Have you successfully quit smoking?

Castiel said:
I quit, end of.

In have no desire to smoke again, I have no cravings whatsoever, quite the opposite in fact.

I never realised when I smoked myself just how bad it makes you smell, I can't countenance ever smoking again.

How my wife, who is a non-smoker, ever put up with it I have no idea.
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I must admit I have had the odd single cigarette on nights out where I'm drunk and just fancied one at the time. It's very rare though and not every time I'm drunk.

Always regret even that one cigarette in the morning, my lungs will feel horrible for a week after.
 
I stopped about 2 months ago, was a nightmare at teh start, i got over it buy "smoking cotton buds" and sometimes just chewing 1 to bits.

I don't feel any better for it really.

even when typing this i fell like i would love a ciggy about now, i just mentally rolled one and watched myself smoking it out in the cold round the side of the door.
 
Indeed, quit around 7 years ago after smoking for about 12 years. I tried on and off for years previous to that to quit smoking but never worked. I also quit drinking around the same time, so didn't go down the smokey pubs anymore which helped and got my partner to quit with me/banned friends from smoking in my house, so basically wasn't around any kind of temptation to start up again.
 
I quit about 15yrs ago and have not looked back since. I may have had the very very occasional fag during a drinking session, but i've never felt the need to ever buy another pack EVER. Just stopped thanks to someone giving me one of those patches, since she had an allergic reaction to them. I said give them here then, wasn't even really serious about stopping.. Realised that I'd not had the urge for the day, and thought, well I may aswell see this through.. Next thing I knew is that I had given up.

Smoking these days is a little ***** if you ask me.. 15-20yrs ago, most people smoked. Just about everyone before then.. These days its becoming more rare.. I can honesty say I now judge someone 80% of the time, in a bad way if I see them smoking. It seems as if the smokers of today all seem to be tarred with that same ***** brush. The 20% that I do not, tend to be the old school who just never managed to give up.. Everyone else.. ***** !
 
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Will Gill said:
I smoke e-cigs now, used to smoke upto 40 marlboro lights a day, now I toke on my 'vap a few times a day, its a bloody good invention bearing in mind I've smoked since I was 12 and never managed to even cut down!

http://www.elitecigarettes.co.uk/

cant really sum up how much better I feel after my mate told me about them, feel like a rather large idiot for the first couple of days but after that I've never looked back
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Another vote for E-Lites Electronic Cigarettes - these are better than cigarettes, healthier, more enjoyable (for me) and I can smoke it in my office, in the local and on certain planes.

If you really want to quit - give these 7 to 10 days and they really can work. This is someone who had his money back from a hypnotist!
 
Agree I've been addicted to vaping now! Got a Tornado and some 510 LR atties and damn too good! But I occasionally have a cig now and then at parties but have generally given up smoking on a day to day basis for the last year or so.
 
I gave up around 3 years ago after 16 years of smoking (late starter :p).

I had 'given up' before for a couple of months and felt a pretty quick benefit after a week or two. This time there was next to no perceived benefit physically that I could feel (obviously there are lots of benefits that I cannot see). I was so surprised that there was no big change that I went to a throat and lungs specialist and had the peak flow test and X-Rays. Peak flow was ok (around 70% capacity) and the X-Rays were clear.

I gave up due to getting a chest infection whilst working in Switzerland for a couple of months and finding it so difficult to breath that I would wake up at night gasping.

The big difference since giving up for me is that my gym cardio work is a lot better than it would have been when smoking, it gave me more of a drive to get healthy for me and my kids and the bronchitis has now gone, I am not coughing up crap in the morning etc but that took some time. I found the gum worked for me but only took it when I had a really strong craving. Needed around half a packet before I could stop using it but it really helped.

Difficult to advise without it turning in to a medical advice thread. Have a look here, get an alternative diagnosis from another doctor, maybe at a drop in centre to confirm what your doctor is telling you. Couching up blood with a chest infection can happen, without is a bit more of a warning sign. Ask to get some chest X-Rays at the very least if you have not had them already.

Jump over to the Sports Arena as there are a wealth of knowledgeable people who are always happy to help with regards to diet and fitness. Good for motivation as well.

RB
 
yarp, i successfully gave up 3 weeks ago today after a 14 year habit of 20+ a day, it's good, although i can smell a lot more now then i used to, i dont get out of breathe walking up and down hills all the time, the £20 per week i used to waste now funds a ever growing anime collection, and a new bike to help get me into somewhat better shape then i was :D
 
I have gave up numerous times and ended up smoking again! :(

But I have never felt the benefits of it any more than doing more fitness. Maybe your just unfit, stopping smoking won't make you less lazy. Thats up to you.
 
gave up about 5 years ago, best thing i ever done, the missus gave up 7 month back and just started again so im not pleased but what can ya do!

took me 3-4 months to feel the benefits, better taste and breathing at night etc.
 
