Smoke?

[G'day Mate]

http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm316/amandaaskees/Decorated%20images/family-guy-smoke.jpg

Just saw a John Oliver thing on smoking which was interesting and worthy of a thread why not.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UsHHOCH4q8

I never have, and my partner is approaching three years smoke free now. I basically made her quit, using guilt and all sorts of dirty tricks but you can't argue with results :)

[overpowered]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2lzvoGGXBc

[G'day Mate]

Pretty fucking disturbing in that case.

[Rikadyn]

occasionally trees or a cigar...

[GB]

Grew up in a house full of smoke and hated every second of it. Just the thought of it, let alone the smell of it, makes me sick to me stomach. Now I have early emphysema because of my parent's actions.

And yes, I'm bitter about it.

[Mortavian]

Shishah, cigars, cigarillos, even the occasional trees, sure. But cigarettes? No thanks.

[Sad, little man]

I've never smoked, but I don't mind a little bit of cigarette smoke, as long as I'm not choking on it or if it gets into my clothes.

A lot of my friends back in school smoked. So, I generally associate the smell of cigarettes with having a good time. So, I have no desire to actually smoke, but I like the smell up to a point. Strange, eh?

[novicius]

Cigars only, once every few months.

[tigeraid]

It's fucking disgusting. No offense.

Grew up in a household where my mother (thankfully) quit smoking when I was maybe 5 or 6, and my dad is still a chainsmoker. You don't realize it until you leave--smoke is just sort of there, at all times. After moving away, I now come back once or twice a year for holidays to a home I simply cannot stand; the entire place reeks of nicotine, even though he smokes almost exclusively in his man-cave in the basement. Everything has a yellow film on it, and even up on the top floor, it's all you can smell. Within an hour or so of being there, my sinuses completely solidify and I'm mouth-breathing for the rest of the visit, my eyes red and bleary, constantly going to the bathroom to wash my hands because I FEEL the nicotine film on them.

So while my sister picked up the habit, I avoided peer pressure when growing up and find it absolutely vile. Other than the old guys I work with, not a single person I know in my own circle of friends smokes, and it's excellent. Any and all measures taken by a government to prevent smoking are good in my book, no matter what ridiculous "personal freedom" argument smoking assholes come up with. And believe me, I hear those arguments every time I go home for Christmas from my single-lung father. And out of the other side of his mouth, he asks why we don't visit more often. :mad:

Likely because of him, I have various throat, nose and eye issues with breathing, swelling and watering. We can only help this bullshit will be completely gone in another generation.

[Cam]

My dad smoked for the first 15 years of my life. Thankfully, he quit. I really don't like smoke from anything. People that smoke don't realize how much they stink.

[Godson]

Occasional social smoker when I was younger. Asthma doesn't seem to be affected from it much when I did do it. My allergies on the other hand were NOT happy about it.

[speedpimp]

I smoked for 16 years(from 21-37). After I quit it was amazing how easy it was to spot a smoker by their stench. For the longest time I couldn't even tolerate the smell, let alone being around someone who is smoking. One of the biggest positives to quitting was my chronic bronchitis and asthma went away. Getting bronchitis used to be a yearly ordeal, now I've had it one time in the seven years since I've quit.

[thesameguy]

I'll have a smoke every once in a while - maybe five or six times a year. A cigarette, a cigar, trees. Pretty rare, but sometimes the mood strikes me. Never more than one of whatever it is.

[Random]

Some social puffs on a cigarette or cigar or pipe when I was in college, pretty much solely because it's fun to play with the smoke. :D Nothing since.

One of the interesting things about driving a convertible is that you smell much more of the world around you as you drive, including the guy three cars up who is smoking a cigarette. :|

[Leon]

My grandfather was a heavy smoker, and was in very poor health due to massive emphysema throughout my childhood, then died (from it) when I was about 13.

So that showed me very vividly just how dangerous smoking is. From that learning, I've never smoked anything ever.

I've dated a smoker, and it was incredibly difficult.

[George]

Trees? Is that a 420 reference? Sorry for my cluelessness.

I wasn't much of a smoker, ever. Maybe twenty cigs in my whole life, and most of them when I was in my late teens and early twenties.

I did use smokeless tobacco off and on for thirty years, however. I'm not proud of that and hope it won't kill me down the road. I have been tobacco free since 5/5/2013. I wasn't a heavy user but I was amazed at how much physical and mental discomfort I had after quitting cold turkey. I almost never think of it now, almost two years later, which is a great thing. I remember thinking I'd never be happy again if I couldn't take a pinch of Skoal on a long drive or while mowing the lawn and during other similar "trigger" activities.

The good news: my kids were too young to remember me using it - although I was a crafty sneak about it - and nowadays when they see people smoking, they always comment, like "EWWW! THAT GUY IS SMOKING!" and "That will make him die, right Daddy?" I didn't put that in their heads, so it must be what they're learning in school and among their friends.

[Random]

Yeah, my brother is struggling with getting off smokeless tobacco. :| He's moved to "vaping" and has slowly been dialing back the amount of nicotine in his chosen variety.

edit: yes on the trees comment. ;)

[George]

Random thanks for hipping me to the new lingo. Please give this link to your brother: www.killthecan.org. It helped me, and it might help him too. He can join a quit group and post his daily promise not to use nicotine. It sounds cheesy, I know, but when I was physically and mentally hurting, it was good to read posts from those suffering the same symptoms and from those who had done it before and lived to tell the tale. I don't post daily these days, but I happened to think of it today and posted Day 655 this morning.

[Random]

:up:

[novicius]

For me, it's definitely a time-and-place kind'a thing: do I have time to enjoy some scotch/whiskey/bourbon and not immediately drive/ride somewhere afterwards? Is there going to be good company? Can I smoke outdoors vs. inside of a cigar bar? Have I done anything noble/heinous this week to ruminate over? :D

In addition I always shower after smoking and before going to bed. Basically, if I didn't say anything about smoking cigars, nobody would know.

[sandydandy]

Hopelessly and helplessly addicted. Not something I'm proud of. I never do it around the kids, (though they both know), never do in the house, and never in the new car...well not yet at least.

Started in the mid-nineties as a social habit. Smoking on the patio of nightclub was a great way to meet girls. Socially, it tends to bring people together, (probably it's only good quality).

I began full-time around 1999. In 2002 I quit for about two years, then started again. Then in 2005 I quit again for a year, but of course started again. In 2010 I quit for a month or so, (New Year's resolution), as I wanted to test the 21-day myth of changing a habit. Sadly, it didn't happen for me. 2010-present is the longest I've gone without quitting. I did try 'vaping' but that lasted only a week...and I think I quit for a day last year.

Just to give you a hint at how insidious this habit is...my entire day is planned around when I'll have the opportunity to smoke. When I'm denied that opportunity, I'll get irritable as if there's a conspiracy against me. I love taking the old car to work so I can smoke. I'll deliberately take the long way home, or to the store so I can smoke some more. I'm always looking to squeeze an extra smoke in whenever possible. When I'm not smoking it feels like I'm missing out on something. When I do smoke I barely notice that I'm doing it. Go figure.

What does the family think? Well my parents stopped criticizing me about it a long time ago. I'm a 39-year-old man now, so they're not going say anything about it ever again. Wife is at that point now too. Kids don't seem to have an opinion yet. I sometimes wonder what they think of the stench that's become part of my bodily aura...to them I guess that's just the way dad smells.

