Not had one for 24 hours!

[viscount17]

no need to apologise.

there are and will be periods when you will feel it more than others. as has been said your system is going to need time to clean out the crap that's been going in there - sad to say it's harder to get out than to get it in.

there will come a moment when you suddenly realise that you are tasting and smelling things differently. what you may find is that you will also change your diet as your sense of taste returns.

(come to think of it, is this why many people quitting go for sweet foods - because the flavours are stronger?)

 

[CliveW]

How is it going Hapless? I hope you're still off the weed.

 

[haplesshacker]

TBH. Not great. I have succumbed. It's the odd ones whilst out on the course. But that's it. None at home etc.

I know it's weak, especially as we're trying to 'cure' our 2 1/2 year olds dummy addiction. He's doing quite well. But the strops!! Hell!

Sat here thinking about it. New effort required. Perhaps 'cold turkey' was just too hard.

Feeble excuse I guess!

Must try harder.

 

[viscount17]

to my mind, cold turkey is the only way. anything else and you're not quitting, only cutting down a bit but how long does that last.

it is admittedly easier if you can put yourself into situations where you can't smoke (in my case work was in an aircraft hangar).

you'll just have to declare the course a non-smoking zone and get your playing partners to really get on your case if you smoke. two-shot penalty for carrying them, additional two-shot penalty every time you light up?

 

[Parmo]

To me you have to remove the brain washing to be free of cigs, if you don't then for the rest of your life you will be at times thinking of them as something they are not.

Read Alan Carrs Easyway book and you will not regret it.

 

[Handycap]

Hapless,

I was a smoker up until 2 1/2 years ago. I had been smoking for over 30 years and neither I or my friends thought I would ever be able to give it up.
I "gave up" loads of times but barely lasted more than 48 hours, and some of those occasions were only due to catching flu or suffering from a really bad hangover!

I tried patches but didn't last more than 36 hours before cracking. However, I used nicotine patches as a crutch and rewarded myself with cigarettes as I was "cutting down". In truth, I ended up smoking as much with patches as without.

I was given the Allen Carr book by an acquaintance who had no more use for it: they had successfully given up smoking. I left the book unread for a few months and then took it with me on a summer holiday.

I read about the first fifteen or twenty pages, which were extremely repetitive in content and always hinting at the big "dealmaker" bombshell revelation. I got bored and didn't get any further with it.

Truth be told I didn't want to give up smoking as much as I wanted to carry on enjoying the pleasure of smoking. I didn't have a big enough reason (to me) to want to give up. Then my business partner had a brain haemorrhage. He was lucky and has since made a total recovery, but it made him want to quit smoking. He has not smoked since, but is addicted to nicotine gum and can't do without it. He still craves for a cigarette.

A few weeks after he gave up I saw this Allen Carr dvd and ordered it from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Allen-Carrs-Easy...4732&sr=8-1

Again, I left it for a few weeks but sat down and watched it one weekend. I have only ever watched it once, and there's only one thing that I really focused on to help me give up. Although loads of other stuff contributed like your clothes stinking of old smoke, bad breath, catching small coughs and colds others weren't susceptible to, the health of others around you like your immediate family etc.

The thing that made me realise I didn't want to smoke any more was the addictive nature of nicotine. The challenge I set myself was not so much to give up smoking, but to cut out nicotine. It sounds really lame, but it made perfect sense to me. If what Allen Carr said was true, if I were to cut out nicotine, I wouldn't want to breathe smoke any more.

So long as I allowed the giving up of nicotine a fair chance, and I set myself the target of one month, then if after that time I still wanted to smoke at least I had tried the best I had ever managed before. If the benefits were true, then I could make my decision after that four week period.

The first 48 hours were hell, and the next three weeks were at times not that much better, by the fourth week I really appreciated not having a nicotine craving.

I believe that going "cold turkey" is the best way, and not taking any form of substitute that contains nicotine. After all, it's not solely the leaves of the tobacco plant, or the paper or the filter that are addictive, they're just potentially killing you, it's the nicotine content in the tobacco of a cigarette that makes you want to have another one. Using nicotine patches or gum substitutes are far better than the toxic consequences of smoking a cigarette, but while you are still addicted to nicotine, the craving for a cigarette will always be there.

I know that I could enjoy smoking just one cigarette, and where would the harm be in one. But if there's no harm in one then just one more would be ok and I wouldn't want any more than that. Well, maybe if I just had two or three a day, compared to the forty or fifty I used to smoke............ Before long I'd be back to where I was.

It's that knowledge and the fact that I don't crave nicotine/smoking, which has hardened my resolve not to smoke. The fringe benefits are better health, fresh breath, clean smoke free clothes, a better palette, and sense of smell. (I can smell a lit cigarette from 500 metres!)
The chances are I've increased my life expectancy by 10%.

I'll try and keep you posted on that last one!


The down side is that my clothes don't fit me and I need to lose weight. As has been posted by others, I developed a sweet tooth that needs sorting out. Vanity should help as I'm tired of trying to remember to hold my stomach in at the right moments!

Give it another go Hapless, and take Parmo's advice by getting the Allen Carr book or, if you're lazy like me, the DVD. You owe it it yourself, your family, your friends, your pets, your doctor, your tailor, your golfing partners ................

 

[Handycap]

In retrospect, this device could be the answer to all our prayers:

Tobacco Smoke Enema (1750s-1810s)
The tobacco enema was used to infuse tobacco smoke into a patient's rectum for various medical purposes, primarily the resuscitation of drowning victims. A rectal tube inserted into the anus was connected to a fumigator and bellows that forced the smoke towards the rectum. The warmth of the smoke was thought to promote respiration, but doubts about the credibility of tobacco enemas led to the popular phrase "blow smoke up one's ass."


Credit to Gustavo from this thread
http://forums.golf-monthly.co.uk//showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/140906/an/0/page/0#140906