Quitting Smoking Advice Needed

My sister (45 years old) has been warned by her doctor to quit smoking ASAP. She's in relatively good health overall, but the smoking's contributing to some intermittent but very severe pains caused by adhesions left behind by an abdominal surgery a few years ago. She's not an idiot and knows she'll have to quit sooner or later. But she's also worried about everything from gaining weight to losing the relaxing effect of nicotine that she claims to 'need'.

Has anyone here quit smoking?

Any advice you can give that I can forward to her to help ease the transition into a non-smoking lifestyle?

Thanks in advance to all of y'all! :mrgreen:

I quit 2 years ago.

Made up my mind, got some Zyban on a Friday, quit 10 days later (as per package directions) and haven't thought about going back since.

Nicotine doesn't "relax" you. That's part of the excuses you come up with to keep your crutch. In fact, it does the opposite.

I gained approximately 4 pounds over the next 9 months. (I blame that on old age :lol:

)

Honestly, get your brain wrapped around the idea and just do it. It's really not that hard. Simply get it in your head that you no longer smoke and are never going to again.

Footnote: I smoked for 25 years, so no, I'm not some weekend, "smokes when she drinks" kinda gal. :lol:

Yes, I did, 12 years ago.
For me, cold Turkey worked. Throw away all cigarettes you have left, and DON'T stuff your fridge with unhealthy stuff. Find something else to do with the time you usually used to smoke (which is about 5 minutes per cigarette). I didn't quit my morning coffee, just the cigarette to go with it. Instead of not eating in the morning (I had my coffee and cig, which was enough) I ate whole grain bread with ham, or cheese, or whatever, just nothing extra fat like mayo. Instead of unhealthy food, I started eating way healthier. I didn't gain much (2 kilo's or something) and exercising is a good way to prevent gaining weight, especially when you do that when you crave. Go for a walk, set your mind to something else.

Looking back, it was more the quitting of a habit than anything else. The nicotine is out of your system in 8 hours or something, and it's not that that I craved. It was something to hold in my hand, something to do with my hands.

It was not easy for the first few weeks (I was pretty cranky, snapped at everything) but after about 6 weeks, everything got better, and there were days that I didn't even think about it anymore.

About a year later, I had a VERY stressful few weeks, and thought: WTF, I need a smoke, so I had one. I coughed till I puked, it grossed me out, it tasted like hell and at that moment I knew I would never ever smoke again. Before that, it was pure discipline, after that, it was just over. I never touched or ached for a smoke again.
I know, that method is not for everyone. A lot of people relapse, I just never did. She needs a strong will and a good reason for herself. Whatever that reason is, as long as it works for her, it's all good.

Good luck!!!!

(footnote: I smoked 2 packs a day for about 15 years when I quit...)

Thanos... I can totally relate to what she's feeling! I have tried in the past to quit but failed.

I'm almost 42 now and have smoked since I was... well, let's just say a long time, a really long time! I started wayyyyy too young.

It's ironic that you bring this subject up now because I have recently set a target date for myself to quit which I won't tell anyone so that I don't have anyone ragging on me about it. We'll see how it goes.

I have known a few people now who used Zyban, like WRG did and were successful, including a past employer that was a 2-pack a day guy for something like over 40 years. Shit, I figured if he could, anyone could. :wink:

My father was a pilot and would often take me to see airplanes. I remember him him specifically showing how the tar or compound from passengers smoking actually eats through aircraft aluminum. It had a profound effect on me.

One of the best methods I've seen for quitting is....watermelon. It helps to flush nicotine from the system( through both water and roughage). The faster you can remove any residual nicotine from your system, the faster the physical cravings disappear. It also helps with the food replacing smoking dilemma a lot of people wind up with. And no one has ever gotten fat eating watermelon

I quit over 10 years ago and haven't missed it a bit. If she's really serious about quitting that'll help alot. After 21 days there's no nicotine in the body, it's all just a mind game after that. That really helped me keep fixed on my goal of quitting, the craving wasn't real, it was my brain fooling my body with a memory.

Once her sense of smell returns she'll discover the true "glamour" of smoking!

Best of luck to her!

Stair Master, plus smoking doesn't relax you it just brings you back down to what non smokers normally feel.

I quit about 6 years ago. I lived out og town and forgot to buy smokes on the way home Saturday night. Sunday morning came around and I had to drive a 70 km round trip to buy smokes. I got to Shoppers Drug Mart, went to the counter to buy a carton and low and behold, the patch was on sale. I grabbed a package and placed it on the counter. The lady there just smiled and said, "You just quit didn't you?" "Yep, I did" I replied. I followed the directions for the plan and I be smoke free ever since.

I quit about a year and a half ago, after having a small stroke. Cold turkey. You can quit cold turkey, if you have a good enough reason. I can recall coughing on second hand smoke as a small child in the back of my Dad's '63 Dodge Monaco. I didn't start smoking until I left my parents house, not realizing I had become addicted to the second hand smoke all my life.

Both my parents smoked, and when each of them died from smoking related illness, it wasn't a good enough reason for me to quit, even though I knew I should. But losing the feeling in the left side of my body for about 10 minutes did the trick for me.

I dropped the smokes right then, and never looked back. The excuses your sister is giving are BS. Nicotine is a depressant, so having a smoke just brings her up to feeling 'normal' again. It 'relaxes' you because you feel like shit, and only calms the craving. She'll only gain weight if she replaces the nicotine craving with something else like 'food'.

No one ever died from not smoking. It's not that scary. A couple days of feeling cranky, then 6 months or so wanting a smoke whenever you see someone with one. Then you start to wonder what the fuss was all about. Remember, the first symptom most people get that they have heart disease is they drop dead on the spot. So it can never be too early to quit smoking.