New***QUITING SMOKING in March!

For all of you who still smoke but want to quit here is our Chance!!

I have quit as of today!!!  Come and Join me there is no better time than right now!!!!!

Just put down your quit date add a ticker(profile) if you want...maybe some of your triggers, struggles, how you are going to quit, how you are going to handle cravings etc. 

Come back here and post progress or things that are tempting you etc.

COME ON GUYS WE CAN ALL DO THIS!!!! IT WILL HELP US EVERYDAY THINGS WILL GET EASIER TO DO!!! WE WILL LOSE THAT WEIGHT THAT MUCH FASTER!!!!!

I am on day one!!!!  I am using Zyban and the patch (stage 2).  I used to smoke around 12 cigarettes daily.  My triggers are stress, driving/work.  Cravings i am going to try and do some housework or something along that line.

Quit Feb. 11th and did well until I decided to have a "couple" on Feb.  16th, have quit a couple of more times since then but every once in a while just go buy a pack for no apparent reason. 

I will join you - starting tomorrow - good luck.

Glad to hear that you are willing to try again!!!!

Welcome

Well on day 4 now. Doing really good haven't had a nic fit or nothing.  I even worked on saturday ... i drive truck hauling snow i kept trying to reach for one and asking myself what am i doing it was really weird.

Day one
Hour 8
More to come, need to keep moving.

Good luck to you guys!!! I quit on January 3rd after 10 years, and am PROUD to admit I just hit 2 months! Cold Turkey was the only thing that was gonna work for me. If anyone needs advice or motivation let me know!!!

FYI, it's the first 4 days that leave you empty and confused and wanting. Just be aware of that fact and you can overcome it with other things. I was a HUGE fan of tea during the first couple of weeks. You sip it slow and savor it to the end, just like a smokey-treat.

Another thing I did was to continue to go "out" for breaks with my work friends. I didn't want to alienate myself. Instead of smoking, I would leave bottled water in my car and use that time to go get one while others were lighting up.

YOU CAN DO IT!!!!!!!

Quitting smoking is the best and fastest thing you can do for your health.  Probably 1 of the hardest things you'll ever do.... but you CAN do it!  No one ever died from quitting!  For me, chatting online when it got really tough is one of the major things that got me thru when i quit last year...  So... come here, rant & rave if you need to... use the char forums at some of the free quitting sites... do anything you need to do... just hang in and refuse to give up on quitting :)  You CAN do it :)

here's my fav quit calculator...

http://quitmeter.com/index.php

Here's a link to a group where I chatted, there's another person there trying to quit now... but it has been more inactive recently, but in case it helps...

http://forums.ebay.com/db1/thread.jspa?thread ID=410497169&start=0

There's a bit of a more active support group here

http://www.calorie-count.com/forums/post/1326 5.html

Also, check out www.quitnet.com ~ I understand there's an active forum there too.   I also see people recommend Allen Carr's book often... here's a snippet of one...

'The EasyWay for Women to Stop Smoking' by Allen Carr. He has one that's not geared towards women too. Most people have doubts about quiting by reading a book, but it was really amazing for me. You smoke while reading the book, and then you ceremoniously have your last cigarette. Cigarette smoke smelled bad to me just a few hours after quitting. I'm positive I won't go back

The most important thing you can do quickly to improve your health is to quit smoking ~ Yay!!! So do what u need to do to quit!!!

Ok... from the lung assoc...

Here are 10 tips from the American Lung Association to help you quit smoking.


1. Make a list of the reasons you want to quit, carry it with you and read it when you have the urge to smoke.

2. Set a date to stop. Giving up cigarettes is probably the most important health decision you will make in your life, so don?t quit on a whim. Take time to plan a strategy.

3. Remove all evidence of smoking from your life. Clean your car interior, launder your clothes, put away all ashtray, and get rid of all cigarettes. Holding on to cigarettes or lighters, just in case, undermines your self-confidence.

4. Change your typical daily routine in as many ways as possible. Sit in a different place to eat breakfast, rearrange the furniture, take a new route to work, drink tea instead of coffee, and eat lunch in the conference room instead of at your desk.

5. Reward yourself for not smoking. Set goals, both short term and long term. Have a specific reward (not something you were going to do anyway) for each milestone reached. Research shows that filling out contracts and rewarding yourself are popular activities among successful quitters.

6. Cut down on alcohol and caffeinated beverages. Drink lots of water and carry a water bottle wherever you go.

7. Plan ahead for temptation. Eat frequent small meals to stabilize your blood sugar levels. Keep healthy substitutes hand to keep you hands and mouth busy, like carrots, raisins, gum, hard candy and lollipops. Keep your hands busy by carrying a stress ball or a doodle pad or pack of cards. Plan nonsmoking tactics before going to events where other people might be smoking.

8. Do something physical like taking a walk or doing pushups, especially if you are angry, stressed or bored.

9. Be proactive about spending more time with nonsmokers and ex-smokers.

10. If you slip and smoke, don?t be discouraged. Many former smokers tired to stop several times before they finally succeeded. Just like anything new, you have to practice not smoking to get it right. If a slip happens, stop right there. Examine what went wrong. Learn from what happened, and quit again.
    here's some information on the benefits of quitting...

"How Quickly Do the Benefits of Quitting Start?"

* "Just 20 minutes after your last cigarette, your blood pressure and pulse rate drop to normal and the body temperature of your hands and feet increases to normal."

* "A mere 8 hours after your last smoke, the carbon monoxide level decreases and the oxygen level in your blood increases to normal."

* "Just 24 hours after your last cigarette, you substantially lessen your chances of having a heart attack."

* "Two days after your last cigarette, you will notice that your ability to taste and smell is enhanced."

* "Three days later, your breathing should be noticeably better because your lung capacity will be greater."

