The flippant answer which always gets a :eek: is that I ran out of duty frees :rolleyes: (which is also kinda true!!!)
Been thinking about stopping for a while (20 odd years!!!) - been to the doctors who said 'stop smoking' for each and every ailment presented, but the last one was suspected COPD - had to have a medical at a new job and was embarrassed about the lung capicity test - turned out OK but I was borrowing my wifes inhaler far too much. Each winters cold/cough was getting worse as well.
My wife bought the Allen Carr book and late last year I finally read it (she is yet to read it!!!). I agreed with a lot of what he was saying however I thought the complete Cold Turkey was a no no (having tried numerous times) and just repeating 'I'm a non-smoker...yippee!!' was a bit lame. Little bits of the text stuck though.
After holiday this year the OH was saying that she was going to stop after the duty frees had been smoked. I kinda agreed to try but didn't hold out much hope (for her especially). Duty frees were finished on a Thursday - A few more packets were bought (£6:30 each!!) and a quit day of Sunday was planned.
At work I dont get breaks during the day so I was used to having a mini lozenge when feeling a bit frazzled, therefore lozenges was my method of choice.
We started our stop on 2/10 and I was using the 2mg lozenge. OH caved in after a few hours, but I was surprisingly OK and carried on.
After a couple of days I needed to get some more lozenges - Boots only had 4mg or 1mg, so the lozenge dose came down. After reading Allen Carr again, i decided to ditch the nicotine altogether (after 6 days) - had a few tricky days since but still going strong at day 25.
Alcohol gets rid of nicotine in the bloodstream quickly - I got blottoed on my first weekend which must have got rid of the remainder in my system I've found facing triggers head on is the best way and have tried to get rid of as many as possible as quickly as possible.
OH has cut down loads (30 odd to 5/6 a day) and has bought an e-cig. Allen Carr book has been sneakily placed in the spare room next to her ashtray.
It sounds daft but its probably been easier with OH still smoking - I get a constant reminder of the horrible smell. Ciggies are always there if I really wanted one (I don't), so I've not fantisised about them. OH is a bit guilty about carrying on, so shes extra nice to me!!!
Dave