tocevoD

It's weird but I'm enjoying the odd crave I get each day. It's only 2 or 3 times a day but I'm enjoying batting them away. What is more concerning is imagining future situations and asking myself if I will smoke then. That was always my drawback. I had a quit for about 4 or 5 years and it ended because I started romanticising going out with friends and allowing myself one or two as a treat. At the moment I'm asking myself if would smoke in tragic situations involving myself or family members. It doesn't seem normal at all but this is how ingrained this thing is.

4 weeks in. Feeling good. Looking at smokers as victims rather than anything to be desired. Still getting thoughts but they're not strong thoughts. Thoughts that are easily batted away. The money saved is really bizarre. I was having, on average, 16 a day. My savings as displayed on the app I use for 4 weeks packed in is over £270. That is money back in my pocket rather than giving it to some faceless tobacco company employee or giving it to government taxes. No brainer isn't it.

I read something a while back that said that governments and tobacco companies were looking at ways, for decades, how they could lose the need for cigarettes specifically. A way for people to ingest nicotine and stay addicted without the need to smoke a cigarette. It looks like they are onto a winner with these vape machines. The amount of children I see and hear of who are basically addicted to them is grotesque. Schools are having to send out warnings to parents of the dangers because they know how many kids are using them. This needs to be addressed by governments but they won't do nothing. There will be initial lip service for a while because they want this addiction to get a firm hold in the community first and don't want anything to get in the way of that. It's absolutely horrible. I fear that everyone using them now is a guinea pig and we will start to see the problems they cause years down the line. Much the same as we did with smoking.

Still getting urges but I'd say I'm on the low end of the amount of them. Seeing the urges as just thoughts at the moment. I'd say I think about them 2 or 3 times a day. It's pretty easy to bat them away at the moment with the benefits being felt in other parts of my life. I bought Nicotine gum when I originally started this thread, and when I originally meant to pack it in in March. The gum is still there but I don't want to take any of it because I actually feel like I don't need it and I don't want to have nicotine in my body at this point and definitely not in the future. From previous experience the gun makes me feel as bad as I do when I was smoking. I used to suffer strong anxiety straight after and during a ciggie and I'd get the same feeling from the gum. I feel confident this time. Feeling good.

I finally cracked it. 2 weeks and 18hrs in. I'm using an app to track my progress. Going the gym regularly so I feel the benefit there. Playing football with my 7yo son, feeling the benefit there. Better energy levels all round. Money in the pocket and not being wasted on the sticks of death is a massive factor in my quit, maybe not more than playing footy with my son but up there like. All in all feeling very good. And the bank balance is looking better without spending nigh on £60 per week to kill myself.

Been on here in the past. Been on here as a smoker and as a non smoker. I started with the ciggies last year fully again after trying to be a social smoker for 5 years. I was that social smoker who didn't smoke the rest of the week. It doesn't work. You are either full in on a quit or you haven't beat the habit. Soon enough the social smoking had ventured into the rest of the week and I was fully smoking again. You're either all on with the quit or not at all. I'm ready for all in. I'm full on focused that this is the time I will fully quit. I hardly go out socially much anymore but even if I do I'm sure/certain I will not want to go down that path again. The time has come, I've been down this path before. I know what the 1st few weeks will be like. The brain triggering at every trigger point. Up in the morning with a cuppa, the brain sends the signal of how you used to have a ciggie. Just home from work, the brain sends the signal of how you relaxed with a ciggie. These are all things that will be batted away again until the thoughts go completely. Wish me luck if you want but I don't believe I'll need it this time. This is the time I finally beat it and regain my life. Will be in and out of here over the next few weeks, months to document my progress.

NOPE

Missed yesterday's NOPE as was a bit busy. So it's a double NOPE for me today.

It's got to be NOPE again.

Not one puff ever!

I packed in for what was a good 5 years and it's now wormed its way back in. During them 5 years I'd learnt to expect that I was still going to social smoke. I would still smoke on certain occasions usually involving going out for a drink. Now Im at the point where I'm just smoking without the drink. I can see that the problem has returned full time. It's gone from social occasions to just full time. Averaging my old average of 10 a day. It needs to stop again and it needs to stay stopped. I've always had something running alongside my quit during them 5 years. Eating well and going the gym being the main things. I have done neither since being full time back on the ciggies since April. I've decided that tomorrow is the day. The day I head back the gym. The day I start the battle with my brain to eradicate the thoughts of having another ciggie again. I have been through the promptings before and I'm going to tackle them full on again starting tomorrow. Time to get the old gym kit out and go in search of the old healthy me. Wish me luck.

I'd echo what other people say. Go and see a doctor if you think something is seriously wrong. If the doctor says everything is ok then you need to look at your anxiety levels. I have been through severe anxiety a few times when packing in in the past and I was at the docs every week seeking reassurance. In the end I realised that it was the withdrawal symptoms from nicotine. We are not all the same body. We are not all the same mind. We will all have our differences from withdrawal to such an addictive substance as nicotine. Whether someone smokes 1 or someone else smokes 50 the one who smokes 1 could suffer the most. That's the human body for you. No guarantees. Go and see your doctor and as I say if he/she inspects you and says everything is fine then you need to look at your anxiety levels. Our mind can play these little games on us when withdrawing from nicotine abuse.

