Quote:
Originally Posted by AmericanManiac
I was wondering how many of you smoke or did smoke ? I'm in the process of stopping, I was wondering what did you guys do to help stop ? Should I buy the patch, or just try to cut down every day or what ?
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I smoked for seven years before I quit and have been smoke free for two years now.
I really enjoyed smoking and smoked about a pack a day. I would normally smoke Marlboro Lights and was still smoking a pack a day when I was waiting tables and working as a baggage handler for an airline.
It wasn't until I started working desk jobs and was trying to get into the Air Force that I started exercising and running more, and the Lights just felt too strong. So I switched to Ultra Lights for two years.
Working in an office cut down my smoking even more and it just didn't really feel good anymore and even the Ultra Lights felt too strong. Once you can get down to a few cigarettes a day, you can get to one and try to smoke every other day until eventually you won't want to do it at all.
It took me about three months to ween myself off. I never used the patch because nicotine is out of your system in five days. You'll get headaches for two or three days and then you are fine. The only thing that gets you is that you're just so used to smoking, especially at a bar or after dinner or whatever. That's really the habit you have to break.
At any rate, you don't realize the extent of the negative effects of smoking on your body until you quit. I used to get colds several times a year and most of them would be pretty severe. Since I quit, I've gotten one maybe two over the past two years, and I didn't even have to take off of work.
Also, you don't realize how much you can't smell or taste untill you quit. I remember eating cherry pie about a month after I quit and I never knew cherry pie tasted so good. It was amazing and still is. My teeth looked much whiter too without having to whiten them.
So, my advice, if you want to actually quit for you and no body else you can do it. You just have to want the change and you will be able to cut back and then quit. But you have to stick with, if you can do five days you can do two weeks, and if you can do that, month is easy and then a year will pass and you won't even notice.
Somebody once said, "You know what's harder than quitting smoking? Starting to floss." And it's completely true.
One more thing, that whole gaining twenty pounds thing when you quit is completely true. I gained twenty pounds in a few months after I quit and it took me three times as long to lose it again. And I usually have a pretty steady weight. But I tell you that's a great deterrent to not to start again.