So tomorrow is my official quitting date. I am wondering if there are any others on here who made a decision to quit when they were making a switch to a healhier lifestyle and getting into triathlons. Any suggestions? Are there supplements, or vitamins that aid in the rebuilding of your body.
Thanks guys, you help is appreciated.
Think of it as multi-drug resistant illness that will require a large amount of time and patience, and one to many different strategies to address it (drugs, patches, support from friends, support from work, etc). And probably you won’t quit the first time (though some do), but just keep quitting until you quit -don’t give up.
Just quit!!! If you need to do anything cut celery and carrots up to about the size of cigs and put them in a plastic bag and keep in your shirt pocket. Anytime you want a cig eat one. For what it is worth I did it cold turkey 4 years ago and never looked back. Now if anyone can help me with my food addiction I would appreciate it.
I quit cold turkey over 25 years ago- best decision I’ve ever made. As Tibbs mentioned don’t think of yourself as someone trying to quit smoking. Think of yourself as a non-smoker.
Use the patch, but don’t expect it to be easy. The patch just makes it easier, but its still hard. I used the patch for like 3 weeks, then thought it was a waste (since I still wanted to smoke) and quit the patch. In 48 hours I was a total mess and went back on. Trust me, even if you don’t know it, the patch is helping.
Be prepared to want to smoke for a long time. I did, several years. Only recently does it not even seem appealing.
I like the guy that said give yourself a break if you slip; it takes off some pressure. For a while I would occasionally go to the tobacco store, buy a pack, smoke one and throw the rest of the pack out. If you do this, don’t keep the pack, it makes it too easy. Make it hard/inconvenient to slip up, but give yourself permission to do it on rare occasions.
Just hang in and tell a lot of people you’re doing it.
And keep trying. It’s hard. But worth it in the long run.
As another poster said - ‘Just Do It!’ - but only ‘Just Do It’ when you are mentally prepared for 3 semi-rough days (and preferably when you are not stressed out due to work/life/etc).
Then, always have an opened pack of cigarettes beside you (yes beside you). If you don’t have access to supply, you will be stressed out and buy some (and most likely smoke them). Thus, to keep your stress at a low level, have access to supply and use your inner-strength to kick the habit. No supply = stress = buy smokes=smoke them = failed attempt and low self-esteem. I have been smoke-free for three years and still have a pack of smokes in my car and at home (I’m sure they are beyond stale) and I haven’t had one in three years.
I found one of the hardest things in quitting was breaking habits (not necessarily breaking the nicotine addiction).
I know it sounds to simple, but the answer really is that easy: Just stop smoking. Tomorrow, don’t buy any, don’t smoke any, and do everything to keep your mind off of it. Knowing that the urges will stop does help. I remember the first 5 days being the worst…and the worst was on the fifth day. Prepare yourself for it to get worse before better and it will help. Also, stay away from triggers or places that you associate with smoking like drinking, hanging out with friends who smoke, driving past the gas station you usually buy smokes from, and even avoid the doors that you usually smoke at. It is good to change your daily schedule and pattern for awhile and this will actually make it easier. Most people smoke at certain times of the day, at certain places, and doing certain things while they smoke. Avoid those things for awhile.
Starting smoking was one of the dumbest things I did as a kid and and quitting was one of the smartest. For me the best part was being able to breath again, not smelling like $hit, and not wasting half of the day taking smoke breaks.
I know it sounds to simple, but the answer really is that easy: Just stop smoking. Tomorrow, don’t buy any, don’t smoke any, and do everything to keep your mind off of it. Knowing that the urges will stop does help. I remember the first 5 days being the worst…and the worst was on the fifth day. Prepare yourself for it to get worse before better and it will help. Also, stay away from triggers or places that you associate with smoking like drinking, hanging out with friends who smoke, driving past the gas station you usually buy smokes from, and even avoid the doors that you usually smoke at. It is good to change your daily schedule and pattern for awhile and this will actually make it easier. Most people smoke at certain times of the day, at certain places, and doing certain things while they smoke. Avoid those things for awhile.
Starting smoking was one of the dumbest things I did as a kid and and quitting was one of the smartest. For me the best part was being able to breath again, not smelling like $hit, and ***not wasting half of the day taking smoke breaks.[/***reply
I agree you can waste half the day on ST. Did I say waste? I meant recover half the day on ST
Smoke 3 packs tonight, seriously. Smoke yourself sick. Maybe drink yourself into a stupor to. It worked for me. Didn’t want to look at a smoke for the first 2.5 days.
He he, this worked for me. I hadn’t even thought about quitting, but I had a massive hangover and didn’t smoke for 2 days, then challenged myself to see if I could go another day without smoking. After a month, the habit was kicked. That was 15 yrs ago.
If you need more help, some of the cessation programs + support groups out there are really fantastic. If you’re not self-employed, your employer might even help pay for it.
Wow, thats like starting a race and telling yourself you probably won’t finish. Whats the point, then? I didn’t quit any of my bad habits until I was ready, and I knew I was quitting for good. Never looked back.
Most people that relapse after rehab end up in rehab for the 15th time when they’re 50. Quit once, when you KNOW you are quitting for good.
Wow, thats like starting a race and telling yourself you probably won’t finish. Whats the point, then? I didn’t quit any of my bad habits until I was ready, and I knew I was quitting for good. Never looked back.
Well, that’s great for you and all, but just not the way it goes down for most smokers. It is a very common theme when trying to quit smoking or other highly addictive drugs that the 1st attempt (and a few more) are usually not successful. To successfully quit, you should know this going into it.
So once more just to give you something to disagree with and feel good about your super duper powers of self control - He will probably fail. (the 1st time) And that’s ok.
He will probably ultimately succeed. Even better.
It’s not like I am saying you will smoke for a couple more years every time you relapse. More like buy a pack, chain smoke half of it. Get pissed off and toss the rest out and quit once again with even more resolve. Generally this resolve needs to be built up throughout the process of quiting. Most don’t have enough of it or understand exactly what challenges they will face when starting down the road to being smoke (or whatever) free.
my 19 year habit ended march 26th, 2010. just a matter of getting your head right:
there’s no such thing as “just one”. 1 cigarette = 1 shot of heroin to a junkie: it starts the addiction and withdrawal cycle all over again. if you “cheat”, you’re only cheating yourself, and buying yourself another 3 lousy days while you go through physical withdrawal.
cigarettes don’t make stress/anger/pain go away. the effect of a smoke break is to make you step away from the bad situation and breathe deeply (inhaling the smoke). you can do the same thing WITHOUT a substance that just adds one more problem.
completely agree that you can’t think of it as a “process” or be “quitting”. you are now an ex/non-smoker, period.
for me, nicotine replacement just served to draw out the physical addiction, and eventually failed in past quitting attempts. cold turkey and the right mindset is what worked - i keep waiting for the hard part!
oddly enough, since quitting, almost every smoker i’ve seen (with the exception of people i know who smoke) seems to have come straight off the peopleofwalmart.com site…
It is a process whether you want to think of it that way or not. You might not be seeing the process yet because you are still involved in it. 6 weeks is not out of the woods.
Your nicotine replacement attempts, failures, new mindset and cold turkey is your process. Even your thinking of it as not a process but as an event is part of your process. Hard for you to step back at this point.
I took up triathlons a year ago and was smoking a pack a day at the time. I did one race and that was all it took for me and I quit cold turkey. I think if you actually get into doing tris, you will naturally just stop - the way doing a tri makes you feel is a feeling unlike any other, and you want to naturally live a better lifestyle. Good luck with the stopping. I know you can do it!
