Hi folks

Feel like I'm going to climb the walls tonight

I'm just about to complete day 2 of stopping smoking. I'm trying to do it cold turkey. So instead of the ciggies, I'm replacing them with grapes, bananas, chocolate biscuits and chewing gum. NO!!! Not all at the same time, that would be too gross

Have any of you managed to stop successfully? When will the ahhhhh my tummys in a knot craving go away?:curse:

Please tell me it DOES get better soon!!

Cheers

Catkin

I think the first two days are the worst. I went cold turkey too after reading the Alan Carr book. He says that when you get the urge for a ciggie, don't think of it in a negative way but feel pleased as it's a sign that the nicotine is leaving your body.

Good luck with it - it's definitely worth it. Sending you some stop smoking karma ~~~

I tried to go cold turkey several times but couldn't so i ended up seeing a hypnotist and haven't smoked since... coming to the end of my 2nd yr now!

Well done you!
I stopped the same way as you - by going cold turkey - that was 6 years ago!
It's not easy, but just take it 1 day at a time. Try & find something to do with your hands ie. knitting, drawing, computer games etc instead of eating. I stopped smoking & started eating & put loads of weight on!
I found it was more trying to shake the habit itself rather than the addiction! Sometimes, even now I think to myself ' I'l just have a fag then I'l start the housework' before I remember I don't smoke any more!! What a plank!! lol
good luck x

I smoked for 14 years and when I met my husband, he hated smoking, but never gave me a lecture about it, so I promised him the day we get Married is the day i will stop, well we got married in Jamacia and I stopped that very day and now 10 years later I still haven't had one - now that doesn't mean I sometime don't fancy a puff after a few too many wet ones, but as soon as i get close to a ciggie it turns my stomach.

I found (at the time) whilst drinking I always wanted one, but now that all pubs are smoke free, i should imagine it would be a little easier.

Or on the other hand, my work oppo is a smoker and nips out for a quick one and when she comes back in she drowns herself in cheap purfume to hide the smell of smoke - both smells are very bad in dead!

Good luck with quitting

It does get better but can take about 3 weeks for the physical cravings to stop. Don't get confused between hunger and a need for nicotine. They both feel very similar. Eat normally and at your usual time. The nicotine cravings will come and go and as the other poster has said - don't see them as a negative, think of them as a positive. Best of luck.

I stopped a number of years ago and found it very hard. I would admit to smoking 40 per day but it was probably more like 50. When I decided to stop the money I would have spent each day I put in a tin and after a few weeks I was able to go on a shopping spree. It was great, all that money that could have gone up in smoke.

I would recommend you read "The Easy Way to Stop Smoking" by Allen Carr. This method works as it changes the way you think about smoking. It is a revelation and I could become quite evangelical about it.
I stopped 12 years ago and don't miss it at all.

You got to be applauded for this,Catters.
I stopped last year,and didn't quite realise. Just never quite had enough money to justify not getting the kids an ice cream instead.
Does anyone remember the advert of the person,in the wheelchair,had a trachy (hole in the neck to breath through), because of mouth/throat cancer, with the eleccy voice? And at the end of the advert he was smoking through the hole? Then caption said he died like 3 months later (hit by a train!).
That always did it for me.
I do loads of exercise now that I never did,and can feel the benefit improving by the month.Less breathless,can actually last a whole 90 minutes now (footy,not wife!).
Stick with it,take each hour as it comes,if you have to,keep a pic of a ****ed up lung in your purse,and good luck to you.

Oh Catkin, well done and stick with it!

I used patches to give up and the day I finished the 3 months course coincided with boarding the plane to leave the UK for good! But within 2 months of being here and everyone we first met smoking I was soon back on them. Didn't help that Hubby's always smoked.

A couple of weeks ago I woke up after a somewhat over indulgent night and felt like I was facing death - I honestly thought my body, if it could scream, would be saying "Enough you evil bitch ..." So I just stopped, like you, cold turkey.

That was 2 and a half weeks ago, I've slipped up twice, the most recent being Monday night. But I can spot the pattern now, too much wine and back to back telephone calls = no will power to resist the lure of the fags!

So, good luck, sounds like you're doing well, the first 3 days are the worse! Nearly there!

Caroline

I can go months without having a cigarette, then if I am in the company of another smoker, I just cannot resist having one, then another, then another, and all my good work is undone. I think I will check out that Alan Carr book. I would love to be able to stop for ever. I have just smoked about 6 outside as my brother came round, and now I am feeling really bad about myself.

My husband smoked for around 20 years and never smoked another cigarette after being told by the Oncology Unit that he had a Stage III tumor in his throat.

I tell you, the addication is all in your head. He never had any cravings for a ciggy at all after hearing the news.

Congratulations and huge thoughts of support for those trying to quit. It doesn't matter how many times you quit, so long as you keep quitting

I stop every day,

then it's morning again!

Have you noticed that since the no smoking in pubs came in people always give up when it gets cold outside? Oh and pubs now smell of BO and fart.. but that might just be me!

Hi Folks

Thanks for all your support. It's been gratefully received

So, nearly at the end of day 3 and feeling quite good Have pigged out a bit today, grapes, banana, 2 small spinach/pumpkin/feta tartlets, 1 raspberry and white choc muffin, 1 savoury muffin, choc biscuits, roast chicken, boiled potatoes, peas and gravy

OK, OK I know that is a bit naughty, but I promise you I can do with putting a bit of weight on, been struggling to get over 8 stone for a while now. BUT.... I think I might just manage it if I carry on like this

Well done to all those who have managed to stop and good luck to those who hope to stop soon.

Once again, thanks guys

Catkin

Many congratulations Catkin, and keep it up!

In 1987 I smoked my first, and in 1996, just 2 months after I'd moved to the US, got through all the red tape, less than a year after I'd got married, and right after I'd started my new job.

I got myself psyched up for it, spent a few weeks getting my head used to not smoking. I kept reminding myself how much my clothes, breath and hair stank, how much money was literally going up in smoke. On the last monday in February 1996 we went out for a swift drink at our local bar. I had a new, full pack with me. I lit up the first one, half inhaled then breathed out straight away. Looked at the cig, stubbed it out, declared to hubby "I'm never going to smoke again" and left the full pack there.

Since we got here I've had about 7 or 8 crafty drags on other people's cigs. Bad of me, and I've vowed to not do that again...

Stick with the course, Catkin!!!

Next up are some videos to watch...





And here's the really famous one from thetruth.com