Why should I give up smoking

[Richt]

On day 8 of patches, totally clean, but not sure why I shouldn't fall off the tree and have a smoke. After all, am I going to live long enough to make it worthwhile? And does it matter?

 

You can't pm me, our server is dead so I won't get it for a couple of weeks, if anyone is interested.

 

Richard

[TheNeil]

Stick with it man. Giving up smoking isn't easy but you'll certainly be better off if you do. You'll have more money, more energy, a better sense of taste (in terms of food, giving up smoking doesn't help your dress sense (not that I'm implying anything )), live longer, get better seats on trains and not feel like a social outcast

[DaisyProudfoot]

Keep up the good work - its not an easy addiction to escape from

 

Why should you give up smoking?

 

1. You might live longer

2. You might not wake up every morning coughing your lungs out

3. You won't smell

4. You'll save a bundle on dental fees

5. You'll have loads of money - my friend gave up smoking but saved all the money she would have spent on smoking and went on a superb holiday

6. You'll be at less risk of heart disease, thrombosis, lung cancer etc

7. Your children will be less likely to smoke

8. You won't need to redecorate your house so often as the walls and ceilings won't get nicotine stained

9. People won't mind riding in your car

10. Your children are less likely to contract asthma etc through passive smoking

11. Your sex life will be more fulfilling

12. You won't be a social outcast

13. You'll be able to breathe properly

14. You won't cost the NHS a fortune

15. You'll discover that life doesn't have to revolve around the next cigarette and you'll get your independence back

 

Best of luck and if you fall off the wagon don't worry just get straight back on again

[oxgirl]

Go outside into the fresh air and take a big breathful and feel your lungs expanding. Imagine how awful it would be if you couldn't breath easily and freely, it must feel terrible. Your lungs are certainly worth saving!!

 

Good luck. <'>

 

~ Mel ~

[chriss]

Since I gave up smoking 5 years ago;

 

I don't have a horrible cough in the morning.

I sleep better.

I am richer.

My house is nicer- less smelly and cleaner looking.

I smell nicer.

I go to the dry cleaners less often.

My sense of taste is far better.

My sense of smell is better too.

My son sees me as a non-smoker and doesn't believe I would ever have done something as daft as smoking.

I get more done as I don't punctuate my life with fag breaks.

I'm no longer paranoid about having fag breath.

I love the look on peoples faces when they offer me a cig and I say "no thanks"because when I used to know them I was a smoker and they can't believe I quit.

I can run further.

 

Honestly after 8 days you have done most of the hard work and with every day you'll miss cigs less and less. I never thought there would come a day when I wouldn't miss cigarettes but it has been years now and I never think of them, and I feel sorry for people who are stuck in the routine of handing over a fiver every single day for something they are addicted to.

 

Having said all this if the end of the world is ever truly nigh. I'm going to get me a packet of marlboro red for old times sake. And leave this life coughing spluttering and feeling sick probably!

[smiley]

Richard

 

You have my respect - keep going, for all of the above...

 

I gave up smoking a year before i fell pregnant with my son ............ only to start up again two years ago after a very stressy time - i wish i hadn't now . But, i AM down to five a day .

 

Keep going!

[Bagpuss]

Richard, please keep going. Its definately worth it. I gave up 9 years ago.......well, I swopped the cigs for chocolate, but hey ho, now at Weight Watchers....trouble is took me 9 years to get there.... Wish I could get a chocolate patch.....ooohhhhh......

 

Seriously, stick with it, it does take time to fully stop craving them. I can't bear the smell of smoke now, which deters me.....plus the cost would bankrupt me....keep us posted!

 

Try putting the money you would of spent on cigs in a savings account, you'll be amazed at how much money you save each month. Spend it on something your really enjoy

[keyholekate]

I gave up last August after 22 years of smoking. Sean nagged me into it. So I finished off the packet, went cold turkey and haven't smoked since, but only because I promised my son. I don't miss smelling of cigarettes and we smoked outside, but I wish I was one of those people who, once they've given up, cannot stand the smell of smoke because it's a temptation every day. So all you can do is be strong and don't give in.

 

KHK

[justamom]

I think you are brilliant, if someone said to me give up chocolate for 8days i would think that my life had ended!!! Good on ya and keep it up

[Kathrynh]

Getting pregnant is a great incentive to stop smoking. But I don't suppose that will work for you Richard.

[laine]

Keeep going..... am in my 6th month cig free. I used patches for 4 months. I feel better and fresher lol.

 

Its not easy but keep it up...

 

Love lainexx

[phoebe]

Yep. well done and keep on going for it.

Almost 9 years on, the smell fof smoke now revolts me although it took a long time to get to that stage and sometimes even now I will smell it and think...................aaaaaah I could fancy a puff.

