[am1m]

Originally Posted by 100Kmphormore

As someone who hasnt touched/tried a cigarette or alcohol

Then perhaps you don't know how tough it can be to quit?

You never smoked, great, good for you.

But consider that what might help on this thread is tips and advice instead of a general put down of people who smoke but might be trying to quit.

(I smoked for over a decade, up to 2 packs a day, but haven't for over 13 years now.)

Originally Posted by 100Kmphormore

Outside, if you dont smoke/drink/gamble, you arent considered cool these days.

On the contrary, I've seen smoking become less acceptable over the years. Not sure what the scene is in colleges, but in my workplaces over the past 20+ years, I've seen the percentage of smokers (and places where you can smoke) reduce over the years. Also see restaurants become less welcoming of smokers.

[100Kmphormore]

Originally Posted by am1m

Then perhaps you don't know how tough it can be to quit?

You never smoked, great, good for you.

But consider that what might help on this thread is tips and advice instead of a general put down of people who smoke but might be trying to quit.

Sorry if it looked like that! Words do not know the true emotions/intent behind it. My intentions were certainly not to put down anyone. I know that tough feeling well buddy, it’s the same when it comes to dieting for me. If you had asked me to diet/control my food intake and keep my weight in check a couple of years ago, when I was at a 110 kg lifestyle for 10 years, I would have preferred enjoying my double large pizzas, cheeseburgers and going to meet my maker sooner. Now after 17 kg of losing weight, the urge to loose weight further ( I still have 18 more to lose) is still on. Feel much better to ride longer distances and to off-road and exercise. I couldn’t trek much, brisk walking felt like choking earlier, knees gave up.

As for how you can quit smoking, quit cold turkey and do not join your colleagues/friends for cigarette breaks initially. We never picked the habit because we never tried/or have been occasional smokers. The cons of the habit were too much to even try. At 110 kg, a stairway felt like a mountain. Join us non smokers for tea breaks and since you’re a bhpian, our tea breaks are more of car/motorcycle talk and will certainly distract you. Choose an activity you like for every cigarette urge. My brisk walks for an hour are what I look to the most now, if I feel like having a pizza, or at the most I have a bhelpuri. We can show you our lifestyle

[vedirah]

I was a chain smoker for over three years. Tried to quit multiple times with zero success. But now I've quit for good. The reason was not a concern for my health, it was just a concern for my pocket!

What worked for me? Bupropion 150. It's a miracle drug to aid in smoking cessation. It takes a whole of one week to quit for good. Be wary of the side effects though, and consult your doctor. Don't self medicate.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by 100Kmphormore

As for how you can quit smoking, quit cold turkey ...

I acknowledge your good intentions and encouraging words, but, at the same time, I don't think you understand physical addiction. But then, if your weight problem was bad enough to be a psychological eating disorder, maybe you do. But there are many ways to give up real addictions, and "cold turkey" is not necessarily the best or the most appropriate for all. Can you imagine how useless it is telling a smoker to "just stop?" Let me, remembering my smoking days, assure you that it is. It is also useless to tell them about the state of their lungs, heart, smell, etc etc. Unless you are a doctor telling them about a health condition that is severe enough to actually frighten them.

Originally Posted by vedirah

I was a chain smoker for over three years. Tried to quit multiple times with zero success.

That, as you might have heard me say many times on this thread, is because you tried to give up, rather than actually giving up. Been there and done that. The only time we really give up smoking is the last time. And even then we must take care it doesn't get to us ever again.

So, is actually give up" different to "just give up," as in my reaction to the previous quote.

Yes. I never tell anyone to just/actually/whatever give up. They/we must want to, and make an absolute decision to do so, not to try, but to do it. And that is the difficult part.

What worked for me? Bupropion 150. It's a miracle drug to aid in smoking cessation. It takes a whole of one week to quit for good.

Yep, whatever helps, do it. It's becoming a non-smoker that counts, not how we get there. This medicine worked for you, patches worked for me, gum worked for a friend of mine, cold turkey does work for some.

Whatever works; whatever makes it less painful, if that's needed; do that thing. But without the absolute decision, probably nothing will work, at least not in the long term.

[bblost]

I quit smoking cold turkey in 2008.

