From an ex smoker -hope this helps

[Veggie Dieter]

Hi everyone I just wanted to post to hopefully help someone. This is my quick story.

In the past I would stop smoking and then have a night out and kid myself that a night off would be ok, obviously it wasn't and all my hard work would be wasted as i'd be back on the cigs again. I would try over and over again to stop, patches, chewing gum, inhalator, lozenges etc and sometime id manage months then I'd start again. I would always be thinking about smoking during the time I was quiting and how I missed it and it really did rule my life.

After watching a program called celebrity quitters something inside me just clicked and I haven't had or even wanted a ciggie since - that was over a year ago now. I can honestly say that my only regret with this is not watching the program years earlier.

If I can stop YOU can stop - you have to be ready in yourself and you have to want to do it, when the time is right you WILL stop and you will stop for good.

I love waking up on a morning and not coughing, not having chest infections, my clothes not smelling of smoke and my hands and hair smelling nice - I now treat myself to nice perfume and body lotion and my family to holidays with the money I have put away, each week I put the money I would have spent on cigs into a savings jar and that goes to our treats.

I genuinely hope this is of interest to someone and remember that if I can do you YOU CAN - good luck everyone. xxxx

 

[Elementhia]

Did you manage to lose weight and quit smoking at the same time? Im of the mind one bloomin' thing at a time...i dont know if i could handle both at once.

 

[mom of 2]

Hopefully you did do both together as I quite smoking 4 days ago but am at my heaviest and don't want to put anymore weight on so will start WW or some slimming club on Monday

 

[lenny79]

If I gave up I could afford a personal trainer

 

[Soupstone]

I stopped 4 1/2 years ago and now it seems as if it was easy, but I know it wasnt.

You have to be ready to stop.

Thats the worst thing you can say to someone whos tried but failed. It took me around 4 attempts, being told I wasnt ready didnt help when I failed.

 

[kateyboo]

I gave up about ten months ago, I gave up the cigerettes on Christmas Day and started the diet on the 26th May, i felt that once I had the smoking under control I would have a go at the weight loss - but that's just me.

I gave up using the Boots patch programme, but when I gave up I really wanted to - I too am a serial quitter and also would think 'oh its just one night...' but it never was'

money wise - this may inspire you a little...i have smoked since I was young and the last holiday I had was when I was 15 which my parents paid for. I quit smoking and I was able to pay for myself and my partner to go to Paris last year and I also went to see my family in Canada for the 1st time since I was 13 I'm 33 just now

Good luck with teh quitting and just take it one day at a time

xK

 

[Veggie Dieter]

Did you manage to lose weight and quit smoking at the same time? Im of the mind one bloomin' thing at a time...i dont know if i could handle both at once.

I'm with you, one thing at a time.

 

[Katie1961]

I must admit that I lost weight and then decided to give up smoking. I get scared when I see the pounds creeping on but now know that I am healthier, so can hopefully keep the creeping under control. Everyone has to do things in their own time in order to succeed.

 

[dizzydee88]

I quit 9 weeks ago and joined slimming world 7 and a half weeks ago and have had a loss every week - it can be done

 

[Morrigan96]

I finally quit in September last year after decades of smoking. I had given up before - through both my pregnancies, once for almost a year, another time for six months ... and I could also go several days without smoking but I'd always go back to it. As soon as life got stressful (which of course can happen any time) I'd be back on the fags. For years I smoked tailor mades but in the past 10 or 15 years it was roll ups, with no filters or anything. I'd buy a bottle of wine, buy a packet of tobacco and smoke myself silly. Then next day I'd feel awful, chuck what was left of the baccy in the bin, swearing to never smoke again ... not smoke for a week, or two or whatever ... and then do it all again. For some reason I couldn't seem to separate the wine from the smoking. It was like a horse and cart, Morecambe and Wise, fish and chips - the two went together somehow. The last time I gave up (for six months) I gave up wine as well, as it seemed to be the only way I could break the cycle, but as I really did enjoy my wine, I missed it terribly, eventually I had a drink .. and then eventually I went back to smoking. I had yellow fingers, yellow teeth, bad breath ... and I hated myself for it ... but still I smoked.

Last September ... something just clicked. I have no idea what it was .. but I went my usual few days without smoking after a wine/baccy binge, and then just carried on. Weeks turned into months - it got to Christmas, I had a couple of glasses of wine ... and didn't miss the smoking at all? I had somehow broken that connection of smoking with alcohol. Now I absolutely don't miss it at all, and I can't imagine how I ever was a smoker? And yet I smoked for donkey's years? I can enjoy a drink now without even thinking about smoking, although while I'm attempting to lose weight I have cut out booze altogether anyway, as it slows up my weight loss. However, when I do eventually have a glass of wine (when I'm all slim and gorgeous at a late Summer barbecue hopefully lol) I am confident that I won't fancy a fag to go with it!

The other day I was behind a guy in a shop and he absolutely reeked of cigarettes - it nearly made me gag. I was outside the supermarket the other day and someone lit up several feet away from me and I could smell it. I can't believe I used to do that, suck that stuff into my lungs and stink like that? It's like it must have been a different person doing it, not me??

From the time I gave up in September 2011 until the time I started Slimming World on 6th March 2012 I gained 10lbs. I knew I was putting on weight, but to be honest, I had been steadily putting on weight for a few years prior to that - looking back, I gained three stone over five years. It definitely increased after I stopped smoking but I can't blame it all on that. Now I'm tackling the weight and getting healthy. I exercise and walk every day and I have lost 5lbs since joining SW three weeks ago. My aim is to get back to the weight I was five years ago - 2.5 stone lighter than I am now, only this time I will be smoke free.

I'm writing all this to say to everyone struggling - if I can give up then anyone can. I smoked for thirty years and I tried to give up so many times I lost count. But eventually it did just click somehow - to this day I don't know why or how but it did. I admit I re-read the Alan Carr book (I'd read it years ago but it didn't work then) but other than that I didn't get any patches or gum or anything like that. I just stopped .. and if you'd asked me this time last year whether I could ever give up I would have told you no, because I had tried and failed so many times before.

Don't give up trying whatever you do. If you don't do it this time, then keep on trying, again and again and again if necessary .. and eventually you'll do it. Never say never ... just keep on keeping on until you get there ... and one day you'll be an ex smoker!