Thread: Had enough of smoking.

Ok, I decided I had had enough of smoking last week. I've been wanting to quit for ages and have failed most times because of NRT. It always just kept me hooked so I would eventually end up back on cigarettes.
The only successful time I quite before was for three years and I just stopped. Admitted I moved to a different city at the same time which meant that all the old reminders of smoking were gone and it was easy.(I started again when I moved back to my home town!)
I'm not sure how I did it this time but last wednesday I decided to write down how many I have a day in my daily schedule(I knew that most of the time I smoked about 15 a day and felt quite guilty about it) - I got as far as 6 on wednesday and on thursday by 7.30am I had had 3 when I decided that I smoked too much and I would wait until lunch for my next one.

I still haven't had my lunchtime cigarette and I feel really good. Five days and I already have so much energy and I don't feel the urge for one. I have been out with my wife,who is a smoker, to the pub and had a beer - still nothing. It was much easier than I ever remember every time I did it before.

There is, of course only one down side and that is now I am one of those terrible evangelical ex smokers(well maybe 5 days is a little early to say but I think I'm going to be alright) Many of my friends smoke and I'm sure that it will really irritate them, not to mention my wife!

Having said that , I always blamed my wife that she made it hard for me to quit by refusing to quit together and always smoking around me when I was trying not to. Now I have stopped I noticed that she is smoking less - only a couple a day, so maybe it will have a good influence on her too!

Your story is similar to mine - I tried to give up a few times, each time drifting back. Then one day I said "Nope, no more." and never smoked or felt the urge to smoke again. Of course, I had just met my wife, who didn't smoke and refused to kiss me while I did. The incentive was there, I guess!

Good luck, and keep at it! Giving up cigarettes was one of the best decisions I ever made.

Congratulations. I have never smoked at all (not even tried) so I don't really know how hard it is. Hang in there. Think of all the shaving gear you can buy with the money

My wife used to smoke 3 cigarettes per day, but never in the house, or when I was with her. She quit altogether, half a year before she got pregnant. I hadn't even noticed until she told me that she had quit for 3 months already

My father was a pack-a-day smoker, but he quit when my mom got pregnant. He saw a show on tv (small b&w) where they disected the lungs of a heavy smoker who'd died (obviously ) from lung cancer.
He threw his pack in the fireplace and never touched a cigarette again.

Stick with it!

When I finally quit, I kept two things in mind. First, the urge to smoke goes away whether you smoke or not. Second, I kept thinking about how tough some folks have it in the world without having a choice and here's me having such an issue with whether to smoke a stupid cigarette. Sounds, corny... but it put things in persective and worked for me.

Whatever works for you, stay with it and congrats!

Good job! Remember there will be hard times, but if you know they are going to be there, you can be ready for them.
I finally quit four years ago after 15 years of smoking, up to over 2 packs a day. I'll admit to having slipped up once or twice, but alwyas got right back on that horse. I had tried to quit too many times to give up!
After 5 days, if I remember correctly, the physical nicotine is out of your body, and you are starting to re-equalize. Another two weeks, and the habitual nature of th ebahvior is going to start leaving you.

There are a lot of us around, if you need some moral support, shoot me a PM! You can stay off them! Spend your cig money on razors! A year's worth of two pack a day smoking could get me a Livi seven day set (regrinds) or a custom set with brush and loom strop. Hmmmm....I've got to give my wife a call about that.

I often think of Mark Twain's line, "I'm an expert at quitting smoking ... I've done it thousands of times" or "Quitting smoking is easy ... it's not starting again that's hard." But seriously, folks...

This time I have quit for more than 12 years. My previous longest time was 5 years, so I think I've got it licked.

The thing that helped me was to remember, when I wanted a cigarette, that the only cigarettes that I ever enjoyed were the first one in the morning and the one after dinner. The others were disgusting and just to maintain my nicotine addiction. In fact, for me the key was realizing that the thought of smoking was a lot more pleasant than the actual smoking.

When I was a kid, I regularly had a sleepover at my grandmothers (she spoiled me rotten ) and my uncle still lived with her. He was a 2-3 pack a day man. Every morning we'd hear him get out of bed and have a coughing fit that sounded disgusting, and it lasted for a full 5 minutes.
Every time we waited in anticipation of him coughing himself to death.

And we'd jokingly take stuff off the walls (paintings, crucifxes, ...) and then waited until someone noticed the stark white outline against the dark brown wallpaper. It got re-papered bi-annually, but it always took on the same brown hue after a couple of weeks.

Me and my brother never even touched a cigarette, being so disgusted at the whole concept of smoking.
Sorry for going

I stopped smoking three years ago on New Year's Eve, and never smoke a cigarette again. I can't say how much I am happy with my "non-cigarette smoker" life... maybe as much as my body is! From time to time (something like 2-3 times a year) I allow myself to smoke a cigar, but that's all.
My wife couldn't quit - more like wouldn't quit - with me, but she decreased her smoking (we don't smoke inside our apartment, that helps); but she will try to stop this year, and I'll be happy to help her.

I'm right there with you Nick. Hang in there.

Jordan

Congrats,Nicky,and keep it going.Ex-smoker myself and it's one of the best things I've done.Beyond that I watched my father slowly die from COPD(emphysema).6 years he was on an oxygen machine.We would follow his oxygen line to find him in his house.His last few weeks were just horrible.He said he felt like he was underwater.The point being,that the years you will be saving of your own life will be on the back end.As young people,it's easy to overlook or discount that time,but when you get there,it can be devastating.