I've quit smoking!

TheSmithers

So today is my first smoke free day since I started 22 years ago. I'm in week 2 of an 8 week course, taking a drug called Champix, which acts on the brain, rather than replace nicotine like more traditional therapies. I know it's early days, but so far I'm feeling upbeat, and I'm so looking forward to the benefits it will bring to my cycling!

I've only been riding seriously for 8 months or so, and have got pretty good. My mate keeps trying to get me into TTs and competition, but I've never felt truly confident in my fitness because I smoke. I feel I would be out of my depth and have no place in among truly fit cyclists. I'm currently achieving between 18-19mph averages on long hilly rides, which is good, but at these speeds, I feel I've reached a plateau because of the smoking, and to carry on improving at the rate I have is proving very hard indeed! I've also been struggling to motivate myself to do rides recently because I hate the feeling of nearly dying during the first 10 miles, which is no doubt due to smoking!

I really enjoy cycling. I've not enjoyed a hobby this much since I did motor sport! I want it to stay that way, but I fear if I don't do something about the smoking now, I'll end up hating it. By quitting, I'm hoping it will give me the confidence and motivation I need to really do justice to my new hobby and achieve my potential.

Are there any ex-smokers on here who can share how quitting has improved their cycling?

Grenouille

Good on you. I quit smoking 18 months ago and have never looked back, the health and financial benefits of quitting are huge!

I can't really say how it improved my cycling as I only took it up about 14 months ago but knowing that my lungs are working well without being hampered by tar is a good feeling.

eddiefiola

Congrats! I quit Jan 28th after 28 years smoking and so happy i did.

Now taken up biking and loving it. put on a few kilos soon after quitting but all coming off now.

Mints worked for me, Niquitin Minis, the gum or tabs didnt do it for me.

All the best hope you get through it, one thing I wouls say is dont stop the 'treatment' drugs or replacements too early.

Jon_1976

Well done. 8) it will get easier.

I gave up about 3 years ago after polluting my lungs for 19 years :oops: I guess I was fortunate as i just stopped and it only really bothered me for a couple of weeks. I never thought I'd say this but I'm now finding the smell of cigarette smoke a bit rank .

I think you've done we'll to cycle whilst continuing to smoke to be honest. I'd have been in a crumpled heap on a regular basis if I was still smoking now. You'll definitely start to see an improvement soon.

Headhuunter

Well done... I stopped (more or less, I still have about 2 per month if I happen to be out for a drink and a smoker happens to offer me one...!) in around 2005/06. I originally smoked 10-15 on an average day but this could rise to a pack or more if I was out for the night, then I cut back to precisely 1 per day between around 2003 and 2005 but eventually stopped (more or less) completely

I used nicotine gum for a while, which helped. Being in pubs and bars is tough for me, although since the ban it's much easier as I simply can't be bothered to break off a conversation to head outside for a fag, especially if it's cold but even now after a couple of beers I get the desire for a ciggie...

I've come across a few cyclists who smoke, there's a pretty fast guy on our club rides who always sparks up a Marlboro when we stop for cake...! I did a sportive a couple of years ago and I was up at the front with pretty fast people but when we stopped for the last food stop, a couple of them shared a fag! It looks incongruous, 2 guys in lycra with their expensive carbon bikes having a cigarette!

Wunnunda

I've never smoked so can't help from personal experience, but 20-a-day @ £8 a pack (I can't believe anyone still smokes at those prices BTW) is the best part of £3k/year...which buys a LOT of bike 'stuff'....but then you've probably figured THAT out already?

TheSmithers

Cheers everyone! Really motivating replies there. Thanks for the encouragement and support!

Headhuunter wrote:

I've come across a few cyclists who smoke, there's a pretty fast guy on our club rides who always sparks up a Marlboro when we stop for cake...! I did a sportive a couple of years ago and I was up at the front with pretty fast people but when we stopped for the last food stop, a couple of them shared a fag! It looks incongruous, 2 guys in lycra with their expensive carbon bikes having a cigarette!

Haha! No way. It kind of ruins the whole lycra and carbon effect to just spark up, seemingly without a care in the world like that. I've always seen smoking as a massive cycling faux pas. Only once, when i first started, did I take my smokes with me on a club ride. We had a coffee stop and I felt awkward and wrong just rolling the thing up. I had to disappear round the corner to smoke it so no one would see me. They would have been horrified!

Wunnunda wrote:

I've never smoked so can't help from personal experience, but 20-a-day @ £8 a pack (I can't believe anyone still smokes at those prices BTW) is the best part of £3k/year...which buys a LOT of bike 'stuff'....but then you've probably figured THAT out already?

