I NEED to quit smoking, i started the nasty habit when i was 12 off and on and when I turned 18 it was full blown. The only times ive been ale to quit was when ive been pregnant and then as soon as i was discharged from the hospital i would start again, I dont smoke around the kids or inside and im careful to wash my hand after everytime and even than i know thats not enough.

So I.m asking, anyone out there used to smoke but stopped? What did you do? How did you fill the void?

I think part of the reason i still smoke is because its my 10 min break from reality...please help!

Chantix! It's a prescription pill from your doctor. My mom smoked for 30-something years, and she tried EVERYTHING, quit numerous times and started up again. And then she took Chantix, and hasn't smoked since. Just make sure you finish the WHOLE prescription if you take it.

i have the chantix ready to take again after xmas. i used it this year and quit for 6 months it is amazing!

i think taylor quit this year, or was planning to, hopefully she'll pop in and tell you her tips

I smoked from 17-24. I quit because it was holding me back from making progress with running/jogging and my fitness in general. I had some relapses, but it helped that my DH didn't smoke (save for one every once in a blue moon after drinking) and I never smoked in my house.

I became a serious gum chewer and a big fan of hard candy (cream savers and fire jolly ranchers were my favorites). I figured if I wasn't sucking on candy ALL day then the trade off of a few calories were worth it. And they were

Now, I've actually tried to smoke a couple of times (when I've been drinking) and I can't. It's the funniest thing. My friends refuse to bum me cigs when we go out because I light it and put it out! Also, I know that my workout will suffer the next day and should I decide to run I want to RUN.

You just have to find things that are more important than smoking. Smoking affects your health and your children's (especially if you smoke in your house). It affects what kind of workout you could have. And it smells.

My last job was the first time I'd ever been smoke-free in the workplace. I wondered what I was going to do with my breaks (smokers get lots of breaks, right? )

I decided that even though I wasn't leaving my office everyy couple of hours, I could sneak away for a couple of quick walks with my iPod and that helped with stress a lot.

You absolutely CAN do it. I know how easy it is for a cigarette to help neutralize your stress, but there are much BETTER ways to do it. I've found them

I quit smoking 2 years ago when I found out I was pregnant. I never had another cigarette. I'm sorry I don't have any good tips or tricks really, I just knew I couldn't smoke since I was pregnant and after I had my son I breastfed for a year so smoking was definitely out of the question.

It was extremely hard since I had a super stressful job at the time and my husband has always (and still does) smoke. I'd have these awful dreams that were incredibly realistic where I was just casually having a cigarette and I'd wake up with this horrible pang of guilt until I realized it was a dream.

To this day I still have one of those dreams on occassion but it's less frequent. I also have horrible cravings from time to time but the sheer cost of them and my health keeps me from lighting up again. I use to have chronic bronchitis (in my early 20s!!) and I haven't had a case of it since.

You'll probably be grumpy but take it one day at a time and if you mess up and have a cigarette just get back on the wagon... much like dieting we all fail from time to time but eventually you'll despise the smell of them.

Best of luck.

Thanks girls!
It;s tough, since i dont smoke in the house and its winter now, maybe that will help

My mom is a retired? personal trainer, she used to advise her clients that smoked- and wanted to quit- to start off slow. Pinpoint how many cigerettes you smoke a day and take off a few for a week, and then a few more the next week. You'll slowly start to realize when you want your cigerettes the most, and you'll find out things you can do slowly to replace the cravings, instead of dealing with it all at once. I know the cravings for me are different. Wanting to smoke after a meal is not as hard to fight off as wanting to smoke while I'm drinking- if you deal with those different types of cravings one at time its a lot less stressful.

I quit on Nov 14 (last month) and so far, so good.
To be honest, I quit because I had terrible bronchitis and was hooked up to oxygen in the emergency room for a while. I couldn't really breathe all that week, even when the steroids kicked in, so I couldn't really smoke either.

I saved the wristband and keep it near the cigarette rolling stuff should I have the desire to just have one.

Also, I bought Nicotine gum and haven't opened it yet, but its there in case I need the crutch.

Another thing that helped was that around the 20th, I was really stressed out and had 2 or 3 drags of my boyfriend's cig. It made me feel so terrible! I got dizzy and nauseated. And even the smell of it these days is pretty gross. (So the good news is, after a few weeks, you won't even want to smoke).

