Going to stop smoking, anyone want to join me?

thebouldwhacker

Hello all,

Stopped the fags on Monday 2nd March. Was on 20 a day for over 25 years. So far, so good, but after falling off the wagon one or twice before, I'll go "one day at a time, sweet jebus"

Al.

Al you still about? how are you getting on?

thebouldwhacker

Hi T! You quit 1 month, 1 week, 3 days, 6 hours, 26 minutes & 51 seconds ago. You have *not* smoked 1,148 cigs, saved EUR 476 and added 3.99 days to your life
Phew.... I survived Paddys, Monday night was hard, Every time i walked out of a pub I'd walk into a cloud of smoke and with a few drinks in me it was starting to get to me. By the end of the night there were party and 'back to mine' offers flowing about but somehow managed to get back to my own bed smoke free... I remember going to bed thinking 'ah I could have had a drag, sure I'd have been fine!' the first thought I had next morning was how glad I was for not smoking… dodged that bullet.

I cant really take credit for my success though, my girlfriend was out and there was no convincing her to gimme a drag before bed (she still smokes but only one or two a day at the mo). So I went down hill mountain biking yesterday. AMAZING, I would recommend it to anyone, Ive been cycling all my life but this was my first time on a proper down hill trail…. 10 outa 10. It as dangerous as smoking but faster…

Check out these clips, happy days

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=&search_query=ballyhoura&aq=f[/FONT]

How did ye all get on? Any stories???

Kimia

Hi all.

I have been off the smokes for just over a day and it was completely unplanned.

I was very hungover yesterday and couldn't smoke, and now I haven't smoked since because I feel quite good and pure.

I'm afraid though because it's unplanned that I'll fall back off the wagon. It's like if I think too much about it I will smoke. I'm not having any major cravings but my mind keeps drifting towards having a cig.

Does anyone have any tips for just not thinking about it?

Evil-p

Hi folks,

This is day one for me! I gave to in August and stayed off them for 10 weeks. For the first 2 weeks I used patches and then I just went without them and I was fine. Then a lot of very stressful events happened at once and I went back on them. So it took me this long to get the will-power together. As far as ways to keep your mind off smoking, a craving only lasts 15 mins, so drink a nice cold glass of water, or have a cup of tea. I also recommend exercising in the evenings as you'll feel so good after your bit of exercise that it'll feel like a pity to ruin it by smoking after.

I really am hoping to suceed but i feel fairly shaky on the will power already!

Best of luck to everyone who is trying!!

X

Alzar

Whacker,

still here mate, still off the weed too! Two weeks & one day, yay!
125 yo-yo's i mo phoca :D

It's not easy though. Went for a drink Sunday night with Mrs Alzar, flew a bit close to the edge at times but made it home smoke free.

Finding today quite tough too, but I have to admit, even typing this is helping, weird huh!

Boss about :eek:

Later
Al.

toodelies

Hi All,

after about twenty attempts I am giving up smoking next sunday. I have an exam on saturday and then going out for a couple of drinks after so Sunday is my start date.

I have previously tried Champix but due to stomach problems i had to give them up as they made me so sick. My OH tried them, took the full 12 week course and has not smoked in almost a year. after giving up the Champix i did Hypnotheraphy. total disaster.

I am 29 and have smoked since i was 12 (giving up for 1.5 years inbetween). I am sick to death of smoking. I really really want to give up now but I find it so hard as I don't have the best willpower in the world. I find that when i drink the craving for a ciggie is so bad that generally i will rape anyone near me for a smoke...

SO do I go cold turkey or should i do/take something?? have heard about Alan Carr book - is this any good? i live with my other half so i don't live with any smokers and i think this will help as this is the first time i have been living in a smoke-free home. I am the only smoker at work. I really have no excuse this time.

any advice from those who have given up? i want to be smoke free by my 30th birthday and never smoke again. I am sick of making up excuses for smoking and sick of coughing/spluttering.

advice appreciated!

BTW well done to all who have given up, have read through your posts!

beertons

This is what I did. It may not work for everyone, but it may give you an idea. I haven't had a coffee since october, I associate coffee with cigs. I tried 1 coffee, and didn't like it, so just gave up. So 2 things are giving you the withdrawl symptoms. Always blame the coffee withdrawl, the ciggy one is easy.

You always make free time to smoke, so use up all your free time. Clean, cook, wash, iron, look for something that was bothering you. Go for a walk, take up a hobby that's indoors and the new people you meet there are fit and generally don't smoke. Go for long walks, get all that fresh air(in the country if possible) into your lungs. Breathe deep, it's lovely.

