Hey everyone. For those of you that don't know me, I am a 20 year-old newlywed that has come a long way on my fitness quest. I have been doing weight watchers for about a year and I am very close to goal. I eat very healthy food and exercise regularly. The problem...I smoke. I am sick and tired of smoking and I was wondering if anyone is in the same boat. I feel that a lot of my healthy habits are going down the drain because of this stupid vise. If anyone has any suggestions on quitting or if anyone can join me for support, I would really appreciate it!

Thanks,
Meredith

I smoked for years and was nearly up to 2 packs a day. Never even wanted to quit but the rules in my workplace were getting tougher and the cost of cigarettes was getting higher and my doctor's warnings were getting stronger. Fortunately, I was able to quit on my first attempt and I did it with the nicotine patch. I'm not saying it was easy. For the first three days I cried a lot feeling as if I'd lost my best friend. I also gained a lot of weight even though I joined a fitness class after the first month or so.
For me, the major benefit was losing a recurring, unsightly rash that kept cropping up on my face, shoulders, arms and chest. Dermatologists could never figure out what caused it but I sure hated it because it had the appearance of ringworm. Sometimes it would grow in circles like donuts and sometimes those circles would join together like the Olympic symbol. Within three days of giving up cigarettes, the rash was gone never to reappear. Now it couldn't have been nicotine causing it because I was on the nicotine patch. I figure it was all the other poisons they began putting in cigarettes to get us more addicted causing the rash because I only started getting it the last five years I smoked.
Anyhow, when this rash cleared up I vowed then and there that I'd never smoke again and I haven't. To tell you the truth, after the third month, I began to hate the smell of smoke and nagged my hubby all the time not to smoke in the house because it was making me sick. Now I feel like I've always been a non-smoker. Now if I could only get rid of the 50 lb I gained. .....
Anyhow, if I can do it so can anybody but the patch really helped me. I highly recommend it.
LindaBC

I used the patch too! I was a smoker for about 20 years, from the age of 15 til 35. I just got sick of it. I lit up a cigarette one morning and said, "this tastes like crap!" Like Linda it was really tough at first. Once I got past the 3 week hurdle I was okay. I did gain a little weight, but I was heavy while I was smoking too though. I think I gained some weight cuz food just tasted so darn good! While you're smoking it seems to mask flavors and smells etc.
I can't begin to tell you how much better I started feeling after just a few months. I felt better, looked healthier...and wasn't spending almost a thousand dollars a year.
Meredith, I don't think you'd ever regret trying. **hug**

Smoke free since March 20th 1993.

All the best to you,
Peace

~Judy

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~Nothing tastes as good as losing weight feels~

[This message has been edited by HippyChick (edited 02-15-2001).]

Thank you ladies! I tried the patch before but I don't think I was serious enough. I would wear it for a day and then not the next day. This time I really want to quit. I start the pills tomorrow so I think that little extra kick might do me good.

Its great to hear that you both have won the battle. I would rather be a few pounds heavier than cough and smell and freeze my butt off in the cold smoking! Thanks again, I need all the help I can get!

Dear Meredith,

Here's what I've done - AND - it has possibly been the hardest thing I have ever done. That being said, I am closing in on my 15th month of not smoking.

I had smoked for almost 30 years. At the time I stopped I had a 2-pack a day habit, sometimes opening the third pack as well. Besides being a social outcast in increasing numbers of situations, I was becoming more and more bronchial, common colds were lasting months instead of weeks and almost every cold eventually turned into bronchitis. I had started an exercise program and joined a gym. But what I found was that my lungs, my breath was giving out long before my limbs - especially in step classes and on the treadmill - I just couldn't do it. And I had this funny, sick, doomed feeling that if I didn't quit before 2000 dawned, I never would.

Here's what I did (finally, huh?)

First, I worked really hard the summer of 1999 to take of some serious weight. I wanted to make sure I had a safe base from which to gain some weight if I HAD to without totally freaking out. By the time I was ready to quit, I had lost almost 40 pounds.

Then I did some work with a therapist. She was a hypnotherapist and although I didn't choose to be hypnotized, we did a lot of relaxation and meditation work - training me to go to a relaxing place in my head when I needed to. We also did some age regression work where I could go back to the early days of my smoking (early teens) and remember how awful inhaling once felt. I could also go back to times I was so sick with bronchitis and remember the chest pains and how scary that was.

My therapist and doctor and I decided that the patch and gum were not for me. I have a pretty obsessive personality and there really is no such thing as "a little" nicotine for me.

HOWEVER, I was not interested in cold turkey either. So - we decided to go with Zyban (Welbutrin) - an anti-depressant that has been useful in smoking cessation. The usual way to handle this is to begin taking the prescription a week to 10 days before your pre-selected quit date and to try cutting back during that week to 10 days. Then, you stay on it for three more months with a possible renewal of three more. My doctor wanted me to quit so badly that she said she'd allow me to stay on it for a year or more if I needed to.

