I am only 24 and I started smoking when I came to live in Latin America about 5 years ago. I knew it was stupid but did it as a social thing and thought I would never get addicted. Well, I can't stop smoking now and it really grosses me out. My BF hates it, I hate it, and my parents would ring my neck if they knew (I am very secretive about it). I need a buddy or some support here to stop. Yesterday I decided to pitch all cigs and lighters and I am hoping to make it stick this time. (I stopped 2 months last year and started up one night when I had too much to drink!!). I think I may need to stop drinking in order to stop smoking...any tips? I work out a lot and that tends to help, but I really need some more tips or a buddy!! Thanks so much for the support!

HI! Wow, I just found this my kind of mistake. But I don't think it's mistake at all. I am constantly trying to get my sister to quit smoking. I smoked for 12 years, quit when I was 26, and now I'm 33. Just stay SO focused on your health. Picture how happy your lungs are to breathe good air! Putting that tar on them is like putting glue on tissue paper. REALLY! The inner linings of your lungs are so fragile, so throwing them out yesterday was the best gift you could ever give yourself. I noticed a huge difference in my ability to breathe soon after I quit. I could run and be active for much longer periods of time. Just be a pillar of strength. No cigarettes will touch your lips. It's not permitted. Just keep telling yourself that when you get the cravings. (One other thing I did to help me quit is to smoke in the mirror. I saw how rediculous I looked and that mental image was enough to make me turn away every time!)

hi, I'm new to the board and I believe I have found answers to all my prayers. I am a long time carber and always maintained a weight of 125 to 130. I am 45 and inhaled my last ciagrette 4 wks ago. Feel great and can breath a lot better but in 3 wks I have gained 20 lbs. Yes... Unbelievable to me.. Makes me want to pick up and start smoking.. Please help me... Is this normal.. and any suggestions on how I can get this off as quickly as it came on. I have just purchased a whole body cleansing kit to help purge the bad toxins left in my body.. I am extremely bloated and feel miserable... Thanks in advance to all who respond.. Dawn

DCastle, the same thing happened to me. My docotrs said since I started smoking so young and for soooo long that it's like my metabolism was held up by the nicotine and that now it has to adjust to working properly on it's own. Not sure if I believe that or not but what choice do I have? I myself quit May 21st 2004. Gained mega weight even when doing lc. I had to increase my exercise with major variety,shake things up a bit with some fruit etc... I still have a long way to go to get back to the 150 I was when I quit smoking tho. Best of luck to you all.

Angel

Hiya MiamiNicol

I quit smoking (for the last time) when I was forty, had started when I was 15. Had quit for both pregnancies but had restarted.

Anyway, to help me quit I used the Nicorette gum. Chew it really slow otherwise you get too much nicotine and it can make you feel dizzy. It doesn't taste very good....picture an ashtray full of butts topped with water that's been let sit for a couple of days, you get the idea I'm sure. Wicked awful taste but it did help me kick the habit.

I also started knitting, needed to have something to do with my hands and this assured busy fingers, so if you aren't into knitting maybe you can think of something else that will keep your fingers busy.

Another trick was to look at a cigarette and think to myself, I'm paying good money to kill myself. I figured out how much my bad habit was costing me per year and saw that I could have afforded a trip to warmer climes had I not spent it on this very pointless bad habit.

Something I really liked after I'd quit was the realization that I no longer had to choose between buying a pack of smokes or having a luncheon out with the kids instead, cigs are pretty expensive here, almost $10. per pack.

I too gained weight after I quit, that's pretty normal, your metabolic system is slower so maybe added exercise might help you, also make sure you drink all the required water and even more if you can.

Best of luck to you and to everyone else who wants to quit, it's hard but it is not as hard as changing your way of eating. You don't have a puff here and there to keep you alive. Changing your way of eating still involves eating, I found this much more difficult to do, at least with low carbing you stand a better chance of sticking to plan. The lack of sugars and starches don't leave you craving as badly as a low fat diet does.

Be strong, you'll never regret quitting smoking.

Hey I am with you! I need to quit also! I am older than you and have been smoking a whole lot longer than you. But, once your hooked, your hooked! I will be your buddy and maybe we can do this togeather!

We really do need some help and advise from the people here that have kicked the habit too though.

Anyone here that can help, I would be grateful to any of you!

