Giving Up - for good!

shannons dad said:

Well folks. Today's the day. After 9 years of poisoning my ass off, I'm giving up smoking. Decided this after reading a thread about how low everyone resting heart rates were, tested my own and found out the horrible truth, 80bpm. Years ago a hundred mile ride wasn't exactly strainig things, these days I struggle to do 20, a bad thing indeed. So anyone with words of comfort or how to deal with the frustration of not being able to puff away would be very welcome indeed!

Bill.

Good for you🙂

i quit just over a year ago for similar reasons. was regularly riding centuries and commuting 30+ almost every day and eating really well and hitting the gym a few times a week and still had prehypertensive blood pressure. so i could no longer pretend that i was an exception to the rule.

it was my third of fourth attempt to quit (after 10 years at a pack+ per day) but my first one where i had a specific motivator (my BP), and it was realyl fairly easy. havent cheated, the cravings werent that bad, didnt gain any weight and my BP is much closer to where it should be for someone as active as i am, and i'm considerably faster on the bike (and i can actually trail run now too, which i never could when i smoked).

i dunno how attached you are to the drink, but i also quit booze when i quit smoking, i wasnt a problem drinker or anything, but i didnt trust my drunk self not to trick me into have a a smoke at a bar, so i just decided to avoid that stimulus for a while and now i just dont really miss alcohol.

good luck. i'm sure you'll do great, now that you have a specific, measureable goal and an irrefutable connection between your behavior and your condition.
please keep us posted. i found that having my old board (a music oriented board) to vent to (instead of my GF and family) was really useful...

ride your ass off... you won't even have to time to think about frustration... sure you will find yourself sleeping before you think!

Good luck! 😄

congrats buddy!

shannons dad said:

Well folks. Today's the day...

Good on ya, Bill. I stopped 12 years ago. The only things I smoke these days are my tyres. I smoked rollies - years of working on drilling rigs in the desert and jungle where rolling a smoke was what you did each time you hit a problem. It basically bought you a little time before jumping in and buggering everything up. Plenty of problems = plenty of smokes.
I tried giving up a few times and, each time, fell down amidst a stack of bevvies at a pub or a party. I finally hit on a solution (for me) when I gave my giving up as a birthday present for my daughter - along the theory of, when you give a present, you can't take it back.
Keep yourself busy and out of the way of temptation for a while. Trust me, it does get better (and fairly quickly, too). You will reach a stage where you have absolutely no desire whatsoever to put a firestick in your mouth, and you'll feel better for it. Probably a good idea to stay away from, or reduce social drinking for a short time - It seems so natural to a smoker to light up when their having a drink.
One thing you will hopefully notice is, over time, your sense of smell will come back to you. You don't even know that it's missing until, having been off the durries for a while, you walk into a pub full of smokers.
I hope it goes well for you - it is worth it.

"Quitting" is a negative action, and represents a fight, fights are negative and a big effort in which no one really wins. I too once smoked.🙄 Try to think of it as NOT quitting but starting something new, like your BEGINNING NON SMOKING HEALTH. This so is much more positive than quitting. When you smoke your a human doing, doing, doing, try to be a human being, just like its written, your in a state of being; find that peace inside yourself and you will be fine.🙂 you can do it, dont get caught up in all the hype that its so hard. Hey if I did it anyone can!

Congrats on your decision to give up smoking. Good luck with it--if you ride enough, you won't even have time to think about smoking!!!

Go for it like a big dog! You will be much happier for it in the long run. You might go see your family physician. There is a lot that they can do to support your effort. If you take the cold turkey approach, just remember that every bad day is one less that you will ever have to go through again. Stick with it and you will be surprised how quickly the good days start to kick in. 😉

Remember: Winners never quit and quitters never win. 😉

Kidding.

Wow! Didn't imagine I'd get this much support. Slipped up once today. Out for a ride with the family and my two year old daughter starts giving me hell coz she's bored. Had half a roly. The shame of it. Won't happen again. Not really a drinker, if truth be told, despite my signature. Just thought it'd be funny. Anyway, thanks again and I will perservere despite blowing steam from my ears!

