I think I have decided....how many times for you?

I really havent seen any threads that are kind of like this so I thought I would give this a shot, i know there are more of you out there.

So i have been really trying to quit smoking for the past few weeks/years and I think I had that moment last night where i really want to make it happen. I keep showing myself a mental imagine of my little kids saying "please stop smoking for us, papa" and it really makes me want to stop. I know I will slip up, absolutely, most likely in a few hours, but I have already skipped 2 smokes this morning and feelin good about it. Work is the hardest for me, i have the freedom to just walk out my office, 4 feet away and smoke outside. If nothing else, i can just come back to this thread for support when i want a smoke lol.

I quit a few years ago cold turkey for a year, then started up again when I found out the wife was pregnant.....I know, what a time to start up again.....

How many times have you tried to quit?

Any succussfully quit for longer than a year or two? Any secrets?

 

You sound like me. After being smoke free for a few years I forget the hell you go through when you quit....and start smoking again. Hit me in the face with a coal shovel kind of stupid logic on my part.

 

Yeah i was pretty disappointed with myself when i started again. I was over the hump and cruisin. That one second of stress thinking about being a dad and it all went to shit......

 

It will be very different for everyone. I was a chain smoker with unlimited supply from friends (so-called friends) and booze, but it was one morning when I woke up from the drinking/smoking the night before that I decided to just quit, super cold turkey. I don't know, haven't looked back since, and that was in college.
Pretty much quit drinking, too, but when I picked a Sales job, social drinking was part of the job, but I do keep it to a minimum just so I can get the customer to sign the damn contract and have a glass to celebrate that 1M+ contract we just agreed to.
I guess if you have kids, keep asking yourself this: Smoke? Or wanting to see them grow up and have grand kids for you to hold? For me (cause I got girls), it was to walk my two girls down the isle and give their hands away to the man that God has intended. (but they are just 6 and 4 now, so maybe I need to worry about stock shotguns and stuff like that....) That is what I tell myself when offered a drink at parties or even dinners, and I try and not make an example of doing things I know I don't want my kids to pick up on, they already picked up enough....

Good luck, I hope that kids/wife can be your inspiration to really kick it to hell and tell it to stay there. Oh, and think of all the mods you can do once you quit smoking, those money add up super quick!!

 

I've lost count on how many packs I've thrown out the window ahem... *in my driveway* saying that this was it. Like you, stepping out at work is super easy and everyone I work with is a Smoker also... it's become like a social thing.

I have yet to actually, fully quit so far, but I did ween down to one a day. Eventually that led to two a day, and so on and so forth.

It's not easy. Especially when you work with a bunch of D-A-M-Fs

 

Funny thing is, i did it how you did it, but when i used to smoke weed. I smoked it everyday for a decade, there was nothing i did without being baked. Then one day I just stopped, I didnt like how it made me feel anymore, like, i was taking something away from my family being high. That was super easy to quit.

I have a boy and a girl, so i know what you mean, I want to be around, and since I am slightly older when I became a dad, I feel like I have even more responsibility to be healthy and squeeze as much time out as I can.

The damn guys at work get these cheap ass duty free German cigarettes for $2 a pack, it has made it harder to stop than if I was paying $10 a pack or whatever crazyness they are now.

 

I dont know if its making it harder or easier, but I have never been a heavy smoker, I have always stayed around 5-10 at most in a day. Right now I am around 7. When I am home with the family, I can make do with 1 or 2 a day since the kids keep me busy and seeing them in front of me makes me not want to smoke.

 

You're doing better than me. I weened down from about two packs a day to one pack, and like I posted above got down to one Cig a day. Then started back up. I'm maintaining about a pack a day nowadays.

I wish you luck my friend!

 

Same to you. 1 a day is quite the accomplishment from 2 packs.

 

Stay strong brother! I know it takes a lot, but think of all the time with your boy and with your girl, they will grow up before you know it and handing your ass back to you... my thing is to stay off my phone, especially I have work on my phone as well..... need to quite that.

 

I used to always rotate my full flavor cigs with either Marlboro black hundreds, Marlboro Red cow boy killers, or Marlboro lights if I was feeling like shit.

I always keep a pack of Marlboro midnight in the car in case my nose is stopped up or something so I can schmoke that and clear me out. Ended up preferring the menthol.

Tried American spirit lites one time. NG

 

Thats a great point man, I do my best to put my phone away when we are chillin at the house. I have been doing quite well in regards to not letting them look at or play with electronic devices, that I am resolute on, no matter how pissed or frustrated or tired I am, they never get handed anything electronic to keep their attention.

 

That probably isn't helping anything...