I have not smoked since mid october, since I moved to our new house. It's been as tough for me as it will be for you. I've gone out on the lash, gotten ballubas once or twice and still woke up the next day smelling of beer only. Most of my friends smoke, and know my stance on smoking now. It's all down to your will. You'll always be giving up, I know I'm still not off them fully.

My €0.02.

Best of luck guys.

thebouldwhacker

OK bit of a rant coming. I’m just after a craving filled few days so this is the pressure release…anyway well said Beer, I am a repeat offender. Off and on but this time I'm feeling much better about it simply coz not only do I really not want to smoke any more, this time I REALLY want to stop! I was ready for the withdrawals and the cravings (mind you its still hard when I'm boozing) but by and large I accepted the cravings and accepted the positive feeling after the few minutes they lasted. This time instead of saying 'ok, that craving is gone, oh god here comes another one’ I made a conscious decision to say ‘well done me!, that was hard but I did well, I didn’t smoke!!!.... (etc etc)
Another tip is that I used to use a timer

http://www.online-stopwatch.com

to give myself perspective on how long the cravings actually lasted. This stops you from thinking that you have been dying for a smoke ALL DAY when you actually know you had 7 cravings and the longest one was 3 minutes long (that REALLY helped me)

As Beertons said 2 key words outdoor and hobby, for me it was cycling, running, surfing, footie etc, I have all my mates pestered into joining me but the secretly love it… make sure its something you enjoy though, don’t take up something you find boring…

The one big change I made this time around was that for two weeks I allowed myself anything I wanted. I could do or have anything I wanted BUT smoke. If I wanted to eat a whole tub of Ben & Jerrys so be it, 2 steaks for dinner no bother, a fry on a Wednesday morning? Yep, take away two nights running? Why not?
I was saving over €8 a day by not smoking so this cost very little but defiantly got me over the notion I was sacrificing anything, I was spoiling myself and getting healthier, sure I put on a stone but now that I am enjoying exercise like an 18 year old again losing it is not only easier but quite enjoyable too.
So allowing myself anything I wanted but a smoke worked a treat for me.

As always check out other threads, READ ALAN CARR, yes its repetitive, yes he is annoying but if your preparing to go into withdrawal from one of the most addictive drugs known to man maybe you need to get annoyed, besides the man knew what he was talking about. You will have to tweak his theory to suit but its defiantly an asset

Oh yea there is the slight point about admitting that you are a drug addict and you should change your vocabulary to match, your not ‘giving up smoking (the warm friendly buddies you’ve grown to love) your Just not going to ingest nicotine’ one of the most deadliest poisons known to man which is a drug, which you are addicted to…. Other that that, its all cool!


So keep it up! Check out these web sites and keep posting!!!

http://www.stopsmoking.ie/index.php[/FONT]

http://whyquit.com

ENJOY

thebouldwhacker

Hi T! You quit 1 month, 2 weeks, 1 day, 7 hours, 39 minutes & 33 seconds ago. You have *not* smoked 1,299 cigs, saved EUR 539 and added 4.51 days to your life.

Hello to all


I'm still here smoke free how are ye doing

thebouldwhacker

Hi T! You quit 1 month, 2 weeks, 2 days, 8 hours, 6 minutes & 58 seconds ago. You have *not* smoked 1,330 cigs, saved EUR 552 and added 4.62 days to your life.


Hows everyone getting on? there seems to be an eriee silence here!!! ANYONE OUT THERE????

Well I back on track, no more wild cravings (for the time being anyway) so I'm chuffed with that. 6 weeks since I had a smoke, mad. It feels like a lot longer, its great. My fittness is returning, taste is back and i when wake in the morning there is no cough, wheeze or phelm. The most evident thing though is that I have given myself a payrise of nearly €100 a week which is nice:D

Tzetze

Well done whacker!

You quit 6 months, 4 days, 40 minutes & 38 seconds ago. You have *not* smoked 3,700 cigs, saved EUR 1,489 and added 1.82 weeks to your life.

and well done me!

thebouldwhacker

Nice one Tzetze- well done indeed To us both:D

Bubbly Bee

hey, just want to say congrads to all who got off the cigs!!!
I hope to join you all soon-just can't seem to set a quit date...
Also my bf smokes like a trooper and has no intentions of givng up anytime soon...(we live together) so cigarettes will be at hand all of the time... might make it harder to get off and stay off. Any tips?

