I'm a non-smoker now....

Gone cold turkey.....almost.

For some background here is a previous post I put up about this https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=29689

I had my last ciggy on monday around noon to break up a long car ride. Before that one I hadn't had one since about 5 pm Saturday. So I've started the waiting game. I'm waiting it out until I don't crave it anymore. I hope that happens. I went outside with a couple of smoking co-workers to show the addiction who's boss and was able to come back in without having one. It was tough enough that I think I'll wait a while before going out to a club or bar to get a drink. I'm hoping it's like someone was saying in my previous post about how no craving will be as bad as the last one was. I'm really hoping that I'll stop thinking about it soon. As it is I think about it a lot. Gonna start running tonight if the weather holds out for me, to get my mind off of it.

That's my update. I'm kinda using this forum as a "buddy" to vent to and get encouragement from as I don't have any smoking friends.

Cold turley is the only way to quit, IMO. I tried the smoking less everyday thing and it didn't work. The first few days will be tough but once you get through that it'll start getting a bit easier. Just be prepared to gain a few pounds and get some gum or something else to keep you occupied during normal smoking times, in the car, after meals, etc....

Good luck!

:rockin:

NICE JOB!!! Stick with it, bro!!!

Good luck and stay strong. I never have smoked, but have been greatly effected by loosing people in my life because of smoking. Just keep thinking of you family. You will make it.

Got myself occupied with sunflower seeds. Not a big fan of them usually, but they keep me doing something that isn't smoking.

Congrats man, quitting is tough but stick with it. I've been quit for a year and two months now. Smoked for 12 years prior to that. Some advice I can lend...

- Don't try cutting back slowly, it doesn't work. If anything, it makes it worse. When you cut back all you're really doing is putting your body in a constant state of withdrawal. Between smokes your body goes through all the withdrawal symptoms as if you'd gone cold turkey then when you can't take it anymore you have one and the whole cycle starts all over again. If you go cold turkey you eventually hit a peak in the cravings, usually 3-4 days in, and the cravings subside from there.

- Keep BUSY! As the old saying goes, “Idle hands are the Devil’s workshop.” For me, I was bouncing off the walls with nervous energy when I first quit so I got all kinds of stuff done around the house. Staying active is important for two reasons. One, you won’t have time to think about smoking. Two, the other nasty side affect of quitting can be substituting food for smokes so you won’t eat as much if you’re busy and if you do eat more you’ll work it off.

- Avoid temptation. You mentioned staying away from the bar scene, I would heartily recommend following through with that. I think it was easily 3-4 months after I quit before I set foot in a bar. By then the smell of smoking was repulsive but after a few beers I still found myself tempted so I left. If you have friends that are smokers, ask them to not smoke around you. If they’re truly friends they won’t have a problem with that. My wife and I quit together because there was no way one of us could quit alone and we didn’t quit until after moving back to Ohio from GA because our good friends and neighbors in GA were both heavy smokers.

Not to be all doom and gloom but there are some harsh realities to quitting:

It is most likely the hardest thing you will ever do…
….a friend’s dad who served in the Marines said he’d rather go back through Marine basic training than try quitting smoking again.
….a coworker who at one time dabbled in the likes of Ecstasy and cocaine is still a smoker because he can’t seem to give them up.
….I’ve been quit for over a year now and I won’t lie, there are still times that I’m tempted. I can easily dismiss those momentary impulses but they still happen.

But there is a bright side…
….food really does taste a lot better once you’ve been quit for a while.
….you do have a lot more energy and working out actually feels good.
….the smell of smoke lingers in odd places, like your hair, but you won’t notice it until it’s gone.
….you save a TON of money to be spent on, what else, BREWING! Something to install on your PC, http://www.dedicateddesigns.com/qk/download.htm. It tracks how long you’ve been quit and how much money you’ve saved, nice motivation.
….it may not feel like it now but the urges will subside, your body will learn how to function without nicotine and you will learn new habits to take the place of when you used to smoke.

Alright, I’m done. Sorry for the long winded rant there. I just know how tough quitting was for me so I’m always looking to help a fellow EX-smoker.