 

I remember trying those American Spirits, telling myself its better than doing nothing, but those were so expensive and i hated smoking those, the draw on those was terrible, would make me want a regular smoke after those left me unsatisfied.

 

Its gonna be tough, but you quitting it is gonna show your kids 2 things. you care about your health for them, and you can freaking tackle tough stuff.

the comments about cell phones are touching as well. I need to get off mine around kids. My wife lives on hers, cell phones have destroyed so many families and people.

 

Agreed completely. Yes they are "healthier" but damn. I only had a 10 minute break interval at my last employer and I could smoke two Marlboro Hunnits in 7 minutes versus half of one of them thangs.

I used to morbidly joke with my 60 YO supervisor that he would outlive me.

 

Honestly, the cell phones are probably way more detrimental to the family as a whole. I grew up pre internet and the last thing i want is to burn out their receptors at 3 years old with all those tech things and have them never be able to appreciate playing in the yard with a ball or waiting for saturday morning to watch tom and jerry.

 

Still craving that Camel power after over 20 yrs! It never goes away! You just have to direct your brain elsewhere. Much like yourself, kids were/are my concern. Good for you for thinking about it and reaching out for support. Might try to find reading material on subjects that you are very intrigued by and begin reading a bit more to reduce your free time. Wish you the best of luck!!

 

Deciding is easy

Stopping is a different thing altogether.

For me it was a Spiritual solution to what seemed at first to be a Physical problem but was not.

Thats my experience at least.

Exactly the same as Drugs and Drinking.

 

Thanks, 20 years is a damn long time but ya, i know the want will never go away, i genuinely do enjoy smoking most of the time, but just cant do it anymore.

 

Never been a drinker, and the green was super easy to drop on a moments notice, never would have admitted that the smokes would be the hardest part by far but here I am lol

 

I quit Copenhagen cold turkey after watching my wife lose her dad. I saw that and didn’t want to do the same to my daughters. Gum. Lots of it. Not even one dip.

 

Man there is nothing like the stress of kids to throw you back into bad habits. I quit just after college (with the exception of one here and there over the past 20 years), but there's not a day that goes by that I don't feel the need for one. Stress-eating was my thing when I found out our second boy was on the way. But things are getting easier with time, now that we're our of the baby/toddler phase.

And yeah... putting the phone down and being there for them is another vice of mine. I'm tempted to go back to a flip phone just to get rid of the temptation.

 

One is too many and a million is not enough........

 

Yeah it is definitely getting easier now that they are almost 3 and 4. Its funny you said that i was actually thinking about using an old brick phone I have, but those damn cell phone companies probably dont support it to keep people hooked on the smart phones like drug dealers.

 

I have a TV at home, but I don't have anything connected to it, other than an old desktop that I will watch some kids cartoon on weekends. We do a lot of music/dance on YT on the TV, so they love that, and we read, a lot, like, HELL LOT. If it weren't for public library, I would be broke and unable to even keep my Tundra.
But yea, use your kids as your distraction, and use your Tundra mods as your rewards, this should hopefully be a little easier for you.

 

Good advice and it does work most of the time. We have been going out alot to parks and such, aquariums, arboretums, places outside and pandemic freindly to get their energy out. We love to read too. They have taken a shine to offroading too, so we been taking the tundra out a couple times a month, no cell phones or electronics, except my GPS lol.

I need to stop being bored at work, which is what makes me go out and light up lol. My boss chews so he understands the nicotine fix, which doesnt help. It would be better if he was on my ass everytime i stepped out.

 

Thank goodness we have parks and all that. We hit parks/playground every weekend, and swimming class and all that.
Yea, use your smoke time to browse some more mods..... (I am not sure if that's a better hell or not....lol

 

I quit 15 years ago. Never cheated. I utilized tea tree sticks and gum as a replacement for the habitual need to puff. I’d sometimes mimic the tea tree stick like a cigarette. Once in a great while I’ll get the feeling like I want one but then I smell one and completely alleviates that. Self discipline is tough and you got to want the outcome more than the quick fix. Having kids made it easier. Good luck man. Stick to your guns!

 

I've never smoked, but both my parents were chain smokers. Hopefully my experience will help give y'all some motivation, especially those with kids or grandkids.

I grew up taking allergy shots every week. Despite this, I ALWAYS had a cold. I couldn't go a week without catching another "cold," even in the summer time. When I graduated from high school and moved into a mildew-infested dorm room, my allergies "magically" disappeared, I was able to stop the shots altogether, and I finally learned how full the world is of smells, both good and bad. Every time I went home for a holiday, I got another "cold." Otherwise, I never had any sinus problems.

Your kids/grandkids may not be AS sensitive, but I guaranty they don't like it, and it IS harmful to them, not just to you.