Ultraslide

Both of my parents quit after nearly 50 years smoking. If they can quit, anyone can quit.

ahsposo 

My old man quit too. He realized something wasn't right. Lung Cancer.

Ironically he was more or less cured of the lung cancer. It was the aortic aneurysm that killed him...

Nobody leaves this party alive.

tortugaflats

stopped shortly after started riding. 300 bucks for chantix did the trick. thought has crossed my mind to pick them up every once and a while. then i remind myself how much it cost to quit and how much better i feel since.

thexrider

Smoked for 25 years. Quit in 1997 while an adult leader at the National Scout Jamboree . . . couldn't buy smokes for two weeks and used the patches while I was there. Quitting was the hardest thing I ever tried to do . . . and I tried to quit for a looooong time before it took.

Just started back biking to loose the 20 lbs I gained after I quit. 14 down and I figure I'll shoot for another 16 just for good measure.

By the way, I ride an FX. But I do ride it on the road!


X

trey.a

I took chantix long enough to get it in my system. The dreams of killing my family drove me back to smoking. My mind acted poorly to that stuff.

rollin

Smoked for 25 years. Pack of red apples a day.

Tried and failed to quit 3 times using gum and patches, once lasted 9 months but then no joy.

Went cold turkey I haven't smoked for nearly 5 years now. It's the longest I have been between cigarettes since I was 12.

I don't consider myself as having "quit", it's one day at a time.

I like to think of my bmc ProMachine as being sponsored by Marlboro.

Apart from the health impact I loved everything about smoking.

bhayes505

I've smoked for 22 years. I won't say I've quit because I do cheat from time to time. I cut back in April when I started riding. Up until April I was smoking a pack a day, now it's maybe one or two a week. It's the hardest thing I've ever done. My wife still smokes and that makes it even harder. There are times when I see her smoking and I could just eat one. Riding 160 miles a week has been my only savior.

lechat

'Round 3 packs of camel lights a day. Stemmed from a former, raging case of dipsomania. Should probably be on oxygen. Instead i ride about 150 hilly miles a week. with some trail running thrown in.

bhdavis1978

Really? Smoking is bad for me? Wow- thanks for sharing, bud- I had no idea!

First of all, the negative side effects of smoking have a strong genetic component to them- some people are much more likely to suffer the consequences of smoking than others. Why can some people smoke their entire lives and have almost no trace of it in their lungs, and others get severe lung cancer from second hand smoke? Genetics.

Second, the negative side effects of smoking, even for extremely heavy smokers, are decades away. The negative side effects of taking pharmaceuticals, on the other hand, are immediate. To effectively control my symptoms, the combination of drugs I had to take completely destroyed any quality of life I had. I was an automaton- completely devoid of any enjoyment of anything. I stopped taking the prescriptions because my wife said I had turned into a robot. Have you ever experienced the tremors that can be associated with taking anti-psychotics? I have- and I've had to be given high doses of IV ativan in the hospital because they were so bad I couldn't stop shaking.

What about vomiting? Do you puke a dozen times a day? I have Tourette Syndrome, one of my symptoms is uncontrollable vomiting. If/when I don't smoke, I puke up to a dozen times a day. Do you have any idea what kind of hell that is? I always have to know where there's a bathroom, because I go from feeling queasy to uncontrollable projectile vomiting within 30 seconds. Have you ever had to run from a meeting to find a garbage can, and then puke all over it and yourself?

What about stuttering? Do you stutter? Do you know how impossible it is to communicate if you stutter? Another one of my tics is stuttering.

And so, I have a choice- I can take a huge load of pharmaceuticals, which (mostly) eliminate my symptoms of bipolar disorder and tourette syndrome, but leave me as basically a hollow shell- but with perfectly clean lungs- or I can smoke, 4-5 cigarettes / day, 5 days a week, and I can function.


