Smoking!

I have some, er, support....(thanks).

I need to clean my body out though, which I also know will involve starting long walks again etc..

Phew two and a half weeks!....

I would used it as an excuse to spend hours in a steam room and get lots of massages.

I reckon taking up running is a great way of giving yourself health motivation. Nothing gives you feedback more quickly on the changes you are trying to make. Running makes you pay for slip ups, and rewards you for being healthy. If exercise means reaching for the remote, you won't notice half as much benefit.

OK I'm sure you're right, however I have osteoarthritis in my knees, which precludes even playing 5 a side (which I like), So walking, swiming and maybe cycling are OK, but not running (well not excessively I guess). I spend a lot of time in the garden, which helps, but I take your point about the remote!

And yes a massage and a steam sounds good!

In addition to the essential exercise, you might like to try The World's Best Detox Drink:

One/Two lime(s)
Several stalks of celery, plus leaves (I like going heavy on this)
Some sharp apples (pref. cookers)
Flesh of one Pineapple/one honeydew melon/canteloupe

Blitz through juicer (one that separates the pulp, NOT an ordinary blender). Tastes so unbelievably fresh and good, it makes you feel guilty about putting anything bad in your body afterward. Plus, it's chock full of vitamin C and Oxalic acid.

Cheers,

Tim
_____________________________

Os nid Campagnolo yw hi, dyw hi ddim yn werth ei marcho...

Fisbey,

Friends of mine who have quit have relied partly on the encouragement and support of friends and family.

So, keep it up from one member of the forum!

Cheers,

Steven

Yep, good on you for giving up - stay strong!

For me it was the simple decision that cigarettes weren't giving me enough pleasure in return for their downsides. Compared to a glass of wine or, erm, other things, the buzz from cigarettes was rubbish! Silly as it may sound, contempt for the things themsleves helped me to quit.

Taking up activities that made me feel good about my body also helped. I found that changing several things at once was easier than just quitting smoking in isolation. And that my body stopped craving stuff that was bad for it. So it was more fresh vegetables, less refined foods, more exercise.

And a friend's advice helped too: if you think you don't have the willpower to be the person you want to be - healthy, strong, a non-smoker, whatever - just pretend to be that person for a while...eventually you will be!

Good on you Fisbey.
Maybe you should post progress here every day to strengthen your resolve. We will support you.
I don't do milk. We are the only species that continues to consume milk after we have been weaned, and to top it all, we drink it from another animal!!! Weird. It is full of fat and incubates germs and all sorts of nasties in our stomachs. I use orange juice on cereal or museli with fresh fruit. And putting liquid fat into tea or coffee - What the hell is that all about?
Give up milk and help the detox. I am sure your body will thank you for it, and the prune gas will ease off as you become adjusted.
There is always giving up meat too, but a little at a time, eh?
Just keep off the fags first. Keep at it.

Er OK.

I gave up er 'Jazz Woodbines' 9 or 10 years ago, the same with alcohol (pretty much) - two glasses of wine last year - phew!

Apart from infections from smoking, I don't think it helps my mental state too much (if that makes sense), so I will stick to it. Also have you ever tried reciting Shakespeare when you can't breathe properly, or any long speach come to that - it's very difficult!

As I said earlier I get 'support' with the emotional side of things, chew the gum and will start doing some longish walks again soon, and much gardening of course!

Thanks all - despite my cynicism posted on here once in a while, I really do appreciate the support.

Rasher - That was another serious post!

Frisby
Don't fall over laughing, but have you thought about a diet? My better half swears by
Carol Vorderman's detox for life, its a 28 Day
Detox Diet. She had quite a few problems [I do not include myself in this] and sticking to the Vorderman way she has improved to the extent of being able to completely reduce her medications. Could be worth a try!
oldie.

quote:

---

Rasher - That was another serious post!

---

Must be the way you read 'em..

No, the one I posted!

Ah, yes, sorry..

Fisbey

Since you are already giving it up this is probably unnecessary.
I tried to give up smoking several times without success over a period of 20 years then finally sucuumbed to all the advertising in air line magazines and gave this a try.

http://www.allencarrseasyway.com/

It worked. It does not use nicotine patches or anything like that. It relies on telling you how mad smoking is and suggests viewing it from a superior position so whenever you see somebody light up you can shake your head and feel sorry for the stupid idiot for smoking.

