To g7 et al,
I’ve given it some thought and when I have smoked it has always been a result of an emotional state (ie, anxious, relaxed, stressed, happy, depressed, being around other smokers, whatever). I think the one over riding answer to the problem sounds to simple but it’s the only one that really works. you must WANT to give up! PERIOD! Pardon the pun, but no buts! All the support and substitutes in the world alone won’t do it. I’m not worried about the cancer thing, but emphasemia, poor circulation/fitness, – forget it. You just have to come to a point where you WANT to stop smoking. To assist I used pictures I placed next to my computer on the wall of a diseased lung vs healthy lung. I’ve got a picture of a healthy blood vessel and a cross section of a blocked blood vessel. I’ve got a picture of a lady in a wheel chair after her legs have been amputated, still smoking. Pictures of the skin and teeth of a non smoker vs a smoker. I know this may sound a little gruesome but everytime I see these pictures and if they stop me from smoking then I’ll keep using them. Also again find a behaviour that is incompatiable with smoking. For me it’s weights because you feel so good afterwards (and your body needs every bit of O2 it can get) that the smell of a cigarette becomes aversive. Try anything aerobic or anaerobic and you’ll be huffing and puffing from doing something good to your body, not destructive. The bottom line though that I want to stress is that at the end of the day you can utilise visual imagery, choose incongruent behavior, etc, but you must WANT to give up. Currently a naltraxone type drug (opiate blocker) is in the pipeline and I can just imagine how every large tobacco company has and is doing everything to delay or block this from hitting the pharmacy shelves.
Cheers,
Gatsby!I couldn’t agree more gatsby, ur only going to quit if you seriously want to..
More good reasons to quit
* Confidence. Quitting smoking is a challenge. Once you have quit, you will know you can succeed at a difficult job and take control of your life. Quitting helps you believe in yourself and take on other challenges.
* Fitness. Smoking makes it harder to exercise and reduces the benefits to your body.” Smokers have more coughs and colds than non-smokers and take longer to feel well again.’
* Money. In a way, giving up smoking is like getting a pay rise, as much as $2500* a year if you smoke 25 cigarettes a day.
* Your appearance. Skin starved of oxygen by smoking becomes dry and grey.”‘ Wrinkles around the eyes and mouth develop much earlier,”” and the tar stains your teeth and fingers.
* Fertility and childbirth. Men who smoke may suffer impotence due to damage to the blood vessels in the penis.” Sperm quality and density can also be affected by smoking. Smokers may produce less sperm and their sperm may have more abnormalities.’ Women who smoke take longer to conceive and are more likely to have a miscarriage.”‘
* Babies born to mothers who smoked in pregnancy are more likely to be premature, stillborn or die shortly after birth.”‘ A baby exposed to tobacco smoke has a higher risk of dying from cot death.”
* Children whose parents smoke are more likely to get pneumonia and bronchitis in their first year of life, to suffer from more frequent and more severe asthma attacks 2 1 and to become regular smokers themselvesCheers Matt
“If you do what you have always done, you will get what you have always had.”
“Isn’t it time for a change?”
I smoked for 26 years.One day I had a pain in my chest and went to the doctor.He sent me for an exercise test.To test the heart under stress.Man I was so stuffed after riding that bike that I knew I had to do something.When I went back to the quack he said I had high blood pressure and to cut back the smoking.To zero.I walked out of there and decided that if I dont do what the doc says then why bother going there in the first place.I set a day to quit and on the previous evening before retiring I through my smokes in the bin washed the ash trays.I went to bed with the thought that when I wake up I will be a non smoker.I also drink every day so I decided I wouldnt have a drink for the first few days.So when I woke up on that very important day I knew that the hour had come.I was ready.I decided that food would be a good substitute.As my wife doesnt let me eat a cooked breakfast that was the first thing I did.Gee it tasted good.Then I walked and walked and walked.When I got tired of walking I drove and drove and yep you got it,drove.Anything to keep myself busy.The first few days were the worse and after that I started to feel better.
It has now been 7.5 months and some days I still feel like a smoke but I just tell my mind to GET #%#%^# .
As for the drinking bit I only lasted one day.
Ha ha just as well I only drink home brew so it is nice and cheap.
Now I feel more relaxed for not smoking.I certainly have more money and I dont stink anymore.
Whenever I stand near a smoker I have to move away as they smell so much it is disgusting.
It certainly helps me stay away from the fags.
There is no way I would want to smell so disgusting ever again.
The biggest thing you realise though is that by giving up it doesnt actually hurt.Or kill you.
Russ.[biggrin]Russ,
well done mate! Matt you’re stats are quite correct. Also, for people who fear putting on weight then if you know what you’re eating, then you can eat away at your heart’s (sorry, another bad pun) content.
Cheers,
Gatsby!Originally posted by Gatsby:Russ,
well done mate! Matt you’re stats are quite correct. Also, for people who fear putting on weight then if you know what you’re eating, then you can eat away at your heart’s (sorry, another bad pun) content.
Cheers,
Gatsby!Gatsby,
For me time have come and date has set. Regarding weight gain, I would love to put on extra 7 kg if I could, it’s my dream to put on another 7kg. So I guess quitting smoking will help me.
Wish me luck mate.
