-I've already cut back to about 1.5 packs per week,

per week? your a non-smoker already. That's my daily dosage on a light day.

Good luck, and the only piece of advice I can offer is this: don't think you can have an occasional one. It's all or nothing.

Impressive.

Who stole your other winters? seriously, do you travel between hemispheres twice a year?

America's flaccid wang stole my winters - I was in Florida :)

(also, I had just smoked the last cigarette in my pack and figured I'd be OK until morning, but reading this post made me troop out to the corner store for another pack. I hope you are satisfied)

I'm worried I'll get sick my first winter back, smoking makes that really likely to happen.
When I smoked, I never, ever got sick. Since I gave up, I seem to get every little bug going around. I can't see that there is any connection, but I can't help thinking there is. Maybe that's just the addict in me trying to talk me into starting again.

As jonmc says, you can't have just one.

When I smoked, I never, ever got sick. Since I gave up, I seem to get every little bug going around.

Something similar happened to me when I quit drinking for seven months. When I mentioned it to someone who had also stopped drinking, they said 'you got sick just like evrybody else, you were just too drunk to notice.' Probably something similar with cigarettes.

Go get 'em sassy one! I found that Atomic Fireballs helped. It also helps to remind yourself that the urge passes whether you smoke or not. (That last piece of advice came from Craig Ferguson via my TV. I retained it for some reason and it proved to be true.)

#1 Long-distance high-five because this is seriously excellent.

Also: Yeah, you very well may get a cold or upper resp. infection type-thing happening after quitting. I'm not really sure why this happens, but it does kind of frequently in my experience with people around me quitting.

I'm so glad you're doing this, and I hope you inspire more people to do the same. If it gets tougher and you relapse, you can always get a 'script for Zyban or Wellbutrin -- antidepressants approved for use in smoking cessation (which also can double your chance of quitting IF you need them). You just tell your doc you wanna quit and they should write you a script for one of those. This is truly awesome, though, and keep up the good work!

Good work. It's all or nothing. I'm next.

All right! Good job, SassHat!

Wowzers! Sass! So great

Congratulations!

I smoked socially when I lived in Italy. I tried to continue it when I moved back to Boston. In January. The winters were reason enough to give up.

Actually, it was the cold weather combined with the social unacceptability. I got tired of people glaring at me.

In any event, congratulations! Courage! Good luck! Be strong! Etc etc etc.

Cool. Very good luck with this, I really hope you succeed :)

Drink water, Delay and Do something else. Every time you get the cravings, tell yourself "ok, not now but in 10 minutes" while getting water or doing something else - but ten minutes later you will have forgotten. It was the only thing that kept me off them when I was preggars. Best of luck!

Well done you. I am so glad that I've never, ever tried a cigarette in my life (both parents smoked 40+ a day, and hearing them hawking and coughing every morning put me off).

I wish you luck.

Good Job SassHat! Happy Birthday!

he urge passes whether you smoke or not

That's sooo true! Sass, I congratulate you. Hang in there and holler for support whenever you need to.

I quit in June 2002 after fifteen years of smoking. I have not a single regret and daily I'm very, very happy that I'm no longer addicted to cigarettes. It's one of the best things you'll ever do for yourself.

Because my habit was really entrenched, I needed to enlist a ton of help to quit. I wouldn't have been successful without going through the American Lung Association's free online program called Freedom From Smoking. It has lesson plans that help you work around triggers and weak points, and it has great support forums. The structure of this program was exactly what I needed - basically, I replaced my smoking habit with reading this site and writing n the forum for a while.

Also, though WhyQuit.com is a little loudmouthed, there is some good information there, and the voice of total condemnation for and contempt of smoking is one that sometimes helps to hear.

And you can track your smoke-free time and money saved on the QuitMeter.

Four and some years later, I still carry a card in my wallet where I wrote down my reasons for quitting smoking, and on the back, "The urge to smoke will pass whether you smoke or not." The 4 Ds are also on there. Simple ideas, but they work. I also employed the reward system liberally - used my cigarette savings to get stuff like magazine subscriptions, a beach chair, eventually a gas grill. :)

Tough it out -- the worst of it is over within a couple weeks, but going 10 minutes at a time until then is just fine.

