Please could those of you who have quit give me some advice... I think I'm ready to stop now.

is smoking in public places, like bars and restaurants legal in south africa? having it banned in most places in the US makes it a lot easier to quit...

1. If you smoke in the car - go sit in the car without a cigarette - and roll up the windows and just take a good whiff... Smells lovely doesn't it.
2. Take the last item of clothing you wore while smoking and give that a good whiff... delightful fragrance.
3. Now, take a towel fresh from teh dryer or wash line and smelll that - much better scent.. thats what you should be smelling.

I'm not a fan of using replacements for cigarettes... though I must admit I've been known to hold a pen like a cigarette from time to time... it's the thing in my hand that I need generally -not the nicotine... oral fixations I don't always buy - so i woulnd't replace the cigarette with gum, candy or whatever... sometimes it' sjust something in you hand that you need...

Cutting back on your habit is a good place to start... Give yourself a day - and mark it on the calendar and say -that day is the day I cut back to XX amount of cigarettes.. and keep that up for a week or two weeks.. thenc ut the number in half... til you're down to 0 cigarettes a day.

SMoking is a habit... eating is habit.. you've changed your eating habits - so use that focus to change your smoking habit.. .replaace the cigarette with something else...

I quit after 18 years and have been smoke free for 6 months.
I foound that once you get rid of the mental need to smoke you can break the physical need pretty easy.
I was on the patch for a week and a half to break the mental habit.
Then just stopped. You need to want to though. Without that you are doomed to fail.

ding ding ding ding...

I smoked for like 8yrs and quit December 17, 2006!

I tried the cutting back - didn't work. I tried the cold turkey - didn't work. I tried the patch - couldn't get the damn things to stay on me.

so then I talked to my dr. about it and she asked me several times...."Are you sure YOU are ready to quit?"

I was as ready as I had ever been...I was sick and tired of the nasty little habit...every time I smoked I'd just get disgusted.

I went on Zyban for 5 weeks. You are suppose to take it for like 3 months or something but at 5 weeks it was starting to make me feel batty in the head and I was pretty sure I could stay quit without.....I had overcome the emotional rollercoaster of quitting.

It's not easy....it's still not easy. I generally don't ever crave a cigarette unless I've been drinking a lot = I rarely drink anymore especially for that reason!

It's great if you can do it on your own but I just wanna say that if you cant and you do need to use something .... that is just fine .... don't look at it as a sign of weakness because regardless it is one hard addiction to overcome.

And like maleficent said....find something to replace it with...something GOOD and somehting healthy!!

That is my only regret about quitting smoking is that I let go of smoking but then became an emotional eater....now I"m conquering that one step at a time! It's definately worth the years I"ve added onto my life though!

Best of luck to you!!!!!

Yay!
what do i win?

sorry - that was the shoplifter alarm going off

I quit smoking 4 months 5 days and 41 minutes ago. I have a silk quit ticker in my task bar. I smoked 2 packs a day for 35 years. I loved smoking. I would still love to smoke. People say it stinks and all the bad things that go with it. I love the smell of a cigarette. I had never tried to quit. Never wanted to quit. Then one day I was at WalMart and I saw a display for the cherry flavored commit losenges. And for some reason it hit me. I am going to be 50 years old. I have smoked all these years. I have had my fun, now it is time to quit. I bought one package, used them for a month then laid them down and never used anything else. I didn't use nearly the amount they recommend. I put on an additional 15 pounds to the weight I had been lugging around so exactly one month later I started my new eating program. Then a month after that I added the gym. I could never just cut back on cigarettes. I know today that if I smoked just one I would be smoking 2 packs. I wish that I could just set down food like I did the cigarettes. I think that is what makes dieting so much harder. You can't just stop eating, there is no all or nothing with food. But they are right when they say if you are ready, you can do it. I was ready, and didn't find it nearly as hard as I had anticipated. I am sure that you can do it if you want to, and we will all be here to help you if you need us.

Crap.
Thought i won something.

you did - you won clean healthy lungs -

all the better for hollering at the demon spawn

Thank you all for your input!

I have been on Zyban before. It has the exact same chemical composition as Wellbutrin, the antidepressant I am now on... so the not wanting to smoke effects have kinda worn off

I've gone off it for a while and then back on to quit (again) once before, but I really don't wanna mess with my meds now as it only leads to trouble. So I don't think Zyban is a viable option right now. (It did work shockingly well, though!)

Mal, yes, there are smoking sections in bars and restaurants... and you can smoke in public freely as long as it is outside, like open air. Shopping centers and cinemas are no smoking... (hmmm, wouldn't mind spending all my time in those... )

I have recently (8 weeks ago) started exercising regularly and I'm still doing it... I also want to stop to better my running (lung capacity). Luckily my boyfriend doesn't smoke cigarettes so it's easy not to smoke around him.

I have an idea... now and then I buy rolling tobacco and roll my own for a while... was thinking of buying a symbolic "last bag of Virginia Gold" tobacco and finishing that as I start quitting (hehe). Anyone had success with having something symbolic/ ceremonious about their quitting experience??

I have tried to quit many times and have tried many methods but I do realize that it doesn't really matter which method I go with, as long as I can stick with it (and it's healthy ) This is going to have to come from not wanting to smoke anymore, period. And I am starting to get my head around this at the moment

I think I shall do the cutting down thing for a start... It can't hurt, right!? I will decide on a plan of action tomorrow, as I'm really tired right now... Thank you all for your help!

Personally the 'cutting down' method never worked for me. The bottom line is the issue with nicotine addiction is that you are in withdrawal as soon as you stub out the cigarette. Cutting down does nothing because you are then going through withdrawal over and over still. This is also why i got off the patch as soon as possible. I did not want to have to quit nicotine after I quit smoking so i decided after 9 days to get rid of the mental habits- smoking while driving, with coffee, etc- was enough and i got off the patch.
From my research on the subject when I quit nicotine stays in the system for 96 hours. Basically if you can go 4 days without smoking the physical addiction is over, that leaves the mental only.
This is where you have to want to quit for you. Not someone else, not kind of, not maybe. You have to want to or it simply is not going to happen. The mental habits and little triggers are the hardest thing to break and are what keep alot of people from quitting 100%

BTW- it is exactly 6 months today that I had my last cigarette.

I quit 3 years ago. You have to be ready to quit, it doesn't matter what you try if you don't want it.
I tried the patch, gum, zyban (totally screwed me up. don't take antidepressants if you're not depressed!), and finally did cold turkey. I remember the night before I smoked the remainder of my cigarettes....so many that it made me sick.

Yes I have quit too. You have to be ready to quit and know that you want to. I stopped 3 years ago I had a full packet and smoked the first one and I finished it off and thought I shouldn't be doing this. So in the bin they went never to be seen again.

Phew! Ok, so I'm thinking Monday... (always a good starting day hehe!)

Wish me luck in my preparation!