I struggle till today to not have a cigarette. There is no way a non-smoker can understand the intense day to day struggle it takes.

Some days are easier than others. But its like that girl who smiled at you back in school and you never saw again but still sometimes remember because of how it felt.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by bblost

I quit smoking cold turkey in 2008. ... I struggle till today to not have a cigarette.

After 14 years I think it is exceptional to still be struggling day to day. Hats off to you for living with this and not giving in.

I hope you too will reach a point where cigarettes mean nothing to you and smoking is not even a vague temptation. It's been 30 years for me and I have been there for some time, but as I have said before, even now I would not risk any nicotine product.

[deepak_misra]

I have not read through all the messages in this thread but can just give my own example and there might be some repetition. I smoked 20 cigarettes a day for close to 20 years and stopped about 25 years back after intermittent failures.
I don’t believe in substitutes such as masala, mint etc. What happens that if you fall of the bandwagon you have 2 addictions instead of one. The only way that works (in my opinion) is cold turkey. Just stop. There is some preparation required before you stop.

1) Note that logic will not work in most cases. So it is not helpful in thinking how much money you are going to save, how healthy you are going to be etc. You should have a burning determination to stop because you know it is bad for you.

2) There is one important trigger to internalize. That is when is the urge to smoke the highest? That will mostly be the point of failure. For me, it was office. So I stopped smoking on a Friday after office when I could easier resist the smoking urge. I threw away my last cigarette before leaving office on Friday. The critical point was Monday morning when I left home for office. It required a lot of effort and affirmation at that point. But if you survive the day your chances of winning are very high.
You really need to understand which is your highest trigger point. Office, home, drinks, friends, eating out, vacation.
You need to define distractions for such points and be very aware of the risk.

In my opinion, reading books on habits, stopping smoking etc. are a waste of time. You can get the wisdom from a summary of the book.
One motivating factor could be to keep a money box and put the amount saved into the box at the end of the day. This may work once you see the accumulation

3) The hardest time in my experience was when you throw away the last one, about an hour after the last smoke and the next day. If you can survive 24 hours, then I think half the battle is won. The next struggle is between 3-7 days after stopping. If you have survived 7 days I would think most of the battle is won. Just in case you do succumb and have a smoke, dont give up. Just forgive yourself and tell yourself that you are not going to give up. I have seen with smokers who have stopped: If they succumb they return with a vengeance and revenge smoke to make up for lost time

4) Avoid all smokers like poison for a few days. After some time your sense of smell will get better and the smell of smoke will gradually get repulsive.

5) Be very conscious of environment changes like return from vacation, long drive, meeting smoker friends. Be extra careful during this time

6) If you are smoking less than 4 cigs a day you have no business to be smoking and don’t need to read this. Just stop that’s it.

7) There is a good chance of putting on weight rapidly once you stop. Your metabolism slows down and your appetite increases on stopping. So be aware of this. Doing exercise is a good idea to control this and also as a distraction

If you do succeed in stopping and I hope you do, you will most likely find stale smoke smell and the smell emanating from smokers just too repulsive.

[shankar.balan]

Mark Twain I believe said, giving up smoking is the easiest thing, I’ve done it so many times…

In this lies the rub. It’s an insidious addiction and most smokers will not admit that it is an addiction.

I am no preacher but having quit smoking 3 years and more ago, for the final time, I can tell you why at-least.

I started quite young. In College it became full time. And in the first 2 years of work as well. I had quit for 2 years in the 1990’s and resumed. Then having discovered Blood pressure in the early 2000’s I quit again for another 2 years and then resumed. And it went on for another 15 years.

Until, the serious smoking related heart issue that popped up in 2019 and from which I was saved by my Apple Watch’s warning signs.

From that very moment, it has been bye bye. And this time, very clearly it is a forever kind of bye bye.

It would just be plain stupidity on my part to resume. So I won’t.

But then, it doesn’t need a life threatening situation to make one take that call. It just needs one to be cognisant of things and to look and learn from others mistakes.

And it is not difficult. You would be honestly surprised how strong one’s mind is, once one has made up one’s mind.

There is no such thing as tapering it off. There is only one way. The cold turkey way. And unyielding, uncompromising, iron discipline after that.

