NO SMOKING!

             This is a thread for anyone wanting to finally quit smoking, or for ex smokers that are willing to help us. Give us your stories, ideas, suggestions. What works, what doesn't. Just help each other. Track your progress. Post everyday. WHEN do you smoke?  WHAT are your triggers? With will power, I've gone from a pack a day, to half a pack a day. I don't know how long that will last. I'm starting this thread because of the good people on chess.com that are giving me encouragement. 

        GOOD for you and god bless you  Pawn_Pusher_Dan is doing very good also, using the gum.  That seems to be the concensus. Don't stop trying.

I smoked for years on and off... since about 14. I quit for good about 14 years ago. Prior to that i would quit and start again. I quit about 35 times before it stuck. what helped me was that everytime i started again, i would eliminate a place where i smoked previously and make it off limits. So at first it was  not in the morning with coffee, then not at night before bed, then not in my house, then not in my car, not at work, etc... finally the only place i smoked was with some friends that i had. i stopped that too. so by the time i finally quit, i was smoking just a few cigarettes a day and  it was much easier to give it up. good luck everyone. Cigarettes are expensive and disgusting. hang in there, your lungs and clothing will thank you.

Ron , I started smoking at 16, smoked for 20 years, a pack a day. Tried cutting down, but that was no good, the numbers always crept up again.

 I just fixed a day, decided to stop on that day, and did.  The key is to really want to quit, there are aids like gum now that can help but its in the head , saying " Ill never smoke again" and meaning it.

I took a massive vitamin C supplement , but not sure it made a difference.IF you really want to quit you will.

Your health will improve, your clothes, house will smell better, you will save money, your taste will improve.

As with Dan we will give you total support.

ps..... Its soon going to be 30 years since my last cig, if I could do it, so can you.

Would just add that cutting down on one thing at a time is advisable!

Leave other things ( coffee or whatever )for another time!

When you get to the end of one, light the next one before the previous one goes out. This will reduce stress from constant thoughts of wanting to kick Abu's teeth down his throat at the convenience store due to his constant lieing about "we out of matches". Abu thinks he will eventually get a nickel raise by helping manager zing save on the bottom line.

This reduction in stress will eventually lead to weening down and finally totally quitting. It will also prevent a costly arrest for assault thus saving more money for future huffing pleasure.

Tip 2. Move south. It took 5 times repeating the brand name and incessant head shaking and emphatic pointing but the language and idiot barrier was finally bridged and a fresh pack was procured for $3.24

Good luck to you man. This coming from a guy who's smoked for 18 years now. After coming out of my coma, the first damn thing I wanted was a cigarette (and a Sierra Mist and some cranberry juice... not sure where the hell that came from, as I hadn't drank either of those before). But, with no family for 400 miles to visit me and take me outside (hospital policy), the nurses gave me nicotine patches... and I think they upped my meds to shut me up. When I finally managed to bug my doctors enough to release me (and I really did bug them. Like a trained bloodhound, I would track them through the hospital ward, learning where their workstations were so I could pounce on them when they sat down and grill them again about when my discharge was coming), first thing I did when I got outside was ask for a smoke. It tasted like smoking stale garbage. I had to fight, stupid as I was, to pick up the habit again. Took 2 days for that nasty taste to turn into something pleasurable again. And now I want to quit, but don't stand a chance in hell. Cigs turned into crutches for stress relief. Giving them up right now is out of the question if I'm to conquer another vice. I want to quit, but it aint in the cards right now.

Then there's my Grandma. She had smoked for going on 60 years... and one day quit cold turkey. She told me that it took 2 weeks. 2 weeks of slipping up, trying to fight the cravings. Then on week 2, after days without one, she slipped up and said it tasted so horrible that she knew she was done. She went smoke free until her passing earlier this year. So that tells me it can be done. Just gotta want it enough (and in my case, lose the reasons not to)

I don't smoke (never have done and never will), but how's this for will power:

Zero sweets (biscuits, cakes, fizzy drinks (I drink only water and tea), and other sweet stuff)

Zero processed foods (Nothing will a long list of strange-sounding ingredients; no fructose (or any added sugar for that matter; sugar is hidden in many things, want to know how much added sugar I eat in a day? ZERO), splenda, aspartame, white grains (or any grains at all for that matter!), vegetable oils, or any other processed "food".

Zero alcohol (I've never had an alcoholic beverage in my life).

This being said however, I do sometimes get exposed to second hand smoke, which annoys the hell out of me .