I often think about how my life could change for the better if I just quit. Health-wise it goes without saying...being 39, I'm getting close to the age where continuing with this 'cool' habit could bring some disastrous results. Maybe I'm pushing my luck. But then again I have an uncle, (don't we all have one of those?), who has been smoking his whole life and is now almost 70, and he seems to be doing just fine still smoking a pack a day, (I hope I didn't just jinx him). Financially too, I could save between $300-400 a month if I just gave it up. That's how much I spend on smokes and all the ancillaries that go with it: scratch and win lotteries, coffee, gas, lighters, etc. All the financial and health benefits that I could be enjoying seem to have ZERO impact on me at the convenience store when I'm buying my next pack(s). They're about as unimportant to me in the moment as the looks of disdain from passersby when I'm enjoying a smoke. I scoff and wave it off, as in my eyes, I'm a star.

It's a trap.

Pretty sad, huh? I envy those of you who never started in the first place. You're not missing out on ANYTHING special.

Any suggestions on how to kick the habit?

[overpowered]

I've got asthma but no family history of asthma. My dad smoked until I was 22. When I was a baby, my parents had a roommate who smoked as well. They say they didn't smoke in the same room as me when I was a baby but as we all know, if you smoke in the house, it goes everywhere. I'm sure my mom got a lot of second hand smoke while she was pregnant with me too.

Smoke makes my nose run and my eyes burn. I grew up tolerating it. My dad smoked in the house all the time as well as in the car. Most of my dad's friends smoked. I had bronchitis several times as a kid and teen, though air pollution from cars in the 70's/early 80's probably had a lot to do with that as well. I worked in food service for part of college and had to clean tables in the smoking section. Remember the joke we called smoking sections?

I remember people smoking on airplanes. That was hell.

I was recently at a casino out in the desert and went "Oh yeah. I remember that hell." The smoke was everywhere. I'm so glad that it's banned almost everywhere in public. I don't miss it one little bit.

[GB]

I worked in food service for part of college and had to clean tables in the smoking section. Remember the joke we called smoking sections?

I remember people smoking on airplanes. That was hell.

All this. And you could smoke in hospitals fer Chris'sake.

[MR2 Fan]

my grandfather died from smoking when I was 10 years old...and before that i tried to get him to quit...but young kids don't have much pull.

Never wanted to get anywhere near cigarettes my entire life.

Most people at my job have moved on to e-cigs and love them. I love them too even though I don't use them because even if there is some small risks they haven't found yet, there's so many improvements over regular smoking....it isn't taxed (yet), they smell good with the different flavors, no effect on asthma, clothes don't smell bad, teeth don't turn yellow, no cigarette butts left everywhere, no risk of starting fires and probably a lot of other things I'm not thinking of.

[George]

All this. And you could smoke in hospitals fer Chris'sake.

Ha! I'm into Old Time Radio, of which there are a zillion episodes available for free at www.archive.com. I was listening to a 1951 episode of Dragnet the other day and Sgt. Joe Friday was in the hospital after getting shot, twice. Yeah, '50s radio Dragnet was a whole different animal than late '60s cheesy TV Dragnet. Back then there were shootouts and fistfights and chases and all kinds of rough stuff that the middle-aged Jack Webb and his partner Harry Morgan didn't do in 1969. Heck, back in the early '50s, on the radio Sgt. Joe Friday still lived at home with his mother. Really!

Anyway, his partner went to visit him in the hospital in an episode called The Big Ben and brought him a carton of cigarettes!

I guess it didn't hurt that in '51, Dragnet was sponsored by Fatima Cigarettes. In many, many Dragnet episodes people ask for or offer each other cigarettes, and sometimes you can hear a match being struck followed by someone inhaling and then sighing contentedly.

https://c1.staticflickr.com/7/6193/6080115405_e87fc3f0af_b.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/00/JackWebb2.jpg

And then in later years...

https://c1.staticflickr.com/7/6205/6080120075_60ee3c7640_z.jpg

http://www.tias.com/stores/adsbydee/pictures/4342a.jpg

[SportWagon]

:sing: Da da dum dum! Da da dum dum DA! :sing:

Edit: Oh yes. G'day forgot to have a "smoked epsilon cigarettes" category. For people who tried a pack just to be able to claim they weren't not smoking in ignorance. Or something like that. Or got perhaps some got dared by friends but never picked it up as a habit.

[Alan P]

Tried one when I was about 12. hated it and was very nearly sick. Decided at that point if that was my body's immediate reaction it can't be good for me and that was that. My mum gave up years ago, probably around 30 years ago, maybe more. I think my Dad still has the occasional smoke but maybe one or two a week.

[TheBenior]

I very occasionally smoke a cigar, maybe 2-3 times per year.

[Leon]

Any suggestions on how to kick the habit?

Can you channel parental guilt?

As in, every minute you spend smoking, is a minute off the end of your life, that you won't be around for you kids.

[tigeraid]

The good news: my kids were too young to remember me using it - although I was a crafty sneak about it - and nowadays when they see people smoking, they always comment, like "EWWW! THAT GUY IS SMOKING!" and "That will make him die, right Daddy?" I didn't put that in their heads, so it must be what they're learning in school and among their friends.


I could not be happier to hear things like that.

[tigeraid]

What does the family think? Well my parents stopped criticizing me about it a long time ago. I'm a 39-year-old man now, so they're not going say anything about it ever again. Wife is at that point now too. Kids don't seem to have an opinion yet. I sometimes wonder what they think of the stench that's become part of my bodily aura...to them I guess that's just the way dad smells.


That's certainly how my dad was to me, although it was mixed with almost constant alcohol smell as well. He's only in his 50s and he's already down one lung.



Pretty sad, huh? I envy those of you who never started in the first place. You're not missing out on ANYTHING special.

Any suggestions on how to kick the habit?




My grandfather on my mother's side, who was an amazing person, university graduate in nuclear physics, on the board of safety for Ontario Hydro, and a polymath who could do anything, quit smoking at around age 40, and died in his 50s with a cancerous hole in his throat. It's the hardest death I've ever had to deal with, seeing this giant of a man who meant so much to my life, who was like 6'4 and 300 lbs and in his prime, reduced to a 150 lb wheezing slab of meat.

Smoking and alcohol have taken a LOT of people from my life. The majority of my family on my mother's side used to smoke but quit in the last decade or so. My dad's side, every SINGLE one, were or are chain smokers and also alcoholics; growing up and living in the poorest areas of St. John NB, known as the "cancer capital of Canada", where work is scarce, no doubt has a lot to do with it. Not a single family member before me graduated high school, never mind college. Every single family member from his side has died of some form of respiratory cancer or drank themselves to death first. Not only is it the reason why I don't smoke, it's also the reason I barely drink--during college I started down that slippery slope, drinking and partying every night, and one morning when I woke up in the middle of CLASS not remembering how I got there. And I was so terrified I'd end up like yet another "Culbert from New Brunswick" that I stopped drinking entirely for a good year or so. Now I only drink occasionally.

The same goes for smoking, even though I've never done it, I'm terrified I'm still going to end up with cancer because of that family history, and second-hand from my father and their constant, smoke-filled basement parties growing up. So, I suppose if there's one thing I'd say to help you quit, it's to think of your kids, and realize that even when you do your BEST to keep it away from them, it's still there.