Breaking News from United!!! Cold Turkeyiers Take Note! 3 days... Nicotine Out of System!!! Time to Celebrate!!!

Next 3 Weeks ~ Then it's time to Life without *Sickerettes* ~ Retrain the Brain to do everything without our old habit ~ End of 3 - 4 weeks wraps up the worst of the mental retraining & time for Graduation/Celebrations... so sez United [/end United's Personal Notes... returning u 2 the Surgeon General :::giggle::: ]

* Within 2 weeks to 3 months ~ "Your circulation will improve and your lung functioning will increase up to 30% within two weeks to three months after quitting."

* "Between one month and nine months, the cilia in your lungs will regenerate, allowing your body to clean your lungs and reduce infection." [united luvs when Cilia do the wiggle ... ok... returning u 2 the surgeon general...]

* "One year after quitting, your risk of coronary heart disease is half that of a smoker."

* "Five years after quitting, your risk of stroke is reduced to that of a nonsmoker."

* "Ten years after quitting, the lung cancer death rate is about half that of a continuing smokers. The risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, kidney and pancreas decreases."

* "Fifteen years after quitting, your risk of coronary heart disease is that of a nonsmokers.

(U.S. Surgeon General's Reports (1988, 1990)

Link.

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview? id=525239  

Ok, that's my pip & squeak for 2day ;)

Hang in!

If you're going cold turkey, withdrawals really set in about hours 12 - 15 and get super rough for the 1st 3 days...  That's when you need to white knuckle through those days.... The 4th day should start to feel a little easier after you make it through the physical withdrawals, but that's when the brain chemistry is changing that makes you cranky for awhile... so don't fret the crankies or if you feel the urge to eat... that's just the withdrawals pinging as hunger...  that'll happen for awhile too but eventually you'll go back to normal...

Hope this helps!  cheers, united :)

WOO HOO JM YOU CAN DO IT!!! we ALL can!!!

Thanks United for all the info.

I quit cold turkey a month ago; happy, but I still feel like I've lost a friend. I didn't even smoke that much, but I loved it.

Had to turn a movie off the other day be/c of smoking. It made me want one SO bad.

i had the same feeling dharma :(  about 3 1/2 mos after I quit, i had a sickerette hanging off my lips, lighter in hand... for about 6 hours fighting back and forth... to smoke or not to smoke. 

I finally handed dh back the sickerette and lighter after about 6 hours and went to bed and cried for about 3 or 4 days.  it was one of the saddest days of my life.

but it was a real turning point.  i had to decide i wanted to live more than i wanted to smoke.  and i had to keep making that decision... almost every day.

the movies still get me.  i'll start climbing the walls for a sickerette and wonder why.... finally realize 1 or 2 people are smoking in the movie.  gah!

it's been almost 15 mos... it's much easier but there are still moments... that hit me out of the blue... it's like i never quit cuz i find myself ready to suck down a pack. 

problem is, i would not stop there. 

i can NOT have just 1.  for me, that ends up in failure.  I throw down the towel and smoke my brains out with glee... so i really can't even cheat with just a puff....

one of the main things I had to do was quit focusing on what i was giving up and wanting to smoke... and wishing I could still smoke.

i had to replace that with a concious decision to focus on the positive reasons why i was quitting.... the health benefits... why i needed to quit.  how life was going to be better....

it didn't seem like it for a long time... but it's a lot better now.  I can breathe much better.....

and now... I wish I never had smoked.  kinda funny.  i never ever thought i would feel that way... but i do...

Hang in!!!  You CAN quit! 

promise :)

hey united, thanks for words of wisdom.

I've never been a 'smoker,' I have gone months, years, whatever without having one. Somehow, though, they creep in and out of my life.

I don't like the by-products of smoking, i.e. smell, skin and teeth problems and short of breath when running, but I loved the habit. It was soothing, relieved anxiety and in an 'old Hollywood' sense, I always found it sophisticated; it's definitely not.

However, I knew as someone who just hand one 'here and there' that I still needed to stop. The thought of never having one again is frightening.

For example, road trip on a nice summer day, listening to music, ahhh, I want a smoke.

I can live without it, but I still feel a sense of loss.

I was in class today and the person sitting beside me had just come in from a smoke uggg he stunk so bad and i asked myself is that how i smelt YUK!!!!!

Dh and i are going on a road trip in 17 days and I am not too sure how i am going to handle 32 hrs in a car without smoking, lastime we did this trip we were both smoking.  Dh quit in June, i was supposed to as well but it didn't work wasn't my time.

As i said not looking forward to the driving with no smoking.

plan to quit on the 15th. i'll probably use a patch.

I had tried the patch with dh it worked for him and not for me.  if it doesn't work try talking to your doctor that's what i did and now i am on the patch and zyban and it is working i have never felt so good quitting smoking i know it's going to work this time.  Make sure you read the doseage on the patch i was going to start on stage 1 but i didn't need to so i started on stage two cause i didn't smoke that much.

I'll quit with you, starting tomorrow. I can't just throw out my cigarettes, that's wasting money, I don't have to waste. I smoke atleast a pack a day, sometimes more.

I almost exclusivley smoke talking on the phone or in my boyfriend's house. I'm not allowed to smoke in my parent's house and its always so cold outside, so I rarely smoke here in the nighttimes.

I'm with you as of today!! I had smokes thru the day today. It is 3:12 now and I decided that thats it! I don't enjoy it even anymore. I smell it and it stinks. I hate people around me that smoke I get grumpy. I can be at home all weekend and not have a single one. So thats it. I quit!

Will see what tomorrow brings but I hear when you set your mind to it..thats all it takes.

I'm trying cold turkey!

WOO HOO YOU GO GIRLS!!! I am proud of you both