re: Day 3 - No Cigs

You can do it if you really want to. I quit cold turkey in 2002 not long after my 50th birthday and have not put a cigarette to my lips since.

If the desire and conviction is strong enough to quit, you can do it. It does get much easier after a couple weeks too. Wait until you grasp the stench of smokers around you and you'll wonder why you ever started that filthy habit.

When I quit I was active in the local dart league and pool league, so I was in bars 2-3 times a week around smokers and that was probably the hardest part. Well that and the fact my wife decided to quit with me and only lasted around 2 weeks and went back to smoking.

Here's the thing------you have to really want this for yourself, not for someone else to have better success at quitting.

Good luck and I hope you can someday offer some advice to others who want to quit by your success.

I quit for a year then thought I could only smoke on weekends
8 months later I can assure you it doesn’t work like that
I haven’t smoked in a week & it sucks

Stay away from people that smoke
Don’t drink if you were a drinker / smoker for a couple of weeks
If you smoked in your vehicle get a ozone generator & put it in your vehicle - ran one all day it mine & it made a huge difference
Keep something in vehicle, I like cinnamon Altoids, that you can grab easily
Roll down window as if you were smoking, I think the sound / air actually helps
Know that if you pick it back up you are going to feel like shite & it makes it that much harder to quit the next time
On breaks at work walk around the parking lot, if you stay in when you used to go out it will make you feel anxious
It’s about starting new, healthy routines

Good luck to you

You have to replace it. Start running it will make you really not want to smoke. If you can’t run right now, work your way up to it. Walk, bike, elliptical, etc.

Also stay focused on your larger “why” for doing this. That will pull you through the times of temptation.

Just remember... cigarettes are trashy.

I'm on to a five-year plan. I eliminated cigarettes, then I go to cigars, then I go to pipes, then I go to chewing tobacco, then I'm on to that nicotine gum

keep going man. you’re almost half way through that really first tough week. it’s going to get easier and you will continue to be strong. do this for you!

At one point in my life I was smoking almost two packs a day. Like any addiction you have to get away from people that smoke and places where it’s easy to smoke. I also used the patch which really works.

What saved me is I took a new job and moved away and initially lived in an apartment. I wasn’t going to smoke out my apartment and I wasn’t going to be the dude standing outside smoking all of the time. I still bummed smokes occasionally from a coworker at happy hour but eventually that urge went away and my coworker actually ended up quitting too.

I still socially smoke a few times a year (after a few drinks) and honestly don’t enjoy it. I don’t crave it the next day either. You’ll be a happier, healthier person. So much time is lost and wasted smoking/trying to figure out how you can light up. I don’t miss it.

quote:

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Trying to kick the habit. I’m calm but I feel like inside I’m full of rage, cravings, any words or encouragement or advice of what I can do to control the urges or do I just need to weather the storm?

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congrats you wont smell like if your dogs a-hole just smoked a cigarette

There are a lot of good sayings out there, but one of my favorites that applies to almost anything hard is:

"The days are long, but the years are short."

In the moment, it's really, really difficult. It's hard to do anything worth doing consistently - that's the definition of greatness.

Great eating habits, a good workout, not smoking, being a consistent producer at work, etc... requires excellence on an almost daily basis.

A few things that may help:

(1) Acknowledge what you are doing is hard. Also acknowledge that most things that are hard are worth doing. Quitting cigs is a big accomplishment

(2) Be mindful. In the moment, realize the urge. Acknowledge you have the urge. Ignoring it is silly. If you acknowledge the urge to smoke, but consciously say, "no, I will not, and I win." You win. You get enough of those, and you win the war.

(3) Tell everyone you're quitting. Don't "dear facebook" it, but everyone you're close to, say "I'm quitting." It holds you accountable beyond yourself.

(4) Set goals and reward yourself! Go 1 day, and if that, reward. Go a week, set another reward. So long as the reward isn't cigs, it helps!

Good luck.

I loathe what cigarettes and the food companies have done to America. They're the cause of virtually 75% of our deaths as Americans.

Go buy Zyn nicotine patches.