Way to go! Good luck! Give it your best. Sometimes it takes many tries to quit, but each try you learn something that makes your next attempt even more likely to succeed. I hope this is the one for you.

Good work. It's all or nothing. I'm next.

Et tu, Wino?

The most difficult situation to deal with whilst quitting is going out to bars. Man that spare hand just itches for something to keep it as busy as your beer glass hand. I took to carrying a pen with me and twiddling with it instead.

I've been off the cigarettes for 3 years now (after my third attempt quitting), but the incentive for me to stick with it this time was a little drastic - about 12 days after I quit, my partner told me she was pregnant.

So I my giving up was actually me supporting her whilst she quit...

Anyway, good luck. It is not easy and you will almost certainly feel like you want a cigarette many times over the rest of your life.

The trick is to just not have one (and its quite a trick...)

It's quite a trick. I stopped hanging out with jonmc at work so I wouldn't get tempted into having a cigarette, and I've been smoke-free for almost two months now. ^_^

Congratulations! I quit my measly habit this Summer and already notice my skin looks nicer and I've got a wee bit more energy. I'm all about the distractions and finding something else to do at the exact point when you think "damn this is when I'd usually have a cigarette." Get rid of matches, ashtrays and other paraphenalia. Put something else where you put your cigs in your purse or bag. Give yourself permissionto be irritable for a while, it's a hard adjustment and the addiction means your body will HATE you for a while, but the hate goes away and it willlove you more than ever.

That's so cool, Sass, congratulations to you!

Hey! good for you girl!

I was never hooked on smoking. In fact all my life I had been a "social smoker" i.e. in bars, with friends who smoke etc etc. I only bought a package when going out. I was even bragging at how "I am never going to be addicted...".

Yeah, not anymore. Since this summer. Now, I think I get painful palpitations when I haven't smoked my daily dose (5-8 cigs/day although some days more). But since I don't smoke indoors, I do get nice walks out of it. Anyway, I will quit too, next month. Send me some of your positive attitude?

Congratulations, SassHat and all the other quitters!

Like essexjan I've never even tried smoking. I grew up around smokers and hated everything about it.

Congratulations SassHat! : ) (And TrishaLynn, Jessamyn and other quitters too!)

Add me to the "never tried smoking" list. Never felt the urge.

I quit (again) last February 10. I think it about smoking most days now, but not every day. I quit before once, for 7 years. I thought about smoking most days then, too, but smoking was a far more socially acceptable behavior in those days (early 70's), and many more people smoked around me.

I really like tobacco. I miss it when I don't smoke, in many ways. I love the taste of the first drag of the day washed down with the first sip of coffee. I always liked lighting up on a crisp fall or winter morning, outside. I like the smell of Zippo fluid, and the acrid burst of a sulphur kitchen match. I like cigars, and pipes, and nothing is nicer than a walk through the woods on a rainy spring morning with the dog and fresh bowl of smooth burly. Some days, I find myself standing down wind of smokers at the beach, getting a little second hand flavor for the fresh salt air. I miss sharing a smoke with strangers, our lives joined if only for a few minutes by shared ritual. I miss the glow of fire at my fingertips in the dark of evening.

I do so miss tobacoo, but I can't do it any more. Second hand smoke is bad for my brother, and smoking is bad for me. I so wish it wasn't, but it is. So, I can't.

I hope you won't miss it as I do. Most people do forget about it, in a few months. If you do miss it, I hope the savings, the positives for those about you, and whatever health benefits you notice are sufficient recompense for your effort. And I hope you'll remember some charity for those about you who still smoke, because no one is a bigger bore than a reformed smoker bent on proselytizing the unrepentant.

I really like tobacco. I miss it when I don't smoke, in many ways. I love the taste of the first drag of the day washed down with the first sip of coffee.
I can almost taste it. Thanks for reminding me, you bastard ;-)

As a practicing chimney, I wish you luck.