RE: how i quit smoking

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edguerin

Posts: 1589
Joined: Dec. 24 2007
From: Siegburg, Alemania

RE: how i quit smoking (in reply to xirdneH_imiJ)

quote:

I did it!

Good for you ! But that's just proof that you did it, not that it's a question of will power.
Believe me, I know what I'm talking about. Comparing nicotine with heroin is just ...
quite correct. Let's keep things in perspective as you say (so do your homework).

_____________________________

Ed

El aficionado solitario
Alemania

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 9 2011 19:44:58

xirdneH_imiJ

Posts: 1890
Joined: Dec. 2 2006
From: Budapest, now in Southampton

RE: how i quit smoking (in reply to edguerin)

this is one of the subjects where all the truths may be true...
i'm doing well on my 3rd day, early afternoon i really had the urge so i ended up eating a lot (again)...

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 9 2011 19:56:37

rombsix

Posts: 7808
Joined: Jan. 11 2006
From: Beirut, Lebanon

RE: how i quit smoking (in reply to xirdneH_imiJ)

quote:

so i ended up eating a lot (again)...

That's not a problem, considering how FAT you already are.

_____________________________

Ramzi

http://www.youtube.com/rombsix

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 9 2011 20:05:20

Richard Jernigan

Posts: 3430
Joined: Jan. 20 2004
From: Austin, Texas USA

RE: how i quit smoking (in reply to xirdneH_imiJ)

The difficulty varies from person to person.

I started when I was 15 or 16, smoking a few a day. My first 8-hour a day indoor job was when I was 28, tackling tough math and engineering problems. Sitting, staring at the ceiling, trying to come up with the next step, I would reach for a cigarette. Soon I was up to a pack a day. It made me feel bad, so I quit. It was easy.

But my new young wife smoked. On Saturday morning over a second cup of coffee I would reach for one of hers. Soon I would be back buying them and smoking them. I asked her to quit. Nobly, she did it for me.

Years later we were driving down the street. "Do you know what day it is?" she asked.

"Oh, Hell!" I thought. "What have I done now?" Then aloud,
"No, sorry, I don't know what day it is."

"It's been ten years since I had a cigarette."

"..and you still want one."

"Yes. I still want one."

I bought her a bouquet of roses and took her to a nice restaurant.

RNJ

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 9 2011 20:16:53

El Kiko

Posts: 2697
Joined: Jun. 7 2010
From: The South Ireland

RE: how i quit smoking (in reply to xirdneH_imiJ)

quote:

i really had the urge so i ended up eating a lot (again)...

Something like that happened to me a few years ago when I quit for a few months,
and I really got fat(ter) all the snacking cos I had nothing to do with my hands and then unfortunately I started to smoke again,,,,,,,,,,and then I thought ,," OH no , now I am Fat AND smoke ,,..!!! at least I was slimmer before....

I think when your body gets used to a new way of life you can loose it again...//
try snacking fruit or something that has less calories , stay away from the biscuits, stay away ,,, stay awayyy..

So long as you can still reach your guitar your not too fat........!!!

_____________________________

Don't trust Atoms.....they make up everything.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 9 2011 20:26:16

at_leo_87

Posts: 3055
Joined: Aug. 30 2008
From: Boston, MA, U.S.A

RE: how i quit smoking (in reply to edguerin)

quote:

Or do you believe quitting Heroin is just will power as well?

comparing heroin to cigarettes is not going to make quitting any easier.

quote:

you actually will have physical (not just mental) withdrawal symptoms (viz. "heightened emotions" ...)

so?

is it any worse than lung cancer?

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 9 2011 20:27:59

Stu

Posts: 2526
Joined: Jan. 30 2007
From: London (the South of it), England

RE: how i quit smoking (in reply to edguerin)

quote:

Comparing nicotine with heroin is just ...

agree 100% ed!

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 9 2011 21:19:17

sean65

Posts: 414
Joined: Jan. 4 2010
From: London

RE: how i quit smoking (in reply to xirdneH_imiJ)

quote:

this is one of the subjects where all the truths may be true...
i'm doing well on my 3rd day, early afternoon i really had the urge so i ended up eating a lot (again)...

Try the book I recommended. It just teaches you how to manage your desires. It doesn't bang on about filthy dirty habit and all that old crap. I think we all know that already.