Indeed I have! I smoked rollies, so not quite as expensive, but I'll still save around £700-£800 a year. It's nearly bonus time for me too, so I do feel a big spending spree coming on, starting with a stupidly expensive wheelset. Why? Because I can and I've given up smoking!

johnboy183

Somebody told me many moons ago that they hadn't smoked for over 10 years. Crucially they hadn't stopped but simply not had one. Their reasoning was that there was less pressure on not having one rather than stopped. Made a lot of sense to me

VTech

Well done, at least now you will have plenty of spare cash to spend on your cycling

TheSmithers

That makes sense to me too.

Today, I've actually brought my tobacco, papers and lighter with me. Not in case I falter and need to light up, but to give me a greater sense of control. By having my baccy with me and not smoking, it's like I'm choosing not to smoke, rather than being unable to smoke because I don't have any. If that makes sense.

TheSmithers

VTech wrote:

Well done, at least now you will have plenty of spare cash to spend on your cycling

Oh yes! And a cycling holiday perhaps...

anthdci

good on you, absolutely vile habit that has no positives what so ever bar lining the manufactures and government bank accounts. I know a couple of people who have quite using champix and it does work. I believe it makes you quite violently ill if you do smoke while taking it so don't do that.

your wallet will feel heavier
your lungs will feel freer
your legs will feel stronger
you wont stink 24/7
you wont be antisocial going outside all the time
you will live longer
thumbs up!

eddiefiola

btw i downloaded an iPhone app called 'Quit it Pro' was nice to see how long i'd quit, how many cigs I'd not smoked, and some health and monetary incentive messages to keep you plodding along.

MrSweary

johnboy183 wrote:

Somebody told me many moons ago that they hadn't smoked for over 10 years. Crucially they hadn't stopped but simply not had one. Their reasoning was that there was less pressure on not having one rather than stopped. Made a lot of sense to me

Funny, I used to tell people I hadn't started smoking again - I was just practising in case I decided to...

Quit 3 years ago after numerous previous attempts (2x1 year, and 6 months quite a few times). Went for the cold turkey route as that was the only thing that seemed to work. Ciggie smoke now makes me feel nauseous.

To the Op - good luck and stick at it. Willpower is they key. Think of it as a tough hill on your bike - are you going to hop off when it gets tough or dig a bit deeper, ignore the pain and push on over the top?

TheSmithers

This is all good stuff guys!

This is the first time I've attempted to give up smoking, so I've no idea what to expect. I know it will be hard, but I feel this is the right time to quit. I'm nearly 37 and still at an age where my body can bounce back. I don't want to wait until I'm 50+. The cycling has been a big driving force behind my decision because I love it and want to give it my best shot.

Another big motivator is that my mum and auntie have both battled cancer over the past 3 years. My mum is in complete remission now, but my auntie has a different kind of cancer and still continues her battle. Although not directly smoking related (auntie has never smoked, my mum has, but had breast cancer), it has made me think.

Well done to everyone who has quit the habit btw!

goonz

Good on you?

I've just started.

Bozman

I still enjoy the odd one but they're a rarity now, I used to smoke quite a lot when I was younger but it never really got a grip on me so I just stopped.
A mate of mine started smoking roll ups at 14 and then on his 45th birthday he just gave up, he hasn't touched one since which amazed me because he was the grumpiest bas***d if he didn't have at least two an hour.

Frank Wilson

anthdci wrote:

good on you, absolutely vile habit that has no positives what so ever bar lining the manufactures and government bank accounts. I know a couple of people who have quite using champix and it does work. I believe it makes you quite violently ill if you do smoke while taking it so don't do that.

your wallet will feel heavier
your lungs will feel freer
your legs will feel stronger
you wont stink 24/7
you wont be antisocial going outside all the time
you will live longer
thumbs up!

I suppose you'll want to come outside the pub and nick all our seats and complain about the smokers now the nice weather is here.

fatsmoker

Good work Sir! I quit about 2 months ago after 25 years. Feel slightly better - the first few miles of a ride are easier for some reason. After that same old. The best difference is the amount of spare cash for gear. You might try an electronic fag, rather than a mint or gum, for those times when a proper drag on a tab is what you crave.

ugo.santalucia

If as a heavy smoker you manage 19 mph on a hilly ride, we might have a slight misunderstanding about what a hilly ride is... good on you though... avoid other smokers

TheSmithers

ugo.santalucia wrote:

If as a heavy smoker you manage 19 mph on a hilly ride, we might have a slight misunderstanding about what a hilly ride is... good on you though... avoid other smokers

I said between 18 and 19 . I've only ever gone 19 or more on shorter rides. Here's the ride in question though, which I did about a month ago now: http://app.strava.com/activities/53739363. Here's another one about a week earlier, not quite as fast: http://app.strava.com/activities/52442502.

