How to Quit Smoking...? Proper Motivation!

[vodapas]

I figured I'd share my plan here with like minded folks...

First, a little background on me. I am (give or take) a pack a day smoker and have been for FAR too long. Thanks to Chantix (I know doesn't work for everyone) I have successfully quit smoking three times. (Ok, not here to debate semantics I acknowledge it's not successfully quitting if I start back up. But, for the sake of discussion I consider it successfully quitting if I go months without smoking with no stop smoking aid.) Anyhow, back to the point. Using Chantix quitting has been relatively easy and painless for me. It's the staying quit that has always been my problem. Whether cockiness ("I quit once, I can quit again/"I can have just one") or some stressful event, I always end up starting again. Well, I'm getting up there in years enough I really need to quit and stay quit or I'm going to be meeting the guy with the reaper a lot sooner than I'd care to.

So, I've been trying to come up with a way to not only motivate me to quit, but to stay quit. Coincidentally, I've also been trying to find a way to justify the increased financial burden of buying an FZ-07. Like when the chocolate bar fell into the peanut butter jar (I'm sure, unlike to Ninja 300 forum, some of you are old enough to get that reference) it clicked. Financing an FZ-07 I'd be looking at a $150-175 a month payment (down payment, loan terms and interest rate dependent). Where I live a pack of cigarettes costs about $6 a pack or roughly $180 a month. Put these two together and "Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering...?"

The deal I've come up with myself (and to some extent the wife as she's witness and voice of conscience) is that I have to quit smoking for four months. That's three months with Chantix and one month will power alone. During this period I have to stick the $6 a day I would have been blowing on cigarettes into savings. At the end of the four months I can then take the money I saved and use it towards a down payment on the FZ-07. But, that's only part of the plan. Because, as we already covered, quitting is the easy part. The conditions continue to include that if I fall off the wagon I have to sell one of my motorcycles. Since the Ninja 300 was bought for the wife that is not included. With all the money I'm dumping into my NC she's definitely not going up on the block. So, that would leave either my DR-Z400SM or my shiny new FZ-07. Not a decision I would EVER want to make.

So, hopefully positive motivation will help me kick this nasty habit once and for all. I'd love to hear y'all's thoughts. However, I didn't post this to start a non-smokers vs smokers or the evils of Chantix thread. It's just something I'm excited about and since most of my coworkers are non-smokers and non-riders I don't find anyone very interested in the plan.

 

[L.B.S.]

All the power to you, and best wishes towards doing this.

The owner/boss of the company I work for just passed away in September of this year, from emphysema. He was otherwise, a "young" and healthy 69 year old multimillionaire. He could have spent $1,000 a day on smokes alone, and still not run out of money for an awesome long and happy retired life.

His dad died from exactly this same thing, only making it to 65.

I had known my boss from when I was 14 years old, so he was like family to me, an older brother kinda thing. It was heartbreaking to see him on oxygen 24/7, unable to even stand up, let alone walk, or go up/down stairs, or do anything normal. He and his dad both smoked all their lives, even when they were to the point of needing wheelchairs and mobility scooters to get around, complete with oxygen tanks and hoses 'n stuff.

Believe me when I say it was all I could do to visit him, when he was literally confined to a hospital bed in his own house, just lying there waiting to die, with palliative care people washing/feeding/cleaning up. (you know what I mean) I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy.

Mate, you HAVE to stop smoking, please! Whatever you choose for motivation, cling to it like your very life depends on it. Use every possible trick in the book to help you...

 

[DanH]

I was a pack a day plus smoker for 22 years. I quit a little over 10 years ago just before my youngest daughter was born. I, like you, tried many times to quit and used many methods but never managed to quit permanently until I was really ready to quit. I had to give up alcohol for a year because in the past that was always the trigger - go for a beer with the guys and wake up with a pack of smokes in my pocket. In the last decade, I have had about 4 cigarettes, all while drinking, and choked and coughed and butted the thing out. So I am really done now.

Good luck on your quest. However you choose to motivate yourself, the only thing that is going to get you into a permanent quit is deciding to be there. The first year was very hard for me. I rarely ever even think about it now though I do occasionally find my self taking a drag on a pencil or something when I have had a couple to many to drink.

 

[vodapas]

All the power to you, and best wishes towards doing this.

