Best ways of quitting smoking?
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How to Avoid Weight Gain While Quitting
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The How to Quit Smoking and Not Gain Weight Cookbook
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What Worked For Me
I was a heavy smoker for 30 years. I tried and failed to quit close to a dozen times. Most of my attempts were cold turkey, but I also tried hypnosis, accupucture, nicotine gum, cutting back gradually, smoking cigars instead of cigarettes etc and various behavioral programs and therapies. .In the end it was Smokenders along with the nicotine patch that did it for me. I haven't had a cigarette since the year 2000. I have no cravings and no desire to smoke. I don't miss it and wouldn't go back to it for anything. Believe me, if I can do it anybody can.
Different things work for different people and some people have a harder time quitting than others. Here are my tips for success:
Don't Give up Giving Up --Each time you manage to quit, even for a few days or weeks, you learn something and you get stronger.
Pick a Quit Date and Do It. Smoke that last cigarette and then get all the cigarettes and smoking paraphanalia out of the house. Don't let friends and family members smoke around you. Surround yourself with people who either don't smoke or have already quit. Stay away from smokers--just for a little while. Whether they know it or not they have a vested interest in keeping you hooked.
Use Every Bit of Help You Can Get Get a support group. There are lots of them online. In the real world both the American Lung Association and Smokenders run wonderful seminars that are really helpful in defusing behavioral triggers like smoking arfter meals, with alcohol and coffee etc. Talk to your physician. Wellbutrin helps some people and there are new drugs out all the time. Chantix is the latest and works well for many people. Use nicotine lozanges, gum or patches if you want to ease withdrawal. Read books. Exercise. Eat( yes you will gain weight--don't worry about it. It will come off later) Ride through cravings. You will have them and they can be intense but they rarely last more than 15 minutes. I used to set a timer. If you can get through three weeks without even one cigarette it should get a lot easier.
Start Walking Even before your quit date, try to walk at least half an hour a day. Getting regular exercise will help you through those early days and will always help lessen cravings, but there is another benefit as well. Smoking raises your metabolism. Even if you don't eat one bite more after you quit, you will probably gain some weight as your body will require a couple of hundred calories less per day to function. 30 minutes of walking every day will go a long way towards minimizing this inevitable lowering of your metabolism, plus it's fun.
Think of the Money You'll Save I got a big jar and every day I put the amount of money I usually spent on cigarettes in it. After six weeks I had quite a bit of cash and as I remember I used it to buy some very expensive designer boots. Whatever you save--spend it on yourself. You deserve it.
Guess that about wraps it up. I wish I could tell you it's easy to give up cigarettes. It isn't. But now that I can run up and down stairs without getting winded, now that I don't get bronchitis every winter, now that my skin and gums are healthy and my house and hair don't reek of stale smoke I can say that it was well worth the effort..Just think--I never have to go rooting through an ashtray late at night, looking for a long enough butt to smoke. I'm free. Isn't that fabulous?
Good Online Info for Quitters
- Welcome to SmokEnders
the grand-daddy of smoking cessation programs - Stop smoking start living - Home
Resources and Support for smokers in the UK - Quit Smoking All Together with QuitNet.com - Stop Smoking Help and ...
excellent web-based support group. Lots of resources. - Quit Smoking - American Lung Association site
lots of good info and tips - AStop Smoking Diary
Ongoing personal journey of one quitter. Good read with interesting info on quitting tools that worked for him.
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Comments
congrats on quitting. :) I won't go into the political aspects of taxing one vice to death over another or even the politics of vice taxes period, but instead be glad for you that you were able to quit and admire your useful advice and hub.
Great hub! Congrats on being able to quit. Keep these hubs coming--you are a great writer.
good morning jg,pg and Iðunn and thanks for the comments. Iðunn--I think the way smokers are treated sucks. In my view smoking is a serious addiction and people buy cigs because the have to not because they want to--it's not a choice once you are hooked. Thus the gov. should take cigs off the market if they are so bad for you and not penalize addicted smokers with a sin tax that benefits only the gov. and shareholders in big tobacco. It isn'tfair. Smoking is not a moral issue g-r-r-r-r-r-r.
ah, I should have known once again you would have the common sense. I just like you more and more. :)
Awwww shucks:-) < see me looking down at my feet in embarrassment> I just spent too many years being humiliated by people who didn't understand why I would stand out in the cold and rain just to suck on a "cowboy killer"(Marlboro was my brand). I didn'twant to-- I had to. I needed my nicotine fix. If the government is going to collect all that tax money, the least they could do is use it for nicotine rehabs. Sometimes I think heroin addicts get treated better because everybody udnerstands that heroin is an addiction, not a moral weakness. How sanctimonious to tell people they should quit and not help them do it.
agree. I think what's pretty appalling is they are trying to legislate to increase yet again and use the tax money from cigarettes to fund middle class health costs, when most smokers tend to be working class. talk about stealing from the poor to give to the rich.
it's not smoker's fault that middle class people live out of their means and borrow against their homes and run up 40k average in credit card debt and then can't afford to pay health insurance and it's not the poor's duty to cover that difference for them while they eat their ramen noodles every night to have utilities covered.
our stupid dems are behind that one, by the way. bush vetoed it.
