The Giving Up Smoking Thread - Part 3

**Kat**_2

caffine is better than smoking for sure x

determined_new_ms

Tink_04 wrote: »

Hi i have recently stopped smoking for the 2nd time and am looking for some support - i had smoked since i was (15 now 26) and me and DH quit when we bought our house i stopped for 3 years but started again last year and smoked about 7-10 a day, for 6 months just listed myself as a social smoker who could stop etc as was only smoking on a night time or when we were out but it gradually became full time and ive been smoking again for 16 months!!! i decided to stop yesterday and TBH i wasnt that fussed and only had a few thoughts but nothing major really - Last time i stopped i used patches but didnt want them this time so going cold turkey - im trying to clear my debts and have a young daughter so my long term goals would be to clear my debts and be healthy for my little girl!

hermum wrote: »

Hi, I am planning to quit today when my baccy runs out. I've given up several times before usually for 3 months at a time & once for 9 months. This time I want it to be for good.
My main reason is the stench, I'm well aware that me & my house stink. Until last year I hadn't smoked indoors for 3 years but then for some reason I started to & now can't enforce that ban on myself again. Weak willed. So I'm now smoking far more than I was last year.
Secondly is financial my parents go on holiday a lot & bring me back baccy as gifts. I'm just about to finish the last packet & they aren't going away again for a couple of months. To buy it for that length of time will cost me approx £150, or over 1 1/2 weeks benefit.
I have seen the pretend ciggies at the local shop so if needed I will go buy one of them, I do wish though that you could buy different sizes as they look huge in comparison to a rolly.
Or patches if I want to go out on the street & start killing people.
I am going to go to the beginning of this years thread & read it to see how others have stopped.
Good luck all.
ETA am going to be a Flybaby to try & keep me busy & hopefully get the house in order at the same time

Hello Tink & hermum & welcome :hello: excellent news that you have both decided to give up smoking. I can honestly say its the best thing I have done for ages. It takes a bit of steely determination in the first days and weeks but I have found the last month & 1/2 it has been pretty easy. There are fleeting moments when I *think* I want a cig but definately no more cravings.

reasons for quiting are mostly always the same! Read through previous posts/threads (keeps you busy & determined in the early days!) and you will see all of our reasons. I did for health - both psychological & physical, & financial but now I realise there are so many more happy side effects - something Lucy mentioned the other day about not being so selfish/not wanting to spend time with family etc.

I have found this thread has been amazing in helping me stop & can only attribute my success (sorry that sounds pretty conceited but I am pretty smug about having stopped :dance:) as being down to the support on here. Anytime you need to vent, need some moral, want to kick nic's nasty craving butt then come on & someone will be around to help!

Good luck, you absolutely can do this this :dance: (BTW anyone seen Sue? Shall we forward the email to the newbs?)

**Kat** wrote: »

I have a confession. I fell off the wagon big style last night (had 5). I received a text from a friend which wasn't meant for me but for another friend. Basically, I already have a DS who is 3 next month and they don't have kids yet. DH and I are hoping that with a big push at paying off our debt, we can try for baby 2 next year. I had said that to the texty friend yesterday and the text I got which wasn't meant for me basically said for the friend who should have had the text to hurry up and get pregnant and that she would too so they are not on the same maternity leave as me but they are with each other.

As you can immagine I was really upset and had to have a face to face confrontation about it (and while we were at it we cleared the air of everything that was bothering us) but I turned to evil nic as I honestly didn't know how else to cope.

If anyone has any "tricks of the trade" so I don't fall off again, please let me know as I don't want things like that to become an excuse for me. (ps really don't want one today so not fallen off entirely).

aw kat sorry you had such a sucky time of it. I had a blip where I smoked 2 because of stress at the begining of feb. I found that a. it didn't help me with dealing with stress & then it added stress to me as I then had to go through about a week of fighting cravings, so in the end it was counter productive. So armed with this knowledge I decided to do a couple of things to keep stress in check & not get to that point.

Since then I have been excercising regularly - doing this on a day to day basis means I don't get to the point where I am pulling my hair out, not caring so much about little stuff that's not so important - saving my energy reserves for the biggies! - and making sure each day/week I spemd tiem with people that make me laugh. That's how I have been dealing with stress (also as Sue said *ahem* spending a good hour with your oh :kisses2: is great for relieving stress too!) hths x

hermum

Finished the last of my baccy around 1am. What would have normally been gone in a morning lasted me all day & half way into the night.
I've only been out of bed for an hour.
I got halfway down the stairs before my brain screamed at me, I don't smoke. I can't have a fag.
Scrubbed my teeth really really well, had a cup of tea that tasted nasty. Am now having a glass of squash.
I'm going to walk the dog & then go shopping for some healthy snacks, fruit & lemons so that I can have hot water with lemon, especially in the morning. Helps avoid the constipation often associated with quitting.
I feel a bit guilty having the time showing as 9 hrs already as I went to bed around 4am so have been sleeping for a lot of the time.
BUT it looks as though I have acheived something already.
I hope that everyone has a good day & hopefully at some point I'll get to read right through the thread.
Page 18 at the moment.

determined_new_ms

yay hermum you can do it! I'm gonna forward you sue's email with lots of tips esp as you are going for some healthy snacks. Alot of us have found satsumas/oranges are really helpful for snacking on - keeps the hands busy peeling & low cal drinking lots of water either sipping or half a glass at a time, ice pops/poles again hand to mouth action & very low cal. I'll send it now.