And since this is after all a thread about cyclists who smoke, why don't you take your patronizing elsewhere- otherwise who else is going to admit to it?

aboss3

Quit smoking 3 month ago after 10 years of smoking Parliament. Still smoke an occasional cigarette at work sometimes

7bmwm3gtr

I smoked a few riders today

corbett1010

I quit 2 years ago, I was a pack a day marlboro menthol guy, I also dipped 2 tins a week of Copenhagen snuff. Used the patch for two weeks, forgot to put it on a for few days, never smoked again. I still love the smell of a freshly lit cigarette.

chasm54

Yes, any one probably can. But people differ, and their personal circumstances, stress levels, personality type etc. will make a huge difference to their prospects of success. UK research indicates that of every 100 people who try to quit, only 3 will still be cigarette-free a year later. For those who get some support - nicotine patches, counselling, whatever - that figure only doubles, to a six per cent success rate. I personally must have tried and failed a half-dozen times before I finally made it. On the final occasion I simply discovered that I wanted to quit more than I wanted the next cigarette. It wasn't a question of will-power, it was that one desire (probably fuelled by my anger with myself about my repeated failures) had become stronger than the other.

96WX3

No I am with you. What kills me is seeing anyone under about 28 or so. The message has been out there so long, yet they still get new (very young) customers every day.

davida

HI

Over here, the Govt is proposing to change the packet labels to white with a small black label with the brand printed on it. Every box would look the same except for the brand, which would be the same format except for the word. One day, all cigarettes will be sold like that, but the tobacco lobby is spending millions trying to stop this from happening.
Sorry to digress
davida

BasicJim

+1 Chantix

Started in the Navy and kept on going. Tried the gum and patch with no luck. Chantix helped me quit for 2 years, then thought "I can have just one." Next day I bought another pack and smoked for the past year. Back on Chantix and going good.

I knew it was time to quit when it wasn't my legs getting tired, it was my lungs. Coughing on the bike in z4 - z5.

Namenda

Smoked for 17 years, stopped July 2005 when I was diagnosed with sarcoidosis. Used the patch for a month, it helped a bit. The cravings were incredible, and stayed that way for a long time. Much better now. Marlboros were around $3/pack when I stopped, now around $8/pack here. Crazy.

chaulky61

Stopped drinking three years ago yesterday, but still have not been able to stop smoking. Congrats to all above who have managed to do so.....I shall keep trying.

scotch

DataJunkie

I quit 12 years ago.
In no way shape or form do I miss that disgusting habit.
I smoked a couple packs a day for 8 years.

mrbUSA

Over and done with 12/31/98. I like an occasional good cigar now a days.

But nothing makes me wish for a smoke more than when I smell one lit up with a morning cup of coffee.

saratoga

After watching my father pass away at 120# with an orange size tumor in his left lung one year ago to the day, let's say I've been sufficiently deterred.

Even while sitting there in the hospital and eventually a nursing home, he denied that there was any correlation.

Hot Potato

Quit three or four years ago. Pack a day at least. The only reason I don't remember exactly is because I have quit so many times. I once quit for 6 years and started back up. I have a few two year sabaticals, and too many 3 to 9 month holidays to count. I finally had to admit that my nicotine addiction was as bad or worse than a raging alcoholic. And now that I look at it that way, and think of the lessons AA teaches, I hope to avoid a relapse.

What is fascinating is that so many focus on lung cancer. Lung cancer will strike what, about 15% of life long smokers? But emphysema will get 100%.

edit: just noticed that my post immediately follows a post about losing a loved one to lung cancer. This is coincidental. I am not in any way posting a retort about lung cancer, or losing a loved one to lung cancer.

a_phat_beat

i was a pack a day smoker when i got my brother into cycling... he's a fresh 19 year old with lungs of steel, yet he could never keep up with me and would always say to me "i wonder how much your performance would improve if you quit smoking" -- though i don't smoke as much as before, i'm still finding it very difficult to completely let go, when i drink i'll have one or two.

a_phat_beat

$12 - $13 in nyc...