I gave up last January after smoking 20+ rollies a day for 18 years. Started out with patches which helped but after the second week I reacted badly to them so had to go cold turkey, wasn't easy and I wasn't the greatest person to be around - I did find Paul McKenna's 'I can help you quit smoking' book and cd very helpful, the book was an ok read and puts you in a good mindset to overcome the addiction, the hypnotic suggestion cd was great for listening to and relaxing when a craving got too much.

I also used to think that smokers never quit you just died before you have your next smoke but after about a year the cravings stopped altogether for me at least and now I can't understand why I wanted to smoke in the first place - I've even gone through 2 very stressful times since I quit and haven't felt like I needed to reach for a smoke. Health wise I suffered badly, had chest infections, colds and loads of mouth ulcers after I quit but after they cleared up I feel better then when I smoked and didn't suffer the normal colds and chest infections I would have smoking during the winter. Sense of smell and taste came back very quickly and I can smell smoke on someone a mile away now.

End of the day if you want to quit you will, if you want to smoke its your choice - but I wouldn't want to start again and my family really enjoy the 50" plasma I bought with the money I hadn't smoked this past year, its more than made up for the pita I was while I was quitting at least.
 
Quit 2 years ago after smoking for 9 years. Used to do around 10-15 a day, countless more on a Friday/Sat night. Combination of kids, hitting 30 and wife deciding to quit too made me quit, when I was not ready in all honesty.

Spent 4-5 months smoking at work after that, consoled myself by the fact that I was smoking around 4 or 5 a day, (used to buy a 20 pack and it would last me until Friday) none on a night out, none around my kids, etc.

Eventually I just stopped, wasn't getting much out of it, and the rate of smoking at work was ever so slowly increasing...guess *I* wanted to quit at that stage.

Took around 2-3 days for the Cravings to stop bugging me. Very much worth it, as i'm sure ive caught less colds/coughs since quitting. Finance wasn't a consideration in this case, as the last pack of 20 I bought were around £1.50 iirc.
 
I've just recently decided to switch to vaping, much to the wife's approval, as we're both sick of the house stinking in the mornings and having to go outside in the cold and rain for me to puff.

I wasn't spending a whole lot on tobacco each week (prob about £8-£9) so it's not so much that - really just the health implications.

Now I can puff away in the house, in the pub, wherever, along with some nice flavours; get my nicotine fix, not annoy anyone AND skip all the tar and additives.

Wasn't sure if it would work as well as it has - but I'm now on day four of not even looking at my tobacco tin.
 
OP, if you're coughing up blood, go see another doctor; that has absolutely nothing to do with having quit smoking. Take it from someone who recently went through a COPD scare. Go and see a different doctor, asap.

In other news, I quit smoking 2-3 months ago and it's working pretty well. I went with nicotine gum, and I've tried to sort my exercise routine out, although I've been a bit lazy for the last fortnight *oops*..
 
I thought I'd go in to a little bit more detail.

I started smoking at 14. At around 19-23 I was a 80 a day + smoker. 23 I gave up and I'm now 26.
 
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Quit 8 years ago after smoking 20-30 a day for around 14 years, cold turkey.

Not fun and like the OP didnt feel like was any better off for quite some time, coughing up lots for a good few months including some blood.

The blood may well be a chest infection / soreness you've brought on or made worse from the all coughing and heaving you've put your lungs through, i had something similar following pnuemonia.

But they sent me for a Endoscopy to confirm this after it went on for some time , which was thoroughly unpleasant in its own right.

Exercise will help in the longterm, but if your really raw and bringing up blood you ought to rest it and see the Doctor again.
 
I quit Jan 4th this year (it was the first monday of the year) and joined a gym 3 weeks later because it had a promotion thing on.

The first 3 months were a killer, I didn't tell any friends to begin with but had to tell my boss incase she noticed any drastic behavioural changes. I apologised in advance for the nasties to come, they didn't. My friends sussed it out after a few hours, usually I spark up straight away.

After that the health benefits kicked in, less breathless, more energy, food tasted great, didn't smell like an ashtray. People even commented that my smokers cough had gone after the initial batch of coughs cos the lungs are a bit afraid of fresh air :)

Dooms day I caught a chest infection from someone at work because she was answering everyones phones if they weren't there, we told her not to. My smokers cough came back with vengence I got a telling off cause they thought I was smoking again. The cough went on for months I did go to the Docs and asked about the big 'C' but no lungs sounded all clear, the cough is gradually getting better.

My advice for all who has began the quitting process or is thinking about it start on the multivitamins or at least Vitamin C get your immune system up to scratch cos a cold, flu or any respiratory virus can take ages to get rid off.

I'm at the end of my 8th month YEY! and my 4th try, I still miss the motion of smoking but have come too far to go back now and it a VERY expensive habit
 
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