I really thought I’d cracked it..

After a couple of weak attempts when my first child was born 3 and a half years ago, I’d slipped up in the pub and was smoking again in summer 2011..

A punishing ride with Sharki and Trailmonkey from here showed me exactly what smoking was doing to my riding ability though, and after wheezing around Dartmoor with them for the afternoon, I quit cold turkey the next day..

18 months later and I had a social week ahead, hanging out in old haunts, drinking ale with friends that I knew would be triggers, and sure enough I smoked a few roll-ups that week.. The following fortnight would be hellish busy with a house move and so I decided that having the opportunity for a smoke might help ease the stress..

And so now, here we are a month later.. I’m on day two of not smoking, I’ve got a 7.5mg patch on and I’m feeling just fine and dandy about it all.. I’m getting some regular SS riding in the evenings after the kids are in bed and apart from a bit of a sniffle and a cough everything’s rosey..

I’m out on the town this weekend though, each and every compadre is a heavy smoker and I’m planning on sinking a good few beers..

Any tips..?

How are all you other quitters doing..?

I have to stay quit as my oldest son has never even seen a cigarette, let alone a smoker, and he’s starting to get very curious about my regular need to go and stand out on the front step for 5 minutes.. I really don’t want to be in a situation where I have to explain that smoking is stupid when I’m the one doing it.. 😕

Once a smoker always a smoker,

Today I’m not smoking,

I’ve a simple way of looking at it, smoking ****’s up my cycling, I enjoy cycling a damned sight more than smoking, it’s a no brainer!
Strava is a stronger addiction than nicotine!

If I go out drinking and end smoking, so be it, the next day I put it behind me.

I fully appreciate its not that easy for everyone,
Don’t beat yourself up and ride more!

Once a smoker always a smoker,

With all due respect, absolute borrox.

The key to quitting is two-fold:

1. You must want to. I mean REALLY want to.

2. You don’t smoke. No “I’m trying to give up”. No “I’m cutting down”. Just “I don’t smoke”.

Smoked since I was 13 or 14 (dabbling), and constantly since about 17. Up to 40 a day when I smoked the last cigarette in my box of 20 B&H and quit in 2007 age 42.

I don’t smoke. Disgusting habit, it stinks. Don’t miss it at all.

Never forget, your brain is (well should be) in charge of your body, not the other way round. Mind over matter.

Use the force.

You CAN do it.

With all due respect

Love that phrase! In other words “absolute borrox”

What works for one, may not work another.

Which is why I can’t dismiss your thoughts on it.

Feeble will power when it comes to smoking here. I got inspired by this thread though;
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/anybody-use-them-electronic-ciggies
and haven’t had a smoke since end of December.
All power to those giving up smoking and nicotine completely, but e-cig vaping is a happy compromise for me.

Andyh2 +1

20+ years of smoking, over 2 and a half years of on/off battling with quitting, bought one of the proper vapourisers (not the cig-a-like ones-I found them to be monumentally cr+p) like the ones recommended in the thread Andy links to and have not smoked or wanted to since (18 months) Good luck if you can go cold turkey, if you find you can’t then I recommend vaping as a substitute it really works and I know as I once managed 6 months without smoking that chest wise it feels the same as if you don’t smoke. Stands to reason really as you are essentially inhaling flavoured water vapour and not the 4000 odd dodgy chemicals and tar in cigarette smoke

Thats my issue with ‘no smoking day’ it heaps pressure on folk who are not in a position to stop.

Its unfair, and I would guess that not many people truly give up as a result of it. If they do then excellent but as an ex-smoker I would say you have to get to the point where you’ve had enough. I mean really miserable with the whole thing.

Its a drug like any other only this drug has huge levies added by the taxman. The cost is prohibitive now for many. It could cost an ‘average’ smoker nearly 2.5k a year!

I dont count how long Ive been sans ciggies but it been years. To the OP fwiw I used laser therapy to help me finally kick it after many attempts. If you really are in the position whereby your fed up and feeling like a slave then thats when to give up, not when no smoking day comes round or when you feel guilty about it.

You need to be ready.

6 weeks in for me and this time it seems to be much easier than some of my previous attempts. The trigger was getting half way through a cigarette and having an epiphany that I didn’t want to do it anymore, stubbed it out and not had one since. The patches help considerably.

Never forget, your brain is (well should be) in charge of your body, not the other way round. Mind over matter.

Unfortunately the good stuff acts on the pleasure sensors in your brain. The primal parts of your brain want you to smoke.

It’s just over 3 years since I stopped smoking.

I am not sure of the exact day, but it was some time just before “no smoking day” in 2010.

I used to hate “no smoking day”. When I smoked there was no way I was going to stop smoking just because someone else was telling me to stop!

I found that I could give up smoking for other people in my life, such as my wife and children, but I could not stay stopped as I really did not want to stop at those times.

I went cold turkey when I stopped and I did not tell anyone that I was doing it, even my wife. She only noticed a couple of days after I had stopped and was quite upset at the time that I had not told. However, smoking was a very personal thing for me and I did not want the pressure, as I saw it, of other people knowing that I was giving up.

I had to make some adjustments to my lifestyle in the early days, but I was lucky because nowadays I know very few people who smoke and with the ban on smoking in public places I very rarely come across smokers, so that temptation was greatly reduced.

Certainly looking back now the thing that really helped me stay quit this time was that I really wanted to give up deep down as I had grown to hate everything about smoking tobacco.