Just how to cope and live with desire without satisfying it.

It's really quite effective.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 9 2011 21:21:39

M.S.A.

Posts: 493
Joined: Mar. 10 2009

[Deleted]

Post has been moved to the Recycle Bin at Mar. 1 2011 0:00:01

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 9 2011 22:26:26

n85ae

Posts: 877
Joined: Sep. 7 2006

RE: how i quit smoking (in reply to edguerin)

Quitting smoking is easy.

Put down the cigarettes, and don't light another one. Some number of days
later you'll one day find you aren't thinking about a cigarette, and it'll be done.

Same thing about losing weight, cut down the food, up the exercise. Suffer
the hunger and you'll lose weight.

Both are brutal, and there's really no shortcuts.

That's what I did, and it worked for both.

Jeff

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 10 2011 0:31:56

chester

Posts: 891
Joined: Oct. 29 2010

RE: how i quit smoking (in reply to n85ae)

First of all, RNJ - that was a great story, thanks for that. :)

I think it's fascinating how some people have the power to just quit (like Jeff above me and MSA above him) while the rest of us are still savouring that 'last delicious ci with a cup of coffee' feeling.

I'm down to 3-4 a day, but more if I drink. :)

Keep up the good fight, Jimi_Hendrix, you're doing it for all of us. :)

too many smileys.... :P

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 11 2011 7:47:27

xirdneH_imiJ

Posts: 1890
Joined: Dec. 2 2006
From: Budapest, now in Southampton

RE: how i quit smoking (in reply to chester)

now i don't feel pressured at all!

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 11 2011 8:53:30

michel

Posts: 315
Joined: Apr. 14 2008
From: france

RE: how i quit smoking (in reply to chester)

quote:

First of all, RNJ - that was a great story, thanks for that. :)

yes, one more good story, i enjoyed it also.

good thoughts in this thread, i have nothing to add, because i still smoke 17 cig's a day and i see no way to quit ATM :-/
so good luck xirdneH_imiJ

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 11 2011 12:30:57

El Kiko

Posts: 2697
Joined: Jun. 7 2010
From: The South Ireland

RE: how i quit smoking (in reply to edguerin)

thought I'd come back to this thread again, just to mention that I have been off them now for 3 weeks , I have a twinge now and then but all in all it's not so bad, I made a good start so far anyway..........

_____________________________

Don't trust Atoms.....they make up everything.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Mar. 6 2011 21:57:39

sean65

Posts: 414
Joined: Jan. 4 2010
From: London

RE: how i quit smoking (in reply to edguerin)

quote:

hought I'd come back to this thread again, just to mention that I have been off them now for 3 weeks , I have a twinge now and then but all in all it's not so bad, I made a good start so far anyway..........

Good work man.

I'm on week eight or nine now and had noticed a bit of weight gain so I went on some diet called the South Beach Diet. On the first week of the diet it's a miracle it didn't end up in prison for murder. Not sure if it was the lack of carbs or the lack of sugar but I turned into a raging monster. Way worse then the nicotine withdrawal.

I'm starting to 'normalize' again now.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Mar. 7 2011 5:47:50

El Kiko

Posts: 2697
Joined: Jun. 7 2010
From: The South Ireland

RE: how i quit smoking (in reply to sean65)

Yeah I did expect to get fatter, but strangely enough I seem to have lost a bit of weight , I just looked up your South beach stuff just in case..

At the moment I am eating fruit, especially pears, instead of punching people when I want to smoke.....
Also I have devoted a lot of my ex-smoking time to practicing tremolo ( which I am notoriously bad at) and this helps take my mind off it as I have to concentrate a lot to try and make it sound like anything decent....
Still got a long way to go though, both with tremolo and non-smoking

Week 9 for you eh? do you still get those moments...? or are they dying away now?

_____________________________

Don't trust Atoms.....they make up everything.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Mar. 7 2011 13:11:06

n85ae

Posts: 877
Joined: Sep. 7 2006

RE: how i quit smoking (in reply to El Kiko)

The easiest way to fail to lose weight is to go on a diet like that. In a nutshell,
carbs are good, they fuel the metabolism which burns fat. The problem is that most
people don't exercise. IF you want to lose weight, you need to learn about
nutrition, and exercise, and adjust your eating around your exercise. If you
do that, then you can eat a lot, and still lose weight.