Cheers.:)

Eve_Dublin

Hey lads, just found this forum and read through all your posts. I'm not alone!! Hurrah! Stopped smoking 4 days ago, i was on 20 a days before that (just back from travelling for a year) and it's come to the point that I can't afford to smoke, my breathing is getting worse and worse, i smell, i'm sure i look awful when i smoke (people have told me it doesn't suit me...who does it suit in all fairness?), i have the worse genes in history and something would almost definitely happen to me in the future with regards to my health etc etc.

It's never going to be the right time so why not now!

I don't want to be a smoker anymore. Everyone who's posting on here is an intelligent human-being who wants to live into their old age and we do this to ourselves. It makes no sense and i don't know about you, i feel like an idiot. I put on suncream in the sun, i try and get me five portions of fruit and veg into me a day, i try and get some excercise, i use protection when i have sex, i get smear tests, check my boobs for lumps but what's the point in this is i smoke?? It's completely illogical and those evil cigarette companies are having the last laugh, the feckers.

This is it this time and i'm delighted i found this forum so we can all support and encourage each other. Going out for a few pints tonight with friends and have bought a packet of those Nicorette inhalers just to help me this time round 'till i go completely cold turkey.

Good luck everyone, we can do this together.

thebouldwhacker

Hi all,

Hi T! You quit 1 month, 2 weeks, 6 days, 15 hours, 51 minutes & 52 seconds ago. You have *not* smoked 1,519 cigs, saved EUR 631 and added 5.27 days to your life

Well I'm still in there, how are things going for ye all? Good to see new faces Bubbly Bee & Eve_Dublin.

Bubbly, easy for me to say it coz I'm not you but you gotta get a date! talk to your OH, ask him (tell him) not to smoke with you about, get him smoking outside the house (smoking is not a right) maybe that'll start him thinking of stopping! My GF doesn't smoke in my face and I don't give her grief for smoking, works a treat:-)
Read the Alan Carr book, read it to the end, even if you find it annoying (as I did) the guy was right on a lot of things and it really does get you thinking about whats the best way for you to quit. Check out the web sites mentioned in earlier posts and get prepared, want to stop, really really want it, do something that will ring the truth home like go for a one mile jog and see how your lungs feel (2 or 3 weeks after stopping do the same run and see the difference). Trust me, if I can quit (and it has taken me 3/4 serious attempts to get here) ANYONE can. I am a 5 minute walk to work from where I live and would quite often put out my forth or fifth fag walking in the door in the morning (no half measures here) so just take one small step now, go and get the carr book, or check a few web sites or go to your doc for a medical or talk to your other half about stopping, small steps... you will do it!!!

And Eve, how did you get on? You off them still??? I hope the inhalers went well for you... drop a post and let us know...

Beertons! Where you gone???
I know your reading this, you've been qt lately?!?!

hope there are no UFO's flying around.... drop a post to check in.

Later all

The tax man

Day one for me. Using patches. Back into cycling after 15 yrs off the bike. Need to clear the lungs out for the Wicklow 200.

amtaxi

just got throught Day 1 - not too bad- didn't kill anyone! :rolleyes: tried to keep busy - work tonight was hard but fingers crossed for tomorrow!!

shivvyban

I really want to quit but as much as I want to I love smoking! I know its not 'cool' or 'classy' but I just love it!

I found out two weeks ago my grandma (she's pretty much my mom) has cancer and it's in both sides of my family so I'm getting more and more freaked out how I'm raising the chances of me getting it.

Do those inhalers work? Nicorrette? Anthing? I've tried before but I get so fidgety and nervous pains in my chest like a panic attack (Oh I'm so full of woe )

Its wrecking my teeth and I can see it starting to age me and I'm only 23 so you'd think I would hate it by now.

Please pass on any advice on how to grow to hate it!

Bubbly Bee

Cheers mate, i'll do that managed t cut down so far and quit date is Sunday 12th-preparing myself but i might be ok.
Ran a mini marathon year before last and couldn't even jog for two minutes the other day and was breathless... Wanna do the mini marathon in october so I've got a bit of motivation.
Bf has cut down too!
I'll pick up that book on tuesday thanks again

beertons

Ola everybody. Just back froma week in Spain. 'Twas mega hard. Still smoking in the bars and restaurants, and the ability to get really drunk on a few pence didn't help. I had 1 urge, my first I think. I said no, then left the bar.

Welcome all the newbies. Do what ever you fancy to help you give up. They all help in one way or another. I started with the patches, then just couldn't be bothered with them. The gum works for others but tastes horrible.

Well done for not killing anyone! And good luck with the Wicklow 200, let us know how you get on.

