ajbeck21

I recently quit smoking I'm on the patch 3 weeks now so far so good until I weighed myself today gained 10 pounds over the last 3 weeks very unhappy at the moment any words of encouragement from some former smokers

aidanpryde18

I have quit before, and it is definitely tough. Just know that the weight will come off easily with the increased stamina you gain from quitting. Keep it up, I've relapsed and I wish I was as strong-willed as you. I kick myself every day for starting again after quitting for three years.

longbeachgary

Great decision to quit. Stick with you. Better to be a fat cyclist than a skinny cancer victim.

zoste

Here's some...

January 2007: weight 260; smoked a pack and a half a day of unfiltered Lucky Strike (my brand of choice since 1978); could barely climb a flight of stairs without stopping for a rest half way; six pack of Coor's nightly; fifth of Jack Daniels weekly (sorry - they don't make fifth's anymore...750ml of Jack per). Woke up one morning and said to myself "Today is the day I quit smoking." I wore the patch for a very brief time, and I put the sixty bucks a week that I wasn't spending on smokes into a separate ING account. I decided that I was going to make some other radical changes to my life, too, including taking the Arizona bar exam so I can bail out of the rust belt when my youngest graduates high school next June.

August 2007: weight 280; still drinking the six gun every night...I needed the beer to wash down the constant shots of Jack. At least my wind was improving and my girlfriend and I were riding our big box bicycles twenty miles at a time at least once a week. I decided that if I was going to take a bar exam twenty five years out of law school, I'd better pass the dam thing, which meant studying. I figured studying would be easier without the beer and the Jack, so I gave up drinking, too. I added the sixty buck a week that I wasn't spending on licquor to the ING account.

February 2008: weight 240 (just from not drinking beer); flew to Phoenix with my girlfriend and stayed for a week. The bar exam was two days; the rest of the time was spent sightseeing; Sedona, Grand Canyon, cactus league baseball...oh yeah, the Sixers were in town and beat the Suns the night before we left to come back to Philly. The trip was bankrolled by the "vice money" in that ING account. I even had enough left over to buy a real bike from a LBS.

May 2008: weight 225; I surpassed my total 2007 cycling mileage (about 800 miles in 2007); got the results of the bar and I passed.

October 2008: weight 220 (I've plateaued 'cause I'm still too fond of junk food). I've ridden several centuries, both supported and unsupported, and I'm approaching 2500 miles for the year. I sold my gigantic, expensive house and my son and I just moved into a nice apartment in a converted Victorian in a small college town.

So there's my story.

Hang in there, man. It ain't easy to quit, even when the timing is right. Just keep in mind that whenever you get the overwhelming urge for a cigarette, the urge will pass in a minute. The urge will pass whether you smoke or not. And once you've purged your body of the nicotene, your weight can start to come down, too.

flip18436572

I was smoking at least a pack and a half a day. Took my daughters out trick or treating when they were really young. When we got back after that they both asked me to quit, so I did. Cold Turkey quit that was my last night for smoking Marlboro Light 100's. That was 14 years ago, almost 15 years ago.

It isn't easy to quit. I had two beautiful daughters for my goal and I did it.

There are still days that I have smelled someone light up a cig or a good smelling cigar and I really think about it.

Take each day one at a time and set small goals. Once you reach that goal, give yourself a small reward to match the small goal. Keep setting higher and higher goals.

Good luck and always ask for help from friends and family. Co-workers can be help, but there are also those others that will be out to try and make you fail.

roadie66

I quit 5 years ago and gained 20 LBS just another reason to ride more
keep up the good work

gearhead82

I enrolled at the gym the day I quit smoking back in February. I worked my butt off and started eating healthy and made a complete change from a very unhealthy lifestyle to a very healthy one. It's all or nothing for me. When I moved across the country back in August I couldn't go to the gym for about 6 weeks and ate a lot of fast food and allowed myself to slip back into that unhealthy lifestyle and I smoked for about a month. I was able to quit again by focusing on diet and exercise. So I'm now 2 months w/o a cigarette and down 54lbs since February. I think its pretty normal to gain a few lbs when quitting. Nicotine does raise your metabolism and lower your appetite. You can stay quit AND lose the weight.

4SEVEN3

Ive quit twice, both with the use of Rx. First time I used Zyban and it worked for me....until family matters really bogged me down. It started by bumming a few after lunch at work and spiriled downward. I went back into "remission" for a while, then picked it back up at another job I had up until May of this year.

My insurance coverd my Chantix Rx and it was amazing! I had NO NONE NADA desire for a smoke, or nicotine wat so ever. I took it as directed for 2 months and I havent had one smoke since, and dont desire one, even after having a cigar or two since. The second time I had more desire to quit; going out to the garage to smoke one and seeing $5k worth of bikes hanging from the cieling made me feel like a HUGE hyprocrite, not to mention I felt like **** and I NEEDED to do it.