The owner/boss of the company I work for just passed away in September of this year, from emphysema. He was otherwise, a "young" and healthy 69 year old multimillionaire. He could have spent $1,000 a day on smokes alone, and still not run out of money for an awesome long and happy retired life.

His dad died from exactly this same thing, only making it to 65.

I had known my boss from when I was 14 years old, so he was like family to me, an older brother kinda thing. It was heartbreaking to see him on oxygen 24/7, unable to even stand up, let alone walk, or go up/down stairs, or do anything normal. He and his dad both smoked all their lives, even when they were to the point of needing wheelchairs and mobility scooters to get around, complete with oxygen tanks and hoses 'n stuff.

Believe me when I say it was all I could do to visit him, when he was literally confined to a hospital bed in his own house, just lying there waiting to die, with palliative care people washing/feeding/cleaning up. (you know what I mean) I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy.

Mate, you HAVE to stop smoking, please! Whatever you choose for motivation, cling to it like your very life depends on it. Use every possible trick in the book to help you...

Very sorry to hear of your loss. You are so right, you would think that as an adult fully knowing the kind of fate that will await me if I don't quit would be more than enough to convince me to quit with no further motivation needed. Sadly, human nature for so many of us leads us to become so focused on today that we don't look beyond tomorrow. But, hopefully, in five years I'll be able to look back and laugh and say factually that I used to blow so much money on cigarettes I could of bought another bike and did just that to prove it. Thank you for your words and your support!

 

[vodapas]

I was a pack a day plus smoker for 22 years. I quit a little over 10 years ago just before my youngest daughter was born. I, like you, tried many times to quit and used many methods but never managed to quit permanently until I was really ready to quit. I had to give up alcohol for a year because in the past that was always the trigger - go for a beer with the guys and wake up with a pack of smokes in my pocket. In the last decade, I have had about 4 cigarettes, all while drinking, and choked and coughed and butted the thing out. So I am really done now.

Good luck on your quest. However you choose to motivate yourself, the only thing that is going to get you into a permanent quit is deciding to be there. The first year was very hard for me. I rarely ever even think about it now though I do occasionally find my self taking a drag on a pencil or something when I have had a couple to many to drink.

You and me both brother. The first time I tried to quit was by far the easiest and how did I start smoking again? Yup, went out drinking with a couple of other ex-smokers and a couple pitchers in we all decided it would be a brilliant idea to walk over to Wal-Mart and buy a pack to split cause we could all just smoke a few and not start again. Uh huh. *slaps forehead*

 

[L.B.S.]

My mom smoked all her life but quit cold turkey. (she told me she decided she would rather spend that money on lotto scratch tickets)

My bro smoked all his life, and quit cold turkey, my dad smoked all his life and quit cold turkey.

None of them actually quit because of fear that it would kill them, curiously enough. What ever the reasoning involved, it's within you to overcome it, I'm sure!

I'm the only one known in the generational history in my family tree, to have never smoked! (or get married, lol) My addiction easily kicked smoking to the curb: Motorcycles. For better or worse, til death do us part...

 

[gharshman]

I started smoking in the Navy, smoked about a pack a day for 14 years. The last three or four years, I kept telling myself, "I need to quit. I'm going to quit." Once I quit for about three weeks, then started again, like a fool.

What finally made me quit was fear of death. On July 17, 2010, I went water skiing with friends. I grew up on a lake, water skiing every weekend, so I'm pretty good at it. But by this point, I am over 40 years old, been smoking for 14 years, and I'm a "knowledge worker", so I've been driving a desk for a long time. Basically, I'm out of shape. And I didn't smoke for show .... I inhaled deeply, all the way to the end of the cigarette.

That day, I get up easily on one ski. I am the very picture of a middle-aged, slightly overweight, "God of the Slalom", cutting left and right, creating vast arcs of water in my wake. I last about five minutes, then my head starts pounding. I threw away the rope, and put my hands in the air, coasted to a stop, and sank into the water. My friends brought the boat back around to get me. "Dude, that was awesome! Man, you are good! Wait ... are you okay?"

"Please take me back to the house."

We get back to the house, and I have to climb about 140 steps (not exaggerating) to get from the lake up to the house. I take three Advil, and I lay down on a couch in the cool basement, under the air conditioning vent. Three hours later, my head is still pounding like crazy. Quite literally, I have never felt this close to death.

I have not smoked or even touched a cigarette since that day. I will never smoke another cigarette.

