Smoking cigarettes

[sireenb]

Thanks for the advice guys. You have convinced me to quit ASAP. I am not quite ready to do it this instant but I think I can talk myself into it within the next couple of days and I have already cut down.

 

I am not very worried about the weight because I am already on an easy diet and have lost a lot already slowly and steadily.

 

There is a lot less smoking in public areas here because of a new law they passed a few months ago so I hope that I will not have a bad problem with the eye allergy. Our home is already a non-smoking zone because my husband hates cigarettes.

 

So thanks again and I am working on it :rolleyes:

[Aberlour10]

Go for it!

 

Everybody has to solve this problem individuel. From my experiences... I was not able to cut my consume radical from one day to another, several tries have failed miserably. I tried it different way, reducing from 30 cigs/day step by step in +-5 months to zero. It was successful and I had no problems with "weight jumping" this time.

 

Robert

[barmar]

My mother was a heavy smoker when I was growing up. I couldn't stand the smell and never had even the slightest temptation to take it up myself. My vice is overeating (I'm 5'6"" and 230 lbs).

[dicklont]

Thanks for the advice guys. You have convinced me to quit ASAP.

Way to go sireenb.

Keep us posted, I would love to hear that you´re succesfull!

[Oof Arted]

;)

 

I started at around age 11 'Wills Wild Woodbines' in packets of 5's ;

 

Gave up 26 years ago and have not looked back since

 

Give it up ASAP

 

:lol:

[helene_t]

It's not just that cigarettes will kill you. They reduce your ability to live life fully and the endgame is often awful. We are all going to die, but there are ways to live and ways to die.

Right. The fact that smokers live 8 years (or something like that) less that non-smokers often does not impress people because they say that the last 8 years of most people's life is pretty worthless anyway.

 

The fact is, you loose 8 (or something like that) of you best years. Smoking makes you start decaying earlier, it doesn't make you die faster.

 

I never smoked for the same reason that I didn't listen to pop music or or wear fancy clothes as a teenager. Peer pressure repelled me rather than attracted me. Of course the fact that I had no money and found tobacco smoke disgusting added to that. I just never saw any reason to start smoking.

[Fluffy]

I trusted all the anti-tobacoo (and every drug) propaganda when I was young, so never touched tobacoo.

 

As a child I kept telling both my parents to stop smoking every day. They both quit, but I am not really sure if I had something to do with that. Mom died anyway from hepatitis wich had nothing to do with smoking.

[blackshoe]

Heh. My first reaction to the poll results is that most of the 62% who claim to have never smoked are lying. But then I considered the average age of bridge players, and concluded that a large number (historically) of bridge players who did smoke are dead already. :)

[Gerben42]

I have never smoked, and no that is not a lie. I have never even remotely been interested in cigarettes, other than getting as far away from them as possible. No propaganda needed, I figured that out by myself.

 

My mom used to smoke (but luckily not a lot) and even as a kid I would try go get her off it because of the yucky smell.

 

Now that smoking has been banned in pubs and discos, I now can enjoy going there. Before I've been there like zero times. And especially restaurants. I cannot enjoy a meal if someone is smoking at the next table.

 

No, I don't have asthma, I just really dislike going places that stink.

 

And like Helene, peer pressure repelled me even more. I remember going to a shoe store with my mom and I stated before going that I would NOT want Nikes.

 

For some reason I ended up with Nikes anyway because I have very slim feet and most other shoes wouldn't fit correctly, but that wasn't the point.

[PassedOut]

Heh. My first reaction to the poll results is that most of the 62% who claim to have never smoked are lying.

Many years ago I read a book on how to take the psychological tests given by corporations. One of the points I retained was that these tests contain certain questions to identify liars.

 

One example given was, "I have never smoked a cigarette, true or false." If you answered "true" you were deemed a liar.

[helene_t]

One example given was, "I have never smoked a cigarette, true or false." If you answered "true" you were deemed a liar.

Wow. That's crazy. The version I heard was "Have you ever lied to your parents?"

 

Another one was "My mother is/was a good person". But I am not quite sure what it is supposed to suggest if someone answers "no" to that one.

[jdonn]

Heh. My first reaction to the poll results is that most of the 62% who claim to have never smoked are lying. But then I considered the average age of bridge players, and concluded that a large number (historically) of bridge players who did smoke are dead already. :blink:

I don't think anyone is lying, I just think non-smokers are more likely to answer.

[Aberlour10]

Making this poll, I thought about one more choice : "I have never smoked, not even a single cigarette" but it would be in my opinion a pure hair-splitting, sorry.

[G_R__E_G]

I fully believe genuine cigarette addiction should fall into the same category as alcoholism or narcotic drug addiction in that you are never cured, never an ex-user but at best a user who is not using right now.

 

The addiction to nicotine is the most powerful addiction known to man, worse than heroin addiction, so anyone who has successfully given up tobacco is to be congratulated.  Ask any real cigarette addict who has quit for a number of years and he will tell you the urge to smoke never completely goes away - even after the years and years of non-use.

 

The only difference is that it gets easier to tell yourself, no.

This is as true as it gets. It's been 4 1/2 years since I stopped (after smoking for about 20 of the first 35 years of my life). To this day I still love the smell and I know for a fact that if I were to ever have even one cigarette, I'd be back at it again. While I still constantly crave them I have brought myself to the realization that I don't need them - this coupled with being terrified of starting again keeps me from falling off the wagon.

 

PS I'm also surprised by the number of people who say they've never smoked. Maybe it's different elsewhere - but here in Canada several years ago the statistics were that 35% of people smoked. One would have to assume that the number of people who had smoked at one time would be significantly higher than that.

[Phil]

PS I'm also surprised by the number of people who say they've never smoked.