IF you can (talk to your Dr.) I highly recommend the Chantix if your able to take it, it really helped me and I feel much better for it!

Good Luck!!!

wayne pattee

Quit now and worry about taking the weight off later.
I quit in 1988 and bought my first bike in 1990.
Someday you will wonder why people do that to themselves.

Dr_Robert

Damn man, that's impressive.

My bit: I smoked off and on (mostly on) for about 14 years. One day about 2 years ago, I got fed up with the whole thing - between the cost and the health risks, it just wasn't worth it. Quit cold turkey, and haven't touched a cigarette since. I still smoke cigars on rare occasions, but my humidor sits mostly untouched.

I gained about 20 pounds when I quit, and haven't managed to get it off for good (I keep losing it, then piling it back on), but overall I'm in MUCH better health than I was 2 years ago. Even if I could lose those 20 pounds instantly by lighting up again, I'd rather keep the extra weight.

-DR

RedC

Keep riding, the weight will go if you ride hard enough. Your wind will get better, you'll feel better, and the money you're not spending on cigarettes can go to other things (like new bicycles) I quit a year ago in August and there's no way I would go through all that again. Just remember one thing: like Lays potato
chips, "you can't have just one"

bakerjw

I quit about 13 years ago cold turkey. Even carried a pack with me for a few days while I was suffering. It always seemed that when I smoked the last cigarette from a pack I would focus on there not being anymore. The last time was different. If I wanted one, they were right there. No more late run to the gas station to pick up some smokes.

Everyone who quits gains weight. It is a fact of life. If you are cycling, your metabolism will improve and you will breathe easier. It all gets easier. Be positive with the turnaround.

Patches are good, but there is still an underlying addiction that needs to be beaten and dumped in the trash. By all means get an RX like Chantix if you don't have a strong sense of self control. I can beat or do anything that I put my mind to so I was able to quit cold turkey.

But be positive with what you are doing.
Ride safe.

lil brown bat

A lot of people don't seem to realize that if you smoke, cancer isn't the only bullet you have to dodge -- and that one of them, COPD, really isn't dodge-able; it gets everybody in the end. It may not be for years, but I watched my mom die of COPD and it was a miserable end. Do you think that a person who's 70 or 80 years old says, "Oh well, I'm old so it's no big deal"? Hell no, they want to live and to be able to get around on their own and not need oxygen just to survive, they want to be able to go out to a restaurant and play with their grandkids. They want to maintain a sound mind, not be disabled by a stroke. Every time you smoke, every single time you light up, you are writing checks that your body is going to have to cash down the road, and while some of that damage can be undone, a lot can't (which isn't the case, mostly, for being overweight). Use whatever you need, the promise of a better life, better health and saving money, or just plain scare yourself straight with the hard truth about what smoking does to you, but get it done.

deraltekluge

I quit my three pack a day habit in 1990, after about 30 years of smoking. It was easy, but I don't recommend the method.

I hurt my foot (perhaps it was my first flareup of gout), and couldn't walk enough to get to the store to buy cigarettes when I ran out...which wasn't long with my habit. The pain in my foot kept me from thinking about the pain of withdrawal, and by the time I could walk again, the habit was broken. About a month later, I found a pack under the seat of my car, and smoked them, but didn't get any great pleasure from it. About a month after that, I bought a pack, but found I disliked smoking. That was the last. I haven't had to fight any urges to smoke. I did gain about 30 pounds, though.

One sort of weird thing: Even though I've had no urges to smoke while awake, I'd often dream about smoking, but in my dreams I'd realize that it was only a dream, and that I wasn't really backsliding to my smoking condition. Ex-smokers often complain about the smell of other people's smoke, but it never has bothered me...I actually find the smell of cigarette smoke pleasant, but it doesn't make me want to start up again.

Mr Danw

Well said

bdinger

Off and on smoked a ton for a long time (from 16 to 29). During my initial liquid diet, they actually told me to keep smoking and you know what - it helped keep me sane. So I didn't give it up. Finally come the time my then-fiancee and I got a house together, one day she mentioned something about the kids and seeing me smoke. So I started to curb it quite a bit - maybe a couple smokes a week. In the summer of 2007 we decided to actively try having a baby, and both made a pact not to do anything "vice" related.

And that would be the last time I had a cigarette. I'm very, very, very happy to report that, as well. I don't have any desire for one now, for the most part, and feel loads better. Hell, I'd take gaining weight over smoking again. You just have no idea how it affects you until you are rid of it.

