Smoking…URGH.

Chuck your money down the swanny, your finger-tips go yellow, it ages you, it’s generally shit for your health and it makes you and all your possessions including your loved ones stink vile.

If those reasons aren’t reason enough to kick it then, well…

Alan Carr’s book is available as a free download e book or pdf too so it won’t even cost you anything to give it a try.

There is a very good book by Allen Carr ( no not the annoying one with glasses) it’s an easy read and gets into your head.. it changed the way I think about smoking, no patches or gum or e-fags just an easy way to quit.

There’s a link to this on page 1 from me. 🙂

On-off smoker for the last 12 years

Gave up a week last Monday, got trashed on Friday night and fell of the wagon

Threw half a packet of fags away on Monday morning and haven’t smoked since

Quite a few cravings, but i’ve cycled a lot this week and been using nicotine lozenges

Got a sober weekend planned with lots of sport and will not hang around with smokers

Overseas with work next week – could be challenging

Even after a couple of days not smoking, you realise how bad smokers smell – i keep this in mind when i want to light up

Keep it up guys

Even after a couple of days not smoking, you realise how bad smokers smell

Smokers have no idea how bad they stink after going outside to smoke. I think they think we’re being all militantly anti-smoker but you really really do stink horribly. You don’t smell of fresh tobacco smoke which isn’t so bad, you stink of stale ashtrays for about 15 minutes at least.

I’m embarrassed when it’s at work and people come into meetings stinking like that.

Keep it up mate, it is so worth it.

I have been off them now for 3 and a half years and I think I must have tried to stop about 20 times.

I finally kicked it when I had become really sick of it.

Some people’s weight does go up after they stop, mine did, but it has gone back to normal now.

I read somewhere that smoking is roughly equivalent to carrying an extra 3 stone in weight in terms of the extra strain it puts on your body.

Keep checking in here if you need some motivation.

Turn it on its head.

The ‘Cravings’ are ‘Rushes’.

You’ve started taking a brilliant new wonder drug that’s on the market and is totally safe and free. Every hour or so you’ll get a really intense rush / feelings of anxiety which you can channel in to jumping about, being a bit weird, but don’t worry they’ll pass in a few moments.

There must be something in the air as this morning I woke up and decided today is the day I reclaim my life (and health back) fags are in the bin, a massive bag of chupa chups purchased (so I’ve got something to do with my hands whilst having a coffee) and I know I will never smoke again.

Stupid thing is I never ever enjoyed a ciggy, every drag was like this is rank. Why I kept going with it is a mystery!

A good tip apparently is one that works for dieters – When cravings start, go brush your teeth instead.

Do you have children?

When I stopped my little girl was the main reason I want to see her grow up. Stopping smoking increases that chance.

bearnecessities – Member 
Blimey, some really helpful/sobering stuff thanks.

Why does shoveling 3 packets of niknacks, frazzles and a tunnocks teacake help so much?!

It’s the early stages of replacing one addiction with another, best to try getting addicted to running or rather than crisps or chocolate 🙂

Also I’m sure I read somewhere one that the actual length of a craving is typically only 3 minutes, so get over that and realise it’s all in the head.

Gonny give up my self soon.

I have tried all sorts to give up. Never last long. Just ordered one of those vapour jobbies that khani linked up. Quite a few lads at work use them to good effect.

Overseas with work next week – could be challenging

That’s why I’ve fallen off the wagon, although I’m on ufiltered lucky strikes, so you can’t actually smooke more than two in a day without wanting to die.

You also can’t get them anywhere in the UK, so I’ll be stopped again when I get back…

the best way I’ve found to cope is to completely deny nicotine addiction..

and any cravings should be treated with indifference.. they only ever last a few seconds anyway

My story;

Quit cold turkey aged 34 after smoking for ~20 years. I loved smoking, really did. I was ‘Mr Smokes’, pretty much chain-smoking rollups for the last few years. Never thought about giving up until I did.
The thing that did it for me I think was the feeling that I was addicted (I’d always assumed I just really enjoyed smoking), the smoking ban had come in, and I’d recently started running so it seemed a good time.

Anyway, go for it mate, the difference is amazing. After a few days, the cravings will start dyeing down and it’s uphill from there. I took my mind off it by building an Airfix model :). I remember there were a few hurdles like first beer, first time at the pub etc, but it was all easier than I thought. You’ve got to want it though.

The problem for me was complacency and staying off them. After about a year I started on the old ‘having a go on someone else’s’ at the pub, or accepting spliffs etc. This has inevitably progressed into a new ‘part time’ smoking habit; I buy them when I go out drinking. Damage limitation but still annoying. So watch out for the complacency! I plan to knock that on the head after this festive lark is out the way. I see this as ‘failing up’. I’ve never quit before so didn’t know to watch out for it. I’ll be better next time.