Because I haven't been getting out as much recently, I've probably lost that edge. But I'll get it back!

goonz

damn thats pretty good going on a ride like that. dont thin you even need to bother quitting!

TheSmithers

It begs the intriguing question though how good could I be if I didn't smoke. The same goes for any cyclist who smokes.

MountainMonster

TheSmithers wrote:

It begs the intriguing question though how good could I be if I didn't smoke. The same goes for any cyclist who smokes.

I too used Champix, and was off them for a good 5 months or so, but I gave in one drunk evening in a restaurant back in Austria since most of my in-laws smoke, and you are still allowed to smoke indoors there. Worst decision possible and I am planning on going back to the doctors and getting another prescription for it as I want back off the fags permanantly.

Headhuunter

TheSmithers wrote:

It begs the intriguing question though how good could I be if I didn't smoke. The same goes for any cyclist who smokes.

Well there you go, that's your motivator! Some people give up because they have kids or have found a partner who doesn't like them smoking etc, you can motivate yourself to give up simply to find out how good you might be able to get

lotus49

Good job.

I smoked for about 20 years and gave up when we decided to try to have a baby 16 years ago. Giving up was one of the best things I ever did. I am fitter and healthier now than I was 20 years ago.

Giving up smoking is not trivial. The only secret is really to mean it. My one tip is to remember that, just because you have lapsed (and I hope you don't) and had a cigarette, that doesn't mean you have failed. You may have lost that particular battle but that's no reason you cannot win the war.

One thing that has slightly horrified me since I gave up is realising how smelly smokers are and presumably I was. When you smoke you have a crap sense of smell and also you won't notice it yourself but everyone else will, even if they are too polite to say so.

dpGoose

I used to smoke up to 10 a day and eventually gave up, kind of. I couldn't stop smoking on nights out and they were becoming more and more frequent. However, one night a mate of a mate took out an electronic cigarette and that was it. I ordered a set soon after and haven't touch a real ciggy since. Eventually I gave up these too and have been smoke free for about 3 years. Most of the people I hang around with now are runners or cyclists so it makes it easier that none of them smoke either.

motd2k

Champix is awesome, gave up with that 3 years ago and had the most insane dreams you can possibly imagine whilst 'on' it.

Toe knee

I gave up on the 11 th July 2011, nearly 2years now, my motivation , on the 7th July, the Liverpool to Chester bike ride went passed my house, and I thought I want to do that, 4 days later I went on the patches, and the rest is history as they say, I must say though the biggest motivation to pack in was both my mum and dad & step dad died of bowl cancer, which wasn't very nice.
So in the November I got a hybrid on the bike 2work scheme, rode that on and off for 18 months, then swapped it for a road bike, then swapped that a claud butler, for a cannondale synapse, the end of feb just gone, and also decided that in 2015 my 50 th year, I am going to do a jogle, in aid of my local children's hospice, enough motivation for anyone I think, so I am now in the process of increasing my miles, and getting fit trying to lose the beer belly.
I think to pack in smoking, you kind of know its the right time and if you can throw some motivation and targets in aswell, all the better, I know for a fact I will never smoke again, I don't like the smell anymore, and if someone speaks to me who smokes, omg, I think did I smell like that, granted I've put some weight on , but with the joy of cycling that will also be a thing of the past. Good luck everyone, you can do it.

Southgate

'Giving up' is the easy bit. 'Staying stopped' is the hard part. On thing that helped me psychologically was replying: "no thanks, I don't smoke', as opposed to "I'd love one, but I'm trying to give up". The former positions you as a non-smoker, the latter puts you mentally still in the smokers' camp.

If I have one regret in my life, it's why the hell did this serious gym-going, swimmer and cyclist (me), inhale this vile cancerous smoke into my body for so many years, whilst somehow conning myself that it wouldn't affect me cos I was fit? I just hope I stopped before real damage was done.

Good luck

marylogic

Well done!

I gave up about 15 years ago but it took a good few years before I felt like a non smoker rather than a smoker in recovery, you do get there eventually though.


I stopped using the nicotine gum, but I have to confess to being addicted to the gum for about a year :oops:

I found it much harder to motivate myself to give that up because it doesn't make you smell and isn't so bad for your health. I knew chewing gum looked pretty chavvy though and finally kicked that too.

I think your risk of most smoking related illnesses goes back to that of a non smoker after about 10 years so giving up now is great