I am such a fool. . .I want to quit; however, I crumble and by a pack. I usually will smoke about 10-12 of them and then throw the rest away because smoking sucks; then I end up foolishly buying another pack. What gives? Any tips on fighting the cravings? especially after i eat. . .Mind over matter?

Mindpower. Straight Up.

I got a card in my wallet reminding me why I am in it to win it.

I have a smoke placed infront of my computer to scream at and call the antichrist.

Gum, Toothpicks.

Ride, just ****ing ride. That and this thread keeps it on.

Everybodies addiction seems to be unique. Understand yours and plan around it. Different levels of mindpower, self-deceit, self-rewarding, medication and lifestyle changes will be more or less important for different people.

has anyone used accupuncture?

Oh and all behind gbd.

Always on point.

This is so on the mark.

I've been following this thread since its inception - coincidentally I decided to give up
drinking a week or two prior. Congrats B.A.B. 13 days is great! I'm on day 21 of sobriety after
about 20 years of drinking & smoking. I decided to give it all up - and just like ChicagoxBoston
I would do the same thing toward the end of my smoking days. Only my smoking addiction
was cloves. Booze and cloves... what a in$ane combo.

But GenericBikeDude is right. You have to get to the core of what's going on regardless of what
the addiction is. After deciding to finally stop drinking I wondered what the withdrawal was going
to be like and whether food or diet had an impact. (duh, you bet!) Having already been through major
drug problems and withdrawal in the 90's, I wasn't looking to go through that hell again.
What I found was pretty amazing. I'm not a doctor or nutritionist, but I'll try and describe it
the best I can:

You are what you eat. Literally. With alcohol, your body gets all tweaked out - blood sugar,
glucose levels, seratonin, all sorts of things. Your mind plays tricks on you since it's looking
for a sugar fix, etc. Like most addictive substances (nicotine included) I guess there are endorphins
that are generated and have an effect on your brain somewhat similar to opiates. (again, I'm an art director
not a nutritionist, so I'm probably mixing up terminology here to a degree). I happened to find a detox
program that mitigates withdrawal and rebuilds your system using an insane combination of vitamins
and supplements over the course of a couple months. Starts off with 60-70 supplements a day, at 1-2 hour
intervals. All sorts of stuff to aleviate alcohol cravings. (Glutamine is my friend!) A lot of it is all about
hypoglycemia and eliminating a diet that consists of insane amounts of sugar and crap you don't need.
There's way more to it than this, but I'll stop. Imagine combining this with riding though.

It might be a good idea to take a good hard look at your entire existence - what you eat, drink,
smoke, whatever and consider what role each plays in your life. Contrast that with what you aren't
doing - such as supplementing your body with key nutrients that aleviate depression, anxiety, etc.
It's all intertwined and makes sense once you start analyzing things.

All I gotta say is, after waking up hungover and miserable literally EVERY DAY for years on end,
I feel incredible. Do a search for Health Recovery Center in Minnesota. They have interesting angles
on giving up smoking too.


HL

That was an interesting read, thanks for posting that, HLee!!!
That was actually one of the reasons I moved to Minnesota. I've had my ups and downs sinceI've been here but lately my life has been getting much better. I did start up smoking again last week, hate it. I've had about 4 already today, but after reading this thread again I will try, I mean really try, not to smoke anymore today. It will be a struggle but I won't give up. Thanks to everyone again for the support in this situation, it does really help.

Sorry guys, fell off the wagon. Guess this means I'm banned from this thread.
But falling off actually is helping me. After a break, everytime I smoke I can feel it in my lungs . All the more to stop for good.

sorry to here Spider, but its not over. You gotta realize that the hardest thing, and that which will make you stronger through this, is getting back on when you fall off.

I kept a package of loose tobacco on my desk next to my computer for the first 2 months of not smoking. It actually helped me to force myself to confront the temptation and overcome it rather than fall to it. Going from smokin a ton to not at all isn't easy at all.

