Sirius

You can eat as much broccoli, cucumber, green pepper that you want. keep a tray of these sliced and peeled near at hand; especially while watching TV. If that doesn't work I recommend Ben and Jerry's double chocolate brownie ice cream. Whatever it takes, you gotta focus on quit smoking FIRST. The rest can come later.

Tony didn't quit cigarettes. Cigarettes quit Tony. ...and only when they were "done" with him.

Took about twenty years to pay off the mortgage and other encumbrances. I am DEBT FREE. The same with smoking. I am my own man. I am SMOKE FREE. Not certain what that means but I sure as hell know what it doesn't mean. I don't bend my knee to the Nicodemon Never again. Not one puff. oh yeah, I don't snore anymore. That was cool.

Nope

I found this over at http://www.emphysema.net/smokers.html I believe it covers the trajectory in excruciating detail.

so far, so NOPE!

Perhaps $162,500 that the tobacco companies don't get. More importantly think of all the time that we have, quite literally, saved. Or the medical costs to society. Or the immense pain those who love us are now spared as we stick around a bit longer. Or the immense pain we might yet avoid from the ravages of nicotine addiction. Keep the faith and let the bonfire continue to burn.

I quit using NRT. The NRT indulges your physical need for nicotine while you come to terms with not smoking. However, NRT doesn't give your body 'jolts' of nicotine like smoking. Instead its a very steady low impact. I did 21 mg NRT for a month. Did 14 mg for two weeks. Did 7 mg for two weeks. Then stopped. Going cold turkey from 7 mg was MUCH easier then from 21 mg. It was still, by far, the biggest step. But it was more a step then the leap you make doing cold turkey. Thing is, after going two months with out smoking, when you do, finally, terminate nicotine, its like your missing something but your not certain what it is, as you've already gone a fair bit without lighting up. After a while this too will pass. Takes a long freaking while in my opinion, but it does pass. The longer you use NRT, the less you associate nicotine with smoking. You still have the physical addiction (reduced a tad), but the mental "habit" of lighting up is ...uh um... ameliorated. <====My big word of the day. Anyhow, that's how it worked for me. Hope your journey is equally successful.

Brandy in the Coffee. :) Hey, it worked.

Nope

22,140 cigarettes, 1,107 empty packs, 111 packs of matches, and 6 bic lighters, 369 feet of receipts for purchased smokes, 18 and half gallons of gasoline (hey, I drove to the store to get smokes). Ummm... You all may wish to stand back as I dump this on the bonfire.... :P

Somebody explained these setbacks as; 3 days, 3 weeks, 3 months. It's a point of time that elapses that you make the internal adjustment. Like switching gears. It's also a point of peril for many.

NOPE

Your awesome! ...the only thing I can play is the radio. :unsure:

nope

N O P E

Rose Quartz...calm, healing, and it looks like the healthy lungs you will soon have.

:RESPECT:

My father died of smoking related causes and I wanted his death to mean something. Somewhere during my quit I had to adjust to the fact that I was quitting for myself as much as to continue a remembrance.

Don't forget the positive distractions. I am positively distracted by these little critters.

My two cents. Reign in your imaginings and visualizations. For instance you may find yourself considering how easy it would be to stop by the corner store after work and pick up a pack of smokes. Nobody would know. You could take a couple puffs and take the edge off. On a cold day the nicotine would hit you like a warm breeze and- ...and your romancing the cigarette. Learn to detect when your mind is wandering off into negative territory and squash the day dream before it gets started. Visualization is the first step in making something possible. Don't visualize buying smokes, bumming smokes, or smoking smokes. Yes, I realize this is a lot like telling people not to imagine a pink elephant. If smoking is the pink elephant then you need to imagine a plaid unicorn, or whatever. You get the idea. Reduce your desire for a cigarette into a small child having a tantrum. Reassure the child that it will be okay. There are many ways to deal with visualizations. Enjoy the journey of discovery.

Been there. Sharp shake of the head and drive on. Nothing to see here. Move along.

The numbers seem to suggest that it's easy enough to quit but difficult to maintain a 100% quit. You can't quit all week long and take a break from it on Saturday night. Well you can but then your not quitting. You're merely cutting back. Sadly, those of us attempting to quit seem to have to learn about these pitfalls first-hand. When experiencing a nicotine fit the junkie thinking pretzel logic is truly a wonder to behold. Regardless, I like to think that each attempt arms us with greater resolve and a better understanding about what needs to be done. For those of us with years of successful quitting the real danger is a significant life event that unhinges us. I don't have advice for this other then to recognize the threat. If your spouse or child dies, or an earthquake levels your home, or you get drafted into a major land war, etc.

Was doing some light reading over here Medical Study Basically the study interviews a bunch of ex-smokers and asked them how long ago they'd quit. Two years later they re-interviewed them to see if they had stayed smoke-free. The study showed failure rates at various lengths of time from the point they quit. Less then one month into a quit.............88% failure rate. one to three months...............................75% failure rate. three to six months.................................48% failure rate. six months to 12 months........................40% failure rate. 1 to 2 years............................................24% failure rate. 3 to 4 years............................................10% failure rate. 5 to 9 years.............................................4.4% 10 or more..............................................2.2% So if you'd quit smoking for over ten years odds were pretty good you still be a non-smoker two years later whereas somebody who was initially interviewed having quit less then six months ago would only have a 50/50 chance of having stayed smoke-free two years later. <===and that, folks, is a run on sentence! Fewer than one in eight former smokers who had abstained for a month or less at baseline were continuously abstinent over the next 2 years. What does all of this mean? As an individual trying to quit it doesn't mean a damn thing. You are responsible for your success or failure regardless of what any study or survey reports. Okay that was my drill sergeant sounding off again. Perhaps a cautious optimism that the longer your journey the easier it gets. At the same time, a note of caution that even people who haven't smoked in ages can still fail.