Losing weight has been a crazy journey... But I woke up this morning and realized that I dont think I'm going to get any further until I suck it up and get rid of a few major things I still have issues with... 1 of them being a big one... *sigh*.... I'm going to quit smoking.

I am so NOT looking for a lecture on the harmful effects of smoking. I know how bad it is and in all reality I dont like doing it. For me it is partially an issue with my constant need to DO something...(oral fixation or what-have-you) and then I add on my fear of eating when I'm not smoking and somehow I have tricked myself into thinking that being skinny was worth more... Yeah yeah. I know.. no bueno.

So, its time-as I said- to just suck it up and do this thing. There was a time in my life that I was around smokers all the time and never once thought about joining... but somewhere that changed.

I have been considering doing a body cleanse of some kind for a while now...
I am NOT talking some kind of crazy "drink hot sauce and water with a banana. Take this pill. Eat nothing else for a week!" type of situation...

I am interested in a healthy, make me feel good, get rid of some of the bad stuff I have done to myself (or at least attempt to help/start getting rid of it) kind of thing. Anyone have any suggestions? I have felt really good with my weight loss but as I make this change I would like to do something else to make me just "feel" better while I'm doing it.

So far I think I'm just going to quit (cold turkey) or MAYBE do gum... I'm sorta a "all or nothing" type of girl most of the time. If I do a big program with patches or pills or something I know I will get bored and give up...or addicted to the patches/gum! lol.

Anyone have any ideas? Any words of advice for me on all of this?

I'm not a 20-something by a long shot, but I'm an extremely fit and healthy 60 year old. Gum is a good idea.
And I hate to keep preaching this, but getting involved in exercise that you like can never be wrong. If you tend to jump in the deep end, give exercise a try. There are so many varieties, from the calm, meditational to the sweat pouring raucous. Keep looking and good luck.

I have a major oral fixation (not a smoker, but it's contributed to my eating) and I always have gum, it helps in giving me something to do.

My mom quit smoking using the nicotine gum, and she had been doing it over 40 years.

Good luck. Kudos for embarking on the healthiness journey

I've never smoked but I get the thing about oral fixation (probably why I used to do a lot of boredom eating!). Anyways, gum helps me so much. I chew a lot now and it's cut down on me eating too much or even the desire to eat as much. That and tea is a big help too (although it's becoming less and less desirable because it's getting pretty hot where I live!). You could actually even buy a chew toy like for babies. I'm not kidding. DH likes to chew and I'll give him that sometimes instead of him destroying all his pens.

Good luck! I have a family member who did the whole quit smoking+weight loss. I know it wasn't easy but they really lost a ton.

I quit (I may have smoked one or two after I "quit")..I quit without gum, patches, pills. I decided it was best so I could start the exercise and playing with my kids. Anyway it's been a few months now and I feel awesome about quitting smoking. I think if you really want to cold turkey is the way to go!

Not a smoker but I've heard of people having success with the gum or with Chantix (prescription only). Cheering you on...Hey, you've lost over 70 pounds...You can do anything.

Just a word about Chantix, I've seen mixed results. My dad was on it, and he was the most miserable person in the whole world. It affected his sleep, and in turn affected his mood, and we were like OH MY GOD JUST GO BACK TO SMOKING B/C THIS IS HE** ON EARTH.

He got this laser procedure done - and that's worked for him (but it was expensive).

My friend's dad, however, had a great experience with Chantix. He hardly had any side effects, and hasn't smoked since.

Great decision! I am a smoker, too. I promised myself that when I hit goal, I would quit. Still working to get to goal, but honestly not looking forward to quitting. (Maybe something subconsciously working here keeping me from getting to goal? Don't think I haven't considered that.)

Do you have any hobbies?? I recently began a new one and have noticed myself not thinking of food and/or smoking as much. It certainly takes my mind off of them and I've actually found myself making time for a smoke break....think it may be time for me to do something about it myself, huh?

Good luck!

Ahhh, I totally hear you. I quit smoking after I started exercising. Granted, I never was a heavy smoker.....just one here or there when I was bored. My "oral fixation", is drinking, water, tea, coffee, diet pop, you name it. I sure use the restroom a lot, but I always feel satisfied and it keeps me from eating. Good luck girlie. You can totally do this!

I'm sure no one else is going to give you this type of advice... but you might want to wait until you get closer to goal before you try to quit smoking. When I quit I gained about 30 lbs in two months... and then I got pregnant. Here I am almost four years later and still fat.

Smoking is definitely bad for you... really really bad. I just think it's better to take on one challenge at a time and not overwhelm yourself. Cold turkey is definitely the way to go when you do get there. I still crave cigarettes once in blue, and I've had a few since I quit... not recently but when my husband was deployed for a year I smoke probably 2 packs that year.

