How did YOU quit smoking once and for all?

It's been five days, and I'm down to three cigs a day now. But my head is hurting, and I'm very moody. Can you guys share your experiences, and little tricks that worked for you, as well as some uplifting supporting philosophy you've learned? I'm very far away from civilization, so no support groups or antil smoking centers around. I'm doing this in a society that keeps Marlboro in business. So, tell me.

I might just try that hot pepper thing! LOL Thanks you guys, I feel much better.

I had a stroke at age 36,i cant use my right hand.That helped!

cold turkey
get passed the third day and your good

Well I quit when I found out I was pregnant. Nough said. But what really helps is replacing it with another habbit.

every day you should buy cig pack and throw in trashbin...
before smashing the cig into multi pcs.

Stop buying cigarettes... ever,

start drinking when your head starts hurting jus till you are down to one cig. a day..... then after you stop smoking. remember to stop drinking.

I took a week off of work. I got really crabby and probably would have lost my job. :) I started organizing everything in my house. Keep busy. Drink lots of water. I also went through tons and tons of sunflower seeds. You can do it, I have been smoke free for 18 months and it is great. If it is something you want it will happen.

LOL, I quit when I found out I was pregnant. Quit for a year. The whole time I still had cravings. I really really really wanted a cigarette. However, I did not smoke because I knew it would be bad for the baby and putting ur child before yourself is vital.
However, after I quit breastfeeding. I started smoking again.
I did not want to but the cravings were too strong to resist when I no longer had a little being depending on my body for nurishment.
I wish I knew the answer, to fully take away the cravings. Goodluck to you. and I will check back to see if anyone has some good answers. Good question.

I was always into sports and athletics, it was a part of my life to be fit and physically active.

Grade 9-11 i started smoking(socially) and i saw my performance on sports teams drop and worsen, until the day I played basketball and was tired after a few mintutes of play.

I use to lead my team to victories! now i was tired before the fat players who couldn't do layups..

I tried to run long distances like before and i couldn't, i would get heavy lungs and slight headaches.
I pushed myself until i got so sick, i felt like puking.

I never had a Cigg since.

I always found that cutting down never worked...

Just think what do you actually gain from smoking? wrinkles, less money, yellow teeth, smell like ****, and you dont actually think you look cool once you are over the age of 16.

I used to drink a lot of diet soda, eat more fruit, look at smokers and pity them (internally otherwise you'll get your *** kicked) Keep a foul smoking picture as your desktop of youre working at a computer all day. (ashtray, old wrinkled woman puffing away etc). Also keep doing things that you would smoke with, eg I would still drink even though i loved a smoke and a beer, but then you know you've really kicked it.

You're doing great so far! Don't get discouraged. The headaches and moodiness will pass soon. When you get a craving, distract yourself. Ask yourself questions like, "If my favorite celebrity asked me over for dinner, what would I bring?" Or "How many songs can I think of that have someone's name in them?" Remember that a craving only lasts five minutes, so if you really concentrate on those questions, the craving will be over before you know it. It also helps to have something to do with your hands. Get yourself some modeling clay to play with or maybe learn to knit or crochet. You can do it!

after 26 yrs of 2 packs+ a day, I just stopped. I kept a unopened pack for a week and then nothing. It never got so bad that I had to smoke another one. if you don,t smoke the next cig you win. each day it gets better, never worse. in time you Will not even miss them. 18 years now for me. best thing I have ever done. hang in there, you will not regret it

I quit cold turkey. I started when I was young, and I mean young. I must have been six the first time I lit up. I had a lot of problems in high school with it, I never had enough air in gym class to run track when we had to. That was when I quit, because if I didn't make the mile run I failed gym, and I couldn't graduate if I didn't pass gym. It k i l l e d me to not be able to smoke whenever I got really stressed, I honestly didn't have a clue what to do without them.
At first I started just chewing on them (yeah I know, I was desperate), but then whenever I felt like taking a drag I would bite a hot pepper. That way I'd start associating the craving as something bad. I got by on will power, but to this day I have indigestion problems from all those damn peppers.

Cold Turkey baby. It is hard the first week, then you are right on!! If you need a bit of help w/ cravings there is something called nicotrol (i think), anyways it looks like a little white cigar puffer- you can break open this nicotine vial and hit the puffer. I was working in an auto factory where someone trying to be healthy was like, ooooh how strange are you...u wanna smoke?? I had to spend every break by myself for over a week, no going outside w/ the group. Thank God I did it, I feel so good about it now!! My b/f Mom has cancer and I now despise the entire tobacco industry,,Cancer sux!! Good Luck, you won't regret this!!!!!!

From someone who smoked 20 a day for over 10 years - You have to go cold turkey. What I did was say to myself, NO - I will just get to the station or the shops or whatever ........ without a cig and when I achieved that I was proud of myself. I'm told the first 3 days are the worse, peaking on the third day. After that, it is just your brain telling you as a habit that you want one but, as the nicotine has gone it's the habit of smoking you will miss. I had stopped once before but made the mistake of thinking having just one would be ok as i could control it - like hell I could. I preferred to keep busy but a friend of mine took a week off work and found out she replaced her smoking habit for nail biting - she's over both now!
It's not easy but I am SSSOOO glad I did.

If your serious - Good luck!

P.s - avoid people who smoke around you for the first week as it will make it easier but if not, keep saying 'no' to yourself. Just NO.

Well done!