I can tell you how i quit RJC;

I would buy a pack, smoke 1 cigarette and throw the rest away where i knew i couldn't get at them.   When i wanted another smoke i would go buy a pack and repeat.   The financial strain helped in holding off the urge to smoke another cigarette and it took about a month to quit for good.

At the time i had the desire to quit but lacked the willpower.  The cost involved helped me to obtain the willpower.

All sorts:

Fruit (namely goji berries and avocados)

Vegetables

Nuts

Butter, cheese, and cream (never the low fat stuff)

Cacao powder and nibs

Meat and poultry

Eggs

Coconut oil

Olive oil (don't cook with it though)

Linseed

Fish

Herbs and spices

Whey protein (does this count?)

I don't eat out if I can avoid it.

There's several "soft" ways of quit smoking, if you feel the desire is overwhelming when you reduce a good ammount, then obviously reduce it more gradually.

Good soft ways of quit smoking involves things like reducing just one cigar gradually like 1 per week around that, and grain by grain, eventually quite smoking in less than 3 months, it's so soft that you'll reach the point that you don't even desire that 1 cigar anymore. I don't really quit smoking because i do it at least socially, or with the  coffee or after meals if it feels right, helps my anxiety from time to time, but i can consistently reduce from smoking around 2 packs per day to just 3-5 cigars just by reducing gradually, and i happen to be just fine with just those cigars.

Another thing that helps alot, is that i stopped smoking from pack, and started to buying by the ounce. It helps alot that you have to make your cigars instead of instinctivelly grab one from the pack, since you have greater control and less motivation to keep making cigars everytime, so it's easy to simply reduce the ammount smoked without even having to control that much about it.

Quitting cold blood and the hard way, it's possible, but it's like you're sabotaging yourself by having a pressure/desire too hard you can't hold it for long, the same way as a diet in fact, the body does need the nicotine and it suffers without it. It's so much easier and healthier to quit gradually. Unless you have some sort of condition which requires you to stop smoking cold blood, then i wouldn't recommend it.

But well, i guess this advice was not only obvious as it's transposable to pretty much any habit you need to quit, our minds can become quite obsessive and even manipulate ourselves in order to take the dose it needs, but in the end, you just act wisely in order to avoid complications or even returning to the old habits out of desperation.

      This is the 3rd day in a row where I smoke 9 from midnight, to midnight. I'm gonna get it down to 6 next week. Something from the Smoking Cessation class is to do deep breathing exercises. I've done that for 2 days. It works when I have an urge. I'm able to put off lighting up for a few more hrs. Its just discipline & desire. I also have a large sign attached to my frig that says;  THE URGE TO SMOKE WILL PASS, WEATHER YOU LIGHT UP OR NOT! 

Hang in ther sweetie. You will do it. The urge does eventually pass.

Don't stop smoking man!!

It's bad for ya!

Playernamewill's guide to quit smoking :

1. Never start smoking.

Couple more thoughts after reading your latest update (hang in there!)... This keeps getting said to me by people who have quit: Make it harder to light up. So you keep your smokes in the house, right? Well go put 'em in your car. Then hand over your keys to your wife, or do something, anything to make it a big pain to reach your cigarettes.

The logic behind it sounds solid to me, so I may try this approach when I'm ready to quit. I mean, you kinda really gotta want to fail if you gotta grab your slippers, wake up your wife, all to go grab a smoke from your car in the middle of the night... or have her unlock the safe...

Another piece of advice my doctor and others have suggested is finding your trigger points. Sounds like, by your latest post, you've identified one: "This is the 3rd day in a row where I smoke 9 from midnight, to midnight". The advice I got was to change up your routine so you can eliminate your trigger point. Like to have a smoke right after watching your favorite show? Plan ahead with your nicotine patch or gum or whatever, and then go for a walk instead of lighting up. Engage with someone to do an activity, someone who will make sure you do it.

Anyway, just more of my 2 cents (more like my dollar fifty lol), and it's coming from a heavy smoker who has heard it all over the years, and does intend to quit in the future, just not right now. Best of luck, you sound determined, and that's a huge bonus for you right there. Stick with it! Hey, if you're victorious, it's more encouragement for the rest of us, right? 

 Cold turkey is best. Just stop. I had three days of desperately yearning for a fag but determination got me through. After that it's been plain sailing for seven years now.

I tried everything. The e-cigs, the patches. You nameit.

In the end, I had to quit cold-turkey. Was the only way.

How can one quit something he/she never starts in the first place?

But right in essentials .

What do you mean?