When we did our Maritimes trip last fall, we went out for dinner with some of my family in St. John, and afterward, they took me to visit my dad's uncle Ronnie... And it was one of the most painful, awkward and sad things I've ever done. He was maybe 65, I think? Looked like a withered old husk, yellow-stained leathery skin, could barely talk after multiple throat surgeries, had some sort of colostomy bag setup going on, tubes coming out of his ribcage, sitting in a recliner in his filthy apartment watching WWE Smackdown. So out of his mind from chemo and early-onset Alzheimer's, after a life of chain-smoking and drinking.

The first thing he asked me, as he feebly shook my hand, having not seen me since I was maybe 10 years old, was "want a smoke?" :smh:

He died five days later, right around the time I was standing on the peaks of Meat Cove staring out over the Atlantic Ocean, enjoying nature and life. It could not have painted a more appropriate picture.

[sandydandy]

Sorry for your personal losses, Tiger. Why people get addicted to these things is beyond me. Human nature, I guess. I wish I never started smoking.
‎

Can you channel parental guilt?

As in, every minute you spend smoking, is a minute off the end of your life, that you won't be around for you kids.‎
I do think of my kids and how they would be impacted if something were to happen to me, but in the moment, the urge to light up is stronger. It's an internal mental battle, hard to explain.‎
‎
It's just so deeply embedded in my daily routine, that it's difficult to shake. I have noticed that I smoke less on the weekends, as there's no set routine and it's pretty much anything goes for a couple of days. I suppose I need some sort of pattern interruption, to help break the habit. I will say that talking about it openly has kind of helped. I'm less eager to go buy another pack...but my will may weaken after I finish my last cigarette. Who knows.‎

[MR2 Fan]

Sorry for your personal losses, Tiger. Why people get addicted to these things is beyond me. Human nature, I guess. I wish I never started smoking.
‎
‎
I do think of my kids and how they would be impacted if something were to happen to me, but in the moment, the urge to light up is stronger. It's an internal mental battle, hard to explain.‎
‎
It's just so deeply embedded in my daily routine, that it's difficult to shake. I have noticed that I smoke less on the weekends, as there's no set routine and it's pretty much anything goes for a couple of days. I suppose I need some sort of pattern interruption, to help break the habit. I will say that talking about it openly has kind of helped. I'm less eager to go buy another pack...but my will may weaken after I finish my last cigarette. Who knows.‎

Why not try e-cigarettes?

[speedpimp]

If I can kick my pack and half a day habit anybody can.

[tigeraid]

Don't mean to be morbid. I realize a lot of smokers are kind of helpless. Much like my struggle to lose weight, you think "shit, if I had no job, no friends, no chores and no life, I could probably focus on getting healthy." :(

[speedpimp]

It's all about priorities. And the thing to remember about quitting smoking, just like any addiction, is that you can only do it for yourself and not your spouse, kids, pet platypus. You also have to be in the right frame of mind to succeed.

[Godson]

This is going to sound harsh. But it comes down to one simple thing.


Making the decision to do it, and just doing it. Not looking back, but having complete control over it for the sake of saying "Fuck Off, I control my life."

[sandydandy]

Why not try e-cigarettes? I have tried those in the past, and, (as of this conversation), am seriously considering them again. I didn't give vaping a proper shot last time, it only lasted a week. There's no 'kick' when you inhale, which was part of my reason to switch back to the real thing last time. Plus last time I was too focused on saving money. An e-cig from the gas station costs $10, which lasts three days or so. Given what I'm spending now, that's a bargain.


Don't mean to be morbid. I realize a lot of smokers are kind of helpless. Much like my struggle to lose weight, you think "shit, if I had no job, no friends, no chores and no life, I could probably focus on getting healthy." :( You can make time for anything when it comes to improving your health, if you really want to. I've always had all the above and was still able to lose weight, (76 lbs in total), in 2003, and again in 2007.

Like Rich said...


It's all about priorities. And the thing to remember about quitting smoking, just like any addiction, is that you can only do it for yourself and not your spouse, kids, pet platypus. You also have to be in the right frame of mind to succeed. Yup. I'm at that mindset now, where I wasn't a week ago. I'm glad this topic was started. Just talking about it has created a bit of a shift in me. This is almost like a support group, whereas in real life I'm surrounded by people who...I don't wanna say don't give a shit, because I'm sure they do, but don't want to speak up because they might be afraid that it'll fall on deaf ears.


This is going to sound harsh. But it comes down to one simple thing.


Making the decision to do it, and just doing it. Not looking back, but having complete control over it for the sake of saying "Fuck Off, I control my life." Nah, not harsh at all. I read a book once called 'Easy Way To Stop Smoking' by Allen Carr, and I remember some of the nuggets of wisdom he dropped. Carr's a guy that smoke a hundred cigarettes a day, and hated every single one of them. I think he lived till the age of 70, when he was free of smoking, and trying to help others kick the habit. One of the things I remember is that you need to set a quit date. Not just quit right away because you're all proud in the moment and puffing your chest, but to really plan it out, and smoke whatever amount you smoke until that day arrives until you reach your last one. Enjoy that last one. Feel that pain in your throat, taste that foul taste, then feel a sense of relief when it's done. You're finally free.

I'll probably use e-cigarettes to ease the transition, then quit those too after a couple of months.

[thesameguy]

but to really plan it out, and smoke whatever amount you smoke until that day arrives until you reach your last one. Enjoy that last one. Feel that pain in your throat, taste that foul taste, then feel a sense of relief when it's done. You're finally free.

Somewhere I read something by a motivational speaker type, and he had a thought process similar to but different than this. His thought was that if there was something you didn't want to do, but did want done, to make a plan do it in the future but deny yourself doing it until that date. Then, when the date for it to get done finally arrives you'll be anxious to get it done and stop thinking about it. I've applied that to a few things over the last couple years and it does help, often quite a bit. Tell yourself you're going to quit in April and smoke like a chimney until then. By the time April rolls around, you're going to want to quit.

[George]

I woke up on a Sunday morning and decided I was done with tobacco. I had long known I must quit "someday" and that was simply the day I chose.

I wouldn't consider myself any more well-disciplined than anyone else, but I knew right then I had really quit. I never once was tempted to go buy more after that moment. I flushed what I had left and threw away the can. About a week later, I found a partial can in a garage cabinet. I had always hid it from my wife and kids - she knew, of course, but I never used it around her, nor did I leave any evidence out in the open. I threw it away without a second's temptation.

After the decision was made that Sunday morning, all there was left was waiting for the physical and mental withdrawal symptoms to go away. That sucked, but they went away eventually. It's just a waiting game. Eventually, they go away completely and you'll go days without even thinking that you used to smoke. These days maybe once a month I'll be working in the garage or the yard and I'll think about how I used to enjoy it, but I'm not tempted. Most recently was this weekend while shoveling snow, but it's more of a mourning for a lost friend than an urge to use tobacco anymore - kind of like, "This snow-shoveling experience would be better with warmer gloves. But I don't have any out here right now, and I can finish up without going inside to get them." That's where I am going on two years later.

Sandy, you'll get all the support you can imagine from me if you want to make this your personal quitting thread. Or go find a website and post roll daily with other quitters. As I've mentioned here before, that helped me alot, especially when my mouth and tongue and jaw hurt so much a few days after quitting. I was sure I had cancer! Turns out, that happened to a lot of folks who quit smokeless tobacco. I don't know what happens to smokers, but I bet there's something like that - a really sore throat or something, and probably coughing up crud from your lungs, I'd guess - and it's good to read about other folks having the same troubles and those who have been there and beyond. Your body has to rid itself of toxins and your mind has to get used to not doing something it's so used to.