If you feel yourself faltering give the web site a visit. Of course he charges for the course itself but it is'nt very expensive. (note the english tel no. so it is available in the UK )

regards
GEOFF

Good luck !

Fisbey, I gave up smoking three months ago and all I can say is that it was one of the most beautiful experiences a smoker can get. My input may, I hope, further enhance your motivation. If it's not useful to you it might be useful to someone else.

Three months ago I was in Australia, a place where it's forbidden to smoke pretty everywhere. There I was forced to find out that living without those bloody fags is well possible. Then, after four weeks of holiday down there, some 'inner voice' suggested to me that I 'could actually stop smoking'. That's what I did and it was amazingly easy. Some positive effects are :

- After a few weeks, everything you eat is so tasty that you feel as if you were rediscovering the flavour of every single fruit or vegetable. And if you taste a good bottle of wine, you will ask yourself why you've wasted that much money on good bottles, as being a smoker your palate was not able to taste anything anyway. Never trust a smoking cook

- About money, I've calculated that I've spent about 30k € on fags during the 17 years I was a smoker (and fags are much cheaper over here than in the UK). As Allen Carr points it out in his excellent book, if I touch only one fag now, I will start chain-smoking again, and therefore this single fag might cost me 50 or 100k €. Quite a motivation isn't it ?!

- The overall increase of physical and mental energy is most impressive. You'll end up running around or cycling, just in order to canalize all this liberated energy.

- Your sleep will be a thousand times better, and you will find it very easy to fall asleep (maybe not the first 2-3 weeks after you've stopped ...You'll feel nervous but that's normal and perfectly manageable). In the morning you'll be in amazingly good shape, especially if you've had too much booze

- At work, you can take your break together with your mates instead of freezing your arse off outside. You can also meet a customer without feeling guilty about your breath.


I hope you don't mind if I turn up with a few short advices ...

- Be sure that you WANT and not HAVE to stop smoking, prepare yourself mentally for a big change in your life, but don't make any accurate plans to stop smoking on a particular day or event. At some moment you'll run out of fags, have an argument with someone about those stinking cigarettes, or you might simply cough a little more than usual when you wake up in the morning. That'll be the moment to stop.

- In the beginning, don't tell anyone that you're trying to stop smoking. That would mean that you need help from other people, and therefore your inner motivation is not strong enough.

- If you smoke your last cigarette slowly and consciously, saying to yourself it's the 'last one', forget about it. You're not ready yet, because you're still attached to your fags.

- Be aware that the greatest danger to start again comes from emotional turmoil. If your girlfiend runs away, if you lose a relative or in case of any other event of that kind, tell yourself that starting to smoke again would only make matters worse.


Well, anyway. To me, stopping to smoke was a pleasure.

Cheese

Fisbey -

Everyone else has had far too much good taste to point this out - but, er, sex gets quite a lot better too...

Tim

For those who like to see and hear smoking not not only stuffs up your lungs, taste and gonads but your eyes and ears!

Now that's incentive for those who have invested a few pennies into their hifi gear.

Dave

The only people i have met who have given up and stayed given up have done it the hard way.

Just say on the 1st June 2004 i will no longer smoke.

Throw all your fags etc and endure.

Not nice but it works.

Look at the negatives to smoking.

YOU SMELL REAL BAD

YOU TASTE REAL BAD

YOUR CLOTHES SMELL REAL BAD

YOUR HOUSE SMELLS REAL BAD

YOUR CAR SMELLS REAL BAD

EVERYONE CAN SMELL YOU BECAUSE OF YOUR TOBACCO

IT GIVES A SLOW PAINFUL DEATH WHERE BITS FALL OFF ON A SLOW BUT REGULAR BASIS.

YOU CANT DO WHAT YOU USED TO.

ETC ETC.

IT COSTS A FUCKING FORTUNE. 20 a day is £4.00 per day which is £1460 per year.

Positives:

YOU SMELL NICE (OK BETTER)

YOU TASTE NICE ETC ETC

YOU ARE 1500 RICHER PER YEAR

THAT CDS 3 552 AND 500 AND NBL IS THAT MUCH NEARER.