On November 18th I set my quit date for November 30th. I was TOTALLY resistant to quitting as part of a New Year's Eve 2000 thing. I really wanted to enter the Millenium as a non smoker - not as a trying to quitter.

On November 30, 2000, at 7:14 p.m., I put out my last cigarette.

For the next three months I lived on hard sugar-free candies (I am a diabetic) and water, water, water. And my eating did increase. And I craved salty things. And I gained back 35 of the 40 pounds I had lost in preparation to quitting.

The Zyban and the meditation really did the trick for me. I also started a yoga class and asked the instructor for some help and she gave me some breathing exercises and poses to help when I felt I was in trouble.

There were two side-effects to the Zyban that were difficult. One was intense thirst and dry mouth. No problem really - I just drank lots more water. The other was sleep interruption. That was a hard one for me. Because I was also starting menopause (timing is everything - huh?) and was losing sleep with that. Add the effects of the drug and I was averaging about 4 hours uninterrupted sleep a night - NOT GOOD. Basically, I took myself off the stuff after a month and a half - mid January 2001. And amazingly, it didn't seem to impact my not smoking at all.

Yes it was hard. That whole first year I had to go through a series of "firsts" without smoking. (Sort of like the first year after a break up I could imagine in some ways). Simple things like my first holiday dinner not smoking while I cooked. My first symphony not going outside to smoke at intermission. The first time I didn't light up while waiting for a subway or a bus. FIrst time making love without lighting up afterwards. First fight with hubby without a cigarette. Others were more complex - first trip to Europe (where it seems EVERYONE over 14 is constantly smoking in cafes); first all-nighter studying or writing without a cigarette, etc. I dealt with also by journaling it - all these firsts.

There still are triggers that jump up and bite me when I least expect it. And I still want to smoke - EVERY DAY. But, and this is key, I no longer want to smoke ALL DAY - EVERY DAY. And I can only assume that will get easier and easier.

In many ways I am still afraid to think of myself as a non-smoker. Much like an alcoholic, I tend to simply identify myself as a smoker who is choosing not to smoke today.

Hope this helped even a little bit. I wish you all the luck and strength in the world. You can do this, you really can.

Lemonade




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Shalom

Yes, biggest accomplishment of my life was quitting smoking 15 years ago. I had tried SmokeEnders once and went back 6 weeks later when I "just had a hit off my old brand" at a party.

I tried once more and succeeded -- during a bad cold (which I realize you can't plan...)Since it's alot easier not to smoke when you're sick, I counted the couple of days when I was really sick as "two days down." I also used an old SmokeEnders' trick -- when I felt like a cigarette, I took a really deep breath -- because that's really what I wanted when I smoked anyway.

To this day, when I even touch a Bic lighter, I still get the urge but it's amazing how old habits may die hard, but eventually they do go away.

I attended an in-service at my hospital re: smoking. They figure your habit at "pack years." If you smoked one pack for 15 years, that's 15 pack years. Two packs for 8 years is 16 pack years and so on. 20 pack years is really asking for trouble.

We just buried my beloved mother in law who smoked for about 90 pack years. Believe me, lung cancer is not the way you want to go and if you smoke, it's almost a guarantee -- if the heart disease doesn't get you first.

The great news is the rate at which your body regenerates itself after you quit. So the very best of luck to you -- pretend your doctor ordered you to stop or you would die in 2 months. My MIL had to quit the day she found out she had to have one of her lungs removed and funny after 45 years of smoking she finally did it.


[This message has been edited by HospitalWriter (edited 02-16-2001).]

I agree with Lemonade. I have never smoked but I am cardiac nurse and MANY of my patients smoke. Wellbutrin, Zyban and Ativan are being used very successfully without having to use the patch. The patch has nicotine which constricts the arteries around the heart. This can compromise a heart patient and can CAUSE a heart attack if you smoke while wearing the patch.

Quiting NOW before you have a heart problem is less stressful than trying to quit when your Dr tells you that you also have to lose weight,exercise and reduce stress ALL AT THE SAME TIME (and dealing with a heart problem).
Sorry for the sermon. Just trying to help. Good Luck

[This message has been edited by 2BFIT1 (edited 02-17-2001).]

Meredith - Hey pal! I have never smoked - but I wanted to wish you well!! You can do this! Hang in there and soon enough you will be smoke free. I am sure of it! See you on the owls Tara

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[email protected]

Failure is not falling down, failure is staying down!