I must admit the e-ciggie things intrigue me. At first I used to think that the people who were using them were light-weights and hadn’t really given up as they weren’t “tough” like me and gone the cold turkey route, but now my views have changed. I think the biggest thing that has changed my view is reading the success stories of people on this site who have stopped the tobacco and have switched to them. They genuinely seem like a healthier alternative.

Anyway, for all those trying to stop or those of you have just recently stopped, keep it up, it is so worth it.

I’d agree with the point above about not always being a smoker.
I was a smoker for 15 years then various things made me decide I wanted to give it up which I did succesfully. I’ve never had a cigarette of any type since and I hate the smell of smoke now.

I’d never ever go back and it is absolutely the best thing I have ever done.

If you’re looking for reasons to keep off then for me, my endurance on the bike went through the roof. I can power up huge hills now, storm over the top and just keep on going whereas before I’d be floundering half way up. The smell is just vile to non-smokers, not so much at the time but the after-effects it leaves behind. Smoke in a house ande it will always have that horrible, stale smell.

Obviously there’s the health benefits.

And finally smokers are sexual deviants.

Just over four years for me.

I’m certainly not in the “once a smoker always a smoker” camp.

Don’t like the smell of it, I find the “ritual” really weird now (used to love it)

And sometimes I see someone smoking and it strikes me a really strange thing to do.

I don’t miss it, and I will never do it again (and won’t need to put any effort in)

Just over 6 years for me and don’t miss it one jot. My advice is to grow to hate, despise it and feel sorry for those people who do smoke. Just think of your family, your kids, how much money you’ll save, how much nicer you’ll smell, and how much faster you’ll be on the bike.

Best thing you’ll ever do

If the regular coughing up of green-blobs, damage to health in general, smelling like a tramp and the effect it has on those around you (kids?) doesn’t make smokers quit then nothing will.

11 weeks for me and i’ve never felt better

you’ve just got to realise that smoking isn’t even addictive, they’d like you to think it is, o yes, but actually its not….you could stop anytime and you wouldn’t feel a thing, remember, addiction is all in the mind…

Agree with nealglover. People look down right weird smoking to me now.

I could never ever have stopped on my own.

My wife and I stopped on the same day about 18 months ago. She’s a ‘smoker who doesn’t smoke’ and keeps on giving in to them.

I’m a non smoker.

Difference is simple I got Champix from the Doctor, she went cold turkey.

I thought the Champix wasn’t working at all and then one day, after 9 days on them, I lit up a ciggy and tossed it out the car window after one drag – never wanted one since. I really mean that; I smoked for 26 years, up to 80 a day at times and I never ever want one now. I also never had to give up. You keep smoking whilst you take the pills then one day you just don’t smoke anymore. I’m sure many will be along to contradict that but that’s how it was for me.

Champix has side effects and it’s those you need to man up to and use your will power for. I had dreadful nightmares for a couple of weeks for example but its a small price to pay.

Almost a year since I quit. The thing that helped me was herbal tobacco – no, not that sort, but the stuff you can buy from Holland and Barrett. You can still join your mates for a fag, but yours contains no nicotine 🙂

You can still join your mates for a fag, but yours contains no nicotine 

Not knocking your efforts at all Lady Gresley, well done for laying off the “normal” fags, but nicotine itself is highly addictive but not all that harmful in the doses you get from smoking. Herbal cigarette smoke will still have lots and lots of nasty carcinogens in it 🙁

It’s a long time since I gave up, but I recall letting everyone at work know, anticipating sympathy and an easy week or two, with the bonus of being unwilling to back out and fail publicly.

Excellent words cleanyerbike! 8)

If you really are in the position whereby your fed up and feeling like a slave then thats when to give up

you’ve just got to realise that smoking isn’t even addictive, they’d like you to think it is, o yes, but actually its not….you could stop anytime and you wouldn’t feel a thing, remember, addiction is all in the mind…

I think both of these are valid points.. I’m so sick of feeling like my mood and day can be influenced by nicotine..
I’ve conquered some of the worst addictions that this planet can possibly throw at a person, but it’s this insipid little non-addiction that has a hold over me..

I really really don’t want to be at the mercy of such a naff and minging habit..

still

day 2 nearly finished.. We went out for a big family meal at a pub and all that this evening.. I noticed that there was a pack of cigs on the table all evening but I wasn’t bothered

it’s looking good.. I’ve run out of patches now (I only had a couple that I found at the back of the cupboard) so tomorrow will be interesting

Yunki, try the ecigs…

Glad to hear that lady gresley, having done well with stopping smoking last year after the herbal stuff I have fallen back into it again. I ended up hating the honey rose. Trying Greengo now.

Yunki, try the ecigs…

naaah..

they sound nice and all that but that way I’m still slave to a drug, a drug that has the ability to alter my mood quite drastically and negatively

**** that.. If I’m gonna do that I might as well get back on the vodka breakfasts and IV Cocaine, at least that was fun..

Day 6 for me. Done cold turkey before, but on one of these e-cigs now. As said above, not one of those hateful pretend fags, but the new vaporiser type. Granted I’m not kicking the addiction, but I’m not smoking, or even wanting to smoke fags.

In time I’ll get into the mindset of giving this up as well, but at the moment I’m quite enjoying it – great being able to’smoke’ in pubs too.

Im on day 15 without a fag,used patches for the first week but ive not been to the pub yet or even had a beer in that time.I actually enjoy smoking when im drinking and if i could just social smoke i would but i always slip back into the habit full on so im just quitting full stop.Mates birthday today which will be a huge test of will power as were going out drinking in sheffield tonight.Not sure wether to just not go and try leaving it another week or so till i go pub.(dilemma) 😕