One thing that helped my oral fixation was getting my tongue pierced... that was in high school though, but I lost about 15 lbs without even trying. I would pierce it again but I just feel like it's not appropriate for nursing school, and I'm a mommy now, and my husband would hate it... but just something to think about.

Congrats on making the decision to quit, thats a big step i think. I recommend the gum/patches, but if you dont want to use them, then I really recommend figuring out what you are going to do instead of smoke. So if you smoke when stressed, what are you going to do instead? If you take smoking breaks at work, what will you do on your breaks instead? Just like eating, its best to be prepared. Some people find it helps to tell other people they are trying to quit because it adds some social responsibility etc etc, other people prefer to keep it to themselves.

I'm sure you have websites and support where you are, but this one has some information about quitting http://www.quit.org.nz/ Obviously if you arent in NZ, then the phone numbers and text things dont apply (unless you want a really big phone bill lol)

Good luck!

I was lucky in that I was able to quit cold turkey, being an all-or-nothing type o' gal myself. But it helped me a lot to chew on flavored toothpicks sometimes (like cinnamon ones or tea tree ones; they sell 'em at Whole Foods in the Body Care area or near checkout), rather than gum. Gum made me hungry; toothpicks gave me something to chaw on and play with (kind of like cherry stems from cocktails), and it felt sassier than blowing big bubbles or cracking gum (which I did, too). Maybe not ladylike, the toothpicks, but it worked for me. It's been 10 years now... cig-free... and it didn't take me long to feel sooo much better once I quit that it was easy to keep up the progress (I used to get bronchitis all the dang time).

What I kept in mind when I was trying:

If you can stick to quitting for at least 40 days consecutively, they say the habit has definitely broken... even the psychological dependence. Doesn't mean a person will never smoke again, just that the craving isn't a compulsion anymore, which means it's wayyyy easier to maintain.

And even if you don't end up quitting for good the first time you try, it's way more likely that you'll be able to the next time, if you've done so before (there are some studies about that). So building up effort is really the main thing. I had to decide to just give it a shot and not feel like the world was riding on it. And I had to make work breaks active, or else I'd go sit in the smoker zone and feel weird about my new decision (temptaaaation!).

Be good to you, and gentle. And remind yourself that all you have to do...is just show yourself what you can do one day at a time. That's how good habits are born! Good luck!! You can make it happen, I promise...


P.S. An intermediate step an ex of mine had good success with: If you find you need one, only smoking some brand/kind you find nasty, to the exclusion of all others, helps to slow down the habit. Meaning whatever that means to you... menthols, cheapo brands, cloves, stale ones, whatever. And he would never bum good ones, either. In fact, he wouldn't bum at all. Just smoke smokes he hated. Eventually, it made him nauseous enough that he couldn't smoke anymore or just never craved 'em. He was once a 2 p/d+ smoker! Easier for me to go cold turkey, but whatever works is good enough!

I have had quite a few people (at least 4 or 5) tell me they had success quitting using Allan Carr's Easy Way to Quit Smoking Book. You could probably even get it from the library.

Thank you so much guys!! I really appreciate all of your advice and encouragement. I'm sorry I havent been able to reply yet... Stupid internet has been out.

Anyways... As much as I fear gaining weight, I am going to try to do this. eeeek!!!

I got a "quitting buddy"!!! She is another 3fc member who contacted me after reading my post. She would like to remain anonymous for right now just cause her fam doesnt know (which I TOTALLY understand) But even though we live half way across the country from eachother, we are actually quite a bit alike! So we are going to try and do this together.

It has been really fun to get to make a new friend and have someone to text and figure out the best way to do this. We are going cold turkey. Just doing this thing!

I found something called "water therapy" which sounds really fancy really it is just drinking a LOT of water. If you get a craving, you drink a bottle of water, if you think about smoking, you drink a bottle of water, if you are around people smoking... yup, you drink a bottle of water! I need to drink more anyway, and this is one way to NOT gain weight while losing. Eventually when you get a craving you just think that you are thirsty instead. So, I'm going to try that.

I have had a few people tell me that I am setting myself up for failure by not using gum, or a patch, or pills... but i just dont like the idea of that.. i feel like that would be exchanging 1 addiction for another type of it... I dunno. just not for me.

My motto for this adventure has become "Go big, or go the F*** home." Lol.

Today is day one.... game on!!!

I'm not a 20-something anymore, but I quit when I was 27. I went cold turkey. If I'm going to do something, I'm going to just do it. That's my personality.

For me it wasn't oral fixation, but a need to be doing something with my hands. So, I started crocheting. A lot. You should think of things to occupy your time, so you don't eat instead.

I quit while planning my wedding--talk about stress--so I think it's doable while losing weight. Just have a plan. You can do it!