Have faith. Have strength. It IS possible to quit and not crave it ever again.

I’ve managed it. YOU TOO CAN!

[Ketan]

Originally Posted by deepak_misra

If you do succeed in stopping and I hope you do, you will most likely find stale smoke smell and the smell emanating from smokers just too repulsive.

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

I’ve managed it. YOU TOO CAN!

I'm returning to this thread after many years again. That means I tried quitting earlier, succeeded for a while, failed, never tried for many years and again want to try, this time with more determination.
This is worst addiction that I'm stuck with for many years now. I have made some progress in the past few years but haven't been able to come out completely. I smoked 5 or less a day since 2014 (was a non-smoker between 2012-2014 and was smoking 10+ a day prior to that). For past year, I'm even down to those slim ones, thinking its less tar/nicotine, damages etc. etc. but I really want to stop completely. Initially I thought it was easy and I could stop for more than a month or two, just to get started again on some or other occasion, proving it was not enough. My long rides, motorcycle trips, outstation trips with friends are the occasions where I happen to 20 or more a day.
Good to read these suggestions, I'm going to work on the plan, last time I had success for 2 years was with cold turkey, this time I'm questioning my ability to go cold turkey tells me that my addiction is beating me even more.
I'm sure it has made a lot of damages till now, I wish I can quit before the Dr. has to tell me that.

I have some good eating and exercising habits to balance. My resting heart rates are always below 55bpm and some weeks it goes even under 50-48bpms. My regular running could be the reason, I stopped for one month recently and could see the RHR going up. I see my RHR shooting on weekends as well, my HRV status also gets into unbalanced mode if I have had a longer party; just a few minutes breathing/meditation session before bed have always made positive impact to sleep/HRV. All of these are telling me what/how one should be breathing.

I feel smoking may have caused vasoconstriction big time, during my high intensity runs, I reach max of 190+bpm, although I have reduced the intensity a bit in recent months, looking at athletes dropping dead everywhere was scary (although I believe it to be a diff. reason but don't want to discuss here). Even though, I regularly see 186+bpm on my interval/fartlek runs, I still have lungs to go harder and not out of breath or hitting the capacity still but I feel overall that HR number is higher for age 47. This is not a recent observation, I started running around 2016 and I guess its same since. Enough of chest thumping. I strongly believe that this would improve when I completely quit. I hope the higher HR no is not something I should be scared of and continue with my workout just fine.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by Ketan

I'm returning to this thread after many years again. That means I tried quitting earlier, succeeded for a while, failed, never tried for many years and again want to try, this time with more determination.

Don't try to give up smoking: give up smoking.

Let me repeat my key. Make an absolute, irrevocable decision, that you totally commit to, to become a non-smoker. Decide that, what ever happens, however bad, however tragic, however unpleasant or stressful, you will not smoke. Ever.

It's wordy: you could find some simpler way of putting perhaps, like a vow.

It just has to be something that does not allow you to change your mind.

When you have done that you have done the most difficult bit. Then plan the practical side. Give yourself a date by which you will be free of smoking or consuming nicotine in any other way. Be reasonable. I gave myself three months. It was early April, my birthday is in early July, and I said I will be a non smoker by that birthday. Handy if there is such a date, anniversary, or even festival or religious occasion with which to make that date stand out. But no, you can't make it a year or five .

Pick whatever makes it easy for you. You do not have to do this cold-turkey thing unless you want to. It does not have to hurt (much*). There is no extra credit in choosing a painful way to give up. It only matters that you give up. And do not think that a cigarette in the early days of giving up is the end of the story: it is just a lost battle, not a lost war. Because your decision and chosen date are irrevocable, right? Smoke until the day before if you want (though that might simply make it harder) but there must be no flexibility with that date, on which you don't smoke for ever after.

I chose patches. A course was 12 weeks, and that suited my deadline. Of course, my last cigarette was much before that. And I even forgot the patches in the last couple of weeks.

You can do it. But only by deciding that you will do it.

Hope this helps. Most of my attempts were not even serious enough to last 24 hours, and this is how, in the end, I beat that.


*patches, for me, dealt with the craving. That just left me to deal with the habit and the mental stuff. Now there is this medicine that another member posted about very recently. It really doesn't have to hurt.