Micky Dolenz

Hello fellow quitters:pac:

I am on day 1. I am thinking about ciggies every frigging second but I feel strong about it. I know I am in for a hard couple of weeks after that it will be smooth sailing.

If the fags hit a tenner a pack later today, that will encourage me no end.

Best of luck everyone:D

McConkey

Ok maybe time to give up the ciggies....I am in posession of some so will probably smoke those but going to read the posts here to just get my head around the idea....back soon

padz

at the mo im smokin tobacco instead of cigs since bout mid feb,im sure like many people here ive other things to pay b4 buyin a pack of cigs, a 3.70e pack of tobacco does me 2days, the only thing is if u smoke many it can stain ur fingertips, during the weekend i smoke a pack of cigs if im havin a few cans or goin to the pub but since this new 25cents levee being introduced it will mean my brand Marlboro lites will be 8.35, thats finally givin me the incentive to quit, i looked at it this way...at the mo hmv are doin a sale on dvds for 3.99 they have some great tittles on offer!.. so u could get 2 dvds and still have some change left over or u could get 20fags and theyd be gone within 24hours, and even as a smoker when u go out to the pub u have to go to the smoking area, its ususally dull,... cold or raining (prob all 3 of these!) so thats part of it too, gone are the days of smirting under a patio heater:)

Giddy Girl

Day one off the cigs, sitting here sucking lolly-pops and chewing on the stick (I will probably have no teeth left by tomorrow). I just want to say well done to all those who have given up recently & to those who have already done it. Its great to read all the support here on the boards. Thanks

wush06

Hi all my first post here,been reading this post for a few weeks now. I have been off them 4 weeks to the day I smoke 20 a day for 20 years now,so it's been building up for a while now a couple of months now. Then I said that I don't want to smoke anymore I mean i just don't want to smoke so I just stop. It has not been easy some days, but I am holding in there and just to say hold in there if you are trying. Don't really post on net so for me to post over this after 4 weeks is just to say it can be done.

thebouldwhacker

Hey all,

Good to see so many people making the right decision and choosing to stop smoking:-) (good to see beertons is back in town)

wush06, much respect!!!

You have the hard bit done, now come the complacency:( keep it up your doing great:D:D:D

Padz thats the attitude! if you could bottle that logic you'd be a rich man, also if they stain your fingers think of what they do to your lungs and brain!!!!

Blazer

Off them now 7 weeks..did the hypnosis . Was originally off them for 4 years and stupidly thought I could have one or 2 and be grand with that. Not a chance
Only problem now is I'm bored off my head at work..smoking accounted for nearly 2 hours out of day in the smoking shed..:p

thebouldwhacker

Yea i hear ya but thats not the fault of cigs, its just that you haven't replaced that activity with anything yet...

Nomore

wush06 wrote: »

Hi all my first post here,been reading this post for a few weeks now. I have been off them 4 weeks to the day I smoke 20 a day for 20 years now,so it's been building up for a while now a couple of months now. Then I said that I don't want to smoke anymore I mean i just don't want to smoke so I just stop. It has not been easy some days, but I am holding in there and just to say hold in there if you are trying. Don't really post on net so for me to post over this after 4 weeks is just to say it can be done.

Well done to you on your quit and to all here. Have been reading for a few weeks myself and now can post that I have finally quit after 22 years of smoking 20 - 30 fags a day. I am quit 4 weeks today. Hardest thing I have done but have got there with determination. I just stopped and keep telling myself that i won't go back there again (especially to the first few days of quitting). Find it tough going at time, having glass of wine in evenigns, when kids go to bed, when doing stuff I kinda forget and think oh, I'll have a quick cig but I tell myself there is no advantage whatsoever in smoking and more to be gained with a healthy body and mind and this is keeping me going.

So well done to all and keep up the good work.

Yearning4Stormy

thebouldwhacker wrote: »

Yea i hear ya but thats not the fault of cigs, its just that you haven't replaced that activity with anything yet...

Very inspiring thread thebouldwhacker. Congrats to everyone on the, uh, wagon.

After getting hammered by Brian on Tuesday, I reckon there is nowhere else I can possibly absorb the extra taxation*, so I'm gonna try quitting... again.

* Could stop drinking, but that ain't gonna happen.

Here's the plan: I'm going to stop at the chemist on the way home tonight to pick up a pack o' patches (not 24h, oh the rightmares, definitely not Zyban, oh the insomnia) and a moxy load of minty chewing gum.

And my activity replacement? Gonna dust off the old bike, see if I can't blow some cobwebs outa the old lungs.

Wish me luck people!