The Giving Up Smoking Thread - Part 3

Sue-UU

Hi Money maker and GREAT news about you having stopped for so long! :TJust keep at it and NEVER let anyone or anything come between you and you desire to quit!!!

Keep up the water, keep taking sips if it's better - and keep a bottle in the car and ditch the sweets!!! That was my downfall straight after stopping, but don't let another addiction replace the old one.

Change around where you sit and the times you do things in the evening, anything to change your thinking - and keep the water with you - it'll fill you up if you keep at it. Do make time for exercise whether it's indoor or out, it really does make such a difference.

Keep going well and never, ever give in to thoughts of just one cig/puff as you'll rue the day straight away and all that hard work will be gone!!!

Congratulations to you, Underpressure and NTC also!!! :T:T
Excellent news about you Chrissie!!!!! :T Have a wonderful time at the "pool" and all the best with the house sale!

Sue x

Erme

For those folk wanting sweets - try sugar free. Know M+S do them in packets for about 70p and they are seriously yum...might help those crisis moments.

Or like sugar free gum or the tins of mints you can get which are miniscule calories...

E
pS. I shouldn't worry about initial weight gain. Smoking increases the metabolism and also it has been your comforter for so long that it's understandable you need a replacement for stress etc. It's very common and not something I feel we should judge on here ...Hugs

Sue-UU

Erme wrote: »

pS. I shouldn't worry about initial weight gain. Smoking increases the metabolism and also it has been your comforter for so long that it's understandable you need a replacement for stress etc. It's very common and not something I feel we should judge on here ...Hugs

It's precisely because the metabolism slows down after stopping smoking that we do not want to start eating sweets. Temporarily it isn't to bad, but as all know, addictions soon happen! Even replacing it with stuff with few calories could eventually lead folk on to other higher calory things. Then they begin hating the increase which brings about the possibility of feeling down.

Putting the mind to doing things is far more beneficial for the short-term or long. No ones judging, just helping out.

Sue

green1970

Can I give another +1 for the M&S sugar free boiled sweets - they do strawberries & cream flavour and I think a butter mint flavour too. They're yummy and you can't tell they're sugar free at all, there's no horrible sweetener taste.

Also, the water is a great idea, even more so if you're having any sort of NRT as this will tend to make your mouth feel drier than normal. Also, upping your water intake even by just a few glasses a day will make your skin feel lovely and plumped up.

Try and come up with another treat rather than food. Mine's make-up and skincare - I have a pretty hardcore and time-consuming skincare routine now that passes the time and I watch you-tube make-up channels to learn how to do my make-up more professionally. I know it's hard not to replace one obsession with another but smoking took a lot of time out of your day and you have to replace that with something. Better that be something that makes you look and feel better in yourself I say :-)

Good luck with managing the weight everyone - it can sometimes be just as hard to knock that on the head as smoking but any tips that can be shared will be really useful. I've gotta get a hold on my sweet biscuit habit with my cups of tea in the morning - outta hand at the mo :-)

karmacookie

That's a great idea about the sugar free sweets, so much better for your teeth as well! I must pop into M&S and get some next time I'm passing. Thanks guys!

I like the idea about treating yourself to some nice cosmetics or even some nice smellies? Let's face it, now that we have our sense of smell coming back makes it a good time to go perfume shopping(or aftershave, guys)!

I think it is important to give yourself a pat on the back when doing well at something and with the money saved from smoking we can all afford some small treats!

smileytiger

Hi guys

Just be careful with sugar free sweets - if they contain sorbitol (sugar alternative) they can be a very effective laxative!!:eek:
i can't have them for this reason

hugs
Chrissie .xx

green1970

Sue-UU wrote: »

Keep up the water, keep taking sips if it's better - and keep a bottle in the car and ditch the sweets!!! That was my downfall straight after stopping, but don't let another addiction replace the old one.

Sue x

Sue, I've got a point to add to this and I hope you don't feel it's confrontational because it's not, it's a genuine point I'd like to make.

You mentioned that sweets was your downfall after stopping and that's why you're sharing that experience to help others doing the same thing.

I think we all know that we shouldn't smoke, we should eat healthy home cooked meals, we should exercise for at least an hour 4 times a week, we should drink 8 glasses of water a day, the list is endless. This is too much to contemplate, being this perfect person that does all these things as soon as we stop smoking.

Perhaps the sweets in your case were the thing that meant your quit was more successful, perhaps you needed to go through that stage to stay quit. I know you said it was your downfall and you had to deal with it at some point but perhaps you were strong enough to deal with that part later once the cravings were completely gone.

In the early stages, I feel really passionately that you should focus on not picking up a cigarette and doing whatever else you gotta do, even if that thing is slightly naughty, just beat the biggest demon first using whatever tools ya got. The next demon down on the list can be dealt with when you've not got cravings to contend with at the same time.

What do you think?

Lotus-eater

smileytiger wrote: »

Hi guys

Just be careful with sugar free sweets - if they contain sorbitol (sugar alternative) they can be a very effective laxative!!:eek:
i can't have them for this reason

hugs
Chrissie .xx

Is that right?

How many do you have to eat to get the erm... effect?

green1970

Ha ha, I remember when sugar free mints came out in the 80s when I was at senior school. We just had to try out the laxative effect - about 6 packs did it for me. Not a pleasant day at school that day that's for sure :-)

Sue-UU

Erme wrote: »

Just be careful how much of the 'diet bandwagon' you advocate on this page as this is googable and can be seen by people with food issues. That's all I'm saying....

I'm trying hard to advise folk to exercise, Erme and not to turn to food, especially calories. If there's a bandwagon here then I'm not on it or encouraging others to jump on one. Please Erme, don't start trying to pick on every post I write here. You of all people should know by now that I have only ever tried to help and I'd be happy if you allow me to do so rather than try to cause trouble.

Erme wrote:

Sugar really isn't that addictive. Neither is nicotine. It's the 101 other nasties in cigs that make them addictive. They are also the carcinogens etc NOT nicotine.

Sweet things and salty ones can be very addictive and nicotine is extremely addictive - deadly too as it - along with tomatoes etc is from the deadly nightshade family!

Erme wrote:

You could be run over by a bus in the next 30 minutes after all. Does that mean we shouldn't go on the local street cos 'oh it's dangerous - you could get run over'...

There's no need for sarcasm or stupidity, Erme. Whilst we're here on Earth we all need to look after ourselves and if you don't look both ways then, yes, you may well get knocked down. However, if you take care with your diet you don't run such a risk of flab and gaining weight which is what Money manager was talking about. I try to guide people not antagonise them, please try and do the same!

Sue

I'm only telling it as I see it, green1970, I succumbed to sweets for about a month until I realised it was swapping one for another, then I went to water and to doing more exercise which did the trick. Willpower plays a big part in what we do to get through cravings followed by assumed cravings (the mind). If we can switch our minds to doing other things and altering our lives a little, it's surprising how it works.

Personally, I think too much is now being made of my post to Money maker as a result of Erme's post purposely attracting far more attention than was necessary.

All the best to everyone and please don't delve too deeply into the words of those who try to help you, we too are human.

Sue