Get a copy of Alan Carr’s book ‘The Easy Way To Quit Smoking’. As others have said, it’s a great book that shines light on a lot of psychological things you probably never thought about.

cardo – Member
There is a very good book by Allen Carr ( no not the annoying one with glasses) it’s an easy read and gets into your head.. it changed the way I think about smoking, no patches or gum or e-fags just an easy way to quit.
POSTED 7 HOURS AGO # REPORT-POST

+1

Worked for me too- it will be two years on 9th December and I’m so chuffed! I’ve never felt so happy or alive in my life! It’s amazing being free…. The book tells you how to alter your head & feelings about it all.
Keep up the good work, it’s hard but so worth it!!! Thinking of you x

My dad is only 67, he has smoked all his life.

He is absolutely wrecked thanks to this. His lung function is ruined. He has emphysema. He is on steroid inhalers, he wheezes and coughs continually. 9 holes of golf is like scaling Everest.

It is heartbreaking.

Don’t do it.

pretty much the state my old man is in…. 70 yrs old, hasn’t smoked properly for a good five or six years, but still sounds like shit in the morning.

my mum has moved onto those e-cigs… seem like a good idea, but i’m sure she is now higher on nicotine more than ever before. far too easy to just have a drag every ten minutes or so. at least she doesn’t stink all the time now.

i still have the odd roll-up at work but this is dependent on whether the other lads smoke or not. i tend to go through phases of smoking for a few weeks and then not even thinking about it for a few months before starting again. oddly i quite enjoy a rolly on the edge of a lake/stream after a ride. if going on a night out with a pack of rolly in my pocket i am destined to have a sore throat the next morning.

still don’t consider myself a smoker. only started smoking roll-ups when i tried giving up the weed. :/

10 years now doing it the allen carr route, it’s what got me into biking actually, needed something to do 🙂

Work out what triggers your need for a fag, for me it was instant coffee, lager, the journey to work,

For months I had proper coffee, (now I’m a coffee snob)
I started drinking wine (now I’ve got a taste for fine wine)
I drove a different way to work.

It became ridiculous when I realised I wanted to spark up after a certain set of traffic lights on the way to work, how mad is that. I simply avoided that set of lights for a bit.

Good luck, don’t be tempted to have a sneaky one, especially when the craving seems to be psychological and not physical.

Jacked the fags in June this year after smoking 20+ a day for 30 years.First few days were a kick in the arse,amazing how much time you spend having a smoke,found myself going outside,patting my pockets then remembering I didnt smoke and returning inside!It is a shit habit with absolutely NO benefits,make a list of all that is good about it.Still trying to sort out my breathing when on the bike,but feel soo much better.
Anyone can stop,you have to be in the right state of mind to succeed,all the best!

I’ll be clean for 3 years in January after 29 years of smoking..the worst is yet to come but it’s not all doom and gloom after 2 weeks or so it gets better ( read easier to fight the urge )

Best of luck. Stay strong!

a shit habit with absolutely NO benefits

This. At least with crack you get a buzz.

I was going to barge in an offer support and encouragement.

But the I realised its Bearnecessities thread.

So I won’t. Phfftghhhhffttttt.

Everyone else, good luck I wish you all the best.

But Bearnecessities can go swivel on a weasel. 😛

Pie,I thought that’s why you two fell out,him swivelling on your weasel.

My Texan friend would like you to stay away from him if you cannot resist having a fag … 😆

Lots of useful stuff, considering I was just venting this morning – thank you.

Apart from Piemonster TartFairy, who appears to have some issues!?

😀

The whole complacency thing is my biggest weakness and issue

I can give up easy for a couple of weeks, even months, then decide i can have a quick smoke – maybe after work when no one is looking

That turns into nipping home at lunch for a smoke

Then i’m having the odd smoke before work

Then i’m buying a pack of 10 every day

A month later i’m back to 20 a day

then i stop……and the cycle invariably starts again 🙁

Why the heck surrender control of your life to tobacco companies so they can control you so that you dutifully pay them money every few minutes?

Smoking is a progressive illness/addiction.

Once you start (for most people) you can’t stop unless you completely stop.

Has anyone died of stopping smoking?

I still miss that rush which I experienced from my first few smokes 30 years ago. They used to literally knock me out, put me on the floor, lol!

It feels a bit like Pandora’s box.

As someone who smoked a lot before I will always consider myself an ex-smoker, no matter how long I am stopped, och well.

Better an ex-smoker than a smoker though 🙂

Both my parents died ugly deaths in their late 60s thanks to smoking. All my uncles and aunts died similarly young. The last years of their lives were not fun, limited mobility, dependent on medication etc etc.

Except one. He’s 94 and still fully functional and sharp as a tack, plays in 3 bands, danced till 4am on his 90th party. He didn’t smoke.

What he regrets is that he didn’t pester his friends to stop.

And that’s why I’m here.

Stop now. Don’t put your family through the hell of watching their loved one slowly deteriorate before their time. Don’t die a painful death. Don’t die young.

Stop smoking .

Please.

Now.

I still miss that rush which I experienced from my first few smokes 30 years ago. They used to literally knock me out, put me on the floor, lol!

Like I said lucky strike, unfiltered. I’m glad you can’t buy them in the UK 😉

Whole weekend, with drinks, with no smokes

Feeling quite pleased

how did everyone else get on?

Failed to follow my diet miserably today.. Ok so it’s not fags…