I'm going to need a little extra support for awhile. I've decided that I'm done with smoking, for good, even when I drink beer. I hadn't planned on quitting for a New Year's Resolution because I tend (as most people do) to break New Year's Resolutions. It just sort of happened. My friend Mindy said she just took it one day at a time, and she's been smoke free (minus a drag here and there when she's at the bar) since November 14. If Mindy can do it, I can do it. And coincidentally, I smoked the last cigarette in the pack on my way home last night.

It's time for me to be healthy and I can't claim to be healthy if I'm still a smoker, no matter how much I diet and exercise. I'm just praying that I don't gain a ton of weight. Most people gain 25-40 lbs after they quit. I would kill myself.

ANYWHO, just thought I'd let you know. Forgive me if I am crabby at all during the course of the next few weeks. I haven't felt any cravings at all today, but I also haven't had any stress and I haven't left the house. I have a feeling that I may look like this sometime in the next week.

I have a friend at work who is a nurse and she has been smoke free for about 2 weeks. We're all encouraging her.

Weezle if you saw what I saw you wouldn't want to smoke. Hugs and prayers for you!

You go girl! That is an awesome thing to do for yourself and I know how hard it is. This February marks 2 years smoke free for me and I am so thrilled about it! You can do it!!!

Good Luck!!!

AmyB

I am right there with you! We can do it!
I have a plan:
1. Do my best to avoid situations where people smoke especially in the beginning
2. Call friends who smoke on the phone, tell them my plans, enlist their support, and ask them to not smoke around me as much as possible
3. Chew sugarfree gum! LOL!

Hey girl I just have one thing to say to you. I quit when I was about your age (judging from the photo) well, I quit Jan 2 1985 which was my 25th birthday.

I'm here to tell ya -- IT WAS WITHOUT DOUBT THE BEST DECISION I EVER MADE IN MY WHOLE LIFE. I'm so proud and happy today that I did that. I would be so bummed (and possibly dead, not to mention BROKE!) to have been smoking away all these years!

Talkin' 20 years down the road here. Like, I've been to HS reunions and the girls who smoked are TOAST more or less! It's really a very destructive habit.

Can I tell you the things that worked for me?

1. DELAY TACTIC: ie, "If I want a cig in 20 minutes (or 40, or an hour,) I'll have one.

2. SWIM SWIM SWIM! Maybe not so easy in non-coastal areas, but you can't smoke when your swimming.

3. BUSY HANDS? Do you knit? THEN TIME TO LEARN...

4. AROMA THERAPY! Buy tons of expensive stuff for your hair and skin, use your cig money! If your hair smells like some kind of tropical dream, ask yourself if you want it to smell like stale cigs instead. CUZ IT WILL. IF you keep smoking.

5. Visualize yourself down the road. Do you want to be a 50 year old smoker, or a 50 year old non-smoker? Be that person TODAY, and it will all work out!

PLEASE KEEP TRYING...IT'S WORTH IT I PROMISE! Including, put of the wieght thing IMO, if it is too hard to do both, because a year or two or not smoking, and you're free of it. Dieting is a lifelong struggle either way since you gotta EAT after all! You don't gotta smoke. GOOD LUCK!

Hey thanks girls. I really appreciate your support. I'm on Day 2 Smoke-free (of course I still haven't left the house) but I'm already doing that coughing thing where my body is trying to get rid of all the crap in it. I started the coughing last night. I really haven't wanted one yet, but I also haven't been around smoke at all, been driving my car, haven't had to work, haven't been to a bar, etc.

K8EEE, lucky guess on the age. I'll be 26 in May. And there is NO WAY I'm doing this for Terry. This is 100% for me. I've quit for Terry 3 times in the past, and it never works because I was doing it for him, not for me. I didn't WANT to quit. And then, I'd resent him because it was HIS fault (in my mind) that I couldn't have one. This is all me.