If you try a "diet", you're 99.9% guaranteed to fail. At least that is, after you
get sick of what the diet makes you eat. Most people go on a diet, BUT then
get hungry all the time, they suffer, and they lose weight. Then they get sick
of suffering, the diet fails and poof they're fat again.

If you exercise regularly, in a real way and get yourself fit. Increase muscle
mass, get the cardiovascular system up to snuff. You can eat regularly through
the day (5-6 times), and drop weight at the same time.

Regards,
Jeff

quote:

Good work man.

I'm on week eight or nine now and had noticed a bit of weight gain so I went on some diet called the South Beach Diet. On the first week of the diet it's a miracle it didn't end up in prison for murder. Not sure if it was the lack of carbs or the lack of sugar but I turned into a raging monster. Way worse then the nicotine withdrawal.

I'm starting to 'normalize' again now.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Mar. 7 2011 14:42:29

sean65

Posts: 414
Joined: Jan. 4 2010
From: London

RE: how i quit smoking (in reply to n85ae)

Hi Jeff,

Yes, I do plenty of exercise, cycling and jogging.

The diet thing was just a way of pulling things back into focus as I was using way too much sugar and a few too many bad carbs as well. After two weeks I'll be introducing (good) carbs again and getting back to normal.

I lost 3Kg in the first week, by the end of this week if I loose 1.5kg more I'll be at my usual weight.

Strangely enough, even when I was a heavy smoker, I still had better cardiovascular fitness than some of my non smoking riding mates.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Mar. 7 2011 19:54:02

n85ae

Posts: 877
Joined: Sep. 7 2006

RE: how i quit smoking (in reply to edguerin)

Hi -

I do a lot of cycling myself, try doing it with a heart rate monitor (they're cheap)
figure out your various heart rates, and then work in targeted zones. Also doing
intervals are a great way to really boost the calorie output, build strength and
endurance. (i.e. pop the bike in high gear at a stop and with all your strength
pedal up to as fast as you can go for 30 seconds, the shift to a lower gear and
pedal at a low resistance for 60 seconds and recover, repeat, etc.). Doing
intervals a couple times a week will improve your cycling a LOT faster than
spending hours at a time just spinning along.

It does take time for your body to burn down fat, if you saw a big drop in a short
time. Then you lost weight by the old fashioned starvation method. :) Which
generally is an unhealthy way to lose weight, and if you start eating again it's
likely to pop right back. However it can be done. It just wouldn't work for me.
The only way I could get the weight off was cycling, and a bunch of other stuff
such as weights, and calisthenics. Once I got the upper body involved in the
plan then for me it all started working a lot better.

Regards,
Jeff

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Mar. 8 2011 14:27:01

sean65

Posts: 414
Joined: Jan. 4 2010
From: London

RE: how i quit smoking (in reply to edguerin)

Thanks Jeff,

I like the sound of those intervals, I'll give them a try.

Visiting Spain will always be a dilemma, head south and bring the guitar or head north and bring the bike.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Mar. 8 2011 19:44:21

El Kiko

Posts: 2697
Joined: Jun. 7 2010
From: The South Ireland

RE: how i quit smoking (in reply to edguerin)

quote:

Visiting Spain will always be a dilemma, head south and bring the guitar or head north and bring the bike.

Dilemma ???what dilemma..? Go south ...take the guitar ....I already forgot the other option...oh yeah North , wherever that is ..

_____________________________

Don't trust Atoms.....they make up everything.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Mar. 11 2011 11:25:13

sean65

Posts: 414
Joined: Jan. 4 2010
From: London

RE: how i quit smoking (in reply to edguerin)

quote:

Dilemma ???what dilemma..? Go south ...take the guitar ....I already forgot the other option...oh yeah North , wherever that is ..