Yay to 9 hours :j

hermum

determined_new_ms wrote: »

yay hermum you can do it! I'm gonna forward you sue's email with lots of tips esp as you are going for some healthy snacks. Alot of us have found satsumas/oranges are really helpful for snacking on - keeps the hands busy peeling & low cal drinking lots of water either sipping or half a glass at a time, ice pops/poles again hand to mouth action & very low cal. I'll send it now.

Yay to 9 hours :j

Thanks for the PM, will write out my reasons a bit later. Although it really is just the finances & smell.
I bought 2 packs of clementines & 2 of kiwi fruit for the vit c & several lemons to have in hot water instead of tea.
I may have to find a greenegrocers because I went to sainsburys so by the time they're ripe I'll have forgotten that I was ever a smoker. Ooh don't know why I'm now in & out of italics.
I picked up a quit kit thinking that the patches were actually in the box but you have to send off for them. But the plastic tangle thing feels good to fiddle with.
I'm not going to buy anything yet but will if I feel that I need it.
Keep up the good work everyone.

Triciaxx

3 months! A quarter of a year! I feel that is a big milestone for me and am :j:j:j

Sorry I've been neglecting you all over the past few days but we have had some good weather so have been taking the opportunity to get out a bit. I can't do a lot of exercise as I have dodgy legs but am building up on the walking. DH and I both got pedometers and are trying to up the number of steps we do each day. DH needs to lose weight and we worked out that when he was working, he walked a couple of miles on the way to and from work each day and probably another couple during the day. So he needs to replace that now he is retired.

It's become a bit of a game to try and do better than the day before. Perhaps we should get a life :rotfl::rotfl:

Welcome to all the new quitters :hello: You really can get free of the nicotine. Just remember that whatever you feel, someone has been there before. Read back through the threads and you'll find ways to deal with almost anything. One thing which kept me on the straight and narrow when I very nearly tripped myself up was reading Jammy Dodger's posts when he went back to smoking and then came back and succeeded. I really didn't know if I would have had the courage to try again if I got it wrong this time.

Keep up the good work. Evil Nic is doomed.:T:T:T

fatcatt

Still going strong guys! I have decided that the weekend is much harder than the week. I would normally chain smoke at the weekends so I reckon thats why. Still having those thoughts about having a smoke and how nice it would be, but I think that its just through habit rather than actually wanting one. Either way, I'm not doing it!

My skin is absolutely awful though, breaking out like I'm a teenager! Is this just part of the process of the toxins coming out?

Prudent - Well done to your daughter for having the guts to give up. I wish I had had the brains to do it when I was 18. I would be a lot richer now if I had!! If your daughter get free prescriptions you can get patches and other NRT from the doctors. It's the smoking cessation service, it's what I'm using. Quite good because they give you support and advice too.

Good luck hermum and Tink, hope things are going well with you both. I found myself doing an awful lot of cleaning in the first few days! Also ice pops are really good!

Kat sorry to hear about your blip. The only thing I can suggest is reminding yourself of why you don't want to smoke and your reasons for giving up but I can see that would be hard to do when you are upset.

To everyone else well done on keeping up the good work!! It's great to see so many who are further down the road than me. Gives me hope that I will be there too one day! :beer:

determined_new_ms

hell0 fag-free gang :wave: hope you're all doing well just thought I'd pop in & say hi, fantastic news Tricia!

keep with it guys the freedom is out there!

anyone heard from Sue? I hope she's ok been missing her style x

*Twizzle*

Can i join please?

I am stopping smoking tomorrow! I have tried and failed a fair few times over the years, having just become a single mum i have to do this for my children and my health!
I haven't read the thread yet but will spend some time tomorrow having a browse through it :eek:

Thanks Spike x

dundeedoll_2

7 mths 3 weeks can also be:

• 20,044,800 seconds
• 334,080 minutes
• 5568 hours
• 33 weeks
• 232 days

(And apprx 1980 cigs not smoked - 60 a week)

Sounds good, doesn't it???


Welcome to those that have joined us! It's a great place (as the others have mentioned) to get support, advice and just to get your feelings out.

Keep posting and do read back through the other threads (go to 1st page of this 1 and it'll give you a link to thread 2) it really really is very helpful to do that.........even if it is time consuming.

Weird moment last night..........had a little bonfire and went up the garden about 7ish to check on it.

Suddenly heard this little voice:
'Ooohhhhhhh, wouldn't it be lovely to have a ciggie'

It was like when I'd given up before and had had a couple of glasses of wine and it all seemed such a good idea to beg a roll up from someone.

I soon answered 'NOOOO, it would NOT be lovely at all!!!'
I was not craving at all, but that 'little voice' in my brain decided to tempt me. :mad:
So, ALWAYS be on your guard!!!

Kat, :T for coming on here straight after..........would have been so easy to stay away. Just start again - look at Jammy, a blip after 9 mths but back on track with more determination than ever! Lucy also had a wobbler, but also straight back to it.

Tricia Congrats on your 1/4 versary!
By the way everyone, look at Tricia's quit date..............anybody who gives up a week before Christmas means business!

Most people would have said: 'Oh yeah, I do want to give up, but there's no point in doing it now, what with Christmas next week. I'll do it in the New Year.'


Now I know they say just take it a day at a time, but I think just keep focusing on what you want longterm (to be nicotine free for the rest of your life) NOT what you want shortterm (a fag!)