Kicking the smokes

congrats. smokin is a horrible habit. have hope. dont give up!

"I think i'll throw, these cigarettes away!"
Down, from State College 03(i think)

Never heard of Chantix. Seems it's a pill. My advice is to avoid fast food for a good while during the crunch times and for a few months afterwards, especially McDonalds. They put something in their food to trigger addiction, there's something wrong with their food. You need to detoxify your body thoroughly to relax the cravings. If you can manage to take in some saunas...do. Sweat out the toxins, it works. Of course exercise, and eating clean is going to give you the best chance, but if you aren't already doing that, that's a pretty hardcore change to pull off all at once.

I'm coming up on 2 years smoke free after smoking for 15yrs. Stay 100% clear of all people and places that have/contain cigarette smoke. It's not easy, and the cravings will be tough after meals for some weeks into the process, then you'll have the drunk cravings to deal with after that. Best advice is to clean up the diet, don't drink (get drunk), ramp up your determination to psycho mode if necessary. You'll feel so good after....so good. Clean. You'll quickly realize at the 6+ month mark that it is one of the biggest accomplishments you'll ever do for yourself. No exaggeration.

Best of luck.

Suckers! Dum Dums and Tootsie Pops kept my friend from lighting up, and has been smoke free for over five years. Good luck...your lungs will thank you!

Vedder316 wrote:

Yea Chantix is medication. My wife is taking it and has bee smoke free for 1.5 weeks now. Still tough though. We eat pretty "clean" as is so that will be good. Iam currently in nursing school and I believe I read some where that kicking the sticks is roughly comparable to smack. Back to singing Lukin in the shower! thank for the "wishes"

I think its required that all nurses smoke....seems like the majority of them do where I work.

the most important thing of all is to be in a place where you absolutely are ready to quit-and you sound like you are! my bf is coming up on one year no ciggies (jan 1st) and he smoked heavily for years before that. so if he can do it, anyone can. just anticipate cravings (with coffee, while drinking, etc) and have something in place to distract you from that. best of luck!

I quit smoking cigs a couple years ago, it was easy for me. But ending the pot smoking thing was much harder. It's been 2 weeks.

But I'm feeling pretty good.

Quit 8 years ago and still get a slight craving every now and then. It isn't really a craving for cigarettes per se but more like a craving for the state of mind that they put me in when I was smoking. I was a much harder worker/studier back when I was smoking for some reason.

Knowing that I can have a cigarette to look forward to helps keep me focused during those long hours at the computer. After quitting smoking, my grades took a big dump and I must've gained like 30 lbs.

So, essentially, the nic-fits are just one of the challenges of being smoke free. The others involve dealing with the parts of life that aren't as easy to cope with without cigarettes.

sponger wrote:

So, essentially, the nic-fits are just one of the challenges of being smoke free.

stop thinking about the challenges and focus on the REWARDS!

best wishes!

I think the key is that you want to quit. Not just talk about it, but truly honestly are sick and tired of smoking and really want to be 100% done. I'm about at that point myself. I've talked about quitting for about 3 years now and I'm finally at the point where I'm ready.

I too, am considering Chantix. I've known a handful of people that have stopped smoking due to Chantix. Actually, 9 and they all rave. Of course, it's still not easy but they said it was soooo helpful. They said the key was to drink a lot of h20. Definately talk to your Dr. and there is a lot of info out there about it.

But good luck and keep strong!