Hi, my name is Chrissie and I've just joined up. I'm 53 and have been smoker since my late teens although I have had periods of stopping, but stupidly I always started again! My main reason for wanting to stop is that I can really feel that it is affecting me physically now and I need to take control. Having had a quick read of posts on here, everyone talks about a planned stop smoking day. I've gone as far as ordering an e cig set online and I'm still waiting for it to be delivered, I plan to stop as soon as possible after that has arrived, but the thing is, how else should I plan to stop?
Oh, I must say that although I have managed to stop at times in the past, I've never been a member of a community like this and I do think this will be a brilliant support system so I'm really pleased to be here!!!
I would love to hear your tips for planning to stop
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ChrissieG
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Chrissy what you can do is get plenty of healthy nibbles around so when you get a craving you have something at hand besides the e-cig. Also change your routine like washing up after a meal instead of lighting up , or go for a walk. I am sure other members will advise you too. Let us know how you get on.
Here an older post which Monky (Pete) put on This may help you,
10 Tips for quitting smoking
Somebody posted this a while ago now, I'm afraid its a bit long, but it helped me and still is have a read through it and underline the relevant bits to you
10 Tips for Quitting Smoking
1. Commit Thyself Fully. In the quits that failed, I was only half into it. I told myself I wanted to quit, but I always felt in the back of my mind that I’d fail. I didn’t write anything down, I didn’t tell everybody (maybe my wife, but just her). This time, I wrote it down. I wrote down a plan. I blogged about it. I made a vow to my daughter. I told family and friends I was quitting. I went online and joined a quit forum. I had rewards. Many of these will be in the following tips, but the point is that I fully committed, and there was no turning back. I didn’t make it easy for myself to fail.
2. Make a Plan. You can’t just up and say, “I’m gonna quit today.” You have to prepare yourself. Plan it out. Have a system of rewards, a support system, a person to call if you’re in trouble. Write down what you’ll do when you get an urge. Print it out. Post it up on your wall, at home and at work. If you wait until you get the urge to figure out what you’re going to do, you’ve already lost. You have to be ready when those urges come.
3. Know Your Motivation. When the urge comes, your mind will rationalize. “What’s the harm?” And you’ll forget why you’re doing this. Know why you’re doing this BEFORE that urge comes. Is it for your kids? For your wife? For you health? So you can run? Because the girl you like doesn’t like smokers? Have a very good reason or reasons for quitting. List them out. Print them out. Put it on a wall. And remind yourself of those reasons every day, every urge.
4. Not One Puff, Ever (N.O.P.E.). The mind is a tricky thing. It will tell you that one cigarette won’t hurt. And it’s hard to argue with that logic, especially when you’re in the middle of an urge. And those urges are super hard to argue with. Don’t give in. Tell yourself, before the urges come, that you will not smoke a single puff, ever again. Because the truth is, that one puff WILL hurt. One puff leads to a second, and a third, and soon you’re not quitting, you’re smoking. Don’t fool yourself. A single puff will almost always lead to a recession. DO NOT TAKE A SINGLE PUFF!
5. Join a Forum. One of the things that helped the most in this quit was an online forum for quitters (quitsmoking.about.com) … you don’t feel so alone when you’re miserable. Misery loves company, after all. Go online, introduce yourself, get to know the others who are going through the exact same thing, post about your crappy experience, and read about others who are even worse than you. Best rule: Post Before You Smoke. If you set this rule and stick to it, you will make it through your urge. Others will talk you through it. And they’ll celebrate with you when you make it through your first day, day 2, 3, and 4, week 1 and beyond. It’s great fun.
6. Reward Yourself. Set up a plan for your rewards. Definitely reward yourself after the first day, and the second, and the third. You can do the fourth if you want, but definitely after Week 1 and Week2. And month 1, and month 2. And 6 months and a year. Make them good rewards, that you’ll look forward to: CDs, books, DVDs, T-shirts, shoes, a massage, a bike, a dinner out at your favorite restaurant, a hotel stay … whatever you can afford. Even better: take whatever you would have spent on smoking each day, and put it in a jar. This is your Rewards Jar. Go crazy! Celebrate your every success! You deserve it.
7. Delay. If you have an urge, wait. Do the following things: take 10 deep breaths. Drink water. Eat a snack (at first it was candy and gum, then I switched to healthier stuff like carrots and frozen grapes and pretzels). Call your support person. Post on your smoking cessation forum. Exercise. DO WHATEVER IT TAKES, BUT DELAY, DELAY, DELAY. You will make it through it, and the urge will go away. When it does, celebrate! Take it one urge at a time, and you can do it.
