Two Months ago today,

[condorjohn]

I quit smoking. After 53 years (as far as I can figure) I just quit! It was a normal
morning, made coffee and sat down to check emails and forums. Lit the first smoke of the day and started hacking. Put that cig out and havn't had another. Just made up my MIND...
Condorjohn

[RobS]

Cold turkey.......one way of doing it, my Dad did it that way. I've seen people struggle the week or two after as the nicotine is powerful. Cranky, anxious and needing to do things to keep the mind off of smoking are common as I've noted from friends and family who quit. I'm sure you went through all of it too. Congrats to your success.

[No_1]

Good for you. I quit 3 years ago March the exact same way you did except for the hacking. I am glad I am done with them.

[DHurtig]

Smoke free for 5 1/2 years after 35 years of addiction.

[williamwaco]

Good for you.

Now to be sure you don't relapse, QUICK - spend all your smoking budget on AMMO!

[Hickory]

Huckleberry Finn started me smoking.
I read Tom Sawyer when I was 10 years old, and every time Huck lite his pipe, I had to have one.
Went from the pipe to cigarettes in no time, but when cigerettes went from 28¢ a pack to 40¢, the price jump was too much so I quite . . .and quite . . .and quite until it finally took.
No regrets, except I should have quite sooner.

[mroliver77]

I think I am 20 years quit. It was very hard for me! I am proud of anybody that quits!
J

[bayjoe]

Quitting is easy, I done it a dozen times. Finally put em down for good 2 years ago.
It's not easy but you'll feel better for doin it. What helped me was smelling somebody that still smokes, that smell really stinks.

[dolang1]

I have great admiration for anyone with the willpower to quit cold turkey. I used Chantix to quit 8 years ago. Still miss them. I think the first 8 years is the hardest. Good luck.

[fecmech]

I was lucky and ended up with a rare eye disease in my mid twenties and taking massive doses of prednisone to keep it in check. My eye doc sent me to Johns Hopkins where they were doing some research on the disease and they had tied it to nicotine. Research doc told me I would eventually go blind along with all the steroid problems and they thought quitting smoking would help. I threw my pack of Pall Malls in his waste basket and have not smoked since and I'm 70 now. The disease went away and I have 20/20 vision today with my glasses on. Obviously I had great motivation to quit but I believe the best way is plain old cold turkey. What was funny was that I dreamed of smoking for more than 20 years after I quit. In the dreams I could smoke one cigarette or a pack and then quit again no problem. Same dream all the time but I never tried it in real life as I did not want to tempt fate. Nicotine is a powerful drug!

[pipehand]

That's what it takes. You just have to put your mind to it. Been quit for 2&1/2 years now after a 28 year habit. Still like the smell of a freshly opened pack of Marlboros though.

[alleyoop]

Never smoked, but put down the dip last October the same way had no plans to quite it just happened, stuff was 45 cents a can when I started over 4-5 dollars now for the name brand stuff.

[condorjohn]

When I put that last cig out, I left the partial pack, ash tray and BIC lighter in front of me on my computer desk. Not for torture, more as a reminder. Since today marked two months I threw the
cigs away, washed the ashtray and put the lighter in my camping box. It has been easier than I thought it would be...
Condorjohn

[Gibbs44]

Good job. Don't ever go back. Every time you would normally buy a pack, take that money and put it in a jar. Before long whatever your particular flavor of shooting iron, mold, etc. should be within reach. Motivation if you need it.

[Bzcraig]

Good for you! Quit 15 years ago and am so glad I did!

[mroliver77]

Wow! You are not human! lol It tore me up! 20 years and I still get a craving once in a great while! It stinks terribly to me and is offensive but the Devil checks in every now and then to see how I am doing!
J



When I put that last cig out, I left the partial pack, ash tray and BIC lighter in front of me on my computer desk. Not for torture, more as a reminder. Since today marked two months I threw the
cigs away, washed the ashtray and put the lighter in my camping box. It has been easier than I thought it would be...
Condorjohn

[GaryN]

Something else that might help. Figure out how much you were spending on the over taxed cigarettes and put that away each week in a drawer. Then take it out every month or two and pay yourself by buying a new gun.

[Love Life]

Congrats and please stick with it!!

I have smoked since I was 13 years old. I'll be 29 this year. I've fluctuated to where I only smoked a couple cigs a day, and there were times when I was deployed when I smoked almost 2 1/2-3 packs a day.

I've quit several times from a couple hours, to over 6 months. I always go back...

All I can say is stick with it, and I hope you stay off the smokes for the rest of your life.

[Blacksmith]

I quit more than thirty years ago. The cravings get less over time and haven't thought about it in years. I never want to go through that first month again. I promised myself a new gun if I could last a year, that was my first Contender and I still have it and shoot it.

Good for you keep it up and if you think you want to start again you have to ask permission of the Cast Boolits Forum first!

[bandit7.5]

I picked a pipe in highschool. And smoked that till I discovered cigars. Never did cigarette or cigarillos.smoked 2 or3 cigars a week till i had a heart attack in 2010.

