Our quitting of cigarettes thread

:joy::joy::flushed::flushed::flushed: this is great, very helpful, thank you kind sir :+1::+1:

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Woo woo friends…I’m resurrecting this thread :woman_zombie: :zombie:‍♂ to say that today is six months cigarette free for me!!!

I’m feeling so very happy that I’m not poisoning my body with that crap anymore…it feels good to feel proud. Love you all…how’s everyone else doing out there in quitting nicotineland?

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Some days are still a struggle.

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This is the longest I’ve gone without smoking since I started. I still get cravings but I can handle them better now.

Great to see you guys keeping on keeping on too @ELY83 @Kaeo @Dejavu

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99% sure I’ll never smoke again.

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I’ve wanted to quit cigarettes for a while now. This is truly shocking

This is the ‘ashtray’ outside the house where me, my mother and stepfather put our butt ends. This was emptied about 5 days ago. My mum and stepdad both quit smoking 3 months ago

I dont even want to touch it without gloves.

This is a nappy sack full of MY but ends. This shit is inside my body. This is about £100 worth of cigarette ends and that’s only what I’ve smoked at home…I’m away from home for about 12 hrs every day.

My 3rd attempt at quitting. My quit date is going to be September 1st.

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Yay you! Champix has helped a lot of people quit. Make sure the follow the prescription. Success!

PS. Why do I see such humongous numbers of chefs smoke outside of the restaurants they work in? (Don’t say it’s stress. Smoking doesn’t help with stress). Smoking kills your taste and smell buds. Not handy when you’re a chef right?

If I cant tell you its stress then I have no answer for you

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OK it was a bit of a trick question sorry. The only stress that is alleviated by smoking is the stress caused by smoking itself. Nicotine is so bloody addictive because of the very short time it takes before we need a new hit. 30 minutes after our last draw the withdrawals start, causing stress. Be rid of nicotine, less stress. Fact.

Score dude! Your journey of sobriety is one I always love hearing about. I’m glad to see your heated up and prepared to quit this too. It has been the last of my vices (other than the occasional sugar/ice cream binge to go and has been a challenge. Reading Alan Carr’s “Easy Way to Quit Smoking” has been a real help to me so I wanted to mention it here. It was also helpful for me to look up some smoking cessation timelines. Seeing on a screen the benefits after 2/24/72 hours etc was helpful as it made me understand what great things I was doing for myself. Sending you strength from New Jersey​:facepunch:t2::heart::raised_hands:t2:

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Haha! Yeah. I kinda knew that was what you were going for when you asked. It’s fine, it’s a fair point and is often risen in the conversation.

But to answer your question about chefs smoking. The answer is stress. I accept that cigarettes only alleviate the stress of cigarettes but during service, we dont smoke cigarettes. You won’t see a chef who isn’t a smoker standing in the smoking area having a cigarette because they dont smoke. It’s not the job that makes the stress of not having a cigarette difficult, it’s the not having a cigarette.

If you ask why so many chefs smoke, it’s usually because its typically the easiest way to get breaks. We work anywhere between 10-18 hrs a day so it’s pretty unsurprising that people start smoking to get a break. I think that applies to any job though, you know?

Also, yes - It does dampen your palate but it doesnt wipe it out. You can still identify flavours and tastes as a non smoker but it just isn’t as sharp I guess. Similar to someone with impaired vision who has to squint to see stuff.

Edit: Thanks @ELY83 :slight_smile: Its definitely my one crutch too

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Yes on the smoke breaks. Sad and unfair. When I quit I promised myself I’d take the same amount of breaks as I did when I smoked. But it just doesn’t work that way.

This isn’t totally accurate. There was a morning that I think I posted about. I woke up at 5 am for work and my vape was broke. The alcoholic in me immediately panicked and went to the store for a pack of smokes. In hindsight, I could have bought a Juul, but whatever.

So somewhere in these 373 days, there was a couple of cigs smoked while I waited for the vape store to open :wink:

Allen Carr’s Easyway to quit smoking was an eye opener for me. Just makes so much sense. Has helped so many ppl I know to quit smoking too!
@anon86726034 and @anon84416494 I highly recommend it, it will make this journey much easier for you (I hope, it did for me) :blush:

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So this happened,a year nicotine free

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So cool :sunglasses::sunglasses::sunglasses::sunglasses::sunglasses::sunglasses: great work. I’m resetting today, find it so tough.:pensive:

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That’s INCREDIBLE!! Be proud today pal

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I quit smoking in 2013. I transitioned from cigarettes to vaping nicotine to vaping WTA (whole tobacco alkaloid) and tapered until I finally stopped vaping altogether because I no longer wanted to spend money on it and didn’t want the risk of bad juice, battery failure, etc.

Read Alan Carr’s book and give it credit for improving my motivation to quit and helping me manage quitting.

Now I can smell cigarettes a mile away and do not crave one. I see smoking on TV and remember only the negative aspects of tobacco.
Vaping also does not interest me.

I had used cigarettes to self-medicate my severe ADHD.

It helps to keep busy and give yourself healthy mini-rewards to give your brain that dopamine boost that it’s missing from the tobacco usage.

Avoid places that sell cigarettes.

Pay at the pump for gas.

Don’t go to the tobacco cashier line.

Don’t go in duty-free at the airport.

Get rid of all of your lighters & trays.

Clean your car thoroughly. Clean the liner of the roof of the car. It will be filthy from smoke. Use citrus odor eliminator in the vehicle overnight.
You won’t want to smoke in it now!

Avoid places smokers gather.

Stay away from active smokers until your quit is solid.

Tell yourself the quit doesn’t have to be forever and you can have a cigarette at any time, but one will cost you all of your clean time.

I just wish that my partner would stop as well, even when I had a complete breakdown the other day and finally relapsed it wouldn’t have been there and I would of just had to die, like it felt like I was doing. She is beginning to smoke slightly less around me though, I don’t know if this is a concious effert or it’s because she hasn’t got her smoking partner any more. I’m down to 2 or 3 a day so far and for me that’s good. We all have to start somewhere and unlike alcohol cold turkey is not how I’m going to beat this. I know I can be strong, 27 days sober is proof of that but I’m also aware of my capabilities and my mindset. Until your mindset is in the right place you won’t quit anything. So for now I have to be content with the fact I’ve cut down and still trying every trick in the book. This is far from over.

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