8. Replace Negative Habits with Positive Ones. What do you do when you’re stressed? If you currently react to stress with a cigarette, you’ll need to find something else to do. Deep breathing, self massage of my neck and shoulders, and exercise have worked wonders for me. Other habits, such as what you do first thing in the morning, or what you do in the car, or wherever you usually smoke, should be replaced with better, more positive ones. Running has been my best positive habit, altho I have a few others that replaced smoking.
9. Make it Through Hell Week, then Heck Week, and You’re Golden. The hardest part of quitting is the first two days. If you can get past that, you’ve passed the nicotine withdrawal stage, and the rest is mostly mental. But all of the first week is hell. Which is why it’s called Hell Week. After that, it begins to get easier. Second week is Heck Week, and is still difficult, but not nearly as hellish as the first. After that, it was smooth sailing for me. I just had to deal with an occasional strong urge, but the rest of the urges were light, and I felt confident I could make it through anything.
10. If You Fall, Get Up. And Learn From Your Mistakes. Yes, we all fail. That does not mean we are failures, or that we can never succeed. If you fall, it’s not the end of the world. Get up, brush yourself off, and try again. I failed numerous times before succeeding. But you know what? Each of those failures taught me something. Well, sometimes I repeated the same mistakes several times, but eventually I learned. Figure out what your obstacles to success are, and plan to overcome them in your next quit. And don’t wait a few months until your next quit. Give yourself a few days to plan and prepare, commit fully to it, and go for it!
BONUS TIP #11: THINK POSITIVE. This is the most important tip of all. I saved it for last. If you have a positive, can-do attitude, as corny as it may sound, you will succeed. Trust me. It works. Tell yourself that you can do it, and you will. Tell yourself that you can’t do it, and you definitely won’t. When things get rough, think positive! You CAN make it through the urge. You CAN make it through Hell Week. And you can. I did. So have millions of others. We are no better than you. (In my case, worse.)
Thanks Jilly, healthy snacks are a brilliant idea! I don't really want to rely on the e-cig but I know I've failed in the past because I couldn't cope with the cravings so it's my kind of "insurance" so that I won't be tempted to actually smoke again.
You'll meet plenty of others here who know how you are feeling and whist there are some ranting and raving at much needed times, there's a lot of laughs along the way too
In the past, how long have you stopped smoking for? Think about how well you done in the past and what worked well for you, coping strategies etc. also, think about where it went wrong for you and learn from it. All your past times aren't failed attempts - we like to call them practise runs
JillyGirl has said it all really. There's usually somebody around most of the time so keep in touch and let us know how you're doing
Hi EmJay and thank you for your message. My longest stop was 18 months and I think the shortest ones have been a matter of days. I'm determined to succeed this time though so I will do everything possible to stay positive, which will include using this site! Reading other members success stories is very motivational!
Welcome to the probably the only place that will really get you on the right track.I stopped in September last year,I'm round about your age and like you had a couple of attempts to stop.If I'm honest I just go the ECig out,decided that the following Monday would be my day and off I went.You probably remember that it Isn't always easy but a little bit of determination goes an awful long way.I found that my Ecig was MUCH better than anything I'd tried in the past and if I'm honest it was my constant companion for the first few weeks,I cut my nicotine down every month and by month 4 was nic free,I still am 8 weeks on.Just come on here if you need a rant or a moan,everyone does and to be honest it really does help.I'm proudly 6 months and 1 week cig free (not that I'm counting!!) and if I can do it then believe me you can too.Good Luck,you'll be absolutely fine.Hugs Helen
Thank you so much for your message and wow - congratulations on being a non-smoker for 6 months and 1 week, that is amazing and I can't wait until I can say that. I shall definitely be using this site during the process and please don't be afraid to say to me for goodness sake Chrissie, stop moaning and get on with it! ha ha ha
Hi Pete, although I think I'm going to have to call you Monkey because I love that name!
Your message made me laugh and that is brilliant because I think I'm going to need that sense of humour over the next couple of weeks
I've realised this morning that I'm going to have to change my morning routine to forget the habit of having a coffee and cig when I get up in the morning before I do anything else. So that starts tomorrow. To be honest, I only get up so early so I've got the time to do that, so I could have an extra 30 mins in bed and then get up and go straight in the shower. I'm beginning to understand what planning means now!
Hi Chrissie, Support is something you will definitely get on here, we are all in it together. I to have the support of an e-cig. The one thing I was told sometime ago by my Doctor was, Do I want to be a Healthy older lady or a sickly one ! That is always at the front of my mind. We CAN do this. x
I am smoke free thanks to the E cig, ok i am not nicotine free yet, but the e cig has finally got me smoke free for the first time in 22 years! i have tried and failed before. I think you will find it easier than you anticipate, i am slowly reducing my nic levels, and hope to be nic free by christmas, which seems a long time away, but i am only setting myself realistic goals, but i have already dropped on level, so i may make it there sooner.
Best of luck hun, and if you need any support please ask away x
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