After several tries and not being able to quit and stay quit, and obsessing about smoking all the time (my quit time lasted from 2 weeks to 2 years), I finally found the right combination. I did hypnosis, Zyban and Nicorette gum. I started the Zyban 2 weeks before my quit date but started to taper down immediately. Right before my quit date I was down to about 8 cigarettes a day. Then I did hypnosis and started the next day. I stopped smoking after hypnosis, but used the tapes they gave me at the hypnosis at least once a day (it's a very relaxing meditative type tape that reinforces the hypnosis). Some of my friends attended the hypnotist with me but didn't use the tapes once a day as suggested and started smoking again. Also, once I was fully quit I started using about 2-3 pieces of Nicorette a day. My husband who was a 3-4 pack a day smoker (smoked WHILE he ate, smoked IN the shower, smoked CONSTANTLY) tried the same strategy except he had a reaction to the Zyban (weird feeling) and hated the gum so he used hypnosis and the patch. I kept telling him you were just supposed to park the gum up in between your gum and your cheek but he keep chewing/spitting out. Yeech. He didn't like the gum, I didn't like the patch. At first I didn't like the gum either but I found it helped a lot so I got used to it. Find what you like and use it. I also changed my routine for about a month. I smoked when I was at my computer so I stopped sitting there as much. I walked a lot to change my "smoking cue" places. Anyway, I stayed on Zyban 16 weeks and used the gum about 3-4 times a day for about 16 weeks. After 16 weeks I chewed one or two pieces for the first 6 months (they tell you to stop the gum at about 12 weeks but I never used the full daily amount and I felt like using it for 20 weeks was better than going back to smoking). My husband also went back on the patch once or twice in the first year as did a friend of mine. The other thing I did was STAY AWAY FROM CIGARETTES. The other times I quit I tried to be a "nice" exsmoker and let people smoke in my home and my car. Not this time. I became one of those exsmokers that smokers love to hate. I became a vehement antismoking person (and I was someone who once belonged to Smokers Rights groups!!!). It's *my* health, and I need to protect it.
Anyway, I will celebrate THREE years smoke free on March 13th!!! My husband faltered a few times at first and had to start over again twice in the first few months but he will be smoke free 3 years in June. It can be done!!!!!!! GOOD LUCK.

My 43 yr old daughter was home 3 months this winter and quit smoking. She used the patch. When she left to travel again I remarked to her how proud I was of her. The bedroom didn't stink after she left and she never smoked in the house or in her truck. I never heard her coughing after she started with the patch. She also didn't have one cold while she was here. I just hope after all the money she put out on the patches that she won't be tempted to start up again. She decided to quit when excess walking winded her. I wish you success and know you will be healthier if you do quit.

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Ann P

Congratulations to all of you who have quit smoking and good luck to those trying to quit.

Meredith,
I have never smoked regularly; did try it a few times when I was younger. I just had to respond as you have my oldest daughter's name & I have some personal experience that may help. Lots of others have given you good advice regarding what helped them. I have watched several people in my family die as a result of smoking & that is something that you never want your children to see. My father died at age 49 of a massive coronary, I was 6 years old at the time & recall him getting on the stretcher alive & being dead when we arrived at the hospital 5 minutes later. My mother died at age 67 after suffering for over 3 years with emphysema. It was heart-wrenching for me to watch her suffer so; I was 25 & without parents. My sil died at age 58 due to bone cancer. My brother is going in for heart surgery this week. Another sister coughs constantly & can't walk a block without breathing problems. What did all these people have in common? All were smokers. I guess that is why I tried it but never became addicted. My mom quit the day the Dr. told her she had emphysema but it was too late to save her life. You are young, quit now & you can stay healthy for yourself, your new hubby, & any kiddos that come along. They will thank you for it!! I hope my story isn't too harsh, but reality is often harsh. Best wishes for a smoke-free life.

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Everyone, have a great OP day, Dee (PoohsHunny) ~~It’s not what you’re going to do someday but what you are doing today that counts~~ Napoleon Hill

You can do it!

Quitting smoking is one of the best things you can do for yourself and for those around you. I quit smoking 12-30-00. I have almost 2 months under my belt and I have to tell you it feels great! I have more energy-things taste better and I can actually live my new healthy lifestyle.
I quit cold turkey. It kind of just clicked for me. It is a hard thing to go through at first but it does get easier! I chewed hard candies, chowed on cut-up veggies and walked whenever I had a craving. Walking in December in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan is a big deal because we get tons of snow. The actual walking isn't a big deal but putting on all that snow gear when you wanna stab someone, anyone in the eye with a spoon is. The cravings were bad for me for about 5 days, then it became easier. It does take dedication that's for sure.
I also checked out websites to learn what other people did to quit. Drink lots of water, exercise, exercise and more exercise. I was pretty lucky and only gained 3 pounds in 3 weeks but that wasn't a concern for me at the time. I knew how to get weight off and figured it would all balance out.
Well good luck and hang in there! It is so worth it to quit. You will notice huge results real quick I promise you! You will be able to exercise without losing your breath and wake up without hacking. Your clothes and hair will not smell anymore and your skin will start looking better too. Not to mention you heart and lungs will love you.
Good luck!

YooperChick

Thank you all sooooo much! This is exactly what I needed. I am on Zyban, I double the dose tomorrow. I have noticed a change already. I have had the same pack last me 3 days (I'm used to 1 to 1 1/2 packs a day).

I have frequented the gym and have also come to this board when a craving hits. I'm not quite there yet, but when I am I have you wonderful people to thank! Your stories are wonderful and inspirational. I can do this, thanks for showing that to me!

Thanks,
Meredith

All I can say is....
DON'T QUIT QUITTING!!!!!!