Random pop in due to another forum I am on making me think of QuitTrain. Truth is I can't even remember the last time I had a ciggie now. It was that long ago. The lockdown over coronavirus in the UK has probably made it easier for all of us. Still running when my knee allows me. I don't have any urges for cigarettes at all now. I think if I was to go out on a night having a drink then the urge to have one would be with the alcohol. Pre coronavirus though I was hardly ever out. I've settled into the life of a chilled out 40+er. I think I need to accept that when I go out though that that urge will be there again. But what more can I do? I hardly ever go out as mentioned. Post coronavirus when I do eventually have a day out then that will be my next fight, eradicate it when having a drink. I've eradicated it from my every day life. Now onto the next step, whenever that may be with coronavirus around.

Haven't posted for a while. Just thought I'd drop in and let you all know how I'm doing. Well where to start? A rollercoaster year for me. Massive achievement's mixed with abject failures. Achievement's being the running, which is still going well albeit after a short hiatus due to niggling little injuries. Failures being the couple of times I have actually smoked. Single days out being the main culprits, once at an all day music gig and two separate days out on the demon drink. I don't know why I bother drinking it always leads to smoking. There was one longer period of smoking which lasted a week. It started off with a 3 day holiday and when I returned from holiday I finished the rest of the week smoking. That was the beginning of August and that was the last time I smoked. I seem to get to a point in my quit and then start looking for a reason to smoke. Before the 3 day holiday I had made my mind up I was going to be smoking for the 3 days. The grip had got me that much. Same with the one day music gig, I had decided before it I would be smoking that day. I feel now like I will never smoke again. I have no feeling for it and no desire. I'm currently loving running and I have taken onboard a lot of the Allen Carr books teachings of the nicotine trap. I totally get what he is saying. I feel like the final hurdle is these urges that come out of nowhere that make me plan when I'm going to smoke. As I say at this moment there is no need or desire. It always comes with alcohol but I have no alcohol days planned. The cure could be to go out and have the day out if I must but to pre plan to leave when the urge comes. Just slope off to save my own sanity. It's more important than being a social, jovial soul.

I'm same as you mate. I just enjoy the runs but I've always timed and set myself targets. One target was to do a lap of the local park in under 20mins. Been trying for years, it's 2.3miles around. I finally did it the other day. Done the full lap in 19mins 40secs. With these little achievements coming thick and fast it is a great spur to stay quit. My lungs are clearing and times are falling.

Been a good few months for me. Been running very regularly. My latest competitive run was a 10k which I completed in 58mins 08secs. I am still at an early stage in my running but I can feel the benefits of not smoking which is a great thing for me personally. Hoping that the fitter I get the more time I can shave off. When I go out for a drink I am still struggling with the demon ciggies but when not drinking I don't have any thought or need of smoking. It's a strange situation for me, but one I totally accept. Drinking brings my defences down. I hardly go out for a drink now so that's a bonus. As I say the benefits I am feeling from not smoking are amazing so I just need to keep on doing what I am doing.

Thanks very much people. A month and a half now. Plenty of running has been the answer for me.

Over a month now and feeling absolutely super. Done a timed 5k today around the local racecourse. Went and had a bit of food straight after then an hour later did another 2 and a half miles. Stuff like this I would never have been able to do if still addicted to the demon nicotine. I'm starting to look at smokers in a different way aswell. It's a way I've never looked at them in the past when I quit smoking. I used to envy them and hate seeing people smoking because I always wanted to be smoking again. This quit I am now seeing them in a different way. I'm pitying the way they are addicted to nicotine. Pitying the fact they spend so much money. Pitying that they just have to smoke to get the hitnif nicotine. Also looking at vapours in the same way. I see it all now as more an addiction to nicotine than enjoying smoking and that makes this different to me.

Absolutely made up with how my quit is moving along. Doing dry January, doing plenty of exercise and watching plenty of films and a little reading. All helping. Every time I get a small urge, because that's all they've been so far, I weigh that one little urge in time up against the time smoking has not even entered my mind and I feel empowered. Onwards and upwards people.

3 runs completed this last week. A 2 and a half miler on Tuesday and Wednesday and a 6 miler last night (Saturday). The key for me is to keep exercising. I feel the benefits and it helps with my quit. Entering runs in the local area with the money being saved from not smoking.

Going well. That is all. Haven't been posting much or using the daily nope pledge. I'm trying not to think about it as much this time. I became a bit too reliant on this place last time, beating myself up for missing nopes and stuff like that. I'll just keep popping in randomly over the coming months to let you know how I'm getting on. I pop in every now and again to watch videos posted by others aswell. They are most helpful as is reading some of the testimonies on here.

It's crazy because there is a way back. The lungs will repair themselves to a very good degree. They may never be as good as new. You will have caused some irreparable damage but they will be in a lot better condition if you pack in because as I say some self repairing does take place. First time I've seen a video like that and being so early into my new quit it has shocked me a lot.

I'm back. I failed in 2018 but I am determined that 2019 is going to be my year. I had beaten almost every obstacle until the family holiday at the back end of July beginning of August. I am currently reading an Allen Carr book for my inspiration for this quit which I'm determined is going to be my last quit. Ive set myself a time of 11:59pm tonight for my quit and am thoroughly certain this will be my time. I'm going for a run in the morning and will be regularly running alongside eating well. This is it for me. Onwards and upwards people. Good luck if you are also quitting and we'll done to everyone already quit.

Nope.

Nope.