I quit smoking about a year ago, took quite a few tries to do it. It was very hard to do but worth it in every way. The money spent, and time wasted is ridiculous. Plus once you get used to being a non-smoker you will notice how bad it smells on other people, not to be rude but I can't stand the smell of cigarettes anymore. Not to mention the health benefits. Don't give up.

Just don't become THAT quitter. That guy who quits and then becomes the self important dickhead who insists that anyone who has been near a lit cigarette in the past day leave his presence.

There's a level of hell reserved for self righteous former smokers.


On a more positive note: when I quit I did it by refusing to buy smokes. For a while I'd bum the occasional off a buddy (ain't got many friends that smoke) or someone at a bar (only so many times you can do that) but eventually it just stopped being appealing.

I also modified one key habit: I stopped going inside gas stations. It was such a habit for me to say "Pump X and a pack of smokes". I do all pay at the pump now.

kornkob said:

Just don't become THAT quitter. That guy who quits and then becomes the self important dickhead who insists that anyone who has been near a lit cigarette in the past day leave his presence.

There's a level of hell reserved for self righteous former smokers.

Click to expand...

Well said I quit about 7 years ago and never gave anyone any crap for smoking around me, I was even against the smoking ban in bars at first.

A friend of mine quit a couple years ago and went so far as to put no smoking signs all over his apartment and he'd b!tch and moan if anyone lit up around him, telling them of the evils of smoking that he'd so recently discovered. He's since gone back to smoking. Maybe he got so obsessed with not smoking he never got cigarettes off his mind...

Roterdrache said:

….I’ve been quit for over a year now and I won’t lie, there are still times that I’m tempted. I can easily dismiss those momentary impulses but they still happen.

Click to expand...

+1

But there is a bright side…
….food really does taste a lot better once you’ve been quit for a while.
….you do have a lot more energy and working out actually feels good.
….the smell of smoke lingers in odd places, like your hair, but you won’t notice it until it’s gone.
….you save a TON of money to be spent on, what else, BREWING!
….it may not feel like it now but the urges will subside, your body will learn how to function without nicotine and you will learn new habits to take the place of when you used to smoke.

Click to expand...

+10 years you're adding to your life (It's just too bad they're added at the end of your life, rather than in the middle, eh?)

Congrats, JeepGuy.

I'm quit about 5 years after many years of pack-a-day. The longer you go the easier it gets, eventually it won't even cross your mind.

Beauty. Just to be clear, I was never one of those people to give smokers a hard time, even before I was one, and really doubt that I'll give anybody a hard time about it after. I may choose to avoid being around smokers for a while, but I think I'd be a hypocrite to give them any trouble about it. If they want to smoke, I'll prolly just take myself out of the area for a bit and come back when they're done.

I am guilty of occasionally enjoying second hand smoke.

You’re probably right to avoid it until you won’t be tempted, but when I smell smoke I do sometimes breath just a little bit deeper.

Congrats.

Its been about 4 years since my last. I quit my last job 8 months ago because the stress was making me want to start up again.

Congrats. There is light at the end of the tunnel. I smoked 20 red a day for about 10 years. One night myself and my GF (now wife) decided to quit. To do this we smoked all the cigs in the flat. I took the filters off mine and smoked them. Very sick the next day (drinking very heavy also!).
We had a jar in the flat that we each put a pound in each day. If one of us had a smoke then the other person got all the cash in the jar to spend on whatever they wanted. This worked well as when I wanted a smoke I put a coin in the jar to make it even harder to, "give up the jar". Being Scottish helped a lot
Had a few relapses but over a couple of years the cigs started to make me feel ill. Have no need / want to have a smoke now.
I would advise against the gum / patches - they just drag out the process, don't do you any good, AND cost you money that you should be saving (and spending on beer!)

One day at a time.

...and yes ex-smokers can be right royal pains in the ar$es. They should really have continued smoking and died a horibble painful drawn-out sad lonely death like nature would have wanted

When I was smoking, I would have one before bed, the rest of the time, I'd only smoke at work. Funny thing is that no one questioned me when I quit, and they just accepted me for who I am.