I need a...
 

CIGARETTE!!!

I'm bribing myself to quit smoking. I finally hit that pack a day mark and said enough was enough. So, each night, I'm putting the left over cigarettes in a jar, and at the end of each week, each cigarette is worth $.20 (what I paid for them).

OK...easy enough....I had 5 left...they're in the jar...AND I NEED ONE....

But I can't have one. I'm nic fitting, and instead of smoking, I'm eating everything in sight. Lung cancer or obesity? Which one do I choose?

X

Great advice elmuyloco!
I am also battling the cancer sticks right now. I hit the half pack mark and said something had to change. Unfortunately I didn't realize I was smoking half a pack until a good ways into my weight loss. I am trying to cut back to 8 a day, then 6 a day, then 3 a day as I had originally started at and smoked for the first couple of years.

Then, when I am getting close to goal weight, I want to quit all together. It iss a tough demon to fight off, but I also agree concentrate on the weight first, because for me it has been easier to battle the food than the cigs, and impossible to do both at once. I tried, but I found myself binging for comfort.

I have to disagree with elmuyloco5--quitting smoking is far better for your health! If you have to choose one or the other, get rid of the cigarettes. Do whatever you have to do, and remember, having "just one" will NOT help. This is a former smoker talking! I know it's terrible, but you can do it!

You don't have to choose one or the other, fortunately--although it might be easier to maintain your weight while quitting than to lose.

By the time you make it through a month tobacco-free, you should be able to resume weight loss in earnest.

Jay

Yup. Quit smoking first. I'm a 2 pack a day smoker (not trying to quit) and I can't imagine trying to diet and quit smoking at the same time! The trouble is that if you lose weight first (which, lets face it, is going to take a lot longer) you'll be likely to gain weight when you get around to quitting smoking. I tried to quit smoking once and I gained 10lb in about 6 weeks. It took me years to get around to losing that weight, along with the rest of it.

I think Jay is right. Quit smoking, try to keep your eating in check while you do so, but forgive yourself if you eat like a madwoman while you're getting over the initial deprivation. Try to nic-out on carrot sticks :) Once the smoking is taken care off, weight loss can begin in earnest, and think how much easier exercise will be once your lungs have recovered a bit!

I agree, get rid of the cigarettes, quitting smoking is much more important. You can still succeed with your weight loss without them.

Oh Girl, I sure can feel your pain on quitting smoking!! I had tried many, many tempts to give up cold turkey..but I certainly am not strong enough..weight loss and quitting is way to hard for me. So I have set a quitting date after Labor Day and will ask my mental health doctor if he can prescribed Chantix.. Have done research on it and heard it supposed to help with that pesky nidodemon. Hang in there and wish you much, much luck on quitting that habit!! Much power to ya!! :) :hug:

Liliann, I like your plan! I'm a fan of Richard Simmons' tapes, although I haven't done one lately. :D

Jay

Altari: Do you like Fluidity?

Has anyone else tried it?

I'm using the Bar Method workout right now, but the Fluidity program looks very cool to me. I have fibromyalgia and schleroderma and so I'm always looking for low/no impact exercises because my joints give me trouble.

quitting smoking was easy for me, but then i was pregnant so i had no option except to go cold-turkey. heck before that i was on drugs too... and even that was easy (but everyone is different, and don't beat yourself up that it's not easy for you). try to remember you won't die without them (but likely will with them). just wake up each day and decide if you're a smoker or a non-smoker and be that - there really is no inbetween. food is altogether different... so much easier (IMO) to quit something that you never have to pick up again. you can do it!

I feel exactly opposite. I can have a bad day of eating, and not totally ruin my diet..but one cigarette causes me to "need" to have more and more. SO for me dieting is easier than quiting smoking. I am trying to make small steps to reduce the amount I smoke AS I lose weight..But I would rather get to goal and then deal with 10 or so vanity pounds from quiting smoking, rather than quit smoking now and see myself balloon right back up over 200 pounds. I fear that it might cause me to fail at both weightloss and quiting smoking.

X

^^^^^^^ What she said :D :D

Well... those are some very good points, elmuyloco, but I still have to disagree. Smoking is bad for every organ system of the body. 90% of lung cancer cases are in people who smoke. And aside from cancer, smoking also causes emphysema and other chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). It contributes to cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and high cholesterol. It turns your skin leathery. This is not even looking at what a dirty habit it is, how smokers reek of smoke, how ashes and smoke coat the house just as they do the lungs, and how dangerous lit cigarettes are. I've never been in a smoker's house that didn't have burn marks somewhere, no matter how careful they were.

The health risks of smoking do not go away when one loses weight, but many of the risks of obesity are lessened when one quits smoking.

Given the choice between being an obese smoker and an obese nonsmoker, I'd go for the latter.

Physical activity is an important part of an ongoing weight control plan, and I am one who knows that it's very hard to exercise if you smoke.

So--yes, do both if you can, but if you can't, give up the cigarettes.

Jay

X

I am enjoying reading both sides of this discussion! Very interesting and valid points on both ends :)

I quit smoking AND lost weight. But NOT at the same time. I wouldn't even attempt it. Quitting smoking is much faster. Losing weight can take a year or more, depending on the amount you need to lose, and then there's the lifetime of maintaining the loss. But smoking you can stop, and within weeks, it will get easier, within months, you'll be heading into the home stretch. Then you could consider the weight. In the meantime, just try not to gain. Get some sugar free gum or candy to pop in your mouth as a substitute. After a little over a year of no smoking, I no longer even reached for gum or candy.

I have to do a pitch for the patch here. I smoked a pack a day and quit about 8 years ago on the patch.

It's funny I had started slowly losing weight (like 10 lbs nothing major) and then decided to quit. My brother had quit with the patch and gained 50 lbs, which he then lost.

For some reason I didn't gain at all, I maintained for about a month and then I started losing weight again. I was crazy dedicated to exercise, and I really watched what I was eating because of seeing how it affected him, but overall it wasn't that horrible.

If anyone is really trying to quit and hasn't tried the patch you should, it helped me so much.

Good luck, whatever you do, it's so nice to be a non-smoker.

elmuyloco, you said this:

You're right--there's no way of knowing because we don't know Altari's medical condition or health issues. But all things being equal, we can still have opinions about which is more dangerous. Your opinion is as valid as anyone else's.

Altari--you should ask your doctor about this. He or she will tell you which would be better. :yes:

How do you know that? Well... I don't think you do! Because you don't know Altari's medical condition or health issues! So, you're using statistics, too. :)

I'm curious--are you a former smoker, elmuy? The reason I ask is that not everyone can quit by cutting down on one cigarette a day. Is this how you did it?

I quit cold turkey--both times. :) Some people do better with the patch. Again, Altari, it would be good to ask your doctor about this.

Jay

X

No offense taken! Or intended. :)

Jay

i think each person has to decide for themselves what approach will work for them... but i applaud anyone who's doing their best to strive toward a healthier lifestyle - smoking or eating-wise. with baby steps, hopefully we'll all wind up where we'd like to be.