My recommendation is to skip the e-cigs and get some sugarless gum instead. The goal is to quit nicotine, not just switch delivery methods.

Respectfully submitted from a quitter who is only on day 659.

[George]

In addition to sugarless gum, exercise was a big help to me. It was no coincidence that I started riding a bicycle again after I quit tobacco. The two things - quitting and cycling - sort of went together for me, and riding a bicycle was an activity that I hadn't done much as a smokeless tobacco user, so I didn't associate one with the other, unlike things like lawn-mowing and, believe it or not, skiing.

I've since added weight lifting and daily stair-climbing to the list. I've worked on the eighth floor of an office building for around a year now, and have only once used the elevator - that was when I left my ID badge upstairs on my desk and rode up in an elevator with a security guard to be let in.

I climb the stairs at least twice per day, and while that's not a huge piece of exercise by itself, I know it's better than riding the elevator, and I believe it helps my cycling and vice-versa. It feels like I'm using the same muscles. I also know eight flights of stairs sucked when I first started and now I don't even think about it, but sometimes I do think that all this exercise is part of my ongoing refusal to use tobacco ever again.

[drew]

I've smoked maybe a pack in my entire life. Last "drag" I took off of one was probably 10 years ago.

I hate it, hate it, hate it.

My gf smokes, once in a while. She'll go several weeks, then as soon as we go to meet some friends at the bar, within 3 minutes she's outside smoking. Which is why I really don't like going to the bar (not to mention I've been in a bar for 20 years, I've had enough).

The smell of it makes me want to vomit. My grandfather died in 1996 after smoking for 40 years (1.5-2 packs a day), I was in the hospital the morning he passed (with my other family members). 88 pounds and that's about it. My grandmother (his widow) died last yer of stage 3 lung cancer. She never smoked one in her life.

So, there you go. Fuck that shit

[George]

In other smoking news, I clicked on a link when I signed into my email tonight. I won't subject any of you here to a link to the most heinous advertising pop-up hell site that is TMZ, and I'm sure you all can find the news for yourself if you care.

Apparnently Leonard Nimoy, aged 83, caught an ambulance ride to the hospital recently for severe chest pains. This was the latest of a few, as I read it, and they said of him that he quit smoking 30 years ago but now suffers from COPD. Man, Leonard Nimoy, along with William Shatner, are pretty much my childhood heroes since I was old enough for my father to tell me to get up and go change the channel on the black & white TV, as Dads were known for doing before remote controls. I learned how to go out on the deck and turn the ground-mounted antenna with a plumber's pipe wrench to point toward a distant ABC affilite on a UHF channel after dark, too, but I digress.

My father is 81 and has COPD too, although apparently mild enough that he can still play pickleball and lift weights. Five years ago he was playing tennis and riding a mountain bike. I remember him quitting in the early to mid 1970s. I remember that he smoked Salems and my mom smoked Winstons, and then we moved to North Carolina where there was (and is) a town called Winston-Salem. They grow a lot of 'baccy in North Carolina.

I went to high school in NC and there was a smoking area there for kids 17 and older to use at lunch. I guess that was the age to legally smoke, althogh I remember having no trouble buying a can of Skoal, Happy Days, or Copenhagen when I was 15 and 16, both at the 7-11 near our house but also a tobacco store nearby. We'd ride our bikes, and later on our mopeds, and a can of dip or snuff cost sixty cents. A six-pack of beer was a couple bucks and the drinking age was 18, so we took our chances on not getting "carded" and often succeeded. Again I digress, but that's how I roll.

My mom is 77 and has emphysema. I hope I spelled that right. She quit in the 1980s, maybe ten years after my Dad did. She uses oxygen here in Colorado. My parents' house is at 6000' above sea level. Fortunately they are both still young and fit enough to travel, and they do by car and by air. She doesn't need oxygen in the east where there's more of it than up here on the high plains, but it's a sad thing to see her hauling an oxygen canister over to our house for Sunday supper. She has a big oxygen generator thing at home that somehow improves the air, and she walks around trailing an really long hose that the we have to try not to step on when we visit at their house.

My uncle Jack died of lung cancer in 2014. He was 75 years old, which is a good deal longer than some make it, but I surely miss him. My parents just got back to Colorado after spending a couple weeks with his widow, my father's sister.

My father-in-law died at age 59 of a heart condition that everyone said was related to smoking. I never met him. My wife was in her 20s and still misses him terribly. His father, my wife's grandfather, died within a month if I have my in-laws' facts straight. Both smoked all their lives.

In in still more smoking news, I read that Alaska legalized something today.

[21Kid]

I smoked for about 15 years. Thought I was being cool when I started out in high school. Parents did it, it couldn't be that bad. After a few years I didn't like it any more and wanted to stop... My wife quit the same time as me. We were a support group for each other. It was sort of like a challenge. Neither of us was hard on the other when we slipped though and I kept a spare pack in my car for the last two weeks or so. I'd have one when I had a really bad day. Ended up giving the last half pack away after a few more weeks.

It was the best decision I made 9 years ago. I hated how I felt after going out drinking and smoking. I'd feel worse from smoking an entire pack in one night than from the alcohol. And now it's gotten soooo expensive, I couldn't even imagine. It's $10/pack in Chicago.

[Conman]

Started at age 15 or so. Used to steal them from my uncle's work truck. He kept a carton behind the seat. Quit last January at age 42. I used vaping and am down to 0 mg of nicotine. I enjoy the sensation and love the smells and flavors of vaping. Don't miss cigarettes one tiny bit. If vaping were outlawed tomorrow, I can tell you I would not go back to cigarettes.

[SportWagon]

Every time I see this thread I start humming the "Marlboro Man" theme.

[Crazed_Insanity]

By reading the posts, I thought most people here are smokers, but thankfully the poll shows otherwise! :up:

Only my grandpa was a heavy smoker. I think I've tried stealing one of his lit cigarette sitting on the ash tray once when I was 5 and it choked the hell out of me after a single puff. Never tried since! ;)

So sandydandy is the only one totally addicted at the moment?

I've heard quitting cold turkey rarely works. One technique that might work is try to replace it or distract your mind with something else that make you feel good.(of course hopefully it's not some other expensive addiction or something bad for you!) For example, if you enjoy jacking off, whenever you feel like smoking, go take a jerkoff break! :D Point is, rather than focusing on quitting smoke, try to distract your mind into doing something else. Resisting temptation while facing it is never easy. Best to find ways to never have opportunity to face it... so yeah, try to go discover and enjoy life in other ways. For example, enjoy driving newer cars! Hopefully after a while you can train your brain to move on from smoking. Take it one day at the time and 1 cig at a time and it'll be a life long ordeal. Commit to quitting for the day won't feel too hard, and just try to do that everyday! ;) Don't bang yourself up if you're unable to resist once a while, make the recommitment again and again! Also remember to celebrate with the money saved whenever you do succeed. Good luck and I will pray that God will also help lead you away from your temptation to smoke! Quiting is hard, but it is possible. You know you have a problem, so that's a good start.