Bill.:eek:

Welcome to the ranks of non-smoker. 🙂

Something that worked for me when I first quit, was to remember to take breaks and do some deep breathing.

Just because you are a non-smoker doesn't mean you can't take an "air" break when you may have previously taken a smoke break.

shannons dad said:

Wow! Didn't imagine I'd get this much support. Slipped up once today. Out for a ride with the family and my two year old daughter starts giving me hell coz she's bored. Had half a roly. The shame of it. Won't happen again. Not really a drinker, if truth be told, despite my signature. Just thought it'd be funny. Anyway, thanks again and I will perservere despite blowing steam from my ears!

Bill.:eek:

Slip ups are going to happen...what increases your chances of successfully quiting are fully accepting when you have a craving and dedicating yourself to not giving in...the same philosophy as when you get home from work and your are tired and you start to talk yourself out of riding. Whenever these destructive thought patterns start, you simply have to stop them immediately and go do whatever it is you are trying to talk yourself out of. I smoked for the better half of 15 years and I finally quit full turkey last Feb...the cravings do eventually subside but that is when your guard is down and when a craving does hit you are weak...I took up eating sunflower seeds and now I am addicted to those damn things...What can I say I have an addictive personality, as do most smokers... 🙂

SD,
Yesterday was my 7th anniversary. You know, I really can't tell the difference in my body. I didn't gain a ton, and my time at running a mile didn't go from 10 minutes to 5 minutes. The biggest difference is in my wallet. I was able to get smokes fairly cheap through the military (no tax), but still, that's about $40 a week I'm saving. You know, I never did really celebrate.
Let's see- 40x52x7=WHOA!! Can't talk, gotta go shopping.

jaguar75 said:

Slip ups are going to happen...what increases your chances of successfully quiting are fully accepting when you have a craving and dedicating yourself to not giving in...the same philosophy as when you get home from work and your are tired and you start to talk yourself out of riding. Whenever these destructive thought patterns start, you simply have to stop them immediately and go do whatever it is you are trying to talk yourself out of. I smoked for the better half of 15 years and I finally quit full turkey last Feb...the cravings do eventually subside but that is when your guard is down and when a craving does hit you are weak...I took up eating sunflower seeds and now I am addicted to those damn things...What can I say I have an addictive personality, as do most smokers... 🙂

Sunflower seeds? Thats a new one! Currently I'm munching through a box of ice cream cones! Mmmm. Yummy.

Having lost my dad basically to smoking I'd like to say AWESOME on you! Best of luck and keep us posted.

shannons dad said:

Sunflower seeds? Thats a new one! Currently I'm munching through a box of ice cream cones! Mmmm. Yummy.

LOL...No amount of time in the saddle will stop the love handles from growing if the cones are your way out... 😄

Seeds work for me because I will not gain any weight and they distract me enough...I also forgot to mention, I used the nicotene gum for a while and believe it or not I would only chew them when I had a craving and they helped a lot...a little expensive but they go a long way

Also keep a bag of sugar-less candy to suck on. That really helped me with the oral fixation. (That really sounds bad, but that's what its called)

Good luck, Buddy. If you need moral support, you got a lot of us here on your side.

when I was a kid my dad gave up by doing the following.

Whenever he craved a cigarette he forced himself to eat an apple.

Within a week, he lost the cravings.

As he told me, you try eating 20-30 apples a day and associate that with smokes - after a week, you'll throw up at the sight of a cigarette.

Also, his weight gain was minimal because apples are pretty good for you (but 20 a day may be overdoing it). Stomach was too full for junk to fit.

Good luck

Scotty

shannons dad said:

Well folks. Today's the day. After 9 years of poisoning my ass off, I'm giving up smoking. Decided this after reading a thread about how low everyone resting heart rates were, tested my own and found out the horrible truth, 80bpm. Years ago a hundred mile ride wasn't exactly strainig things, these days I struggle to do 20, a bad thing indeed. So anyone with words of comfort or how to deal with the frustration of not being able to puff away would be very welcome indeed!

Bill.

What were you smoking? I hope you didn't give up the good stuff.