riding more and absolutely loving the lack of seering pain in my hands from the cold

Now i think it's time to give up the ciggies, but i'm weak.
Has any-one on here given up? Any tips?
I tried just spending all my money but as soon as a mate offers i get strait on it, i probably just need to get a grip but any tips would be appreciated and i WILL try them :roll:

pdstsp

I gave up in May 02 - kids had started noticing that I smoked and were beginning to talk about it and eventually I jst stopped. I used the nicotine lozengers and, for the first few weeks, they cost as much as the fags. However they did make things easier and, to be honest, because I wanted to stop smoking, I never found it very difficult after the first couple of days. Stayed on the lozengers for about five months, gradually reducing number and strength. I never think about it now.

Good luck Stefano - think about all the bike bling you'll be able to buy!

LeighB

I was a smoker but gave up a few years ago; there are lots of sources of help and advice but here are my thoughts.
Try understanding that you don’t actually like smoking, it’s the nicotine you think you like.
The longer you go without putting nicotine in your body the less you will want it; the withdrawal is short lived.
Smoking is simply nicotine addiction, we do not need to smoke!
I grew up in an environment where the adults I knew smoked and I was mistakenly under the impression that smoking calmed you down, alleviated boredom, helped concentration etc, this is a complete myth; all smoking does is puts another dose of nicotine into you to replace the last dose. Don’t put the nicotine in and you will not crave the nicotine.
Finally if you think it is a pain giving up think how painful it would be having a heart attack or a lung removed.

nicklouse

I am a smoker, But i have not had one for a few years now. TBH i cant remember what year it was, but it was one month after the smoking ban came into place in Sweden.

you just have to be in the right frame of mind and take what help you need.

there are still times that i would kill for a smoke.

RockyHopperShow

+1 for LeighB's reply........

I had a routine medical for work and was put on light duties because of a problem with my ECG printout. It turned out to be okay (after loads of tests) but put the fear of God into me. I could quite easily have ost my job. I gave up as soon as I got out of the original medical.....easy. (at least for me)
My partner still smokes, and I still miss the smoke in pubs (they seem so clinical now), but go back to cigarettes? Not for me.

finchy

I started smoking the other day..... somebody had set me on fire

Sorry, stupid joke.

Do a google image search for "diseased lung". That should help.

Don't hide from the truth, don't kid yourself that this could never happen to you. I've never been a smoker, but I've helped a couple of people give up. The thing that really did it for them is when they accepted that they are just as vulnerable as anybody else. Relapse was ALWAYS accompanied by excuses and denial.

If you feel weak, just ask yourself - are you a winner who is in control of yourself, or (adopt Mr T voice now) are you a crazy fool?

keef66

Never smoked and never will.

Watched my mother smoke 40 a day despite our best efforts to get her to stop. Her lungs would fill with fluid during the night and she'd have to sleep propped up. A couple of times she fell over for no apparent reason, and swore she'd lost part of her memory in the process; I'm sure these were probably mini-strokes. Then she had a heart attack which she survived, and on waking in hospital told the doctor she didn't smoke. To be fair, she never did again. The damage however was already done, and the next heart attack killed her.

I was also quite shocked by the premature death of a close friend of ours. He and his wife both smoked. He survived two bouts of stomach / intestinal cancers, with surgery, radio and chemotherapy, but never managed to stop smoking. In the end he died of leukaemia. His widow still smokes, and I am at a loss to understand why.

Lowie

I packed them about 6 years ago. I tried a few times before that until one day i had an asthma attack so severe it could have done a lot of damage. After that it scared the hell out of me. never touched one after that. Seems that scare tactics would help

socrates

Easy, had a heart attack 16 years ago. Doctor said if I went back on the fags I would die so no contest, no fags since.

cakewalk

I found the gum very useful. After a few months move over to normal gum

STEFANOS4784

Cheers for the replys folks
I think i need to just get a grip. Idon't necessarily think these terrible things wont happen to me i just don't much care. Most of my mates are non-smokers so will try and cut down on going to the pub with my smoking mates as i seem to just puff away for the sake of it despite not liking the taste and coughing up nasty stuff.
Will go and get some gum shortly which i hope will help

martinwitnam

I gave up in March of 2008. The day that I had my heart attack. That seems to be a good incentive to give up. Tee hee!
Try it, it's great fun.

chuckcork

STEFANOS4784 wrote:

Cheers for the replys folks
I think i need to just get a grip. Idon't necessarily think these terrible things wont happen to me i just don't much care. Most of my mates are non-smokers so will try and cut down on going to the pub with my smoking mates as i seem to just puff away for the sake of it despite not liking the taste and coughing up nasty stuff.
Will go and get some gum shortly which i hope will help

If you don't care, then consider your family might, and that there are some pretty horrible way to not only to die but to live, if you lost one lung due to cancer, or had some nasty disfiguring cancer that had to be cut out as a result of smoking, would you be happy with that?

STEFANOS4784

Ok fair point but my mum smokes 40 a day and breathes rather heavily which the whole family has commented on but she has similar attitude to me. My dad gave up, probably because of my mum (i wont go into the measures we tried because it would fill about 8 pages and didn't work) MY girlfriend buggered off so my main motivation for stopping is cycling and i'm so glad i found it but a bit regretful that i didn't get a roadie years ago when i knew i hated D/H mtb'ing :?