YOU WILL LIVE TO SPEND YOUR PENSION

ETC ETC.

One other purely selfish point is that i work for the NHS so your ciggie taxes pay my salary so please dont stop smoking.

regards David

Right - 3 weeks today, pretty pleased really seeing as I took in a trip to Villa Park without smoking, which is a major achievement for me!

I know about the ears and eyes, have had many ear infections....

Thanks again to all, will keep you posted.

I gave up smoking in the year 1989. At the time, there was a documentary film about the blood system in the TV. They showed the damage that cigarettes bring and it entered to me a very great fear of death.
I guess that everyone can get such a movie and it is a great starter for giving up smoking.
Another point that shows clearly that smoking is death causing, is the fact that life insurance is cheaper to none smoking people than to people that smoke cigarettes.

I think that in order to give up smoking a person has to deeply understand that smoking (beside the danger) brings nothing good to the smoker. The feeling that smoking helps in bad times or bad situation is only an elusion and smoking doesn't make anything better or easier.

Than there is a decision - no matter what happens to me, I'm not going to touch a cigarette in my life.

The first days are not as hard as it may seen, because the will to smoke equals with the very good feeling you get.

After a week or so, you feel good, you forget how bad you felt when you smoked and here starts the great temptation, but you have to stand strong as you decided in bad times (when you did smoke) that doesn't matter what happens to me, I don't touch a cigarette!

After a month, it becomes easier but than the "traps" start to act. If for example you used to sit with a friend once a month for a coffee or beer and you both used to smoke at this time, be aware that next time when you are sitting with him you will be tempted to smoke again - what can happen to me from one cigarette? Don't forget - at bad times you decided that no matter what happens to me, I don't touch a cigarette!

There are coming bad dreams, I suffered years from them, in these dreams I started to smoke again and I hated my self - a real nightmares!

Than comes the fighting with the self-image - in your mind there are situations that you can't see yourself without a cigarette in your mouse.

After several months you begin to feel great and it seems that cigarettes are not a problem anymore - but here are coming the long period "traps".

For example, you stopped smoking on winter' and after several months when smoking doesn't bother you anymore, you are sitting on the beach and drinking beer - and hope! You wish to smoke a cigarette as you used to hundreds of times in the past. Don't forget that you decided that no matter what happens to you, you are not going to touch a cigarette!

Giving up cigarettes is a very tough way, but after several years (and no less!) you become to be a free man, you don't care about cigarettes and one of the good signs is that you don't care anymore if someone smokes near by you.

You are living in a new world, feel great, can easily do things you couldn't do before, you notice that you don't breath heavily in acts that squeezed you in the past, if you have to band down for your shoo or something like that, you don't feel dizzy when you stand up again.

And it is a great pleasure to tell those who smoke that you don't smoke for many years.

And maybe - it buys few more extra years to live.

Arye

[This message was edited by Arye_Gur on Tue 04 May 2004 at 10:50.]

[This message was edited by Arye_Gur on Tue 04 May 2004 at 10:54.]

[This message was edited by Arye_Gur on Tue 04 May 2004 at 10:58.]

I agree there are special situations which trigger the smoking desire strongly.

I have not smoked for 3 years now so it is much rarer now that I actually "remember" and think of smoking but one real hard one for me is Air travel.

I have travelled internationally on business for a long time, starting out in the days when us smokers huddled in the back of the plane and built this terrible blue fog around us, ending up feeling like shit at the end of a 10 hour flight from all the smoking and smoke inhalation.

Then came the ban on smoking so now I was a smoker "going without" for 10 hours or more. On arrival, no smoking until out of the airport building, so on reaching that location out with the fags and chain smoke for the next few hours to make up for the deprivation. Sad is'nt it but you look and at any airport you will see a group of smokers huddled around the big ashtray by the door puffing on a cigarette like it is execution time.

Now I have given it up the 10 hour flight is just time passing by, no big deal. The moment that gets me is when I walk out of the airport and suddenly desperately want that "first fag" again.

So resistance continues to be needed even as the years go by.

regards
GEOFF