[Akash86M]

I'm a marine officer and when on ship I smoke a pkt a day but the day I leave ship I just quit. I leave my ciggs and lighters in my room on ship and step off the gangways making a vow, won't smoke from now on. At home I smoke maybe once or twice a month and I just hate the taste I get in my mouth. When back on ship, i start smoking by 2nd or 3rd month and the whole cycle starts again.

[am1m]

Had an old friend come stay with us for a few days. We used to smoke together more than a decade ago. He still smokes, and while he was very considerate about our wishes and used to step out on to the balcony every time he needed to light up, must say it was getting hard to handle the smoke and the smell. He's a very close friend, but I must say because of the smoking, I was relieved when he left. And dear god, I must have smelled like that all the time too back then! God bless my non-smoking friends and family members for tolerating me those years I used to smoke!

I can now totally understand why my wife (who also knew me back in my smoking days) totally matter-of-factually says she'll leave me if I ever start again! I wouldn't blame her.

[vinit.merchant]

Completed 5 years + couple weeks of quitting the cancer stick.

Remember it was some public holiday in mid March of 2018 when I puffed my last and entered my hospital room for a 3 night/4 day stay :-) (before you start assuming, it was just for removing a plate and few screws from my ankle !)

Had decided I will quit for good this time, and the reasons I had were below. Hopefully same reasons might encourage someone else out there to quit

1. Started smoking at the age of approximately 14, I was 38 now and a chain smoker at that. After smoking for 24-25 years, I genuinely believed I had probably smoked a lifetime worth of sticks and Life cannot keep going with that pace.
Also I was nearing that median age and wanted myself rid of this habit that had me enslaved for so long.
2. My son was already 6 years of age and looked up to me a lot. Although I never smoked in front of my kids, there is no way they will not realize it as they keep growing older. And I wouldn't want my kids to pick this habit because of me

Since I was determined to quit, once I was back to office after the operation, I would purposely go out with friends who smoked. This was to challenge myself to kick out the desire to pick the stick again. I visited all scenarios that tempted me to pick it in the next 3 months, sending a clear message to the mind that I am not picking it up, no matter what you say !!

It is still a struggle till today, but it is much easier to ignore/kick out the temptation now than it was in the initial days. Everyone trying to quit, please note that it only gets easier with time.

Have indulged myself half a dozen times with Hukkah when visiting restaurants without kids, but never the stick again.

In the end, once you quit for a week or so, you know the efforts it needs to quit. Please remember that, which itself should act as a deterrent to pick it up again.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Well Done!

I don't know what stuff is burning in the hookah, but, if there is any tobacco there, you are taking a big risk. It's important that we stay away from any form of nicotine.

I'd also suggest that it is better, especially having given up cigarettes, to avoid taking smoke into your lungs. I heard that it takes twenty years for the body to rid itself of the effects of smoking: it, especially your lungs, needs every help it can get.

sending a clear message to the mind that I am not picking it up, no matter what you say!!

That's the way to do it. The important thing is total commitment.

[HTC]

Originally Posted by vinit.merchant

Completed 5 years + couple weeks of quitting the cancer stick.

In the end, once you quit for a week or so, you know the efforts it needs to quit. Please remember that, which itself should act as a deterrent to pick it up again.

Kudos for quitting. I would suggest not to keep count of how many days or years. Just forget tracking. Easier said than done I suppose.

Only deterrent which made not even take a puff of smoke in my life time is a picture of lungs dissection of a person who had died of lung cancer from smoking. Well, I still remember that picture so well on a gloss sheet paper in my brother's mbbs fat book.

It was literally filled with pitch black tar. The kind of asphalt tar they heat and spray on road during asphalting. Then and there I decided that smoking in not for me. But cant help passive smoking as few of my close friends do smoke.

Recently I had been to a resturant (SOB, RR nagar). They have open space seating. There were couple of families sitting next to our table with kids(3-4 years old). They were happily smoking in front of kids making them passive smokers. Felt bad for the kids. Now I repent not telling them to stop smoking in kids presence.

At the end of the day, one needs to keep in mind that "it's never too late to quit". Let me add similar lung pictures for reference,