Kind regards
Jet Dollars
[Retire Young, Retire Rich] [strum]Hi JetDollars,
pm me your personal goals, age, height, weight and over the next 7 days, keep a diary of EVERYTHING you eat and drink and if you like, I’ll pm back some advice if you wish.‘Comments made are of a general nature and should not be construed as advice to ANY particular individual’
Matt,
Your facts are spot on! Also don’t see it as I’m going to quit forever! Let hindsight pat you on the back in time as a reward. Do exactly what you’re doing mate. ‘I didn’t smoke today and leave it at that’. Tomorrow just start again. Otherwise you’ll only put up an insurmountable mountain of pressure on your shoulders. It’s like what Steve says about quitting work (smoking) and living on passive income (not smoking). You just creep up on it bit by bit. Just be in the moment and focus on the now and tomorrow will look after itself!
Cheers,
Gatsby!Keep at it guys.Once you do it you realise it wasnt all that hard after all.And dont forget to reward yourself for your effort.I still have a cooked breakfast from time to time but I now have porridge instead of bacon and eggs.Once you start getting the smell and taste features back in your life you know how good it feels.I went for a walk this morning and could smell oranges.It was really amazing.Get out there before six though.Then you dont have to smell the car fumes.
Russ.Try
silkquit.net
you can download a non smoking calc that tells you:
* how many ciggie not smoked
* how many days, min, sec since last smoke
* money saved by not buying smokes
* estimated life savedIt is worth down loading and does help with you motivation.
_se7en_, thanks for that but that wasn’t quite the website, for those interested, it is
just click on the link download silkquit, and install it, it is a really good program [thumbsup2]
Cheers Matt
“If you do what you have always done, you will get what you have always had.”
“Isn’t it time for a change?”
Thanks guys/gals…
Gatsby, I just PM you.
Only 23 minutes and 20 seconds to go to start quitting. I will have my last one at 11.59pm tonight.
Kind regards
Jet Dollars
[Retire Young, Retire Rich] [strum]Time has come. Quitting process has begin. Base on Silkquit I just saved $0.01 to this second. I will update my progress here.
Kind regards
Jet Dollars
[Retire Young, Retire Rich] [strum]Hey guys, thanks for all your stories and that it’s helping me a lot and obviously others too.
It’s been about 2 solid weeks on the patches and I can say that I’m pretty sure I’ve broken the habit. I have one here and there just to tide me over, but usually only because I’ve cracked the shits with something or someone.
Almost given up a couple of times, but it is getting easier. Once again thanks all, and Russ it’s great smelling and tasting things I haven’t done in years! Cheers guysG7
Smoking while on patches is very dangerous. It isn’t as hard as you think to OD on nicotine, be very careful.
3 weeks without smokes now, 2 weeks without patches. I found that I was so committed to being a non-smoker that I didn’t need patches. I was going to say “Good Luck” in your attempts to quit, but luck has nothing to do with it.
Hey Guys, One of the things I found to be helpful was to imagine some one telling you what you can and cant do day in and day out.Someone totally domineering.Well most of us would say no way.
No one is going to tell me how to live my life,when to eat ,what to eat etc etc etc.But that is exactly what nicotine is doing.
It has the power to dictate whatever it wants.
How do you stop this from happening.
The same way you would tell some one else if they were domineering your life.
You have to tell it(nicotine)to get %$#^%#$.
Remember YOU are in charge now.So whenever he raises his ugly head you just tell him where to go.
Thats it tell him to GET ^%$$$(*&.
Keep at it. You will get the hang of it.Russ.[biggrin]
So how about an update guys.Are you winning the battle? I hope so.You will feel so good for it.
Russ.[biggrin]No cigarette since May 31st
No nicotine patch since June 5thI am no longer addicted to nicotine. I no longer need cigarettes.
Baloo, I have found the body tricks you- in the very beginning you feel as if you don’t need nicotine, but suddenly, even about 6 months later you can still get a craving!
Just be aware of that…maybe haves some patches laying around in case…[cigar]
Celivia
Celivia, thanks for the concern, but seriously, I see that as a defeatisit attitude.
It’s scientifically proven that the physical cravings of Nicotine go away after about 3 weeks.
The only other craving you have after that is a mental one, not a physical one. It’s all mind over matter. I will not have a craving for nicotine in 6 months time, I can guarantee you that.
Hi Everyone, congrats to all of you doing so well off the smokes. I gave up about 9 years ago and know what it’s like but now never feel like having a smoke, don’t even think about it.
Just in case you are interested, I have listened to a tape of a guy called Don Wolfe and he is someone who works on psychology, NLP, that sort of thing. He says, two powerful forces in your brain are your imagination and your will. But your imagination is far more powerful than your will. It always wins.
However, when people try to give up smoking they try to use their willpower, and it doesn’t face a chance compared to the imagination, which is conjuring up images of having a smoke, the smell etc. So we go and have a ciggie. Same thing with dieting. We try to use our will but during the day our mind will produce images of all those foods which made us put on the weight in the first place (for me, sweets).
So he says we will without doubt have success in giving up smoking if we use our imagination AND our willpower. How? He says you have to fill your mind with visions of being a non-smoker and once you have imagined that, your mind will see you as a non-smoker and stop triggering visions of you being a smoker.
That is, stick a photo of yourself, sans ciggie, up at your desk, in your bathroom etc. so you see an image of yourself as a person who does not have cigarettes. You have to say out loud “I’m a non-smoker, I don’t smoke” etc and make a point of spending a few minutes every now and again running a movie reel in your head of you in lots of different situations where cigarettes play no part.
Also, you have to DO what a non-smoker does if that’s what you want to be ie act like one, not like a smoker temporarily on sabbatical. So don’t even speak about cigarettes, (non-smokers don’t) don’t look at them, take no interest in them.
Put this all together and when your mind thinks you are a non-smoker you will be. Easier than willpower.
He also applies this principle to breaking through psychological barriers to investing, finance, success etc.
Anyhoo, good luck, you’re not smokers any more.
Cheersskippygirl
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