Quit smoking: any tips?

You'll be able to program faster, without being out of breath...

Is it good enough ?

Regards,

Go cold turkey. Stay away from bars and friends who smoke for at least 2 months. Seriously. Be nice, explain why, but be firm.

Jon

Im strugling here as well. A pack a day, for the lsat 3 or 4 years.. Im starting to really feel the affects..

I did quite cold turkey for 3 months once.. During that time, I can tell you this. After the first 2 weeks, I felt great. My wind capacity was already better, and my body was feeling good too. I coughed up some black stuff in the mornings, but getting that crap out was a moral victory as well. Just tell yourself that you'll never have a nother ciggarette again, and do just that. Never have another again. When I kept that thought in my mind, it was a little easier to deal with.. But here I am again, a full on smoke.. so what do I know?

I feel ya brother. I am in the midst of another quit smoking routine. As of today, I haven't had a cigarette in four weeks. I recommend getting some nicotine gum and using that as a stopgap if you can't stand the cravings. Get the lower dosage gum (2mg) and only chew a half piece at a time. I did this to get myself past the first three days, and didn't need any after that. My dad really liked to carry around coffee stir straws to chew on when he quit smoking - maybe you'd like that. I think the first week is the worst and then it gets easier. What I've seen recommended is that you write down a list of reasons why you don't want to smoke and carry it around with you. Then whip it out every time you want a smoke because I know it's really hard to remember why quitting was a good idea when you have a nasty craving.

Other than that, stay strong man, and I wish you good luck.

Oh, also don't give up if you cave in a have a cigarette. But if that happens, make sure you don't regress fully [wink]

Just don't smoke. Refuse to allow yourself to buy more cigarettes. Tell your friends not to give you cigarettes even if you ask for them. Try your best to avoid situations that would tempt you to smoke (can't say much about that.. I'm tempted to smoke every time I walk out the door).

In the end, it's all up to you. You'll try to come up with excuses to yourself as to why you should be allowed to smoke.. stuff like "only one" and such. Don't give in. Realize that you're the one in control.. you're not the victim. The only way you will go back to smoking is if you convince yourself that it's alright to smoke.

I'm trying to quit too. Does anyone know of supplements that help?

Such as 5-htp or L-tyrosine?

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Original post by WilyCoder I'm trying to quit too. Does anyone know of supplements that help? Such as 5-htp or L-tyrosine?

I know a guy here at work who used Zyban. He hasn't smoked in about a year I think. It's a longer term thing though. I think you use it for about 6 months.

I try to avoid supplements - the coffee stir straws sound good, however [smile].
Thanks for the tips so far. Cold turkey seems to be the only way I could possibly make it.

Here's how I quit:

I wasn't stupid enough to do it to begin with. I like my health.

My mom went through this a few times. Here's what finally worked, get another (healthier) habit to replace smoking. In my mom's case, she started to eat the Smint brand mints instead of smoking to replace the habit of always having something in her mouth I guess. She says if she didn't do that she'd probably be smoking again.

I quit smoking but started back.

Tip: This is the reason for my failure. Just because you're not supposed inhale cigars doesn't make them a valid substitute for someone who has quit smoking.

When I think about this, the reasoning and logic elude me as to why I thought I could smoke cigars and be ok. When you're on a nicotine fir, we all know our logic start to work much differently.

Don't smoke?

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Original post by Laz Here's how I quit: I wasn't stupid enough to do it to begin with. I like my health.

Keep your asinine comments to yourself.

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Original post by xg0blin I quit smoking but started back. Tip: This is the reason for my failure. Just because you're not supposed inhale cigars doesn't make them a valid substitute for someone who has quit smoking. When I think about this, the reasoning and logic elude me as to why I thought I could smoke cigars and be ok. When you're on a nicotine fir, we all know our logic start to work much differently.

Yes, no substitutes. Dip isn't kosher either.

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Original post by Laz Here's how I quit: I wasn't stupid enough to do it to begin with. I like my health.

Nice of you to share. Now that you're feeling all self-important, bugger off.

Okay this time I'll be al ittle more helpful.

I come from a family of smokers, all who have quit and started back up again.

Mainly is all boiled down to stress, which is what got them started again. My grandmother managed to quit, and stay cigarette free. She wrote a book about it, so you might try checkin out books on the topic.

But all said stuff above works. If you start getting the craving, trytaking your mind off of it (I know, easier said than done). Get as far away from it as possible. Got for a jog. Just get out of the house and try some fresh air.

Sometimes finding something else to have in your mouth (Gum, or mints, or otherwise) doesn't work, seeing as how it's the nicotine that has people and not the "needing something in your mouth."

My suggestion: When the craving hits, go do something outside. Mow the yard, work on a car, go for a jog, go for a drive.

Again I don't smoke so I don't have first-hand experience, but I know what i've seen from my family around me. Best of luck to you on quitting (and my apologizes for my retarded comment above, it was uncalled for).

For me change always worked. Every habit I wanted to kick I was able to kick best when I changed my flow. (often changing work place)

If you cannot change your work place at least try to change your flow. Do not go to or do the stuff that you would do while smoking. Set up non-smoking areas around you and go cold turkey.

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Three days ago I decided to finally quit smoking. Four years of feeding the tobacco industry and ruining my health should be enough. However, quitting is easier said than done - there are moment when I just want to have a smoke (about 3 times a day atm). I currently try to distract myself by doing 50 pushups. While this is certainly good training unfortunately it's not very effective.

Congrats on taking a positive step towards improving your health. It will be well worth the effort you put into it. What do you get out of it? Well, for starters:

-- Within 30 minutes of quitting smoking, your pulse rate slows down and blood pressure drops toward normal.
-- Within hours of stopping, the level of carbon monoxide in your blood drops, enabling the blood to carry more oxygen.
-- Two days after quitting, nerve endings begin to recover and your sense of smell and taste begin to return.
-- Within five days of quitting, the bronchial tubes expand and lung volume increases.
-- Six months after quitting, shortness of breath diminishes.
-- Within one year, the risk of heart attack attributed to smoking declines for both men and women.
-- Two to three years after quitting, the risk of heart attack attributed to smoking becomes negligible.
-- After ten years, the risk of developing cancer is about the same as for nonsmokers.

Try enrolling in a stop-smoking program. The support groups can be very effective if you feel like you might be slipping. Or you can signup for a web-based stop-smoking program here: http://www.stopsmokingcenter.net.

One or two things that worked for me. I quit for two years before slipping up. These are pretty awful though.

1. I have a friend who has lung cancer from smoking. IT IS AWFUL. He has no hair, he shakes all the time, is always sick and hacking. He's lived in this town for like 30 years and got lost on the way to the hospital (we only have two and the town is quite small). Just seeing him makes me not want to smoke.

2. When you want to smoke think about how nice dying of lung cancer is going to feel. I think about that all the time. How great it's going to be sitting there drowning on my own fluids inside my lungs while I cough out and puke all kinds of green stuff and my lungs are bleeding from the size of the tumors. Yeah, that'll be fun. I always wanted to die drowning on phlem.