Smoking

I gave up smoking in 2002 and i smoked 40 a day, i have learnt over the years that you can't tell someone to give up, they have to want to give up of their own accord as they are addicted not only to the nicotine but to the associations that comes with smoking , so one needs to deal with the associations in order to give up, slowly stop having a smoke with coffee, stop smoking in the car another week, stop smoking in your home, and stop having a smoke when out drinking
Count how many you smoke each day and what time, it's amazing just by doing that you smoke so much less, then gradually take away the associations over a few weeks, make it one a week and before you know it you will be able to give up for good and not want another one ever, a good exercise too at the start is to work out how much you have spent on smoking since you started, you will be shocked.
I did this through a 7 week course called Smoke enders, sadly it folded due to Little Johnny Howard refusing to subsidise {he was our PM }
 
I quit in 99 after 40 some years of smoking. Too little too late but at least I can say I am a non-smoker now. Habit started in school, it was the in thing then, and really got going in the Army. "Take 5, smoke if you got em." We did.

1999 was the year I retired and realized that I just could not afford to smoke on a fixed income anymore. Up till then I had used the patch, pills, seminars, recordings, etc. I probably quit a hundred times over the years. I am very lucky to be among the living having smoked all those years.

None of my kids ever smoked or my wife either. Thank God.
 

I've spent well over a thousand dollars trying to quit over the years. The only time I truly quit without a problem was when I was planning to have a child and I didn't smoke at all then. My son was born crying and didn't stop for 2 years - yup, back to the cigs for me! He settled down and now is the calmest fellow you could hope to be around, but I still smoke. I don't smoke in the house anymore since I've renovated, but it's getting bloody cold out now so that should help me cut back.

Although everyone, including me knows how bad it is for our health, I like having a puff with my coffee or drink. Guess that's the problem, I like relaxing with a cigarette and admit I'm addicted.
 
I smoked for 15 years, 1-1 1/2 packs a day (Marlboro red)...quit cold turkey over 30 years ago and never regretted it. I think when you really want to quit, cold turkey is not that difficult. Cigarettes were cheap back then, you could smoke at work, in buildings, etc. Now I actually feel sorry when I see people outside in the wind and snow on their breaks, sucking hard to get as much in before they have to go back in to the job. I never preach to anyone about quitting, they know it's bad for them, and they'll make the decision when they're ready.
 
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Right on SB, our choice. So far. None of us really know what's going to kill us, only that something is.
I have to smirk a bit at the young know-it-all set who look with disgust at anyone smoking. The irony that they are sitting in trendy out-door cafes sucking down their lattes within 2 metres of traffic idling at the lights and spewing exhaust fumes all over them is apparently lost on them. But it isn't on me, I think it's hilarious.
It would take an awful lot of passive smoking to come close to killing you as fast as exhaust fumes in close proximity.

I also shake my head at the fitness obsessed who never smoke, bolt down the correct balance of carbs, and workout to stay healthy and then use their superior lung power and physical attributes to go base-jumping. Or fall off mountains. Or kill themselves on a motor cycle. Bit of a waste really. If the ciggys had slowed them down they might have lived longer. Life's funny like that.

A very well liked workmate went through months of hell giving up smoking. He was so proud when he was finally free of the habit. Maybe if he'd pulled off the road to have a smoke instead of driving too long he and his family would still be alive too. But we'll never know will we?
 
When I quit smoking I would go to the candy machine and get a candy bar whenever I got the urge to smoke. After about a week I realized I wasn't craving cigarettes any more...I was craving candy.

I steadily gained weight for about two years after quitting but after that I returned to my normal weight.
 
After my divorce, I became a social smoker for years, maybe a pack a month. Haven't had a real cig in so long I can't even remember (tho most remember the very second of their last one.) I was a complete closet smoker, would never smoke in public under any circumstances. I can count on one hand those who ever saw me smoke. Only my very best friends knew and I kept them hidden in my laundry room for very inconvenient access, as my desire for one would be when I was out and having a glass of wine. By the time I got home to my hidden cigs, the desire had gone.

Even now if I'm at home & going through stress, or sometimes when not, I'll pick up my electronic cig with my coffee and have a few puffs. It's probably as dangerous as real cigs, but I do it so rarely that I just don't worry about it. And there is zero smell in your house or on you and I especially like that aspect of it.
 
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I'm sort of a reverse-image of the usual routine. With the exception of herbal compounds (with which I was a judicious and only occasional user) I was a non-smoker for most of my life. Only after I "retired" from my martial arts career and started bouncing in clubs did I pick up the habit.

Of course I couldn't just do the pedestrian Marlboro or Newport - no, I had to go for Dunhill Reds and Sobranie Blacks along with an antique Ronson lighter. I figured if I'm going to Hell I might as well enjoy myself as I'm on the road.

Later when a pack of those premium smokes rose to $8 a pack I figured it was time to reign-in a bit and switched to Marlboro 100s and Newports.

Now, about 10 years on, I'm reduced to sucking on Sonoma Menthols, the McDonald's of the tobacco world. :(

Tough habit to break, especially when you're in front of a computer 16 hours a day.
 
How much?? !!! A pack of 'maccas' here costs around 30 bucks for 50. I gave up the good ones years ago too.
As I said the Government aren't curing people of smoking by constantly raising the taxes on cigarettes, they're just pushing them onto weed. It's probably cheaper by now.
 
Diwundrin said:
How much?? !!! A pack of 'maccas' here costs around 30 bucks for 50. I gave up the good ones years ago too.
As I said the Government aren't curing people of smoking by constantly raising the taxes on cigarettes, they're just pushing them onto weed. It's probably cheaper by now.
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So that's about $12USD/pack of 20 - about the price of smokes in places like NYC. Here in the 'burbs the tobacco is cheaper because we use child labor to pick the leaves ... :D

I got a kick out of a Dragnet rerun yesterday - it's the one where Joe Friday lectures a young mom and dad about the evils of weed, how it leads to cocaine and heroin and gives you brain damage. Of course, the hip young couple wasn't having any and the dad even told Joe that in a few years weed would be totally legal in the U.S. (this was from 1968, BTW).

Of course, being a Jack Webb ("Joe Friday")-produced show the ending had the couple's little girl drown in the bathtub because they were too stoned to remember she was in there.

The most hilarious part was in the very beginning, when Joe was giving his usual voice-over. They showed 4 fat joints and Joe told us that each joint cost $0.50, and a "lid" (ounce) cost $15.

... I drooled ... :eek:
 
I gained around ten pounds when I quit smoking, but it was worth it IMO. I started chewing gum every day at work instead, that helped a lot.
 
Pappy said:
Right Phil and while Joe was lecturing the kid, he had a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. I love these old shows on ME and watch them most nights during supper.

i guess I'm a virgin......never smoked a joint in my life but had plenty of chances to.
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Pappy, what is ME???

I was checking a movie with my granddaughter, and mentioned it was rated R, and I couldn't see why it should be. She said, oh, there might be smoking in it. Wow.
 
As an engineer doing dirty work on machines and occasionally reaching into my shirt pocket for a cigarette,the wife screamed "I am not washing amymore of those work clothes shirts and pants with all that grease and stains,you have any idea how hard that is to remove??
I quit then.
 

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