Everybody tells you that when you quit smoking, you will start to feel better. It took about six months for me to start feeling better. After another six months, I started walking 2-3 miles per day, then sporadic jogging, then running. Worked my way up to 5 miles. It took about a year before I could run 1-1/2 miles without stopping. I lost 32 pounds that second year after quitting cigarettes. I still have not gone water skiing again.

Do yourself a favor, and do whatever it takes to quit smoking.

 

[ziggie]

Wait until you have to push a bike a few miles,you realize how hard to breath then.

 

[wa5vhu]

It was 18 years ago that my dad passed away from lung cancer due to smoking. He was only 68 and in pretty good health otherwise and hadn't smoked for 12 years but with over 40 years of smoking the cancer had already planted the seed. In a very short period of time he started showing symptoms, was quickly diagnosed and died about 3 weeks later. I wish he had never started smoking and I am still very pissed at him for making my mother, brother and I have to breathe his stinking second-hand putrid smelly reeking toxic smoke all those years while I was growing up. In every single picture I have of him he is holding a f***ing cancer stick in his hand. Mom never smoked and she is only one year younger than dad was and she lived to be 83, succumbing to the effects of rheumatoid arthritis just recently. I still miss him, just angry that he knowingly committed a slow suicide. I can't imagine anyone smoking.

 

[670cc]

I would advise against using a vehicle purchase as an incentive. My brother in law promised to quit smoking if he could by a new Mustang back in '06. How's that working out? The Mustang's his daily driver and still works great. And he still smokes.

For motivation, you need only read the posts about people dying. Believe it. It's real.

Yes, I used to smoke. I know the whole deal.

Here's a sermon for another day, perhaps, but financing a fourth toy? That's insane. If you ever hope to achieve financial independence, if can't pay cash for it you've got no business buying it.

 

[Fuzzy]

With my employer you could buy two bikes. The savings in health insurance match your pack a day cost for a promise of not smoking.

If it works for you be committed and go for it. Good to have a wife who loves you to hold you to the promise. Luckily I have never smoked but watching friends I know to be strong willed, yet fail in attempts to quit, I know it has to be tough.

 

[mwcogburn]

As a recovering dipper I know this is not the same, but... I bought a boat that way once by promising to take my lunch to work instead of going out every day. It lasted only a few weeks before I was going out to lunch again. To try to do this by quitting tobacco would have been far harder for me and would never have worked. Just my 2 cents

 

[Goose]

Just another story. I never smoked but both my in-laws died of emphysema. My father in law was a slender guy to start but by the time he died this (formerly) 6" tall guy couldn't break 100 pounds on the scale. He was like one of the near dead who walked/ crawled/ were carried out of the Nazi death camps, his arms and calves looked like sticks, his knees were bigger around than his thighs. He had so little calcium left in his bones his ribs broke when they rolled him over to prevent bed stores. Ever break a rib? Hurts like hell. Happened to him more days than it didn't. I've had two OOA (Out Of Air) situations scuba diving, as frightening as anything I've experienced. Not being able to breath is one of the most primal fears, many people have died scuba diving because they became so frightened during an OOA their brain locked up to the degree they couldn't reach down and pick up a back-up regulator, it is that frightening. He lived like that 24 hours a day for years. The whole time he knew that, eventually, he would suffocate. Is it now? Is it in 10 minutes? 10 days? Near the end his son would kneel by his bedside and pray for God to free his father from the pain and fear. Toughest guy I've ever known, he never complained though all of that, but it still killed him.

Quit tobacco, quit now. Do whatever it takes.

But the thing that really blew me away was watching his twin sister leave her nephew and her twin brother to walk outside for a smoke. Simply unbelievable.

Goose

 

[Deleted member 1183]

I am off them for many years. However I went off them twice in my lifetime to date. The big secret is that You must really want to give them up. No half measures such as setting dates because it is a good idea at some particular time, and then on the date packing them up. There is no point in that unless you want to stop because you will be back on them again in no time. Before I gave them up, I set out a plan. I was firstly convinced that I needed to give them up and the reasons why. Write all of this down if it helps. When that step was achieved, I then set the date. Then, on the day before, I threw the last pack in the bin and that was it.