Get back up SM and do your thing.

bummer deal... sucks to hear people falling off the wagon. if you're drinking you'll
prolly have a much harder time quitting though. same goes for bad diet or bad environment.

another question to ask yourself - who would you rather give your money to?
Phillip Morris (Altria) or Phil Wood?

HL

Keep it up BAB. I kept a bunch of drinking straws cut to cigarette length in my pocket when I quit. It became apparent quickly that I was going to rot my teeth with Dum-Dum suckers I was constantly sucking on. The physical habit (by which I mean your hands and mouth wanting something to do) is a hard one to break. For some odd reason, black licorice drops also helped me.

SpiderMike: Try again. I read somewhere that it takes the average person 7 tries to kick it. I know it took me more than that.

Don't despair. You'll quit someday, even if it takes until you have a lung removed and you cant smoke because of the flamability of the oxygen tank.

Non-smokers die, and smokers die especially painfully, and for a long time.

I haven't smoked for 2 days, 10 hours, several minutes.

Day one wasn't bad.

Day two was a ****ing roller-coaster.

Today is going okay. I ate about 1/4 mg clonazapam to help with the intense anxiety and mood swings. Seems to be working.

Maybe it's just placebo, but my lungs feel more clear already!

I smoked a cigarette today, first in five days. Going to try to not have any more. I smoke a pipe. I don't inhale though so I don't think it's really a big deal.

Last year I actually got down to being able to just have one or two at the bar on Friday, for several months, then finals started kicking my ass and I started smoking maybe half a pack a day and never recovered.

At my worst I smoked 3 packs a day, maybe two or three years ago. So even when I'm at half a pack I still think I'm doing awesome. Anyways, the pipe tastes good. Cigarettes don't.

Pats on the back to the quitters.
Kicks in the butt to the wagon fall-offers.
I wish you all the strength it takes.
"Smoking is something I used to do. It is not who I am, I don't think."

after nearly 20 years of smoking, doing drugs, quiting drugs,
taking up drinking and smoking again and finally drinking to excess:

I had my last drink 23 days ago.
I had my last smoke (djarum special cloves) 26 days ago.

get whatever help you can, get dedicated and you will succeed.
you guys can do it.

So...hmmm. 30 days without a smoke. I got dropped on my ride today, but I think that had to do with energy and eats.

Just checking in and hoping everyone is on the up and up. It got bad last week, felt like I could just drop right back in. My dad called me today to tell me he was proud of me and he's a 2 pack a day lifetimer.

Anyway, new pedals and a pump are my rewards.

4 weeks good here. not as tempted as on previous attempts. got me some bike diapers as the one-month reward. the cool rewards will come after two and three months, which is the real test.

I step to the 7mg patch tomorrow. stay out of my way.

oh yeah, gbd. If you want my patches just let me know. I am still on the gum.

edit: we should have talked more today.

word? 7mg?

no, they are the strong ones. 21mg.

thanks anyway. those 21mg ones are frikkin huge. I started on the 14mg ones.

you can cut 'em.


also: good work, guys. it will just get easier and easier from here.

Do you guys have a quit line?

Could be worth a look.

giant ups to the quitters, and a big keep trying to those who are stlil struggling with quitting and smoking again.

last year, one of my roommates quit and he had a huge list of things he would use as oral fixation replacements. one of his favorites was brushing his teeth. at the height of his struggle he would be walking around the house 5-6x a day with his tothbrush hanging out of his mouth. in fact, I believe he had to buy a new one after a month of severe duty.

the funny part is, he didnt really think about the dental benefits of all that brushing and when he went into the dentist months later to get his wisdom teeth removed, the hygenist was so amazed at his dental cleanliness that she called all the other hygenists over to check out his grill.

he told them why he brushed so much and they were so stoked to hear it had to do with quitting smoking that they drastically discounted his surgery in support. [he was, of course, uninsured]