Good luck! I would def recommend having a box of nicotine around just in case. If you need it, you have it. There only like 20 bucks at Wal-Mart. And for the first week at least, avoid parties (or if there are bars in your area) with smoking.

Nasty, nasty habit!

I smoked 1-2 packs a day from the time I was 14 until last year. So almost 10 years.

I don't really know how I quit. I had been thinking about quitting for awhile after I found out I had elevated B.P. and then one day I woke up and decided that was it and I haven't had a cigarette since. To be honest it only took a week before the smell and taste became abhorrent to me. For a while after that anytime I wanted a cigarette I would put $3.29 (the cost of a pack of Reds at the shopette) in a jar instead of buying a pack, and run an extra ten minutes for each time I had to put money in the jar. LoL. I have been doing that now for almost 15 months. A few months before my husband left, he had decided to quit too. He didn't talk to me about it, but I noticed there were extra contributions to my no-smoke jar and he didn't smoke at home anymore, nor was he buying any. Not even while he's been overseas. He said he tried to have one a few months ago and it hurt his chest and made him cough all night.

We've got quite a bit of funds in there and we're using it as fun money when we go on vacation to Tangiers, Nice, Athens and Cairo this spring.

It's 99% mental. If it was a true physical addiction then you would be waking up from your sleep to go smoke and you don't. It's just a habit and habits can be changed. Chantix works well for some people, and the patches and gum work great for others. In my experience it was simple enough just to do it by myself, and fyi -- the patches gave me really REALLY bizarre, vivid dreams.

I quit last spring. I'm pretty sure I gained weight when I did but I wasn't weighing myself regularly at the time. I didn't even WANT to quit though. It just started making me nauseous. - the taste was suddenly horrible to me and I just couldn't stand it any more. That after smoking for over 10 years off and on. (I had also quit during pregnancy and breastfeeding) so weird. - anyway- since it basically felt like i was forcing myself to smoke I decided to go with it and just quit. I really enjoyed it. I used to sit outside and smoke while I caught up with my friends on the phone after the kids were in bed. Now I use a hands free and I talk to them while I clean.

I have never been a smoker but my father stopped 2 years ago and he used acupuncture. He went in and had the treatment and then 2 weeks later went in again to have another session. He kept around a lot of gum and hard candy but his cravings were not that bad and he claims it was because of the acupuncture. I don't know if it "really" works or it's just mental...kinnda like a placebo. All I know is that I was happy to see my father quit a habit he had for 42 years. Good luck quitting and I know you can do it

I started smoking when I was 15 years old and quit when I was 21 when I was pregnant with my son. I started again after he was born and have smoked off and on since then. I dno't smoke a lot, somedays I don't smoke at all but I do keep cigs at the house and in my car just in case and I cannot go out for drinks with my girlfriends without having a few.
I've heard good and bad things about chantix, the only bad thing though was that it gave some ppl horridly vivid nightmares. But, its worth looking into if you feel like thats the route you want to go.

I'm not a smoker or ex-smoker, but I recently read this extremely good book about smoking. If you are a smoker, and you want to stop, I think you'd do so immediately when you've read it. I mean, I'm a medical student, obviously I knew that smoking wasn't good for anything. But I didn't know it was quite as bad for you as the book proves. Sadly it's only in Dutch (and it's not very likely that it will be translated, as it's called "Holland Stops! (Smoking)". But something similar must exist in your language.

The book also learned me that nicotin is one of the most addicting substances in existence. Luckily, it doesn't have many physical withdrawal effects, and the addiction to it is gone in 2 or 3 days. After that, it's habit you're battling. It's a very sensible idea to think about the problematic moments beforehand. Which cigarette would you miss gravest? And what are you going to do at that moment when you're not going to smoke that cigarette any more? Kind of like planning for occasions when you're dieting

Good luck!

Wow guys thank you so much, yuve all given me great advice and awesome ideas, my mom (who smoked for 20 years stright and then one day just said she was done) kept telling me that whe i started craving a cigarette, to do some sort of exercise also, I really like the idea of they money jar, esp since when i move back to maine ill be sticking 7.00 in there as opposed to the 3.50 here, so that will add up quickly. Im also one that goes outside while talking to my friends and the idea of a handsfree while im busying myself with something else is great also. If i can help id rather stay away from the meds, and other medical remidies. I cant thank you all enough, like i said great ideas, and Im so happy to get the support! ill keep you updated on how it goes, im starting stopping tomorrow, i decided it!