Well my lovely lady is from Santander on the north coast so we go there quite often. It took me a while to warm to it but when you explore the north of Spain it's wonderful. Unspoilt, quiet, green rolling landscapes.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Mar. 11 2011 19:06:57

El Kiko

Posts: 2697
Joined: Jun. 7 2010
From: The South Ireland

RE: how i quit smoking (in reply to edguerin)

actually , yes it is nice there , I been only a few times and to Asturias, and therabouts, and of course Galicia , where my wifes family comes from ..
Anyway, ask your lovely lady if she knows this song ,,,,,

Cantabria querida,..te voy a cantar,...a canción que mi pecho.,...te va a dedicar......
aah no se mas que eso, pero bueno fue muchos años...

and then you can make a recording of her singing and put it here....

_____________________________

Don't trust Atoms.....they make up everything.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Mar. 11 2011 21:26:15

sean65

Posts: 414
Joined: Jan. 4 2010
From: London

RE: how i quit smoking (in reply to El Kiko)

quote:

Cantabria querida

I'd only just quoted the first two words and she launched into the song.

Should have had the video ready, Damm

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Mar. 12 2011 20:57:23

El Kiko

Posts: 2697
Joined: Jun. 7 2010
From: The South Ireland

RE: how i quit smoking (in reply to edguerin)

_____________________________

Don't trust Atoms.....they make up everything.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Mar. 13 2011 13:22:58

bluesbuster

Posts: 56
Joined: Mar. 9 2011
From: Los Angeles

RE: how i quit smoking (in reply to Florian)

quote:

i romanian we dont give up when it gets tough...we see everything through to the end

Right, especially when it comes to smoking, drinking, and other fine things in life. :)
I should know.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Mar. 16 2011 19:24:22

chester

Posts: 891
Joined: Oct. 29 2010

RE: how i quit smoking (in reply to xirdneH_imiJ)

Hey Jimi - You still not smoking?

I quit on Saturday - I'm about to have a little girl and decided it was time to grow up, so I got a job, grew a beard, and quit smoking.

Honestly it was pretty easy once I decided it's final (I did however smoke a ton of weed during the first day so I wouldn't feel the withdrawal so much). Sometimes I feel like a cigarette again but I know it won't really make a difference so I keep going and the craving goes away.

I'm not sure if it's all in my head but I swear that everything suddenly smells a lot stronger and I feel better about myself - as in - I'm not doing anything bad to myself anymore (except a little dessert here and there).

Anyway I hope you're still not smoking, it's the right choice - why breathe in poison gas if you're not behind a bus?

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 5 2011 4:27:22

xirdneH_imiJ

Posts: 1890
Joined: Dec. 2 2006
From: Budapest, now in Southampton

RE: how i quit smoking (in reply to chester)

i still do unfortunately, but i've settled for a much smaller dosage than before...i know this is still not ideal, but i'm happy with it...i hope i succeed in quitting some day...

congrats on the baby!!!

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 5 2011 8:25:53

chrisva

Posts: 74
Joined: Mar. 9 2008
From: Ottawa, ON

RE: how i quit smoking (in reply to edguerin)

As Stu mentioned in his post, Allan Car's book is supposed to be great.

http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/Allen-Carrs-Easy-Way-Stop-Allen-Carr/9780973468403-item.html?ikwid=allen+carr&ikwsec=Home

I don't smoke myself, so I can't speak for it, but several colleagues who were die-hard smokers used it and quit. These guys had tried everything for years and no luck.

One of the guys who could never quit tried it to essentially show the first guy that this book is BS and won't work, however, he's quit using it and has been off cigarettes for about 5 months now (which for him is amazing, since in the past he could only stop for about 1 week). He still has a poker night every Thursday where all his buddies light up, and it doesn't bother him. He says in the book it explains that most of it is mental.

Again, not first-hand experience, but in case someone may find use in this.

Chris

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 5 2011 11:29:56

El Kiko

Posts: 2697
Joined: Jun. 7 2010
From: The South Ireland

RE: how i quit smoking (in reply to xirdneH_imiJ)

quote:

..i hope i succeed in quitting some day...

Pity, you have to find what works for you .. I went and had a chat to my Doctor and this tablet stuff called champix seemed the best for me , I knew other things would fail almost straight away, Since the middle of Feb I have been off them , most of the time I do not think of them now, although from time to time I still get a twinge , but then what do you expect I knew I would have problems I just have to deal with it..
Go and see someone to get some advice , it may help to not be alone.......
Good luck.

_____________________________

Don't trust Atoms.....they make up everything.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 5 2011 18:26:12