Your wife/family may or may not support you. Quit anyway. My wife still smokes and I have to listen to her hack. She can't walk a half mile. I can do centuries. Just quit.

At the current price for cigarettes you could calculate your savings and prepare for N+1. That's a nice reward/reason.

There's LOTs of misconceptions about smoking. But, as I understand it, one of them is that nicotine is bad for you. While it is the addictive substance in cigarrettes, it is not the harmful substance (the tars and CO2 do the harm)...

So, getting hooked on the gum should not be a problem. Yes, the gum is harmful to the wallet, but not the body...

That is what I did over 30 years ago. I took my cig savings for 6 months and bought my first real road bike. When I quit I started running and could not even make it around the block on my first run!

According to this article on Livestrong, Nicotine causes about 20% of all heart related deaths and also increases insulin production which leads to pre diabetes conditions.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/15...heart-disease/

I quit in the spring of 2000 after smoking for 24 years...anywhere between 1 and 2 packs a day depending on the day. :).

Here are a couple of observations:
You will gain weight. I think your metabolism slows and you have the urge to stuff your face to squelch the cravings. Even if you keep your caloric intake at the same level as you did while smoking, you will gain weight. This phase will last about a year. After that you will gain and lose weight as you always have.
Just be prepared for that and go with it...don't fight it. I know too many people who were distressed at the initial weight gain and went back to smoking.

There are Internet support groups. As with all things internet, some are better than others so look around and find a group that suits you. They were a big help to me.

I suspect someone will chime in and say they experienced no weight gain, etc.etc. And perhaps it doesn't happen to all quitters, but it happens often enough that you should be aware of it.

Good luck!

Cyril

Good advice for sure! I consciencely ate less and still gained 10 lbs. After one year the ten lbs is still there, but stable. I will work at getting rid of that now.

I live with Type2 diabetes and my blood sugars are a little lower overall, with much lower spikes.

"Cigarette money" nows supports my "bicycle addiction".

I posted my stop smoking story here. I had permission from 3 other people I knew to post their stories. The stop smoking section is near the bottom of the site navigation.

They were all inspiring to me. They also seemed related to almost any bad habit, like eating too much.

I smoked from some time in '76 (when I was in high school) till December '05. There were times when I was up to 3 1/2 packs a day of Camel unfiltered, there were times when I was barely a pack a week of ultra-lights and there were times when I'd go a few weeks without smoking. I even quit for a few months a couple of times. I finally kicked it when I realized that having just one cigarette was all it would take to make me a smoker again. On previous attempts, I'd give in somewhere along the way, have "just one" and go right back to smoking. First couple of weeks were hard (on me and my family) but it got easier (but not easy) from there. Still times when lighting up sounds good but that happens less and less as time goes by.

Hypnosis really helped me quit for good. I went to a travelling hypnosis seminar and quit that day. They gave us a cassette tape to use every day for 30 days. I dumped a two pack/day habit twenty years ago. Find a local hypnotist and pay for at least four sessions. Once a week for a month. It will cost some money, but so does smoking. Hypnosis is really good at getting rid of mindless habits even when accompanied by cravings. Good luck. bk

I quit in the middle of a heart attack 11 years ago.I started smoking again like you about a year and a half later.6 years ago I quit for good and 2 and a half years ago I started seriously with the bike.This enabled me to lose most of the 35 lbs. I gained when I quit!Imagine biking while smoking 2 packs a day.Considerably less enjoyable I imagine!I personally do not have the funds to smoke given the taxing here in NYC.I see someone smoking I assume he's rich.Just remember the heart attack.Do you really want to experience that again?Smoking is not an option anymore.

If all else fails and you are really serious, try a prescription for Chantix. It blocks the nicotine receptors in the brain and it works. Some people have weird problems with it but I didn't. Chantix.

Although I felt like I was cheating compared to those brave soles who just quit, I used Chantix.......a lot of it for a long time. I'm down from 3 packs a day to not a single puff in just over two years.

