After smoking for 37 years I quit on 4-11-19. It's been a little over 18 months that I've been tobacco free and I feel real good. I am no spring chicken as I am a month away from turning 64. I have plenty of age related aches and pains but by quitting smoking I have alleviated many other ailments. To me the difference is stunning, almost miraculous. Starting about 5 years before I quit I started getting severe headaches. At first maybe once every couple of weeks. For the last year before I quit I was getting the headaches daily and sometimes multiple times per day. I went to the Dr. and even saw a specialist. I had about 10 different prescriptions and nothing worked. Pollen allergies started acting up when I was never bothered before. I started waking up at night short of breath. I started to get nervous. Oh yeah, I've also got 3 or 4 stents in my heart. I started to think maybe my cardiologist was on to something when he told me to quit smoking 14 years earlier. I don't know why but I liked smoking. One morning I woke up after a troublesome night of difficult breathing, hit an inhaler and decided that it was time to quit. I knew a big snow storm was going to hit that night so I purposely didn't buy any cigarettes. The storm hit and it was too crappy to drive in so I smoked my last cigarette and never looked back. Almost immediately the headaches stopped as did the pollen allergies. I have not been short of breath since quitting either. My lungs cleared up after about 4 days and now I can walk further than I could 10 years ago. Instead of having to rest to catch my breath, I have to rest my sore knees for a while. I need replacements. Been putting it off. I've always been active but now I have way more energy and can work, walk and hunt better than I could in a long time. I've been wanting to say this for a while now, not to brag or tell you how wonderful I feel but maybe to inspire someone else who is having difficulty with smoking. Anyone else with success stories?
Good for you, glad you're doing well. I used to defend people's right to smoke if they so chose and I suppose I still would but it's a helluva thing. My dad smoked from the time he was maybe 12, finally had to quit at 77 a year before he passed from copd. I was sick all the time from allergies and whatnot when I was a kid, always smelled of smoke, etc...dad was a chain smoker. I'm not sure pure tobacco would be such a big deal but no telling what kind of crap they're adding to it or using to grow it in but either way it's a bad deal. I've lost several family members to lung cancer and copd who smoked. Better late than never to quit.
Congrats Greg! Quitting is no small feat! I have been addicted to nicotine since I was 12 years old. I am 44 now. I started with cigarettes from my older sister who blackmailed me into smoking (Long story). I have quit several times, each time going a year or longer. I get cravings out of nowhere that I am not prepared for, especially while drinking and I cave. When I was in the army I would use dip occasionally. Now, I dip instead of smoke for the past 5-7 years. Addiction is a mother'effer!!
People say you get fat after you quit because you have a oral fixation... That's not true. It's because food taste so effin good. When your taste buds actually come back you will be amazed. Congrats brother.
Nice work I have dipped skoal since I was 17 tried to quit a couple times and each time I was told to go buy some because I was such an a-hole. I do need to quit I look at my grandson and I would kick his butt if I ever caught him dipping, that starts with me not setting that example.
Watched grandpa pass from lung cancer. Visited Father at a cancer hospital in Buffalo. The things I saw in that hospital should be shown in schools to scare kids into NEVER trying a cigarette. Watching a religious man begging to die is a memory one can't wipe.... Congrats to all who quick and best to all trying
Quit for about 3 1/2 years back around 2000, moved back to the area I grew up and started going to bars more and started back up for about 3 years. Decided enough was enough and quit again around 2008 or so and haven't looked back. Both times it was cold turkey, I never believed in the patch(had an allergic reaction the one time I tried it) or other methods. My opinion is you will only quit when you are ready to actually quit. The habit is harder to break than the addiction, 2-3 weeks and the addiction is beat, takes a bit longer to break the habit but eventually you don't even think about it anymore. The habit isn't necessarily smoking, it's doing normal routines where you would oftentimes light up a cigarette. Can't count the times I would start to do something and find myself unsure of what I was looking for before I realized I was looking for a cigarette.
Thing about dipping from when I wake up till I go to sleep I have a dip in, so the nicotine is constant. I do on occasion go a couple hours with none in. My goal is to be dip free by my birthday end of May. I do not plan on telling the wife or kids I do not need any crap if I stumble.
WTG, sota. Nicotine is one of the hardest things to break away from. I had a roommate in college that quit three times in one day! Yes, you will gain weight as your taste will improve 1000%. My father and I had a talk about smoking, drinking and chasing women. He said I could smoke and drink when I got too old to chase women.
To be honest food is not a big deal to me I have preferences but I see it as fuel, I eat pretty much the same breakfast and lunch every day. Don't think weight gain will be an issue.
quit when our esteemed democrat governor Jim Doyle raised cig taxes another $1.00 per pack, he so pissed me off that I threw my pack away and never looked back. Every time I had an urge I would think of the a-hole Governor and that I would not give that a a-hole another dollar !!!! that was at least 12 years ago by guesstamate
Hell, I remember back in high school vowing to quit if cigarettes ever reached $2 a pack When I went down to Grafton Labor Day weekend, went across the river to MO as a couple needed cigarettes. Paid over $200 for 4 cartons of generics at a bargain. Craziness IMO
When I started chewing copenhagen it was 85 cents a tin, same price as a lunch ticket at school. There was a gas station on the other side of the street that had a cigarette machine and sold happy days, skoal, and coepenhagen. skoal was only wintergreen back then. You would get suspended from school if you got caught smoking, they did not care about chewing if you didn't have a spitter. Just gutted it.
They smoke that too, as far as I know that pricing has not changed since high school unless going the legal taxed to hell route or some fancy named stuff. Back in the day you paid extra if it was skunk, thai stick or some other special name. These days it all has a special name
Good for you! I quit over 10 years ago and I know exactly how you feel. Now if I even get a whiff of them I can hardly stand it, or if you walk by someone and you get that stale cigarette smell. Then it hits you “ man I must have smelled really bad” but you never noticed it.
worked at a country kitchen my senior year started out as a bus boy and worked my way up to wheel caller weekend mornings, we used to take a break to burn a unfiltered lucky strike at break time and the owner always called us stupid for smoking something that did not give us a buzz.
Weight gain has not been an issue for me. I believe it is because of increased activity. I have learned to watch how much I eat, especially in the winter and being older my metabolism has decreased. I also have a notorious sweet tooth and drink a lot of Mountain dew. Now that I think about it I did experience some weight gain....... in my wallet! Just before quitting I was buying single packs of cigarettes because I knew I was going to quit. I did that for almost a year. At that time I calculated that I was smoking $13/day worth of cigarettes. So I felt a gain of over $300/ month in my wallet. I still say that the health gain is greater than the monetary gain. I will be able to spend more enjoyable time with grand kids.
Can not wait till the grandson gets his farmers license and drives over to the lake after the football game Friday night. Funny how you look at the grandkids and look at your age and calculate how old you will be when they hit milestones like hunting and driving and graduating. Want to be there for all of that.
I'm glad you were able to kick that habit. I know it's very difficult for many people. I have been a respiratory therapist for more than 40 years and I have taken care of thousands of copd patients in that time. One thing they all had in common was all of them said they wish they had never started smoking in the first place. Not one ever told me they were glad they started. Sent from my SM-N950U using Bowhunting.com Forums mobile app
