What it's like when you quit smoking

Great! Thanks to all of you for sharing your experience.

I tried my first cig when I was 11, and by the time I was in my mid teens I was on a regular 20 to 30 a day, maintaining that habit all the way through my 20's, 30's and 40's. I loved everything about the habit, and my peer group were willing conspirators, which made it virtually impossible for any one of us to pack it in, even if we really wanted to.
The usual crowd would be in the pub, puffing away and as I found out on the couple of times I tried to abstain, a few pints and a lot of laughter and I was taking the cigarettes offered, promising myself I'd have another go at packing it in the following week.
Two years ago, I started sounding like someone tuning a piano when I lay in bed at night, trying to get to sleep.
Coincidentally, I had just started to pay attention to the outflow of money that the habit was causing, following several government tax hikes on cigarettes, taking the price for a pack up to around £6 ($8?).
10 packs a week was costing me £60, which was the equivalent of £3000 a year. I would have to earn around £4500 gross to put that net amount into my pocket, and now it was affecting my health.
I wheezed my way through another week of smoking, hoping it would go away (the thought of giving up my beloved smoking still overruled logic and economics) but finally had a quiet word with myself and purchased a large pack of nicotine patches.
What followed was roughly six weeks of insomnia, mild and severe headaches, the constant munchies and boring TV as I avoided the temptations in the pub.
After three weeks of patches I cut out nicotine altogether and because I'd put on eight pounds I took to walking for an hour each evening, gradually increasing the speed until I ended up jogging most of the way. The first time I actually ran for any length of time, I ended up being sick in a hedgerow, I was that unfit.

I have amazed myself that I have actually persevered this time. I thought it would never happen.
It is now nineteen months since I touched a cigarette, and worked out the other day that I have saved at least £5000, some of which went to pay for the tablet that I am now using to post this blurb.
I no longer play tunes when I breathe, I no longer even think about cigarettes as a part of my day, let alone crave one. The smell of smoke doesn't bother me too much, but the smell of a smoker does, when someone wafts past me in the supermarket etc, after they've just stubbed one out. Yuck.

One thing I would say to you Lash, regarding your superb effort and achievement so far, and that is to focus in on how ridiculous the whole smoking thing is......cost, smell, health risks...you name it....
If you really focus on the negative side of the habit and never let your guard down, one day you will suddenly realise that you haven't even thought about cigarettes for weeks.

Well done, and well done to all of us who've succeeded.

I'm still ten pounds heavier though......(waddles off to raid the fridge)

Hey, Waddles, you'll get rid of that over time, I know you will. I gained, but I can't blame it all on the stopping as I was in a complex of going to school (in my forties), married, working near 40 hours a week, and doing homework in the middle of the night. Eating fat with work meetings. Oh, with a house to keep up, though both of us did that.
I became less attractive to my mate, who had gained as much weight himself, and lost it, but not at those exact dates that I did.
Fie on the men, eh? No, people vary, but that was not a good clue in my life.

And Lash, love, I'm happy for your working it.

I think it's time to offer huge props to Lash for her superb progress away from tobacco. Frankly, if I was dealing with a 12 year old religious nosy know it all, I would probably have caved. Hopefully the little prig and his groupies are on their way to the next grade/level and become another poor teachers problem. Good on ya, Lash, good on ya!

I always like finding posts like this hidden between screaming conspiracies and scary sex stories.
A2k is a lovely mindfuck


anywho
How are you doing now girlie??

I smoked for ... eehh.. since before I was 13 until I was 25.
I just realized one day I didnt enjoy them anymore and never bought another pack. BUT.. I was also pregnant.. and I think that hormone surge made it disgusting for me. I really did love smoking.

During that court bullshit last year, there was a day when things hit a bottom I couldnt handle. I bought a pack. Smoked it in about 5 hours , then bought another .
Its been almost an entire year since I started smoking again and I feel terrible. Putting them down is a given, but this time I dont have that off button. Though.. A pack lasts me a week or more so it isnt TOO bad, but it is still a daily thing and I dont enjoy it.

I hope you are still able to stay away from them and pigging out now instead of smoking out

Commiseration, shewolf.
I long had in mind that if I found out I was terminal, I would smoke again.
It's been long enough that I doubt it. No attraction now, but it has been 30 years. But the thought that I would do it if terminal hung on for quite a while.

Anyway, in that case I'd have to have money and access.

Shewolf!

There's a blast from the past. Still into black and white photography?

Regarding the lapse with the smoking, you could always get pregnant again. (Insert grinny face here).

Not so much now as I was before. Too many unnecessary complications in life..
But those are about to come to an end, and after that I can get back out and do what i love
How are you doing?

(Gives a thumbs up sign)

Mustn't grumble.

This forum sorely misses your bawdy humour. Please sort yourself out quickly and get back here poste haste.

I will.
that is a promise

Wolfie,

Please don't allow shewhoshallbenamelessandknownonlyas "The Bitch" to destroy your good health. She's already taken a good chunk of it away from you. Don't let her have the rest of it.

If you need to find an off button, keep looking at that photo of all the bruises. Print out a copy of it and wrap the pack of cigarettes in it. Your daughter is counting on you to keep her safe. You can't do that if you aren't also keeping yourself safe. Besides, you need that cigarette money to help with the expenses.

Love you, girlie.

Hi!!! It was so lovely to come back after a bit of an absence and see such lovely, funny, supportive notes. I haven't had a cig - and I know I won't. I do think of them occasionally (and FONDLY), but for some reason now - instead of acting thoughtlessly, I focus on how sick I was when I quit - the crazy cost, the stink I now smell like crazy when a smoker - or even a student who rode to school that morning with a smoker - and I'm totally turned off.

NOW, I'm making changes to get this extra 20 pounds off.

Thanks so much for being so wonderful.