in all honesty… far and away the hardest quit was my first. i think because i honestly didn’t think i had it in me to quit. i didn’t really believe that the urges would ever pass. it was like there was this horrible demon child inside my head screaming at me that i NEEDED a cigarette right now and i didn’t think that feeling was ever going to pass… felt like i thought about cigarettes all the time… except when i was doing cardio lol. or eating.
and then the sickness started as the crud started working its way loose. had to go on antibiotics… was really very sick for a while there. nasty evil stuff.
this last time has been a walk in the park by comparison. i guess because now i know the urges pass. now i’m sure i’m not going to have a moment of weakness of ‘just one puff’ because i know from my second quit that the second i take that one puff the urges start up more like my first quit. worse than any urge i’ve experienced after the first few days of this last quit. i don’t want to go through that again… or the only other option is 30 a day again. and still this ‘just one thing needs to be different for things to be perfect…’ feeling… that isn’t solved by cigarettes. not for more than a second anyway. because of course it isn’t really about that lolz.
this time is alright. i think i did need to go through a few attempts to get here.
i’m actually… around 99% confident i’ll never puff another cigarette again as long as i live. mj, too. learned that from the second one…
I quit using the nicotine gum and yeah…when I got the urge it felt like ants crawling all over me and the rationalizations I’d do to almost smoke were ludicrous! The gum saved me.
yep. i’m still chewing the gum sometimes. mostly i forget to. but then sometimes the urges are a little bit pesky and the gum basically takes care of them.
still got loads of gum left… don’t mind if i use it occasionally forever. thinking of it as a bit akin to a cup of coffee… helps me focus for class that is for sure. and kinda nice while biking in the fresh air…
I chewed the gum for about 3 months…then stopped. Then about a week later I got the ants feeling, chewed the gum for another month or so and that’s it for me.
I recommend going to a website called quitnet and registering. It’s got a neat little widget that tells you how many days you’ve gone smoke free, how many you haven’t smoked and how many days of your life you’ve saved.
about the cravings…somebody told me that the cravings subside in about 10 minutes , whether you light up or not .
that turned out to be true , and quite helpful .
as I think back to when I quit , and think of the stories from other’s quitting experiences , I gotta say that it was not that hard . I woke up that fateful afternoon (3rd shift at the time) , threw out a half pack , went to a drug store and bought a box of nico-patches . done fuckin’ deal .I didnt plan for it ; didnt tell anyone I was going to “try to quit” ; didnt think it thru ; did absolutely nothing to prepare for it . 100% spur of the moment…but I knew at that moment that I was no longer a smoker . wierdest frikkin’ thing too , because generally thats not how I rolled at the time . I was still a drinker at the time , with no plans on giving that up .
and I’ll share this also…EVERYTHING about me changed that day . my journey into the powerlifting world began that day . another not-so-pleasant journey ( details not worth mentioning) began that day , which I’m almost paid off . the journey to a hang-over free existance began that day .
faster, i reckon… the cravings subside in about 30 seconds… distraction. i have the attention span of a toddler lolz.
my skin is heaps better. i’ve had low levels of inflammation since forever… have been tossing up about experimenting with eliminating / reducing:
dairy. not going to happen.
sugar. trying but not succeeding terribly…
gluten. does seem to have an effect but haven’t been very good about it recently.
my skin is currently the best i ever remember it being (well, since puberty). softer. smaller pores. visibly smoother. not much inflammation / cloggy pores at all.
only thing it can be is that i’ve eliminated the smoking toxins. wow.
Alexus is on the nocotine gum so she should be safe from wacky cravings.
I was also surprised how well I handled drinking after I quit. I mean I thought I’d need to go a year or something with no booze or I’d lose it and smoke again…but no, I was OK.
Seeing people smoke doesn’t affect me at all.
I need to quit, I have 6 packs left in a carton and after that I am actually doing it. I haven’t been smoking that long, 2 and half years or so, and not that much 4-5 a day but it still is definitely destroying me and when I drink i smoke like a chimney. Quitting smoking for the summer!
[quote]americaninsweden wrote:
I need to quit, I have 6 packs left in a carton and after that I am actually doing it. I haven’t been smoking that long, 2 and half years or so, and not that much 4-5 a day but it still is definitely destroying me and when I drink i smoke like a chimney. Quitting smoking for the summer![/quote]
I really don’t want to sound like a dick…but some of what I say next may help.
If you want to quit…you won’t wait till you finish however many cigarettes you may have for wont of saving money.
BUT on the other hand…it is advisable to choose a “Quit Day” that is a few weeks away. That means you decide that you want to quit on June 1st (since today is April 15th) and every day from now till then you think about how you will soon not be a smoker. Dwell upon it every time you light up.
Also…I didn’t really change my smoking when I drank…I really liked smoking and wold smoke about 15 a day…but yeah, about 20 or a few more on a Saturday ( I only drink on Saturdays) so someone that says they smoke more when they drink I think can quit a little more easily than someone who smokes all day no matter what.
[quote]americaninsweden wrote:
I need to quit, I have 6 packs left in a carton and after that I am actually doing it. I haven’t been smoking that long, 2 and half years or so, and not that much 4-5 a day but it still is definitely destroying me and when I drink i smoke like a chimney. Quitting smoking for the summer![/quote]
What Nards said.
It also helps to not make too big of a deal about it, or put much thought into smoking. Think of quitting like cutting if you sit around and obsess over how you cant eat shitty food a ll day your much more likely binge when the opportunity presents itself.
And cold turkey is probably the best route to take, granted my experience was with dip and not cigs but i found when i tried to ween myself off of it before i quit, and kept a can on hand i would take another dip if i got stressed(tests, pulled over by cops, trouble at work) or encountered a psychological trigger(going to a sporting event, before a workout).
