did you feel lovely and smug as you said it

Well done Wendy

14 days for me tomorrow !!!!! Im doing ok, and so is hubby.

Amanda

Well done Amanda and Wendy!

2 weeks Amanda - you're not addicted anymore!

Fingers crossed for the job interview Wendy.

Just wanted to wish all the stop smoking folks well wishes and to say how proud you must feel to be achieving it. Well done to all!

Yey Amanda thats great!

Mr and Mrs PHH stopped last year with the help from Allen Carr - we've got through drinking occassions, christmas/new year, birthdays, parties etc - we still let smokers smoke in our house if we have a party, sometimes stand on the pavement with smokers outside restaurants - but uncannily have no desire to smoke ourselves - even if we do think we might be missing out on something, that is in the conversations that the smokers sometimes have in their outside huddles!! Good luck to all who are stopping with the deadly weed.

Oh yes

Excellent It's a great feeling isn't it!


Thanks you two

My OH lit one up yesterday in the house and it stunk I didn't make him go outside though

I KNEW there'd be one.

I am off the booze for March anyway so I'm (temporarily) cured.

So, here's the thing ...

In the interests of thorough research I actually read The Wonder Book from cover to cover today in full cynic mode (I have no other) ... no, didn't buy it and didn't have it given to me ... don't ask ...

(Yup, LisaD_uk, you actually prompted me to read something I didn't want to read, ironic huh?!).

And ... Goddammit if it doesn't make a lot of sense.

Nothing I didn't know already but presented in a way that makes smoking just seem ... well ... stupid and of no value WHATsoever (including psychologically).

Yeh I knew that really but ... anyway, it's very well thought out and covers most (all?) of questions yer average smoker has contemplated at one time or another.

Have I had a blazing flash of light complete with celestial serenade? No.

Am I stopping from this moment forth? No, because a little bit of me has not fully committed to the idea.

Will I buy another pack after the end of this one?

Maybe not.

Sincerely,
Surprised Of Brisbane.

Everytime you light a cig do you think 'WTF am I doing that for?' (I did )

This may sound really silly but when i stopped smoking i developed really bad acne that i spent a year trying to get rid of. i tried everything in my diet to no avail and eventually, after a year of being off the cigarettes, i started again and the acne disappeared in about 2 weeks. my mum suffers from peradontis ( a gum disease that i can't spell) and that flares up when she stops smoking, so i'm quite sceptical as to the health implications when you stop. Probably something to do with the fact that the blood actually circulates as it should when you stop. but still keep trying to get her stop i'd say. you're a good friend.

I actually read it in one sitting without smoking ...I have had one since (my usual one last thing at night) ... and yeh, it did feel like a pretty freaking stupid thing to do given the facts (that I knew anyway, duh!).

The thing that got me was the 'occasional smokers should be pitied most' angle ... I can see now that the '5 a day man' (me, more or less) is actually going through more mental trauma than a heavier smoker.

But I'm not sure if I've fully committed to not ever having one again, I think it needs some kind of symbolic gesture given the years I have been doing it but I don't plan on buying another packet.

Is this just procrastination? Maybe. I just think that unless I stub that last one out and make a firm declaration then I just won't be committed.

So, for this result alone I'd like to apologise to anyone I have dissed and peeved off on this thread ... the means do justify the end ... just give them the book.

Good luck to Wendy and all the others "doing it tough" (I sound like KRudd!)

just in case you are tempted to go back to the dark side...

Yeah, I can relate to all that.

I must admit to missing my morning ciggie - the rest I can live without. But I do know if I had that morning one then I would carry on for the rest of the day so I haven't given it to the temptation


Yet!

Well, weak-willed just-an-excuse-for-another symbolic gestures be damned, I haven't had one ... the sooner this thing starts the better, ain't no backward steps, etc, etc ...

I have a pack in my bag with 6 just waiting to be smoked and I have absolutely no intention of sparking one up.

I might wait until I see a smoker that I don't like the look of and give them away

I read the Allen Carr book a while back and had a few goes at quitting before succeeding about 5 years ago, which was probably about 2 years after reading his book.

I think the book's success comes from spelling out just what a con smoking is and how smokers are being manipulated by the drug pushers (tobacco companies).

I'm Scottish you see so hate being conned...