When off them, do not start discussing the matter with anyone unless you have to. Just stop smoking and tell nobody except those who know you and offer you a cigarette. Even then just tell them you quit and again do not get into discussion about it unless you have to. Discussion only serves to make you think about it. When ever the yearning crops up in your mind, think of something else, like the money you are saving, the benefits to your health, the fact that you don't stink of nicotine all the time etc etc.

I still met up with my Friends for drinks. I just tended to drink a little more without the cigs for a while. I also ate a little more between meals. Peppermint sweets helped for those times when I had an unwelcome desire. I also joined a Gym and took up running. The benefits of non smoking to my running were very obvious, and served to motivate me even more.

Nowadays I have no desire for cigarettes whatsoever. I tend to move away from folks who smoke as I hate the smell of cigarettes, or I move upwind of them. I used to smoke 20/30 strong cigarettes a day. I took up cigar smoking at one point of my life and used to smoke(and inhale ) about 4/5 half corona's a day. Smoking is now long behind me and my health is so much the better for that.

Best of luck......

 

[Fuzzy]

But the thing that really blew me away was watching his twin sister leave her nephew and her twin brother to walk outside for a smoke.

I feel lucky I never smoked, not smart, lucky. What you saw his sister do is why I won't judge those who can't quit. In spite of the horrors she witnessed the addiction was too strong for her to beat. I am impressed by those who can quit and feel sympathy for those who can't.

 

[itlives]

Like Fuzzy, cigs never had an appeal to me. I don't have an addictive personality so after smoking the wacky tobacky for 21 years, I got bored with it and quit in one day. That was 16 18 years ago.

I had a friend that got off heroin but couldn't shake cigs (and he wanted to). It's a tough nut to crack for some people.

 

[mreric]

nicotine is a very addicting thing. but anyhow, stop making excuses, dont buy a new bike to quit smoking, you will find a way to get $6 and smoke anyways. you have always done so.

what you need is will power not a new bike. the will power to love yourself. the fact is that you dont love yourself enough. you will always smoke.

smoking is not only selfish to yourself but also to the one round you.


but again eating crappy food is even worst. in the next years obesity will kill more then cigarettes.

Poor Dietary Habits Killing More Than Smoking | Food Safety News


so eat well, dont smoke. live life then way that mean to be. without pain.

 

[wickerman]

I smoked a about a pack a day for 30 years, had a massive heart attack two weeks ago and although I had "tried" to quit many times before there is no better motivation than your own mortality. I have not had one since, I will smoke a herbal cigarette when I feel a strong craving and that satisfies my psychological craving to "smoke" plus they taste like shit and lessen my desire to smoke. I like the ides of saving the $6 a day or $180 a month to use on a bike or some other thing to use as a motivation to inspire you when you need it. But I think I will wait a few months to reward myself. I find that taking up free idle time helps keep my mind off wanting to smoke and I have started to do more bike maintenance and other stuff that was easy to put off before. Just take it a day at a time and keep your goal in mind when you feel a craving coming on find something to keep you busy until it passes.

 

[L.B.S.]

I had a massive heart attack two weeks ago...

Dude! So glad you are still with us to hang around at the forum!

The NC700/750 family is a great one, we don't want to lose anybody

 

[vodapas]

I smoked a about a pack a day for 30 years, had a massive heart attack two weeks ago and although I had "tried" to quit many times before there is no better motivation than your own mortality. I have not had one since, I will smoke a herbal cigarette when I feel a strong craving and that satisfies my psychological craving to "smoke" plus they taste like shit and lessen my desire to smoke. I like the ides of saving the $6 a day or $180 a month to use on a bike or some other thing to use as a motivation to inspire you when you need it. But I think I will wait a few months to reward myself. I find that taking up free idle time helps keep my mind off wanting to smoke and I have started to do more bike maintenance and other stuff that was easy to put off before. Just take it a day at a time and keep your goal in mind when you feel a craving coming on find something to keep you busy until it passes.

Glad you're still with us. No doubt there is no better stop smoking aid than a brush with ones own mortality. Happened to my brother-in-law last year. He was an even heavier smoker than I and his diet was atrocious. Massive heart attack that required an immediate triple or quadruple (can't remember) bypass. Hasn't touched a cigarette since and he eats MUCH healthier. Only problem is, much as I love him, he has become a huge pain in the ***. In this short of period of time he has become one of those self-righteous ex-smokers who looks down his nose at me now. Along with quitting for good this time around that's one thing I vow. I will not act like I'm better than someone just because they haven't quit smoking yet.