However i'm getting the gum tomorrow(payday) and i'm guna do it, for myself and for the cycling. Not for any other reason

STEFANOS4784

P.s it's the most horrible feeling knowing that your mum is going to die soon because she says she doesn't care and it's her life. People might think this is a selfish attitude but at the end of the day it is her life and she's raised 6 kids, not all her own, and has had a lot of hastle(I'm the good one but i'm no angel)

fast as fupp

get some patches the 24 hr one give you really mad vivid dreams! :!:

sicrow

just will power, I tried a couple of times 3 months, 8 months etc but always wanted one. It just took me some time to realise I really wanted to stop when I did that then it was quite easy

Set yourself a date and smoke as muchas you want till then, the day before smoke yourself sick (trust me it works) then that combined with your desire to stop and bingo

well, it worked for me (18 months) and have not fancied one at all for more than a year

UncleFred

I smoked from when I was 13. 5-6 a day until I left school and started work then went up to 20 a day, Marlboro reds. Gave up when I was 27 when my Grandad died of Lung Cancer and Empysema. He used to turn his Oxygen off so he could have a fag.

Started again when I was 30 and living in Ayia Napa and was soon back on 20 a day, Marlboro lights this time.

Gave up again in 2003 using the Patches. Mental dreams, some were very scary but stuck it out for the full course. In 2004 i went back to smoking only when I went to the pub. That ended up being every night after work.

Stopped for good in Late 2004 and have not had one since. It helped that I started racing and I was training hard.

Broke a rib last year and had x-rays. The Dr pointed out all the scar tissue in my lungs. Fair to say I'm never going to smoke again.

All the tips above are great. I would add. Give yourself a training goal, start racing and set yourself the goal of winning a category in a race. You'll soon find that you have no desire to spoil the fitness improvements that your training brings about .

The first times I gave up was using will power. I wanted to give up but found that even a few years later I would get massive cravings. After using the patches I didn't get the cravings.

craker

There must be lots of methods out there - pick one and follow it like a training strategy. I know plenty of folk who are always 'cutting down'.

I managed to stop by aversion therapy, self induced. A bit younger than I am now I had a heavy night out, lots of fags, mouth tasted like sandpaper in the morning. I had a ciagarette, it tasted awful. I had another one moments later, I was nearly sick. Wait for the nausea to pass, light another one.

By the time I put the last one out that morning my head had made he association between the fags and the sickness, everytime I thought about having one I also thought about the retching & sandpaper mouth. Never smoked again.

Good luck, nicotine withdrawal lasts 48 hours. Once you've done that its just habit.
btw I had a mate who taped his fingers together for the duration, just to remind him. Maybe worth a try?

red dragon

If you really want to you will, do not leave it to late in your life to stop. I am not going to bore you with the nasty medical side you know what that`s about. Think of the money you can save - it will be really worth it. Honestly.

rally200

Have you tried a NHS stop smoking clinic?

After 20+ years on the weed I dropped in on one out of curiosity . What really shocked me was that though I'd convinced myself that I didn't really smoke any more (smoking about 6/7 a day and logic being if you only buy packs of ten it doesn't count) the carbon monoxide test showed levels the same as someone smoking 20+ a day - i.e. I puff hard) . The staff at the drop in weren't judgemental & the fellow quitters very encouraging - what was best they gave me free nicotine gum for months!

I find the gum is just enough to get me past thje newsagent's in the morning.

The best thing of all was going for a 30 ish mile ride & for the first time ever since I was a child having my muscles & energy reserves running out before my lungs did - that really put me on a high & made me realise what a tw*t I'd been for all those years (just to try and look like James Dean when I was 15)

amyrb

I gave up in September 08 and agree with many of the posts above. I set a date and worked towards it, I decided on a date I moved departments at work so it was kind of a 'big event'.On the first few nights I went out drinking I used the gum, it helped in that it gave me somthing positive to do when I thought I wanted a cigarette. I didn't use it for long though as the actual physical cravings and addiction is the easy part to get over. I think some one else mentioned this above but probably the main thing that helped me was to keep telling myself I don't want to smoke anymore, and thinking about what I was going to get out of the smoke when I thought about having a fag (i.e in fact nicotine is a pretty shite drug with a pretty shite high and is pretty unsatisfying). Finally I combined it with getting fitter and a more intensive gym program, again as mentioned above feeling your legs ache before you run out of breath is a pretty good feeling.

Good luck!

eyes like marbles

i gave up about 16/17 years back, my dad died of lung cancer and afterwards i couldn't motivate myself to give up, stopped eating no problem but the cigarettes were harder at that point, but after many guilt trips i finally set myself a stopping date and i used patches for the first week, i think maybe i thought i needed something to help initially ,then i decided to use nothing at all, it wasn't easy but what also helped me was to alter my routine, stay away from the tea break that sort of thing.
oh and didn't tell anyone i had stopped. weird but it seems when you tell people you are giving something up and they focus on it, then you do too.
good luck stay strong
kx

synchronicity

Disgusting psychologically chemically addictive drug habit thing.

N4PALM

I quit 10 months ago havent looked back.

The best way for me was to just stop one day. Cold Turkey!

None of that "I'm gonna cut down" fooling myself rubbish. None of that patches cheating stuff.

I said to myself "Smoking is dumb, I dont want to do it any more." And then stopped.


The biggest part of quittin is deciding to quit. Once you have it set in your mind that quitting is what you want, you will do it. It really is that simple.

nicky_7751

Gave up 15 months ago after smoking for over 40 years, went cold turkey as felt that if I couldn't do without nicotine then I might as well keep smoking and take it in a way I enjoyed.! That was what started me cycling as I needed a way to keep the weight off. Now cycle at least 70 miles every week so can't be doing too bad.

Stewie Griffin

+1 for synchronicity's Allen Carr book recommendation. 2 Friends and both of my Parents gave up after reading it.

Good luck with it.