Well, without getting into class warfare<see me munching my ramen noodles:-)> I would say it makes no sense to use taxes on something that causes health problems to fund health care for anyone. Would make more sense to fund quitting programs so people wouldn't need the healthcare in the first place. But your point about smokers tending to be working class iswell taken as the tax on cigarettes comes down harder working class smokers than than on those further ujp the food chain-- as always--follow the money:-)
you are so adorable. follow the money, indeed. you sound just like me and I rather like myself - how could I not love to read you. :) I'm so glad you found Hubs.
Shucks again--me too- I'm glad I found Hubs too. I'm becoming a regular hubaholic. Do you think there is a rehab for hubaholics? rotfl---hey--the socks are back. Hello, socks:-)
no rehab allowed :( yeah, toldja they would make a return.
I got my concert shirt pic, anecdotes and vids up for the flogging concert if you want to check out reverend peyton's band vid, in that flogging thread. not sure if you'd seen since I updated. would love your opinion on that band. to me, I fell in total love. I bought their CD too at the concert and I think I'm going to Hub them their own page.
we are catching this one from the bottom up, by the way. they only started touring a year ago or less and this is their first album. :D I love catching the new talent before others. ego <---- *blush*
I'm on my way-- off to check out the Rev.:-)
I think you have to feel the power inside to quit...
I quited twice..then my realization was I don't want to quit..too bad, I know.
hehe, rabi. me too. :p I just can't find it in me to want to enough yet, maybe 50-50. still I'm glad robie could. yay her~
congrats to robie!!!
Naaah--I was over 50, wheezing and coughing, smoking 2 packs a day and watching my father-in-law slowly die from emphasema--my back was against the wall or I wouldn't have stopped. No strength of character her, believe me.
I'm still giving you points for achievement for whatever reasons. I haven't hit that point yet, maybe I can quit then, too.
The money I spent for my cigarettes shook me up. The amount was equivalent to my electricity and water bills! From then on, I refused to be a slave to those white slim sticks! Thanks for sharing.
Good for you that you quit, cleopatra. It is soooooo hard. But soooooo worth it:-) I shever to think what cigarettes cost these days. Thanks for taking the time to read and comment.
Great hub, it is hard - but it can be done. I quit about 30 times before I quit for good LOL. Thanks.
Always great to meet another ex--thanks for the comment, Ponderize.....yup hard hard hard--but definitely possible:-)
Thanks robie2! Great hub. I plan to refer back to it OFTEN!
Congratulations on quitting! It took me forever to kick the habit as well, good job.
And congrats to you too-- isn't it great to be free, free, free? Thanks for reading and commenting.
Oh Robie, you are my new idol! I have tried all the same methods you did, and Welbutrin besides. Still have my books and tapes of the method that cost me a hundred bucks and was guaranteed to work. I've been considering the new pill that's come out recently. I would love not to smell like smoke, and not to smoke away my money.
Thanks for this!
Hi Shirley- Every time you put some time between you and the cigs, you are a success. It took me years and many tries to finally kick the habit.I had an ex smoker who was also an ex concaine addict tell me that giving up smoking was harder--how about that! It's great yoo've already tried to quit a couple of times.... every attempt to quit is a little success ooops I sound like a cheerleader or something LOL anyway, I hope you will try again when you are ready--it really is wonderful to be free of it.
robie, I would love to see the day a very good friend of mine stops smoking. I am going to forward this hub to her. Thanks for the tips. :) And its wonderful to know you are free. Let's continue to celebrate life...smoke free hehehe
Thanks for your comment, Ripplemaker, I hope your friend can quit. Of course first she has to want to:-) It is soooooo hard. People don't realize what a powerful and addictive drug nicotine is. I think that is because it is legal LOL But honestly, it is very very hard to kick once you are hooked. My observation is that most people whio are still smoking in spite of the social pressure not to, are doing it because they have to not because they want to--no matter what they say. Don't mean to sound like the Carrie Nation of nicotine--but life is so much better without it and yes let's celebrate being alive every day:-)
Good luck to your friend and bless you for caring.
Great post, the info is nice to have from another source.
working
JerseyGirl says:
6 months ago
Wow, great Hub. Thank you. Here, in New Jersey, ciggs are $6.57 PER pack. So, you smoke one pack a day, its just about $50. bucks a week. Multiply that by two smokers in the house (husband and wife), and its a car payment.
It's sad to see that the price of ciggs have gone up; although, its also sad to see that the number of cig related deaths have gone up also.
We all complain about the tax on ciggs.... and maybe; just maybe; the tax is for a reason.
Let's band together.... admit that cig smoking is NOT good for your health and your family's health, and lets do something about it.
What we win? Well, healthy children, healty pets, homes that dont smell like smoke, less interior painting (yes, if you smoke, look at your walls!), lower health insurance and life insurance rates, maybe just feeling better all together.
Thanks for publishing such a great hub, which I know will attract many visitors. Best of luck to you.