Finally Trying to Quit These Nasty Cigarettes

[stin187]

A little backstory ... I've been a fairly heavy smoker (2 to 3 packs a day) for the past 15 years or so. It's gotten to the point where I want to give it up as I don't enjoy it anymore. Plus my Father has been in and out of the hospital for the past few years with just about every smoking related thing you can have (he has smoked for over 40 years) and it has been a slow reality check.

Now I have no intention of quitting cigars or pipe smoking, just sick of the cigs and would like to lessen my dependency on nicotine. My plan is to try to find pipe tobacco that I enjoy and that also has a high enough nicotine content to get me through the switch. Probably going to grab an ecig or gum to fight the urge to have a quick cig when it's more convenient than a pipe. Also I still plan on a cigar or two per day. I do love the act and taste of smoking, just not the cigs anymore.

Just wondering if anyone had any suggestions or helpful tips to get this done. I've tried to quit a few times and always end up going back in a day or two. Thanks all!

 

[sullen]

Plan on 6 to 8 cigars a day rather than the one or two and it will be easy.

I say that half jokingly, as I smoke maybe 2 cigs a week now down from 25yrs @ 2 packs a day,
I was smoking about 6 cigars a day which left me very little time to smoke cigs.

I watched my father die of lung cancer, things like that really aren't good motivators.
If you truly don't enjoy it anymore and you're not just telling yourself you don't enjoy it to get yourself more into a quitting mindset, it will happen on its own and you'll gravitate towards the pipes & cigars.

 

[D Quintero]

start a cardio program , the idea is to repair and strengthen / increase your o2 lung capacity . 15 years of breathing that crap makes you a good candidate for making excellent strides .

after so much repair , if you fall off the wagon and fire up a cig and inhale , itll discouragingly hurt i.e. be painful .

best of luck Bro

 

[JustinThyme]

I quit 1.5 years ago cold turkey from a pack a day habit (at some points I was up to two packs) for 35 years. Ecigs don't do squat, they just made me want a cigarette more. First and foremost you just have to make up your mind that you want to do it. Nothing else matters. I woke up one morning and decided today is the day realizing I wasn't even enjoying it, just a nicotine delivery system. My crutch was an increase in cigars to 3-4 a day for a few weeks. The one in the morning usually carried me through to the late afternoon then I would pull out a Churchill and puff on it for a few minutes then lay it down and come back to it later. Then the stick after dinner which most of the time was the end for the day with a 4th now and then. Now its 1-2 a day. The cigarette craving was gone after a couple of weeks to where it was just every now and then when I was doing something where I smoked doing it I would catch myself looking for my cigarettes until realizing there were none. Now I dont miss them at all.

 

[Bondo 440]

After 30 years I just had enough one day and counted how many I smoked. Next day I always tried to smoke one less. My wife was first to notice I was smoking less. And the coworkers too. I was at 5 a day ( for a couple days in a row ) with my last pack.. We'd go out and I was even able to leave the cigarettes at home. Then I switched to a brand I didn't enjoy like Pall mall or something lites. Three a day. One on the way to work, then 1 lunch and 1 after dinner. Did a pack of the gross flavor smokes that way. Sometimes I wasn't even finishing them. A couple puffs would get me dizzy. By now I was pretty much weaned off heavy nicotine. I remember standing in the garage by the door because It was bitter cold outside. Took one puff it tasted like crap and I asked myself WTF am I doing this for? and I was done.

 

[teamrandr]

If you really want to quit you can do it brother! The mind is a.powerful thing. Always remind youself of what you will gain by quitting. Let people that love you know you wan to quit. They can be there for you when you are getting the urge to light up. Just my.two cents.

 

[Eric]

If you're sincerely wanting to quit smoking cigarettes - you MUST read Allen Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking.

 

[AdamJoshua]

First of all best of luck.

I quit, it' will be 2 years this December 21st, I smoked 2 packs a day for 30 years and quit cold turkey, ok not so much by choice, I got a really bad case of Flu. I was on vacation in Florida, at Disney and I was running a constant temp of over 101 ... I was so sick I couldn't stay awake and basically slept away my vacation in the French Quarter at Disney, 10 day vacation that cost me about 6 grand, I never went in one of the parks, barely ate, etc., ... and I was sick every single minute of it. On the bright side when I left I left a full carton of smokes behind, the carton I brought with me, I didn't smoke one cig the entire time.... I also lost 20 pounds .. I suppose I should be happy that I quit smoking even though I totally wasted all that money oh and now I smoke cigars, 3 a day ... so I'm not even saving any money. LOL

As far as quitting I doubt you want the flu, you might try one of those damn vap things, they seem to be all the rage now, or hard candy, or just smoke a lot of smaller size cigars.

 

[ItsBarbarino]

I quit smoking cigarettes on August 11th. Have a thread about it in the general discussion board. In short, here are my thoughts...

- I really wanted to quit, but quickly lost my resolve over and over. Try to remind yourself how consistently awful it is, especially when close to your quit date.
- I used Snus and sunflower seeds. Helped a lot with the oral fixation.
- I didn't smoke for the first week, wanted to get it all out, so to speak. I've also been very cognizant of not replacing cigarettes with cigars.
- I really believed (and still do) that cigarettes won't solve any problems or help anything.
- I made sure to talk about it beforehand with a lot different people so I could be held accountable.
- I realized how many people wanted me to quit, which made me want to even more.

You can do it man. Believe in yourself, I sure as hell do.

 

[stin187]

Thanks for all the advice and kind words. Tomorrow is my quit date so the adventure will begin. I picked up Allen Carr's book and some nice new pipe tobacco so hopefully I can pull this off. Thanks again!

 

[stin187]

One week of no cigarettes down! Also 6 days of ZERO nicotine down. Pretty happy so far. Thanks again everyone for all the support.

 

[SFerrojr]

One week of no cigarettes down! Also 6 days of ZERO nicotine down. Pretty happy so far. Thanks again everyone for all the support.

Nice work Brother! Keep it up one day at a time.

 

[DocDrake]

One week of no cigarettes down! Also 6 days of ZERO nicotine down. Pretty happy so far. Thanks again everyone for all the support.

Hope your still quit brother. The ecig worked for me but it became part of my daily routine, i like it that way though. Whatever is about working for you though keep it up.