Beer, however, I still dig good beer. Granted we're talking 3 or 4 a week instead of 3 or 4 an hour, but a guy has to at least have one vice.

dbikingman

Reading this thread was an eye opener for me. Back in around the sixth grade I smoked a cigarette or at least part of one. I then stopped smoking. And I gained weight, I betcha 30 to 35 years later I'm probably 170 pounds heavier then when I smoked. I don't think I will ever get back to my smoking weight I wonder what I would have weighted without that one cigarette

Note: I don't mean to make light of stopping smoking. I think it is a positive change to stop, but difficult. Just trying to add a bit of humor.

Neil_B

I've never smoked a cigarette, cigar, or pipe in my life. Nor did my parents. As a child I was told by my parents, on a number of occasions, that they would buy cigarettes for me and keep me in the habit because they would rather see me as a smoker than obese. I sometimes wonder if I made the right choice to turn down the offer.

CACycling

I started smoking when I was a teen. At my worst, I was smoking over 3 packs a day of Camel unfiltered a day. I worked myself down to a couple of packs a week of lights and stayed there till about 4 years ago. I was down with the flu for a couple of weeks and didn't smoke during that time. When I felt better, I decided to use that as a head start to quit. Haven't had one since. Put on a bit of weight but overall felt a lot better. Had cravings quite a bit for a while but by the end of the first year, I knew I had it made.

This was my second real try at quitting, The first time I had quit for over a year and decided I could handle one every now and then. Nope. In a couple of weeks I was back where I started. This time I knew one smoke equaled becoming a smoker all over again so I just didn't do it.

And the weight I gained and then some has come off with my return to riding. If you stick with it you will get through it.

daredevil

Quit 10 years ago. Don't sweat the weight gain until you have the smoking taken care of. At least that's the way I did it.

andrelam

I can't say I've ever smoked, therefore I can not possibly immagine how hard it is to give up. What I can tell you is that my family has seen enough pain and suffering caused by smoking.

My Mom's dad was a chain smoker and was diagnosed with Lung Cancer back in 1950. By the time he died around 1956 (my mom was 10 at the time), the medical world was only just getting wise to harm from smoking. My Mom's moth got cancer and died when she was 21. There is no proof that my Grandmother died due to her husband's smoking, but living in a small Amsterdam appartment with a chain smoker didn't help. For the record he smoked Drum tabbaco and rolled them himself (pretty typical for that generation).

No for my Father's side of the family. My Grandmother dropped dead from a massive hart attach at age 63. She enjoyed her smoking. I remember helping her stuff sigarettes when I visted her. Apparently you could buy the tabacco separately from the tubes with filters and it was cheaper. It was an enjoyable "craft" we would do together. My Grandfather died of a brain tumer and could not be attributed directly to his smoking.

So of my Grandparents 2 died directly from smoking, one probably got sick from 2nd hand smoke, the other is a mystery.

No for my In-laws:

My father in-law smokes till my wife asked him to quit sometime in childhood and he did so cold turkey. He walks 4 miles every day on a tread mill and is the picture of good health. You'd never guess that he is 75 years old. He is able to enjoy life and is very active with his wife and they are always going places and doing things.

My mother in-law on the other hand continued to smoked her entire life (split from my father in-law decades ago). For as long as I've known her (9 years) she has not been able to walk much more than a few hunderd feet without being winded. She did quit smoking when our daughter was born. Within a few months my mother in-law could take our duaghter on a walk with the stoller. For some reason after nearly 18 months of being smoke free she went back to smoking. Within a year she was pretty much house bound and could barely walk 50 yards. In the last 3 years she has barely left the house and for the last 6 months finds it hard to get off the couch just to use the bathroom and this is with oxygen being provided 24x7. It is not a pretty picture. The sad thing is that even through she is now 73, she has barely been able to do much with her only grand child (our daughter) for the last 2 years.

It has to be hard to quit, but trust me, when you get older and you see others around you either dropping dead, or slowly waisting away... you'll be very glad you quit. The body does heal, maybe not 100%, but continuing to smoke (and recent research shows that even a little smoking is very bad) will eventually rob you of a lot of quality of life.

Happy riding,
André

B Piddy

Wow that seems like an odd proposal. Were your parents obese?

Neil_B

No, not at all. My late father was a Teamster, and strong and fit as an ox.

1bluetrek

I smoked for 31 years and havent had one for 4 months now. Chantix worked great! Gained a bit of weight recently probably some from not smoking and some from sitting around for a month after surgery. I expect it will come off when I'm on my bike regular again tho.

daintonj

A years worth of cigarettes will buy you a race worthy bike or an amazing audax bike. If you smoked 20 a day in the UK you'd have £6 * 365 = £2190 which would get you a really nice CF or Ti bike. Or you could buy a cheaper bike and pay someone to force you to exercise by yelling at you as they ride along and hitting you with a stick every time you slow down.