Stop smoking by cold turkey

And1ss said:
I must say that is a lot of soda for a given day. Kudos for stopping! I've gone a year w/o soda; just drank water and juice.
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I stopped drinking soda about 9 years ago myself. I only have about 1-2 cans in total every year now. I owe it to Super Size Me :)
 
And said:
Here are some suggestions

1) Don't bother with replacement things (patches, gum) they absolve responsibility.

2) Having given up, if you smoke a cigarette, think - I've had a cigarette but I am still giving up and throw away the pack if you have any. Don't think - I clearly can't give up, I am smoking again.

3) In the lead up to giving up, make smoking unpleasant. You can only smoke in the yard for example. Remove any social aspect to smoking, smoke by yourself.

4) Avoid smoking situations for a bit. Avoid smoking buddies and situations where smoking is the norm. Just duck out of them for a little while - arrange to meet smoking buddies in a situation where smoking is not possible or difficult. And if you do smoke remember point 2.

Good luck.
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This seems like a good solid suggestion and I intend to make a start today by moving my smoking habit out of the house and into the garden.
I also intend to take my breaks a little later at work to avoid the 'smoke shed' camaraderie and make myself wait a little longer between wanting a smoke and lighting up.
An ex smoker friend has made the same suggestions as yourself and described it as 're-programming the want factor in the brain'.
He has been smoke free for over a year now.

Thanks for your suggestions.
 
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Cold Turkey worked for me!

I quit cold turkey about 5 years ago. In the past I tried slowly weening myself off them, but I just couldn't stop completely. I finally decided enough was enough, and just stopped.

The way I approached it was to pretty much hypnotize myself, I kept telling myself that smoking is disgusting, I can't stand the smell, the taste, and the way it makes my lungs feel. Everytime I saw someone smoking, or had taht craving, I would say to myself "smoking is disgusting". After about a week of drilling this into my head, I couldn't even think about smoking.

Was basically a case of mind over matter for me!
 
I quit cold turkey about 14 years ago... phew, seems like yesterday.

I started smoking in highschool, and then began to smoke regularly in college to the tune of 1-2 packs a day. Around junior year, I took up running and ultimate frisbee. After just a few runs/games, I began to notice that I was hocking up massive, disgusting, brownish-green... don't know how else to describe them... super-loogies. Now these weren't coming from my nose... I'm pretty sure they were coming up from my lungs. Why did I think that? Because these "loogies" came complete with their own blood vessels...

I threw out all of my cigs and lighters and quit right then and there. I've since been smoke-free going on 14 years now.

I think at some point, you have to find something that you can point to that truly motivates you to quit... none of this "I should quit smoking." mularkey... you have to reach a point where you fully realize that you "need" to quit.
 
I started spending money on electronics instead, which has kept me off the cigarettes for more than 3 years. I was a smoker for 12 years and went from 15 to 0 cigarettes per day overnight. I was bored with having to walk outside every hour, always having a cold (because of dry throat), etc. Two months after I quit, I had saved enough money to buy an iPod touch 32 gig (1st gen). That was my first Apple device ever, and I guess that's how it all started (the halo effect, you know).
 
Phil A. said:
Same here - I'd tried numerous times to quit and never managed more than a week. Then I found electronic cigarettes and am now coming up to 2 years without a cigarette. Those things are amazing :)
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Do electronic cigarettes supply nicotine?

My Dad smoked. He finally quit in his 60s. I don't know exactly what he was thinking but when I was 6 , I asked if I could try his cigarette. He said sure, and I took a big drag. That was the last time I smoked a cigarette, although as an adult I tried pipes and cigars. Neither of those took. Was Dad a genius or it just happened? When I met my wife, she was a casual smoker, who quit soon after we started dating, no issues for her. Ironically our son picked up the habit in high school and has tried o quit on multiple occasions, but there is always some stress event in his life and he falls off the wagon.
 
I'm 28 and have been smoking since I was 17. I found quitting cold turkey was next to impossible for me. I found it easier to use the patches and chewing some sugar free gum. Also, whenever I had the cravings for a smoke I would take the time it usually took me to smoke and started doing pushups.