.. just think that your not one, and you've never been in to ciggies, maybe your just moody because you know that this is something that you have to give up..
its all in your head anyway.

I never carry them with me, but if I am out with freinds and they are smoking one I dont deny myself of a ciggie.
In moderation.. ween your self off it.

chantex-----a new pill---it works

I have quit a couple of times by reading the Alan Carr book. It does work, yes i smoke again now but it's because i want to.

You clearly don't otherwise you wouldn't have made the decision. Deciding to quit i apparently half way there already.

Five days is pretty far in, after 3 weeks all the weird feelings will go and a lot of my friends say it's worth it.

Keep going, you can do it.

I say that you should stop cold turkey because if you don't you are just wasting time of your ONE life

cold turkey...many years ago...and I sure don't want one now.

My husband and I quit smoking this past summer for various reasons, and I think you need to continually remind yourself of why you are doing it.

---------Reasons for us-------------

We are trying to have a baby. Being smokers, we were not in optimal health, and we wanted to make our bodies as healthy as possible for conception.

We want to be parents. Both of us had parents that smoked, and we think that might have contributed to why we started in the first place. We don't want to indirectly encourage our children to smoke.

We are both teachers, and as such we are role models. We don't want out students to see us smoking, and we hated constantly trying to hide the smell from our students and coworkers. It became an emabarrassment for us, professionally.

We recently started investing money for our retirement. Our financial advisor has told us that if we keep putting the same amount of money away each year as we are now, we will be millionaires when we retire. We would like to be healthy enough to ENJOY our retirement. We both want to live as long as possible


------------Tips and Tricks that helped us--------------------

THE PATCH
I used the patch for a few weeks, which definately helped, since I knew how unsafe it was to smoke with one on. After a few weeks however, I stopped using it because it was summer, and it didn't stick well to my arm. When I stopped using the patch, it was really hard for the first week or so. I felt like a heroine addict coming down, but I just kept telling myself that this is temporary. The fact that I felt like such sh*t was testament to how addicted I really was....

CHANTIX
My husband tried to quit with the patch, but after a couple of months he found himself waiting to put it on, smoking a cigarette in the morning. He hid this from me, and when he told me about it, he made it sound like he was going to go back to smoking. I gave him a huge guilt trip (felt bad about it later) about how we are planning for our future together, and what is the point of me being healthy if he's just going to smoke and DIE at a young age.

I guess I made him feel really bad, and realized that it wasn't just his own life or his own body anymore. He made an appointment with his dr. and got that prescription for Chantix. It definately helped. He hasn't smoked since September...

GUM/DUM DUMS
We both found that driving around was one of the hardest times when quitting. So, we went and bought sugarfree gum and dum dum lollypops in bulk. I put them in a huge bowl on the dining room table. Both of us would just grab a handful on our way out the door and use those for our oral fixations...

CINNAMON STICKS
My husband developed a fondness for cinnamon sticks. I would buy them in the spice aisle at the grocery store. They're about the size and shape of a cigarette, and you can actually suck on them and pull air through. After they get soggy, you can chew on them and they freshen your breath somewhat. I tried them, and just couldn't stand all the little wood splinters in my mouth, but my husband loved them so much he still uses them around the house and when he's driving...

OVERALL....

So much of quitting is in your head. You need to decide that this is it. Chances are, you've tried quitting before, and clearly those times failed. I know I've quit before, and made it several months before going back. One tactic is to constantly remind yourself that the fight isn't over. We quit 7 months ago, but I still walk into a bar cautiously. I still get urges out of no where and it's those urges that will get me into trouble if I let them. It will be years before I finally admit that I successfully quit smoking.

Its almost like being a recovering alcoholic. Once you've been addicted to smoking, you will always have urges that you need to fight. I expect I will have them the rest of my life. And its just something you need to learn to live with....

if you are going to take a pill, do some research. chantix has really bad side effects.

I had quit but I started up again. I found when I quit though that sunflower seeds were my best friend lol. They kept the habit of hand to mouth. And kept my mouth busy with the salty goodness. Once you get passed the first week or so of not smoking at all then its not a physical addiction its completely a mental addiction.

philosophy is that you can only quit smoking if YOU want to. You can't quit for someone else. You won't have the willpower then to keep it up.

Good luck. If you find any good tricks out come back and let us know. I should quit soon

lol, i never started, but just get alot of somthing, like altoids or gum or somthing else to keep in your mouth and try to stop cold turkey is probably your best bet

Stop putting cigs in your mouth,

I quit 20 years ago, I found a "Quit Smoking NOW" cassette tape at a dollar store while visiting my Dad in Savanah, I followed the instructions, listening to side one only for 30 days at least just before I go to sleep, then, when I am ready to actually quit smoking, and only when I decide to quit, listen to side two every night til you don't smoke again, It was Hypnosis... Worked like a charm, I loaned it to several people who, to this day no longer smoke.

I started drinking heavily.

Wait, that's not good advice, is it? Good luck, Star!

Lol um..don't puff a cigarete ""

I quit cold turkey on the 31st of december .....Im doing great chewed alot of gum at first but not that much now .....I tried chantix in september I had really bad side effects....would not suggest that to anyone...I wish you the best .....there is a place to go online I think its called mytimetoquit.com...I dont know what its about I havent ever been there...you may want to check it out.....Have a great day in your far away place....T

dont think your an addict or you will not quit

Try a bubble gum or read about brainwashing guide

i never started