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Giving up the dreaded weed
groder
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Hi all
I really want to give up smoking, but cant do it with will power alone.
Any tips?
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Comments
Chewing gum can help for the first week or so.
Also try to avoid stress.
Has anyone tried Chimpax?
More willpower? And find something to treat yourself (and/or partner) with the money that you would have spent on tobacco. (probably best if it's not just food or beer). So you have something tangible to show for giving up. Mine 30 years ago was a colour TV instead of B&W .... but could be anything and once you've committed to that expense, then you can't relent until you've 'saved' at least that amount.
Plus supportive friends and colleagues? And keep busy, away from areas or events where smoking is the norm for a few weeks.
Willpower...if you have the desrie/drive to run 10k,HM, Mara etc then you have the strength to give up.
Cpt JS
That is amazing!!!
I am def going to get to the docs and get some Champix.
also try and learn what your main triggers are. mine were alcohol, driving and coffee!
agree with .milou. with regards to trying to stay away from alcohol for a bit, it really took me a while to stop linking cigarettes and booze together...
Alan Carr didn't work for me - I just thought he was a bit smug!
Accupuncture did work though, although you have to walk around with a plaster on your ear for a while!
Another vote for Allen carr. I went to the session years ago (didn't work) and then read the book. I did have to read it about three times before the message actually sunk in, but keep in mind that you want to stop smoking so let it take as many times as you need - and also bear in mind that you have two options only: carry on smoking for the rest of your life, or stop.
It is one of the most liberating feelings and I can gladly say that except for one or two moments, I do not feel that I miss it - been 5 months now
Anyway, good good luck, I hope it works out well for you!
On another note, I have just started running to do a 5km run in July and I am following a training plan. I seem to be quite a bit less fit than I should be at the point I am in the programme and that my breathing gets short really quickly. Did anyone else have problems like this when they started out running?
i had my last cigarette on 28 February after smoking for over 35 years. In the past I've tried hypnosis, gum, tablets, and patches but none had worked for more than a few weeks before I started again. I only started running at the beginning of the year and had signed up for the Great Manchester Run to give myself something to aim for. It was determination to finish the run that kept me off the fags.
I'm still clean, finished the 10k in 58mins (chuffed to bits) and have since signed up for a 10miler and a half marathon.
Stick at it - it does get easier.
I gave up 03/03/10 using Champix and haven't touched one since,nor have i really wanted one. Champix really works, but it comes with it's side effects, I suffered quite badly with depression and it has upset the acidity levels of my stomoch.
If you decided to go that route, all i would say, get someone to keep an eye on you, I never saw it,but when I look back, it was so obvious.
Good luck, it really is worth it.
Rob.
I went cold turkey just over 13 years ago, after smoking for over 20 years (yeah given I'm only 43 the math doesn't make particularily good reading!!).
Something I did find helped an awful lot, as bizarre as it may seem, was wearing an elastic band on my wrist. It served two purposes in that it gave my fingers something to do in moments of restlessness, and it also served as a focal point as to what I was doing, ie when urge to have a cig got extremely strong a simple snap of the band into the wrist was enough of a jolt to make me realise that it wasn't worth having 'just the one' and refocus my efforts. It was just enough to break that moment of craving and thats all thats needed.
Its not easy, but it is 'simple', in that don't try and over complicate things and make a big 'thing' of it as that will just make you focus back on the cigarettes you are trying to give up when that is the last thing you want.
Best of luck
To be honest Cpt Jack, I had no idea of the price, but thats scary...that would make what i smoked around £7 a packet....mind, I spend the cash on trainers and tops lol...
Rob
I work with a guy whose wife gave up smoking after she had an injection from her drs. Don't know what was in it or if it's similar to that champix? This is how it works:
Dr gives you an injection
You go home, smoke or whatever if you want
After about 1-2 weeks you just stop wanting a fag
Bloke at work says his wife hasn't touched a fag since and hasn't wanted to. I said it sounds too good to be true, but he swears this is how it works. He also said that immediately after the injection she smoked, but once it kicked in it just took away her desire to smoke.
and behind that statement is one of the reasons that it's hard to quit - habit and familiarity. you have a fag after a meal, a fag after sex, a fag after breakfast, a fag at the local etc etc.
you need to break those habits and that's the hard part
I managed to give up nearly 30 years ago when me and my missus moved house (we both smoked) - we had no familiarity with smoking in the new house - so the habits hadn't set in. we moved on Friday, ran out of cigs at the w/e, and stopped immediately - it really was that quick! it astounded us frankly how easy it was after years of smoking - 30 a day habit for me.
OK - it's not something that everyone can do, but if there are any smokers looking at a house move, bear it in mind!!
Smoking is still one of the vices in my life that I am trying to give up - kind of.
I started smoking when I was 12 and got to a point where I was smoking about 20-30 a day - a hell of a lot more if I was going out for the night.
I tried patches, gum, hypnotherapy and other things, but eventually, children was the thing to make me stop smoking.
Unfortunately, I still enjoy cigarettes. Because of this, I have become an opputunist smoker. I will smoke when I have an excuse to. This isn't often - although occassionally I can see the habit sneaking back so have to stop myself.
More recently, I have told my wife that I don't want to have any more occassional smokes. I am training for a Half Marathon and I know that a single pack at the weekend puts me weeks back with my training. I just hope that I can stop the oppurtunist smoking (oh, and I'm not looking for advise on how to do it - for me the answer is simple - just don't do it... I have proved to myself that I can not smoke. I just need to stick at it)