[sandydandy]

Somewhere I read something by a motivational speaker type, and he had a thought process similar to but different than this. His thought was that if there was something you didn't want to do, but did want done, to make a plan do it in the future but deny yourself doing it until that date. Then, when the date for it to get done finally arrives you'll be anxious to get it done and stop thinking about it. I've applied that to a few things over the last couple years and it does help, often quite a bit. Tell yourself you're going to quit in April and smoke like a chimney until then. By the time April rolls around, you're going to want to quit. Yeah I think I've heard something similar, about goal setting versus goal achieving. These motivational speakers get a lot of flak, which a lot of them do deserve, but some of them are great. I follow a few of them. But anyway, not waiting till April. I've decided on March 1st to be my quit date. Been feeling weird this week...almost sick every time I smoke. I think it'll be a relief to finally quit.


I woke up on a Sunday morning and decided I was done with tobacco. I had long known I must quit "someday" and that was simply the day I chose.

I wouldn't consider myself any more well-disciplined than anyone else, but I knew right then I had really quit. I never once was tempted to go buy more after that moment. I flushed what I had left and threw away the can. About a week later, I found a partial can in a garage cabinet. I had always hid it from my wife and kids - she knew, of course, but I never used it around her, nor did I leave any evidence out in the open. I threw it away without a second's temptation.

After the decision was made that Sunday morning, all there was left was waiting for the physical and mental withdrawal symptoms to go away. That sucked, but they went away eventually. It's just a waiting game. Eventually, they go away completely and you'll go days without even thinking that you used to smoke. These days maybe once a month I'll be working in the garage or the yard and I'll think about how I used to enjoy it, but I'm not tempted. Most recently was this weekend while shoveling snow, but it's more of a mourning for a lost friend than an urge to use tobacco anymore - kind of like, "This snow-shoveling experience would be better with warmer gloves. But I don't have any out here right now, and I can finish up without going inside to get them." That's where I am going on two years later. Yeah it'll be a Sunday for me too. I've been able to deal with withdrawal symptoms before, and while I'm not looking forward to it again, I'm sure I'll get through it. By Tuesday/Wednesday I'll be over the three day hump.

For me driving our work van (Chevy Express) is similar to your working in the garage or shoveling snow. Smoking and driving that thing have always gone hand in hand, so I'm a little worried about any challenge that might present, especially at first. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.


Sandy, you'll get all the support you can imagine from me if you want to make this your personal quitting thread. Or go find a website and post roll daily with other quitters. As I've mentioned here before, that helped me alot, especially when my mouth and tongue and jaw hurt so much a few days after quitting. I was sure I had cancer! Turns out, that happened to a lot of folks who quit smokeless tobacco. I don't know what happens to smokers, but I bet there's something like that - a really sore throat or something, and probably coughing up crud from your lungs, I'd guess - and it's good to read about other folks having the same troubles and those who have been there and beyond. Your body has to rid itself of toxins and your mind has to get used to not doing something it's so used to.

My recommendation is to skip the e-cigs and get some sugarless gum instead. The goal is to quit nicotine, not just switch delivery methods.

Respectfully submitted from a quitter who is only on day 659. I appreciate the kind gesture, and commend you on staying away from it. Keep it going.

I'm thinking of e-cigs mostly as a substitute to help with the transition away from tobacco. The ones I've tried are a disposable brand called Vapur, which contain no tobacco or nicotine. Also I think most of the time when people smoke they only need two or three puffs to satiate themselves in the moment...yet at the same time feel obligated to finish the entire cigarette, otherwise it feels like a waste to just toss it. With the e-cigs you don't have that problem. Take a couple of puffs and go back to doing what you were doing.


I smoked for about 15 years. Thought I was being cool when I started out in high school. Parents did it, it couldn't be that bad. After a few years I didn't like it any more and wanted to stop... My wife quit the same time as me. We were a support group for each other. It was sort of like a challenge. Neither of us was hard on the other when we slipped though and I kept a spare pack in my car for the last two weeks or so. I'd have one when I had a really bad day. Ended up giving the last half pack away after a few more weeks.

It was the best decision I made 9 years ago. I hated how I felt after going out drinking and smoking. I'd feel worse from smoking an entire pack in one night than from the alcohol. And now it's gotten soooo expensive, I couldn't even imagine. It's $10/pack in Chicago. Yeah at some point I thought it was cool too. Bruce Willis made it look cool in the first two Die Hard movies, and in the Last Boy Scout. I think it was the last year of high school when I first started. A lot of my friends thought it was cool too. They've long quit, I'm the only one who stuck with it.

Over $10 a pack here too. Such a money pit.


Good luck and I will pray that God will also help lead you away from your temptation to smoke! Quiting is hard, but it is possible. You know you have a problem, so that's a good start. Thanks.

[Godson]

This method might help you in the vehicle.

One of the ways I kept from starting smoking when I began working at a dealership right out of highschool was gum. I am talking like dentene ice or something similar. it had to have a little bit of a bite to it. Almost all of the guys I worked with smoked, and that was my way out of it. If they lit up, I'd pop a piece of gum in my mouth.



When you absolutely feel you need a cigarette, ask yourself "What about the cigarette do I need?"

Tear apart each part of it, the process, the nicotine, the tars, the fiberglass filters, the exhalation, the sinus pains, the buzz. Tear it all apart and ask yourself if you truly benefit from any of it as an intellectual.

[George]

Yeah it'll be a Sunday for me too. I've been able to deal with withdrawal symptoms before, and while I'm not looking forward to it again, I'm sure I'll get through it. By Tuesday/Wednesday I'll be over the three day hump.

I really hope you can get over it in three days. It took me a couple of months to get right, or at least as good as I'm going to get.

[JoshInKC]

I still smoke, though a lot less than I used to. I've successfully quit a few times- once for nearly 1.5 years, but always go back to the well when I hit a particularly stressfull situation.
I think my main problem is that I still really like smoking. I've only very rarely felt like "Damn, I gotta quit. This is too much hassle, I'm a slave," or anything like that. I fully understand that its irresponsible both financially and health-wise, which is why I've quit in the past, but I love sitting out on my porch with a cup of coffee and a cigarette first thing in the morning. Plus, I find a strange sort of comfort in the way smoking breaks up the day - "Finish this lecture, then go out and have a smoke," or "Office hours are almost over, I'll go see if Carlos wants to head downstairs for a cigarette." I'd never really thought of the periodization aspect before, that's interesting.

I fully expect I'll knock it off again in the near future, now that my life/job has stabilised for the time being, hopefully this time for good.

Oh, it's also a little difficult to quit when I know that withdrawal will turn me into a full-fledged monster for a week or so. It'd be a lot easier if I could be put into a coma for a while and skip all of the physical effects and damage to my personal relationships.

[Kchrpm]

I smoke...TIRES, FOOLS, AND MEAT!

...not really :(

[tigeraid]

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b255/JoeyJuarez/hbk.gif

[sandydandy]

Just an update...I did quit on Sunday. Now on day 3, but unfortunately relapsed. Was going strong Sunday, yesterday, and part of today...but it wasn't meant to be this time around. Maybe I jumped at it too soon. All that talk but when it comes down to it, withdrawal symptoms are much stronger than my willpower at the moment. I guess I'll try again very soon...probably at the end of the month.

On the positive side, I did go two and a half days without smoking. That's gotta count for something.

[Random]

Just an update...I did quit on Sunday. Now on day 3, but unfortunately relapsed. Was going strong Sunday, yesterday, and part of today...but it wasn't meant to be this time around. Maybe I jumped at it too soon. All that talk but when it comes down to it, withdrawal symptoms are much stronger than my willpower at the moment. I guess I'll try again very soon...probably at the end of the month.