I'm just going to try to work out if I get a craving. The hardest part is going to be when I'm at karaoke or at the club we belong to, but if I'm not smoking, I figure I'll drink less, so it's going to be a win-win situation. Right?

Thanks again for everyone's support.

Yay Weezle! You can do it!

You go girl. You can do it.

Think about all that money you'll be saving after you quit smoking. You can buy more new clothes or redecorate something, go on a cool vacation things like that. Plus your lungs will thank you so much. http://www.quitsmokingsupport.com/lungphotos.htm has pictures of heatlhy lungs and smokers lungs, plus a lot of really great information.

My cousin quit smoking and gained a lot of weight. It turned out that the cigarettes kind of dulled the taste buds somehow and when she finally quit it was like everything tasted so much better she couldn't get enough of it. Once she realized that food was always going to taste better she kind of chilled out and lost the weight.

You can do it! Take it minute by minute if you have to. Sometimes day by day is a little too much to handle, stay in the right now-right now I don't want a cigarette I can wait until later.



Sarah

Wishing you tons of luck! I can tell by your motivation that you're going to do it this time. My DH is a smoker, I am not. Everytime he quits for me, it never lasts. I've decided to lay off (after all, he was a smoker when I married him -- ya know?) and when he wants to quit, he'll quit. (I suspect when he starts seeing results with weight loss, he's going to want to go the whole nine.)

You could always try coming to the boards if you feel like a ciggie, too. Boards are very busy...someone will be around to talk you down, or just get your mind completely off of it.

(((hugs)))

Did anyone see the commericals on the Today show a few days ago? They are part of a non-smoking campaign & are only being aired in the state of New York. They are pretty graphic & gross. They show an actual brain of a smoker.....it's so gross. I'm an ex-smoker (no cigs for about 3 years!) If I would of seen these before hand, I would have never started!!

The good news as I see it is that this generation coming up, they really seem to be giving up the cigs, judging by my kids friends....they think smoking is disgusting and something old people do. Not that they are perfect but the smoking seems to be rather out of fashion for the under 18 crowd (and whether the cig companies admit it or not -- that's who they want to hook, people usually don't turn 21 and then start smoking.)

I started smoking at 15 AS PART OF A HAREBRAINED STUPID DIET!!! Can you believe that? I must have weighed all of 125. So I decided to live on Tab and cigs. Very brilliant...NOT...I'd give anything to have the muscular swimmer's legs I hated so much then, dieting and smoking aren't conducive to being on the swim team so much -- I've never been in such great shape but too stupid to know it at the time. I just wanted to fit into "boys" (straight hipped) jeans...kinda sad when I think of it because I just would have never accepted myself, because I didn't look like the ideal at the time which was flat-chested, tall and skinny. Everybody starts smoking for stupid reasons but as a food substitute, that's extra stupid....

No, I haven't seen those commercials down in here in Georgia. But I have seen a lot of the Truth commercials.

I was just telling my DH last night, if it weren't for those Truth commercials, I don't think ANY child would be discouraged to smoke by the television. (Not that kids should be getting their messages from TV...) I watched The Skeleton Key the other night and Kate Hudson was puffing away on a cig. Of course I didn't give it much thought at the time (being a non-smoker and having no desire to start up), but thinking about it later, I wonder how many influential girls watched that movie? (Of course this could start a huge discussion on role models and their behaviors, so I won't get into that one...LOL)

I will say down here in the South, it's disheartening to see babies smoke. (Not BABIES babies...but kids that can't be any older than 13). My husband, himself, started smoking at 13, so I guess it's pretty common to start early, then?

Well dammit. I went out tonight and had beer (when you're on WW you're allowed beer) and I wanted a damned smokie all night. I didn't have one, but I'm a CRAB. Just thought you'd all like to know.

BUT YOU DIDN"T HAVE ONE! That's the important part My friend smoked around me tonight too and I also didn't have one! (but I wanted one)