This website helped: http://www.whyquit.org/

Chantix and this site saved my life: http://www.topix.com/forum/law/healt...6PBH59IN2DVPTO

Good luck, I wish you the best. I quit, I know anyone else can.

NOPE

Quit date will be between Nov. 1 and 3. It depends on when my new light comes in. Why does it depend on the light you ask?

I'm voluntarily unemployed and a night owl. My awake hours are up around 10 - 11 AM. To bed sometime between 2 - 4 AM. That's a lot of dark hours. The last time I did this I found that taking a short walk whenever the urge to smoke helped. This time instead of the walk I will take short rides. I'll be replacing a bad habit with something that's good for me.

To keep this bike related I'm getting a Philips SafeRide. After spending the last week or so researching bike lights this seems to fit my current needs. All my riding will be on subdivision roads and later on bike paths. Most lights seem to be geared towards trail riding which I have no interest in.

Well, Day 3 is almost done. Supposedly my body is nicotine free now and physical withdrawal symptoms have peaked and will gradually taper off over the next week or two. Now starts the hardest part. The psychological withdrawal. I've got to retrain the mind that I don't smoke anymore. That it's better to ride than smoke.

I've already started that. Most of the time I can just ignore the craving. Occassionally it's impossible to ignore. Then it's around the block on the bike, day or night. The craving is gone within a 100 yards.

Even though it's only day 3 I can already notice a slight increase in lung capacity. Instead of huffing and puffing after one time around going mostly up slope, now I'm only huffing.:) It can only get better from here, one day at a time nicotine free.

I was up to 2 cartons a week when I finally decided I'd had enough, that I was tired of it. I started with the patches (still prescription then), which lasted about a week, as patch-changing time always seemed to come at awkward times. I went cold turkey from there and never looked back.

ETA: It was Hallowe'en 17 years ago.

Congrats cwelch! I'm rooting for you. It does get easier, and eventually you start to feel really good about it.

CWelch, keep it up. You are doing well.

I'm down to the 194-195 range now, and hopefully with your support I'll keep loosing weight.

John

Dr. Evans has some tips for you.

I just dont get it.

I smoked for 15 years, I was addicted and needed to quit.

So,

I quit,,

Never a withdrawl problem,
I didn't go crazy,
I didn't get mean,

I did gain 10 lbs,,,took 6 months to loose that.
Hey what can I say ! Food started tasting alot better.

The ONLY real physical symptom Is a dry mouth, everything else Is In your head,

I carried a bottle of water close by for a week,
I wanted a smoke for a week,
I have no Idea why people have such a hard time quitting...

Super humans never do understand mere mortals.:rolleyes:

Just consider yourself lucky, and congratulate yourself. But please try to understand that it just isn't that easy for the rest of us.

It seems that some have more of a psychological addiction and, for others, it is more a physical thing.

For me, it was physical. Before I quit: if I went 2 hours without a cigarette my hands would start to tremble. After 4 hours I had stomach cramps. Beyond 4 hours I couldn't think straight... Quitting (back in 1995) was just more of the same -- except nicotine substitutes helped A LOT....

I really object to people -- and ESPECIALLY the US government -- telling smokers that it just a habit and to "Just Stop".

You are apparently lucky in that you did not have that physical addiction. If you had your experience would have been quite different.

But, in any case, Congratulations on quitting!
... And, if you preceed that good tasting food with a ride, those 10 pounds won't turn into 20!

I'm pulling for you! Keep going forward. I read something the other day that may help. Its not about will power its all about willingness. Be willing to not smoke.

What helped me was something I read along the same line but with a twist:
"it's not about will-power. it's about having a plan on what to do when the urge strikes..."

I think that is why addictions so tough to beat. Yes, you are dealing with the physical addiction of your body and the physiologic affects. But also, your brain is fighting with itself: You are telling it you don't want to while the addiction is telling it that you DO want to... And, far too often, the addiction is smarter and more coniving than you are -- so the addiction wins...
... "Ahhh, this is a tough time. I've been good. I can afford to have JUST ONE!"