I guess it depends on your definition of "smoked". Does taking a single puff when you are 13 count? Then I'm guilty.

 

Really, the whole smoking thing just disgusts me. It always has and it always will. Second hand smoke is acrid, and I hated going to tournaments back in the day when they allowed smoking.

 

I can't stand the smell of smokers, their cars or their clothes.

[babalu1997]

One example given was, "I have never smoked a cigarette, true or false." If you answered "true" you were deemed a liar.

Four nuns were standing in line at the gates of heaven.

 

Saint Peter asks the first if she has ever sinned. “Well, once I looked at a man’s penis,” she said.

 

“Put some of this holy water on your eyes, and you may enter heaven,” Peter told her.

 

Peter then asked the second nun if she had ever sinned. “Well, once I held a man’s penis,” she replied.

 

“Put your hand in this holy water, and you may enter heaven,” he said.

 

Just then the fourth nun pushed ahead of the third nun.

 

Peter asked her, “Why did you push ahead in line?” She said, “Because I want to gargle before she sits in it!”

[sireenb]

Thanks for the advice guys. You have convinced me to quit ASAP.

Way to go sireenb.

Keep us posted, I would love to hear that you´re succesfull!

I guess you have all forgotten this thread, but it was very important to me. Your collective encouragement was highly motivating...

 

I finally did it. Over the past few months I lost 13 kilos (28 lb) to prepare for quitting smoking. I can now gain or lose around 5 lb and still look OK. At the same time, I was cutting down cigarettes and had a quit plan in progress and a quit date lined up.

 

I quit smoking completely last night at midnight, over 13 hours ago. I do not know if I can keep it up or not, but I do plan to try my best.

 

Thank you all for convincing me to do it...

 

Sireen

[Aberlour10]

I guess you have all forgotten this thread, but it was very important to me. Your collective encouragement was highly motivating...

 

I finally did it. Over the past few months I lost 13 kilos (28 lb) to prepare for quitting smoking. I can now gain or lose around 5 lb and still look OK. At the same time, I was cutting down cigarettes and had a quit plan in progress and a quit date lined up.

 

I quit smoking completely last night at midnight, over 13 hours ago. I do not know if I can keep it up or not, but I do plan to try my best.

 

Thank you all for convincing me to do it...

 

Sireen

Nice to hear it ;)

 

I am now more than 2 years over the deadline but still endangered of relapse.

In such moments, I try to think about all these efforts I have made to quit...it helps!

 

Robert

[Al_U_Card]

After 6 months of non-smoking, all of the "increased" risks of lung cancer, heart disease etc. return to normal levels.

 

Your life, freed from the addiction to tobacco, will never be the same.

[onoway]

Way to go! Good for you!

[Aberlour10]

so...Three Years After....the last cigarette...unfortunately bridge remains one of the very few activities I feel still a strong need to smoke from time to time...***** its not funny at all! :)

[jocdelevat]

I think I said this before and I say sorry for repetiton. In my father family 7 kids all that smoke died at age like 80 something by natural death and the others who didn't smoke die at cancer at age 60 something. I quit smoking thanks to Mike Bloomberg who raise the price to 10$ a pack and the bad economy which left my wife without job so I couldn't spend like 300$ per month(10$ a pack here in New York). I was smoking like 1pack and a half. I quit in 2009 however I will smoke again if times are better. I really do not put much on what those studies and results about smoking. Since I give up smoke I have bad headache every night and gain a lot of weight and now have more healty problems then when i was smoking.

[Apollo81]

I've never smoked anything. Never have understood the appeal.

[helene_t]

hi Jocdelevat,

 

It is possible that quiting smoking hasn't been a health advantage in your case. Smoking obviously has some positive effects for some like weight loss and reduced risk of Parkinson's disease, and presumably the stress related to quiting smoking is also no good in itself.

 

However, the statistics of your family nonwithstanding, the evidence for the relation between smoking and risk of cancer and heart disease is extremely compelling. The harm caused by smoking on the health of the overall population is enormous.

[USViking]

From ages 21-60 I averaged over 40 cigarettes a day,

plus from ages 30-60 I smoked about an ounce to an

ounce and a half of of pot a year, use about every

other day.

 

Just before I quit literally merely walking to the car or

getting undressed for bed made me breathe heavily and

made my heart pound.

 

I got a prescription for a smoking cessation drug in 2007

but put off filling it because I was afraid it would not work,

and the worst prolonged pain by far that I had ever experienced

occurred as a result of my previous attempts to quit.

 

I decided that my 60th birthday would be a appropriate time

to try quitting again, so I filled the prescription, followed it

to a "T", and By God the damn stuff worked. It really and

truly worked.

 

I put out my last cigartette at exactly 9:54am 6/30/09, and

have not taken one single puff since then, with no, repeat no

withdrawal symptoms at all, none, although a small, lingering

desire to smoke remains, and will probably always remain.

 

I did smoke pot 4-5 times in July-Aug '09, and then once again

on New Year's Eve '09, but not since, so perhaps the medicine

I took is implicitly meant to be effective against illegal forms of

recreational smoke as well as legal.

 

I also drink. I am not going to try giving that up for a while yet,

if ever, but consumption there is probably down by well over

a sixpack a week, another benefit of the healthier life I think

ultimately enabled by this smoking cessation medicine which

I finally tried.

 

I did not gain much if any weight after quitting, or experience

increase in appetite. I was about 20-25lb overweight, of which

I have lost about 10lb since also taking up exercise and diet.

 

I am not going to name the medicine. Ask your Doctor about

what I might be speaking of and there should be a good chance

of your getting ahold of the same stuff that worked for me.

 

It does NOT work for everyone, but it works for enough people

for YOU, you smokers out there, to give it a try.