On the positive side, I did go two and a half days without smoking. That's gotta count for something.

Why not continue quitting today?

[sandydandy]

Why not continue quitting today? I have. Just had a few...guess I'm not obligated to continue. Just slipped in a weak moment. I had forgotten how miserable the withdrawal symptoms make you feel. Tomorrow is another day, I can pick up where I left off in the quit department.

Still gotta face the wrath of the family, not looking forward to that. Hopefully they won't be able to smell it on me.

[Random]

I have. Just had a few...guess I'm not obligated to continue. Just slipped in a weak moment. I had forgotten how miserable the withdrawal symptoms make you feel. Tomorrow is another day, I can pick up where I left off in the quit department.

Excellent. :)

[George]

Take it one day at a time. Heck, take it one hour at a time if you have to. And get some sugarless gum! It couldn't hurt.

How's your brother doing, Random?

-Day 668

[Random]

I'll check later this week when we play with tires/wheels.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Yeah, maybe you need to just try to commit to 1 hr at a time... don't just give up your commitment for the rest of the day or whatever time period to quit simply because your had a lapse... Just brush it off and get back up!

Further, celebrate your 'victories'... and try not to think too much about 'Not smoking'. Need to find other enjoyable distractions to get your mind off of it.

Anyway, good luck. You know you can do it. People are pulling for you!

[George]

Today is Day 730 for me.

I quit tobacco two years ago today.

The best part is it took me until after two o'clock in the afternoon to think of this, and only because I heard someone say today is Cinco De Mayo.

That's truly quit, in my book - when you don't even think about it anymore.

[Crazed_Insanity]

:up:

[speedpimp]

Closing in on 8 for me.

[G'day Mate]

Well done guys :up:

[speedpimp]

Congrats, George.

Thanks, Big Dave. It was actually a hell of a lot easier than I thought it would be. I just had to be in the right frame of mind to do it.

[G'day Mate]

My girlfriend is closing in on three years now I think. She too had to be in the right frame of mind, but now it's pretty easy for her. After the death of her grandfather earlier this year she smoked for a few days until after the funeral, but that's it.

[mk]

Closing in on 8 for me.
Weren't you one in JZL's quit group back in GTF times?

[speedpimp]

That first attempt was in Jan-Feb '01 and lasted about a month and a half on Welbutrin. I did not handle the side effects of the Welbutrin very well.

[mk]

Quite some time between first and last try.

I quitted around Mayday back then.
Just decided one day that it is time.
Used nicotine gum few weeks but dropped it because it tasted so bad.
Changed to regular gum but dropped that also and changed to wine gum cola bottles and became a heavy user of them.

My take is that the only real thing you need is the real decision.
Before that it's hard and surprisingly easy after it.

[SkylineObsession]

I have only smoked once, ever. Probably lasted 5 seconds or so.

Dad gave me one of his smokes when i was a kid. And that put me off for life. :)

He still smokes i think (someone go visit him in Casper, Wyoming to check ;) ) but he has quit a few times, only for a life event to change things (bankruptcy due to a bad relationship, accident at work leading to time off, depression, etc etc).
I think Mum used to smoke when she was at school, but quit after a while.

Now when i come in contact with smoke i find it hard to breathe, and am also actively trying not to breathe it in (waste of effort i know). My mother in law smokes and i think someone else in the family does too, but thankfully everyone else seems not to.

[sandydandy]

Good job to those who've quit and stayed the course. I've kind of cut back since my last attempt at quitting, (as documented here). I'd say by 1/3rd.

[21Kid]

Closing in on 8 for me.

9 here. *high five*

[George]

Awesome.

[Crazed_Insanity]

For the couple of guys here who are still trying to quit, found a cool psychological tip for you guys!

One way to increase self control is to think abstractly. For whatever reasons, it helps your brain to gain more self control. For example, don't think about HOW you gonna quit smoking. Focus your thinking on WHY you want to quit smoking. After a long hard stressful day, depletion of self control is only natural..., but when we focus on why or such abstract thinking, it can boost our self control. Give it a try even for other bad habits you're trying to break!

http://www.spring.org.uk/2013/07/what-can-self-control-do-for-you-10-new-studies-provide-surprising-answers.php

[speedpimp]

9 here. *high five*

CHEST BUMP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Rikadyn]

So I picked up a bad habit in Japan, not cigs, but smoking hookah...

[thesameguy]

I enjoy a hookah every so often. We have a couple nice bars in town, and a little smoke with a little food and scotch is a nice way to spend an evening. We even bought one a few years ago and we use it now and again and enjoy it. I'm sure it's not ideal, but it's not like you carry a hookah around with you puffing a few times an hour. It can't much worse than all sorts of things that happen naturally in your life... sun exposure, air exposure, Big Mac exposure. I have chronic asthma and I can discern exactly zero effects from occasional hookah use.

[Rikadyn]

http://i.imgur.com/B2mOpZg.jpg

my 2nd hookah i bought since came back from japan :P

[thesameguy]

Nice! I am definitely not up on hookah technology... what's something like that bring to the table?

[George]

Friends, if you load it up Colorado-style.

[thesameguy]

I prefer the good old fashioned roach. A Denver Hookah does about nothing for me.

[speedpimp]

Nothing beats a roach joint that resins.

[Rikadyn]

easy to clean, doesn't ghost, quiet, won't tip over. mostly got it for 1 and 4.

[George]

I have been tobacco-free for 1,000 days today.

No congratulations desired, as I should have quit long ago, or better yet, never started.

Just mentioning this in case anyone out there is thinking about it, and thinking it's too hard to do. It is at first, but you get over it, and then it's no longer a part of your life, except for being glad you're done when you think of it, once in a while.

Today one of the guys I was working with pulled out a can of Skoal and put a pinch in his mouth. I started to say something, but, no. Not my place.

But this is my place, so there, I said something. :)

[Cam]

I think if people that smoked realized how bad they stink, especially after they have a cig, they would not smoke.

[thesameguy]

IMHO, it's fine for the first couple years. It after it really sinks in that you've got an intolerable problem. Fresh smoke isn't much worse than standing too close to a fire - maybe not ideal, but not horrible. Once it's had a decade or two to stew then.. ick.

[George]

I smoked a few cigarettes in college, but they were never my thing. Someone would hand me a cig at a beer party and I'd wake up the next day with way-worse-than-beer-alone headaches. I chewed tobacco in college (along with ALL my buddies) and then switched to "dip" - Copenhagen, and then Skoal as an adult.

When I was a kid, everybody (adults) smoked. When I joined the working world, people still smoked at their desks in offices. Heck, my parents smoked at home, and sometimes with me in the car when I was a little kid, before they both quit, and now, when I get a whiff of the stuff, I think, eww - how was that ever acceptable?

I don't even have a clue about all this vaping stuff, except here in Colorado when I see people blowing huge clouds of apparently odorless vapor, I have to wonder, is that tobacco, or...?

[Rikadyn]

Usually not, the e-juice has nicotine but no actual tobacco

[IMOA]

256 days for me


My take is that the only real thing you need is the real decision.
Before that it's hard and surprisingly easy after it.

My experience was exactly this. 25 years of at least a pack a day and once the decision was made I simply stopped. The other thing I'd say is all those things that non smokers think about what smokers think, well, hate to say it guys but it's they're certainly wrong.

[speedpimp]

Just hit eight years smoke free at Xmas.