 

BUT you feel better, you are cleaner, you have more disposable income, more energy, better taste and all the other positives that others have mentioned.

 

I have occasions when I feel soooooooo stressed that i really feel like I need a vice to help me through, and have occasionallly thought about blagging a fag from a friend or taking a sneaky puff, but I dont want to be a smoker and presumably neither do you.

 

Hang in there. It takes a while but it is sooooooooo worth it.

 

Well done so far

Phoebe

[hev]

my mum gave up smoking with patches,found it really hard but if she can do it anyone can.

 

i tried to give up coffee this year and it was horrendous,lasted 3 days before i cracked,nicotine is far more addictive so good on ya for getting to your 8th day,let us know how you get on

[jb1964]

Richard - I'm not a smoker so I can't offer any great tips etc - but lots of my friends have given up - it has been hard work but they've got there and they feel so much better.

 

I think you are brilliant, if someone said to me give up chocolate for 8days i would think that my life had ended!!! Good on ya and keep it up

 

I'd feel the exactly the same..............

 

Keep strong,

Take care,

Jb

[dooday24]

keep up the good work wish i could give up

[badonkadonk]

Hey Richard, keep going keep going!!

 

I gave up smoking Jan 2005 and feel great for it. There's no point in beating around the bush y'know, to be honest, I could still have one tomorrow but the difference now is that I know what sacrifices I would have to make to START smoking again. Usually you only ever hear of the sacrifices people make to STOP smoking. But the tables turn once you quit.

 

If I gave in and started smoking again tomorrow I would be instantly at least �35 a week less rich. That's �140 a month worse off and �1680 a year poorer. For �1680 you can just about go to Disneyland for 2 weeks, which is what I did last year with the �1680 I saved! Plus if I started smoking again and went for another 10 years as previous (I started smoking when I was 12 :-( I blame the fact that I'm gullable because of my AS lol) I would be out of pocket a staggering �16,800. SIXTEEN GRAND! My dad's been smoking for so long that he could have, literally, brought another house with the money he's spent on cigs. A cool 40k no less. Makes you think or cry lol.

 

I would start to smell again. It's not just the smelling that is the worst thing because lets face it, while we smoke we are aware a little bit maybe that we smell of smoke but until you quit smoking and are removed from a smokey environment everyday, you don't realise just how much you reek when you smoke. I mean seriously, honkorama!!

 

You also don't realise just how offensive it can be to smoke around non-smokers. You think you're doing it craftily and blowing it away from them. That works, right? WRONG! The smell gets at the back of the throat and your eyes sting and it's just ugggggghhhhh.

 

I would have to stand outside in the cold and rain again this winter everytime I ventured outside somewhere. The amount of times I have stood outside restaurants or shopping centres or other people's houses. I LOVE the fact that I can get out of my car and go straight inside wherever I'm going and I don't have to bother about getting back up again or anything all night.

 

I would have to get used to getting soaked whilst driving again. I just couldn't perfect the "flicking the ash out of the slighly ajar window" technique. I would always just try it and the whole lot would bounce off the window and fly back in my face. Or I would cover my car in fag ash. I would also turn up anywhere with one side of my hair perfectly groomed and the other soggy wet and a mess!

 

I would immediately put other drivers's at risk again trying to light my fags while driving, drinking from a bottle of diet coke, changing the radio and trying to answer my hands free. This was my drive to and from uni up to 4 times a week. HOW I didn't crash I don't know.

 

I would have to start taking a bag out with me again on a night time or jam my jeans pockets full with fags and lighters. Now I just get anyone to call me if they need to on Bob's phone, stick my lip gloss in my jeans pocket, give Bob some money towards the night to put in his wallet and hey presto! Hands Free!

 

The daily grind of finding a shop/sloping over my local would begin again. I can't even begin to stress how much I don't miss that. It is ace.

 

I know I'm only messing about, but seriously, you've gone 48 hours without a fag and you're still ok, right? So why bother starting again just so you can sit around wasting money and beating yourself up about smoking again because I guarantee that's what you will do.

 

Anyone else driven past the billboard signs of that horrible fag split down the middle with that manky stuff inside and pulled their sunvisor across to the window so they don't have to look at it? That's what made me quit. I was sat there in a traffic jam with the naffing sun visor blocking out the billboard, I had turned the radio off because another stop smoking jingle came on and I was hunched up inside my car trying not to get soaked by the rain whipping in through the open window and I just thought. WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING?

 

Keep going. You will soon start to see the benefits and will soon become a much healthier, nicer smelling, richer person.

 

Emily

 

oh and if you are getting nightmares with the patches, I had this too, I can only say persist, persist, persist. I had horrific nightmares whilst on the patches but as the strength of the patches came down, so did the nastiness of the nightmares. In a few weeks it will all be over and you'll be free from smoking, yay!