I've given up........

[Denny]

Smoking.

I just hope I can stay off them this time. I'm fed up with standing out in the cold, getting dirty looks in coffee shops, feeling panicky when I've run out and going to the offy when it's cold and wet. I'm fed up with drinking too much coffee to justify more ciggies to smoke, smelly hair and clothes, clearing my throat and generally feeling jaded and tired and out of breath. I particularly hate forking out £60 per week on the habit which is what it's cost me in recent months.

Already in just 3 days of not smoking (minus one relapse yesterday) and a few days in the run up of cutting down by half, my energy levels are already higher and I already feel brighter and younger than I have for a while. Most importantly food is beginning to taste better.

It's still hard though and the nico' pangs are still quite strong, particularly if anything upsets me - which causes me to reach for a packet again.

[Spartacus]

Good for you Denny. Well done. The first three days are the hardest by far.

[sasguru]

I quit last year. Best thing I ever did. Stick with it.

When the pangs come (and I know they're bastard strong), welcome them, think about them, think how they're pretty weak really, stroke them like a bunch of puppies and let 'em go. yay:

That mental image worked for me.

HTH

[darmstadt]

Stopped exactly a week ago and get the occasional pang but it ain't worried me yet although I think I've put on a couple og kilos already. Apart from VAT going up in Germany (now 19%) which means that a pcket of fags has gone up to €4.00 they've also changed all the fag machines. It used to be that when you ran out you could just pop down the corner of the road and stick yer €4 in and get a packet of snouts. No longer though as in an attempt to stop uderage smoking you can now only get oily's with your bankcard and it has to be one of those ones with a chip on it which you load up at the bank and I don't have one. Same in pubs, etc. except the staff there have a special card for ciggie machines (expect a black market in them) which can also be used on street corners.

[SallyAnne]

Well done all of you - I've tried (and failed) many times. I have to say, SAS's advice is perfect - my failing were always because I thought the pangs were in control of me...I never tried thinking I was stronger than them.

It's a f*king horrible thing to smoke - I wish you all the best of luck.

[MarillionFan]

"I particularly hate forking out £60 per week on the habit which is what it's cost me in recent months. "

I can sell you duty frees for half that. Think of that you save £30 a week and dont put on all that weight.

[Denny]

I quit last year. Best thing I ever did. Stick with it.

When the pangs come (and I know they're bastard strong), welcome them, think about them, think how they're pretty weak really, stroke them like a bunch of puppies and let 'em go. yay:

That mental image worked for me.

HTH

I love puppies but not pangs. Thanks for the tip though, Sasguru

Much as I have a quick imaginative mind that lends itself all kinds of bizarre analogies when illustrating a point, I can't get my head around calling a fag pang that's gnawing away at me 'lucky' and then stroking it and wanting to take it for a walk. I think I'd rather imagine my pangs as the equivalent of a hairy spider - something that I'm trying to get rid of and rather scared of. That way I can better equate the irritating urge for a cigarette with the unwelcome little beastie creating it which I can then imagine crushing underfoot with no remorse (just as I did with a ciggie butt).

confused:

[Denny]

Good for you Denny. Well done. The first three days are the hardest by far.

One down, two to go.




Days, that is....not packs.

[Denny]

"I particularly hate forking out £60 per week on the habit which is what it's cost me in recent months. "

I can sell you duty frees for half that. Think of that you save £30 a week and dont put on all that weight.

Thanks for all your encouragement.

[Denny]

Good for you Denny. Well done. The first three days are the hardest by far.

Thanks.