Is anyone trying to give it up?

[Andrew]

I Have decided to give it up, on the 20th June, this year i am going to have my last cigarette.

Really nervous right know, is anyone else here trying to stop smoking?

Thanks!

[JackPeyton]

I am not because i dont smoke (well i do hookah and i dont wnan quit that).

but good luck to ya and keep us informed. i hope it works for you. there are a lot of really good programs and things out there now to help out.

[Sundance]

I never started smoking, so I never had to quit. Many people have successfully quit which lets you know its possible (just difficult).

Here is a painting on a ceiling of a smoking room:

[TC]

Best of luck, Andrew. I started over 20 years ago and it seems like the last ten were spent quitting. Just don't give up on the idea, even if it doesn't work at first. Eventually it will. And don't worry about that extra 10 or 20 lbs. you might gain. That goes away too.

I don't know if you are partnered, but for us quitting together made it work. And I prefer the gum to the patch. You might have to ease up on triggers to make it easier, by that I mean coffee, tea, cocktails, beer, even the telephone.

And don't bother with what non-smokers have to say. They'll never understand and at best can only state the obvious. If quitting were only a matter of looking at pictures there would be no smokers here in Canada, where we have photos of blackened lungs on the packages.

[SnCCorinthos4ever]

Hi Andrew

I am an ex smoker.

I did try to go cold turkey a few times it would work for a while but then I would pick up a smoke and start all over again.

Then one year my workplace announced that it was going to go smoke free and invited smokers to attend a seminar about quitting smoking.

They mentioned several things that could work, but the patches and gum were not as good as thought (unless they have improved over the last 15 odd years) They mentioned that you think of a date that your will no longer smoke and that up to that day you cut down on your smoking.

That is what I did and I found that even though I still craved a smoke that it wasn't was much as I did when I went cold turkey.

It will take a while but just keep on hanging in there it gets better each day.

[henrietta]

[Sundance]

Here are some links which may help you.

http://www.smokefree.gov/

http://www.cancer.org/docroot/PED/ped_10_3.asp

http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/tobacco/consquits.htm

http://www.quitnet.com/

These were posted on another website that I saw. Good luck with quitting.

If it was so easy, the tobacco companies would go out of business. Let us know how you are doing.

[TC]

Andrew, how are you doing?

[Andrew]

I am Okay, still smoking, going to give it up next week, i say that every week, but i am really going to try it next week.

Thanks to all for your nice comments!.

Thanks!.....

[brimike]

I smoked my last cigarette (hopefully) at 8:37 this morning.

You ain't alone, Andrew.

[Andrew]

Are you ok?, have you given it up?

[brimike]

I have. I'm on the patch. Now I get cravings only after meals, and when I drink coffee. But otherwise, waking up this morning wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be.

[Sylph]

brimike is a smoker?! Nooo!

[brimike]

Since I was 14. Twenty-one years later, it's still haunting me. But I made a promise to myself, and I'm sticking to it this time. No matter how much it sucks. Self-control, Mike... self-control...

[Cat]

I am trying. Working my way down to one a day (cigarettes -- not packs!). I did quit cold turkey in March and managed a week without it (and without to many cravings). And then I got some unexpectedly bad news which triggered a really difficult couple of months for me. And so I went back.

The good thing? I don't smoke during the day anymore and in hot weather I find myself turned off by smoking. The bad? The cravings come at night, after dinner.

What helped back in March was the fact that the idea of smoking, of cigarette smoke in my mouth, became so disgusting to me that I could no longer enjoy a cigarette. Maybe it really is mind over matter.

I want to hit August cigarette-free. Better beef up my workout regimen, huh!