[Ramar]

Doc gave me 90 days September 2010 down with a lung infection. Said if I quit smoking I might go longer. 1 extra day was enough incentive to stop when I thought about my grandkids and seeing them for another day. Two years and ten months later and I'm still here and love'n it.
Ramar

[Ramar]

Doc gave me 90 days September 2010 down with a lung infection. Said if I quit smoking I might go longer. 1 extra day was enough incentive to stop when I thought about my grandkids and seeing them for another day. Two years and ten months later and I'm still here and love'n it.
Ramar

[wch]

I just hit 3 months tobacco-free: amazing how much more money I have for the good things in life!

[Boerrancher]

The amount I smoke depends on my pain level. If I am not hurting very bad I won't smoke at all, but if it is one of those days that I can barely walk or sit up strait then I will smoke a pack or more a day. I don't know which is worse for me the pills the docs give me or the cigarettes. The pills rot my stomach liver, and fry my brain and the cigarettes destroy my heart and lungs. I don't like either but oh well. Six one way half a dozen the other.

Best wishes and congratulations to those who have quit,

Joe

[w5pv]

I quit in 1976 along the same situation you did,took the cigs out of my pocket threw them in the trash can and poured coffee on them.the rest is history.Hang in there like a yellow yard dog.

[blackthorn]

To the OP, CONGRATULATIONS!!! Good for you! Now, make up your mind to NEVER even take one more drag of a smoke! NEVER!!
I quit in November 1977, clod turkey! I hate to be laughed at so about 6 months before I quit I told everybody that when I got back from my hunting trip in November I was quitting! We got back and the next morning I said to myself,--"self you can have your last one"! I went up to my hunting partner's house to help clean the moose for the butcher and he said --"did you smoke this morning"? I said yes and he laughed and said--'you won't quit"! Havent had so much as a puff since (and I won't)! Cravings got less and less over the next 20 years and finally stopped. If you all are anything like me, if you really think about it , I think you will find that most of the smokes you have are not triggered by desire so much as routine/habbit. When I started to think about it, it suddenly became clear so silly it was to keep on smoking.

[Freightman]

43 years and counting, stopped cold, never had any craving at all lucky I guess.
Stick in there it is worth it.

[woody1]

To the OP. Good on you. As the others have shown, it can be done. Don't ever go back. In October 1986, after 25+ years of smoking, then dipping, I quit tobacco. I went cold turkey and it was tough, very tough but I stuck with it. Regards, Woody

Edited to add: Congratulations also to all the others who have quit.

[Rick N Bama]

Congrats! I hope you'll be able to keep up the good work.

On Oct 23 2000, sometime around 5:30PM I had a light Heart Attack. I smoked my last cigarette waiting on the Ambulance to arrive to take me to the Hospital. My Dr. said that one didn't hurt a bit & may have actually helped to calm me down a bit. I haven't touched Tobacco since.

Rick

[searcher4851]

Good for you. Perhaps one day I will join the rest of you.

[WILCO]

Just made up my MIND...

The human mind is a powerful thing Condorjohn! Best wishes of health as you move forward.

[Recluse]

I came out of the service a raging alcoholic. November 1, 1984 I woke up in a hospital with no clothes on and tubes running in and out of me everywhere including a respirator. Alcohol poisoning.

Swore off drinking for one full year, then as a reward, allowed myself two beers or two glasses of wine either per day or per a meal. The "experts" said I couldn't do it--had to give it ALL up. Distilled spirits were my demon. I loved my whiskey, drank gin and vodka like tap water, and could do tequila shots round the clock.

Next year will be thirty years sober and during that time, I've had the occasional beer and occasional glass of wine. I'm actually a bit of a wine snob--love a good pinot noir from France or Italy. Don't like California wines as they have way too many sulfates and I get a raging headache from them. I do love my Llano Estacado (west Texas) wines.

Several years ago, I gave up smoking. Cold turkey. It was a day or two after New Year's and I stepped outside of a business to have a smoke and while I was standing there shivering, I realized that yet another chemical had a hold over me. Disgusted, I threw the half-smoked cigarette on the ground, threw the rest of the pack in the trash and have never looked back.

For me, cigarette smoke was like a fart--I could stand my own but nobody else's. But what I never could stand was how my pickup smelled and how my clothes smelled. I now almost gag whenever I'm near or around a heavy-smoker.

I'm not a tobacco nazi. It's a legal product and I learned how to smoke in basic training. To each their own, but I do not like being around smokers when everyone has lit up. I didn't like that even back when I smoked.

When I tossed the smokes in the trash, I instructed my mind to have nothing but contempt for my weakness and inability to have quit smoking beforehand. I kept that mantra up and within a few weeks, there were no cravings whatsoever and after a few months, I'd forgotten all about having ever smoked.

Wish I could say the same about the whiskey. Rarely a day or week goes by when I don't think of pouring a tumbler full of Wild Turkey or Jack Daniels and adding a few ice cubes then sitting down to relax and write some more on the book. But I know I can't even risk having just one glass. . . I'll be lost.

For those who have recently quit smoking or who are tempted to "just have one" now and then, don't do it. They used to tell us in some of our schools "what the mind will believe, the body can achieve."

It's true. Congrats condorjohn and congrats to everyone who has beaten a habit that was destructive to themselves.

:coffee: