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[LordSpunky]

Has anyone recently given up smoking, or is thinking about it?

I smoke, started aged 11, full blown 20 a day by 16. I'm nearly 28 now.
I always told my non-smoking wife that I would give up by 30!

I know that you need to want to give up to give up. But the government have put the tax up and I'm getting ever poorer. My wife dangled the carrot.
The, money you could save from smoking could fund your Amiga / Retro / YOCM collection! Put the money in an account and use it to fund your other habit. She didn't bring my drinking habit into it.

Every now and again I think, well why am I doing this, I'll quit at the end of the baccy pouch. Will I still enjoy it I will continue, but I do I enjoy it? I guess I worry what I will do with the time. I don't smoke in the house, so when I put the bins out, I smoke, when I feed the cats, I smoke, when I garden I smoke, when I drive alone I smoke etc.........

ARGH I don't know what to do!

[Karlos]

Your motivation for giving up smoking should be to give up smoking and nothing else. It's a pointless exercise with absolutely no positive aspects to it at all. Any sense of enjoyment from your last cig is simply stifling the cravings it causes you to have in the first place.

Try burning the equivalent amount of your hard-earned cash that you'd spend on them in a week and see how that makes you feel, because that's basically what you are doing. Only by directly burning your cash you aren't inhaling as much noxious crap.

[Franko]

@ LordSpunky

I wish you well if you want to give up smoking, it's your decision and your decision only...

Myself I smoked Cigars since the age of 17 and was by the age of 35 smoking 20 a day, but when then then wife told me I was time to stop for financial reasons I changed to cigarettes and still smoke 40 a day right now...

Four years ago I had a spontaneous pneumothorax (collapsed lung) and was hospitalised and warned never to smoke again. First thing I did on release from the hospital was stand at the main entrance and puff away happily on my first 3 fags in seven days...

Still haven't stopped smoking and back up to 40 a day, why... because believe it or not I actually enjoy all aspects of smoking despite what it does to my health. I wont be stopping till I'm in a wooden box for the simply reason smoking aint gonna kill me my other medical problem will get me first which is a Cavernous Angioma.

So for me I may as well keep enjoying the pleasure I get from smoking as you only live once and why give up something you enjoy in life...

I wish you good luck and hope you succeed if that is truly want you want to do...

[Bodie_CI5]

I've been smoking for some 11+ years now. I haven't really gone through a "right, that's it, I'll stop smoking from "x" week", but I do wish I never took it up. Truth is, I do like the occassional light-up, like with a whisky or an after dinner thing, or to have a break from at work. But on the whole, as stated before, I wish I never took it up. The stupidity of my decision to begin smoking didn't even begin with the usual "I wanna be cool" thing. If you do decide to quit, try not to lapse. I think it will be the best decision you ever made.

[zipper]

40 years smoking 20 per day and then I decided to minimize but not quit. So now I'm down to 4 small cigars per day and going to keep that minor enjoyment - mostly connected to some drinks...Well, wonder my lungs are still pretty OK, 110 - 125% values in PEF related measurements!?

[X-ray]

Also: smokers eventually get those little wrinkles around the mouth like a cat's anus.
You don't want to be a cat's anus do you?

[nicholas]

"Giving up smoking is easy. I should know, I've done it thousands of times!"

[Franko]

Originally Posted by zipper

40 years smoking 20 per day and then I decided to minimize but not quit. So now I'm down to 4 small cigars per day and going to keep that minor enjoyment - mostly connected to some drinks...Well, wonder my lungs are still pretty OK, 110 - 125% values in PEF related measurements!?

You need to go up to 40 a day at my last check up I was reaching 135% PEF...

[Speelgoedmannetje]

Never quit smoking as I only very occasionally smoke a nice quality cigar, and, like a good glass of wine or beer, I enjoy this little sin thoroughly.
And without so called good intentions I took up fitness again this week as I physically felt my body needed it. And feeling the blood flowing through my veins again I start this weekend with a smile. So I guess I'm going tomorrow to the tobacco specialist and have a really nice havana.

[LordSpunky]

Well I'm a rolly man, and god knows how much I smoke, I have no idea. When I smoked cigs it was a 20 ish a day, I know cos I kept going out to buy the packets. A pouch of baccy is a bit different....25g every two days I suppose is my average.
I can't cut down, I'm not that kind of person. I can't cut down the drink! If it is in the beer fridge, it will get drunk it is that simple!

[Zac67]

Stopped smoking in 2004 (after 20 years) and am missing nothing.

[kedawa]

I think I have some sort of allergy or hyper-sensitivity to tobacco.
I've feinted the last three times I've smoked it.

[Kesa]

What a bunch of losers!

I'm an active person. On a typical day i will ride 60-90 minutes on my bike and surf a couple of hours daily. On top of that i am a gym regular lifting weights and i also do lots of running/walking. My diet is equally impressive, i weigh 95kg and have a bodyfat percentage of 12% which is impressive for my 6'3 height/weight.

Clearly i'm doing something wrong. I mean, maybe i should give all this up and start smoking so i can be "cool" like you guys. Why did you start in the first place? Makes no sense to me. I don't understand

On the other hand i will not give up drinking that would just make me dull. Might turn into Karlos

[kedawa]

Well, if you smoked, maybe you wouldn't be so fat.

[Franko]

@ Kesa

I'm an active person too, my right arm and hand when smoking a fag goes from my mouth to the ashtray and average of 400 times a day (10 puffs per fag x 40 per day)...

My diet is even more impressive, nice greasy fry up for breakfast Bacon, Eggs , Potato Scones, 2 Vindaloos or 2 Chinese Curry's for dinner, at least 6 bags of crisps per day, countless sweets and biscuits, minimum of 4 cans of Pepsi per day...

Never been over 10 Stone in me life (constant 9 Stone 12Lbs) and only 5'11"...

95% Fat Free body Index...

When I was young when we came home from School we were on our bikes no stop from 4:30 PM till 9 or 10: PM each and every day (even more during school holidays) must've averaged at least 30 miles per day (probably more)...

Only time I've been to gym was when we were forced to at school, but usually wrote a sick note "from my mum" to get out of that...

Quite often walk to Edinburgh and back during the summer months, from my house to the city centre 24 miles so that's 48 miles there and back not even counting the walk around the streets of Edinburgh...

Never been surfing, can't swim and the water round here's bloody freezing even in the summer...

All done on a good healthy dose of smoking...

Nothing "Cool" about it, you either enjoy it or you don't, simple as that...

PS: Gave up drinking over 7 years ago and don't miss it in the slightest, just turns folk in mumbling or ranting nut cases and you can't understand a ruddy thing their gibbering about when they're drunk... (Hmm... wonder what Karlos excuse is then if he don't drink)...