After about 4 days cravings were next to nothing for me and it is now 5-16-14 and I have been smoke free since 1-20-14

Also surround yourself with healthy snacks (tons of fruit & nutigrain bars for me). I feel so much better now and so will you... good luck
 
Huntn said:
Do electronic cigarettes supply nicotine?
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They do, at varying amounts. The exhaled vapour also contains some of the nasties found in normal cigarettes all be it at a much lower level. E-cigs are a great tool for quitting smoking but they are not a 'safe' alternative.

If I was trying to quit id spend a few hours scaring the s*** out of myself online looking at cancer photos and stories. Fear of a horrible and painful death is a great motivator.
 
Kissaragi said:
They do, at varying amounts. The exhaled vapour also contains some of the nasties found in normal cigarettes all be it at a much lower level. E-cigs are a great tool for quitting smoking but they are not a 'safe' alternative.

If I was trying to quit id spend a few hours scaring the s*** out of myself online looking at cancer photos and stories. Fear of a horrible and painful death is a great motivator.
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Is it fair to say that until the drugs are gone the monkey is still on your back? Or is the idea that the nicotine is gradually eliminated?
 
I quit smoking cold turkey on January 2, 1988. Had been a somewhat heavy smoker, 1 to 1 1/2 packs a day, for about 15 years.

My main motivator was money. Added up what I was spending on cigarettes and looked at the other things I could do with that money.
 
I've never smoked but a good friend of mine was lost at sea for nine days. She and her companion both smoked. When their sailboat went down the cigarettes weren't high on the priority list. After their rescue, neither of them ever smoked again. The both had made a promise to each other that if they made it nine days without smoking they didn't need it.

Cold turkey is easier if you don't have them available. I once saw a billboard while traveling. It said that the county had a non-smoking jail and an overbooked court docket. It could be a miserable stay.
 
With such a high moisture content, cold turkey must be extremely harsh to smoke. I'm glad to hear so many people stopping!


;)
 
I stopped cold turkey for 2 1/2 years. Then I started back up again for about a year. I decided to quit again, but cold turkey was too hard this time around. I gave e-ciggs a try, and I vaped the Logic brand for a whole year. I haven't had any nicotine for about two years now. Now I wouldn't even touch a real cigarette again, and if I slip up, it would be an e-cigg.
 
I did it

I smoked for 32 years, and I'm a 2pk a day man. On 17 Dec, 1990 at 7:30 pm., I quit cold turkey. I haven't had a cigarette since then. I wanted to smoke cigars during the cigar craze in the late '90's. I kept putting off the next one and used lollipops as my alternative. I was a "total arse" during my withdrawal stages, but my family put up with it. Now my clothes are clean, the curtains are no longer yellow. I am successful. Good luck to you who do quit "cold turkey". A note, I didn't use patches or alternative smokes.
 
Huntn said:
Is it fair to say that until the drugs are gone the monkey is still on your back? Or is the idea that the nicotine is gradually eliminated?
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I think it varies, some people seem to view them as a safe long term alternative to smoking and others as an aid to slowly reducing your nicotine intake. They certainly sell them as both here in the UK.

A lot more legislation will be coming on them over the next few years so hopefully people will be more aware of what they are inhaling.
 
I did about 22 years ago. Before that I was a 20 a day man. It's all about wanting to give up, and picturing yourself as a non smoker. Keep yourself occupied and enjoy all that extra dollar in you pocket!
 
I never understood why people smoke. I find it extremely offensive. As a matter of fact, I don't hangout with people that do. My friends and family feel the same way. What ever it takes quit before it kills you later in life.
 
I did the cold turkey thing too, I was 30 cigarettes a day, started at 14, quit after 16 years. My partner has asthma and basically I had to do it to make it work. I kept pushing it ahead until one day while we were out we decided to go the closest drug store, bought nicotine patches. I just threw the cigarettes I had on me away and didn't do any strange rituals like "my last cigarette", I think that's why it worked out. I dropped the patches after about 4 weeks.

People often say that former smokers are the most militant non-smokers, I'd probably agree with it but basically because I realized from one day to another how stupid the whole smoking thing really is, I wish I never had picked it up. There's a reason why most smokers start as kids/teens......;)
 
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