[George]

I woke up three years ago today on a Sunday morning and made one of the very best decisions of my life - and I'm not one who exactly has a huge list of them to choose from: never to use tobacco again.

I'd like to write something witty such as "so far, so good", but my determination then, and even more so now, is far beyond such a wait-and-see light-hearted attitude. I'll never go near tobacco in any form ever again, period. I said it three years ago today, and I'm proud to say it again now.

No congratulations desired, as I should have quit long ago, or better yet, never started.

[Random]

Keep it up! :)

[21Kid]

It's pretty amazing/sad how many of us regret ever starting, and not quitting earlier. :( Best decision I ever made as well. :D:up:

[speedpimp]

I third the "Best Decision Ever" line. My day was 12/27/07. Cold turkey. From a pack and a half a day to nothing and it wasn't that big of a struggle. I was in the right frame of mind and haven't looked back.

[novicius]

When I smoke, it's cigars only, it's mindful and it's authentic. :lol: #poser

[FaultyMario]

Cigars are good for keeping mosquitoes away, right?

I mean this seriously, i keep a Panatella at hand for that reason.

Also, i think good artisanship in cigars makes the difference over any tropical variety. Yes, Cubans are excellent but skilled Nicaraguans and veracruzan cigar makers are good enough for the prices.

[novicius]

Oh I'm only a little bit of a snob -- I highly doubt I'd smoke Cuban but that's because they are typically more oily/flavorful than I can handle. SouthAm cigars are still very potent and flavorful in my experience. Great bang for the buck. :up:

Ashton Connecticut Wraps for me good sir: the blonder and blander, the better! :D

[speedpimp]

When it comes to cigars I never really got beyond Black & Milds, except for these nice smaller cigars that I got from The Tinder Box. Also bought a pack of Davidoff Magnums from there once. Only German cigarette I ever smoked.

[novicius]

Just looking through my travel case right now, in addition to my Ashtons I do still have one Dom Perdomo (Nicaraguan)... and a pack of Moontrance flavored cigars that I was gifted at a Christmas party by the local owner of the biggest cigar store in the area.

Not sure I like the implications of that... :lol: #poser

[FaultyMario]

I really the flavor of Romeo y Julieta cigarettes (the Cubans) but i don't think i can handle that much taste in sewage pipe sizes. I go for el cheapo Mexican brands. Although there was this guy who used to sell cheap cheap mini cigars that were so loosely wrapped that were just like big cigarettes.

[novicius]

Yep exactly -- the Petite Corona size is definitely a fine, workable size... and then I'm reminded of an Oliva Petite Corona that knocked me on my ass! :lol:

[novicius]

On a recommendation from the local owner of The Tasting Room (http://www.tastingroomofmonona.com) here in Madison, I'm trying a Nicaraguan stick called San Cristobal Elegancia (http://www.cigarsinternational.com/mobile/cigars/12031/san-cristobal-elegancia/).

Really, really good! :D Smooth start, looks great, and at no point has the flavor spiked or gotten too spicy. :up: :up: Easy smoke too -- this particular cigar has stayed lit the entire time I've been enjoying it with absolutely no need to re-light it.

I am going to pick up a few more and if they all perform this well and are equally this easy to enjoy then I think I might have just found a new #1!

[Fast As Possible]

Yes. Every day.

[IMOA]

Thought I'd do a quick update as I've just ticked over 2 years smoke free. Thats not even a puff on a cigarette smoke free and while I do sometimes have a craving I've not succumbed to the cheeky smoke yet (nor do I think I will after hearing stories from others who have slipped and found giving up the second time much harder). At the same time I made some other changes, better diet, exercise, sleeping more and this has accelerated a bit in the last 6 months or so.

End result is I'm about 60lbs lighter than I was, have a much better outlook on life, apparently I used to be a bit grumpy but now I'm the annoyingly positive guy (not kidding here, the people that have known me for a bit have said there's been a radical change). I'm fitter, stronger, having an outrageous amount of sex with properly hot women 10-20 years younger than me and generally having a fucking excellent time. So two thumbs up to the whole giving up smoking thing but I'd say don't stop there, if things are in a rut give the whole lot a kick in the teeth and see how it rattles out, you might be very pleasantly surprised.

[George]

Dear Penthouse Forum...

Great news. Congratulations on the 60 lb weight loss, too! That's a serious feat.

It has been four years for me, since 5/5/2013.

[FaultyMario]

:lol:

[Kchrpm]

Sounds like I should start smoking just so I can give it up!

[G'day Mate]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8AULZ2le28

[dodint]

I can't not think this thread is about Tony Stewart every single time it pops up.

[IMOA]

Sounds like I should start smoking just so I can give it up!

Substitute simple carbs for green leafy vegetables, regular hiit and some strength work then get a proper night sleep, get up early for some exercise and eat a healthy breakfast. And don't for one moment think I'm joking or that making changes like this don't have a profound impact on your wellbeing, your mental health and how others perceive you.

[dodint]

I think daddy just hit mommy.

[novicius]

:lol:

[21Kid]

I still get a giggle from this tread title.


Poll: smoke?

[George]

Roll call?

Another Cinco De Mayo means I’ve been tobacco free for five years. I quit on 5/5/2013.

[dodint]

I always think this is about Tony Stewart.

[speedpimp]

Roll call?

Another Cinco De Mayo means I’ve been tobacco free for five years. I quit on 5/5/2013.

I had my 10 year smoke freeiversary this past Xmas.

[Blerpa]

I've been smoke free since Aprile 2009, I think, so soon it's going to be 10 years.
Went from 40 softbox Marlboro Lights a day (50 in the weekend days) to nil with a sentence "Ok, this is my last one".
Never looked back, fuck cigarettes.

[IMOA]

About 2 week shy of 3 weeks, still smoke free. Also decided to ration myself down to 1 girlfriend, after about 6 months 2 was just too hard to manage.

[George]

Time to bump the Tony Stewart thread again.

I quit tobacco six years ago today. It was a Sunday also in 2013.

It's never too late or too soon to quit.

[speedpimp]

Congrats George. My last smoke was 12/26/07.

[IMOA]

Another smoke free year for me so coming up on 4 years now. Still same girlfriend, I think I’ll be engaged by the time this thread rolls around next year.

[Crazed_Insanity]

:up:

[Tom Servo]

Just occurred to me that my last smoke was at a friend's wedding. I'd quit for a bit by that point, but joined some of the smokers for a cigarette twice over the course of the night. That means that my groomsman's gift is the date of my last smoke - 10/15/2011. It feels like it was longer ago than that.

[speedpimp]

Congrats swervo.

[Tom Servo]

Thanks, likewise. The wife now just absolute hates the smell of smoke but I still get the occasional craving, 7 1/2 years later.

[sandydandy]

Quit today. Technically yesterday. Had my last one yesterday evening. Obviously taking an enormous risk to my pride announcing it here if I don’t end up following through, (actually how would anyone even know?)

But anyway, something tells me this time will different as opposed to every other quit attempt I’ve made...ever.

Lungs hurt today from the process of tar expulsion. I’m actually enjoying it.

[dodint]

Awesome, stick with it!

[SportWagon]

Good going.



Every time I see this thread I start humming the "Marlboro Man" theme.Well, actually not this time. At least not until I read my old post.

And besides, it's actually the theme from "The Magnificent Seven".

[George]

Quit today.

Hey sandydandy, that's great news! Best possible decision and action. Good luck!