I am ready, I really, really do want to quit!!
Brenda

BlitzedAng, Thank you. You know I figured as much but did your doctor tell you how long it would take for your body to re-adjust. We did do a lot of damage to our bodies just from inhaling all the bad toxins for so long. I never want to pick up another cig. as long as I live. I just didn't realize I would gain so much so fast. I am trying to be patient it's just that it is now summer and I look like I am about 2months pregnant. I suddenly gained all the weight in my middle and back side, if you know what I mean. Now here is the other part Im 45 and in menapause... This really stinks.... Anyway thank you. I am beginning to start walking now and I have started the diet pill "skinny mini" to try and help jump start the metabalisim. Hope it works....
Thanks to you all, Dawn

Fabyfifty, I just wanted to share with you how I quit. I had tried all over the counter remedies. They worked for a period of time. I would always, under some stress find comfort in picking up a cigarette. I just decided I really, really wanted to be a non smoker...I began to hate the way I felt when I smoked and how bad my clothes smelt...etc. I decided that if I relly wanted to stop I need not put any nicotine in my body at all. I was terrified of the withdrawals but I new after a couple of days I would be on the up swing. Not out of the woods, but on the up swing. I decided to go to a Hypnosis, skeptical but what the heck.. Well as of today I am 4wks and 3days smoke free. Oh my gosh, it was hard but well worth it. Just as I thought the first 3 days were the hardest but honestly it really does pass. It does begin to get easier. Now you really have to want to quit because when the times get so hard you think you are going to die you have to talk yourself out of it. My quote was that you are not going to die from this feeling but you will if you continue to smoke. It helped me. Here is another idea that helped. I called a Quit hotline. Very awesome and supportive. 24/7 always there for you. Answering any questions and getting you through the hard times. The only bad thing about this group is that I didn't find them til after 2wks of stopping. I still call on occasion. So I am giving you and anyone else the number Hoping it will make it a little easier to quit. Best of Luck...
1-800-292-2336... or 1-877-270-7867... Hope this helps. Dawn

Hi Dawn, and thanks for all the info! I too went to a hypnotist, and I quit for 3 days but it was the worst 3 days of my life! I did nothing but sleep and cry! My mom thought I was going to have a nervous breakdown, thats how bad I was!
The worst part of it was my family called daily to see if I had started smoking again!! They just could not let it go!! My husband came in daily with a stupid look on his face that made me want to kill him!! You could tell he was thinking " Are you smoking yet?!!!).
Not much chance someone can quit with that kind of support!
So the hypnotist did not work for me.
I have the patch here, its percription strength, but probably 2 years old.
This is how long I have been wanting to give the damn things up!
I am really wanting to but excuse, after excuse keeps coming from me. I know that everyone does this. It is not that I or they don't want to give them up, it is a fear of the unknown. I have been doing this for over 30 years, how do you stop a habit that has become as much a part of life as your arms and legs! Here again an excuse! I am really going to try thanks for the numbers.

I thank you for all your info and your support!
Thanks Very Much!
Brenda

The smoking thing is how I wound up here. I'm 33 - had been smoking since 19 - and I final.y quit in January. From a pure lung capacity standpoint, I've never felt better. That said, it's been a rough couple of months. Like a lot of smokers, I've been sick a lot, and worse yet, I put on 15 pounds in 3 months. How I wound up here.

THAT SAID, if you think you're really ready... Go FOR IT!! Best thing you can do for yourself. I read you have to gain 100-150 lbs to even come close to the risks of smoking. And if you try and fall off that wagon, that's okay. Try again when you're ready. Because the best I can tell you is that you WILL quit when you're really ready, and not until then. You can't quit because your bf/gf/friends/family/etc want you to quit. It's TOO addictive. You have to be prepared to change your life. Kind of like low-carbing.

FEEL FREE to write me if you want to talk about it. I went through terrible withdrawal, which I TOTALLY survived, and have now quit for 3 months. HANG IN THERE.

steph

Hi Steph, I agree, I too went through the worst withdrawals. I couldn't get out of the bed for two days. I had Flu like symptoms, constipation, the shakes, very nervous, etc. It was horrible but I kept telling my self you will survive this. So again we have to remember nicotine is a DRUG. I think in some cases as bad as we here of street drugs. It is hard for many to give up street drugs on there own, that is why they have rehabs for them because the DT's are unbareable. Coming off nicotine, I believe we have similiar withdrawls. Anyway Fabyfifty, I know you can do it. There are a lot of people here that can help you go through it. If your family members have never smoked it is hard for them to understand what you could possibly be going thru that is why you have a family here. Several that have and are going through what you are. Best of Luck.....You will stop when you really, really, really want to. Dawn

No offence, and sincere congratulations to all of you who have quit, but please do try reading Allen Carr's book. All my friends are actors and musicians, and most of them smoke. The only people I know who have given up EVER for longer than a few months have done it through this book. I quit Dec 23rd. I haven't suffered a bit, I haven't missed it at all. In fact, I've nearly forgotten that I did smoke, and I smoked a pack a day for 17 years. My experience is the same as everyone I know who has quit (9 people). Why put yourself through the misery of nicorettes and painful withdrawal? I find it weird that so many people are trying the most expensive, least likely to work methods, and yet no one seems to have responded to a previous post I wrote about this book with any interest. Withdrawal is a lie of the mind.

what is the name of the book. I would definately read it.

Thank you anyway but I just ordered the book from my library.

Good going Alison! I really hope it works for you! He has 2 books out which are both the same method, just one is a lot bigger and goes into more detail. That's the one I used, although all my friends used the thinner one (thinner one is "easy way", thicker is called "only way to stop smoking permanently"). I just knew that for me, I always have to let things sink in slower so the bigger one was best.
Best of luck!!!