Maybe it's time to take up a new habit. Maybe get a dog or something... :p

[FaultyMario]

:snap:

[Crazed_Insanity]

:lol:

Yes, subconsciously you didn’t want to subject the dog to 2nd hand smoke, that’s why the hesitation... now your conscience can be clear! :D

[sandydandy]

Right. Wouldn’t have been a factor, considering I never smoked in the house.

Dog is still on hold, smoking is definitely gone.

[Tom Servo]

I think I mentioned it before, but Michele and I took up hiking after we quit. Was nice to have something we enjoyed that required some lung capacity, so we knew it'd actively hurt that if we smoked.

Doesn't have to be hiking, but hopefully something you really enjoy that gets the blood pumping a bit.

[SportWagon]

Sorry, regarding that, this post provides somewhat negative data points.
I really can't imagine the above Strava cyclist as a smoker, however.


When I used to bicycle a lot (in the vicinity of Toronto) in the early 1980's my best friend at the time was a bit of a closet smoker. He and I would go on longish bicycle rides, and were about the same strength. He didn't usually smoke at all on a bicycle ride. But at parties and such he would, although he'd definitely avoid smoking while around "bicycle people".

One time he and I drove north of Toronto in the winter to go cross-country ski-ing and got caught by a bit of storm as I was driving home. (Well, to tell the truth we saw the storm building up but sort of ignored it so we could keep ski-ing). He felt the need for cigarettes then, but was careful to open his window a crack and keep the cigarette and its smoke mostly outside.

Eventually, after moving to Ottawa, he hooked up with a serious (30km/hr+ long hilly rides) cycling group there and actually became a lot stronger than I ever became. Not sure what his smoking status was then.

He was a relatively new father when I last saw him in Ottawa, and so was almost certainly doing the "only smoke outside" thing, if he was smoking at all.

[Cam]

I am very rarely around anyone who smokes. Because of that, encountering someone who does is very shocking. A few days ago, I was in a public toilet and someone came in smoking. I was literally choked out of the place. My dad smoked for the first 15 years or so of my life. I did not think anything of it back then because I grew up with it. Now, I am really offended by smoking.

I recently dealt with someone chewing (and spitting) tobacco. That is almost more offensive. A least I do not have to breathe second-hand smoke in that case.

[Crazed_Insanity]

I've heard that for smokers who've quit tend to end up finding 2nd hand smoke extremely offensive. Maybe dad forced you to be a smoker for the 1st 15 years of your life..., kinda made you a smoker for the 1st 15 years of your life..., then unknowingly quit... and now you find it really offensive? ;)

My wife found it extremely offensive, but that's because she has breathing issues sometimes. I personally just find it annoying and would just hold my breath.

Recently in downtown LA, I walked by a smoker who's very considerate... he held his hand/arm high... at first I was a bit worried that perhaps he has some mental issues, but then realized he was holding a cigarette and just didn't want me and my daughter smelling 2nd hand smoke. How thoughtful, huh? Still, hope he'll be able to quit soon.

[sandydandy]

Doesn't have to be hiking, but hopefully something you really enjoy that gets the blood pumping a bit. Hmm, I think I know where you're going with this. :p

Anyway, it's been almost a week and I'm rolling through the withdrawal period with less anxiety than in previous attempts. Not trying to boast out loud...not enough time has passed yet, and there always exists the possibility of a relapse, but I'm not terribly worried about it at the moment. My last serious quit attempt was in the fall of 2016, and it was hell. Lasted only 12 days - which was 8 days, then a relapse, then four additional days, then failure. The 'nicotine monster' was really fucking with my mind at that time. It's considerably less intense right now.

[FaultyMario]

Anxiety? I recommend masturbation.

[dodint]

Awkward in public but a sound strategy regardless.

[speedpimp]

It will definitely get you on a special registry.

[Cam]

I believe in you, Sandy! You can do it!

(Quit smoking and/or masturbate.)

[sandydandy]

Thanks. Relapsed after ten days. Recalibrating myself and getting ready to quit again. Maybe I should wait till I’m smoke free for three months before posting again.

No problems masturbating, thanks.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Baby steps dude. Don’t be too hard on yourself.

Maybe instead of try to set longer goals, you should just make your goals easier for now... like not smoking for a day.

If you made it thru that day, post here and let’s all celebrate with you.

Let’s see if we can do it everyday for the next 3 months! ;)

[speedpimp]

You did the best you could, bruv. You can do this.

[sandydandy]

I quit smoking again...it's been a month. Turned to vaping instead which does contain nicotine. So technically not a real quit as the nicotine addiction continues, but in lesser amounts. Also instead of inhaling toxic smoke and tar, I'm inhaling less toxic vapor. I know it's not "safe"...so forget that word, let's just say it's safer. Still don't like that word? Ok then let's say it's less harmful. Definitely doesn't cause anywhere near the same amount of pain in the lungs that cigarettes did. I know the real achievement will be when I quit this too, and I'm confident that day is coming. I've noticed I could take it or leave it. There have been days where I've gone the entire day without picking up the vape stick until the very end of the day, and felt no real discomfort or noticeable withdrawal. I do find I enjoy it more in the evening sitting on the couch in front of the TV, (I could safely vape inside, something I wouldn't ever think of doing with cigarettes).

It all started a little over a month ago when my son made me watch an episode of Broken, on Netflix, that focused on vaping. The episode was actually more concerned with teenagers in the US getting hooked on JUUL, and their apparent business model of targeting youngsters, but they also recognized the usefulness of vaping as an off-ramp for smokers, especially in the UK. I'm using it as a bridge to completely quitting nicotine. I don't use JUUL but instead a Canadian alternative called STLTH (pronounced Stealth). I'm told it's on par with JUUL, and the pods are a little cheaper and bigger than JUUL. The thing I like about it is you get a decent dose of nicotine when you puff, that's comparable to a cigarette puff, and it gives you a decent throat hit as well - something that was absent in my previous vaping attempts with those nicotine-free disposable pens.

So I've been at it for a month and while I do occasionally miss cigarettes, (the routine and ritual of it), I don't think I'll be going back. It's just too smelly and filthy, and I kind of like feeling clean. My clothes and my car thank me too. But the real reason I won't be relapsing is because my son kind of threatened start smoking if I didn't stop, and I sort of believe him. I think no parent, whether a smoker or not, is comfortable with the idea of their kid smoking cigarettes. He's almost 18, and it got to the point where he was so fed up with my smoking...and honestly, I was too. Most of all he's concerned for my health, which is touching. He said he doesn't want to see me in a hospital bed anytime soon.

So I guess I'll check back in a month or so...or when I eventually quit vaping. I'm going to start on the lower nicotine level pods very soon. Probably the next time I go to the vape shop.

[Crazed_Insanity]

No need to wait for a month.

Why don't you check back here to celebrate how clean you are everything you feel the urge to light up? If you never ever felt the urge, then I guess we can stop celebrating! ;)

Good luck man!

[George]

I probably wouldn't have remembered, except everyone's talking about Cinco De Mayo today.

I'm ten years tobacco free.

[FaultyMario]

Only ten?, When did you pick up cycling?

I never smoked like, continuously, but it's been some years since I had the old fag. And I sometimes just want to light up one of those mini cigars.

[George]

I started cycling ten years ago also, after about twenty years of not doing it. The two were not related, but I'm happy about both. I just need to make the time to get back on my bike. Life is very busy right now.