What happened on the day I decided to give up smoking?
On the 4th January 2001 I went to the Sydney Cricket Ground for day 3 Australia vs West Indies. As a junior coach I had a free ticket for the O’Reilly stand. Signs everywhere informed me I couldn’t smoke in the stand. In fact even though it’s an open air stadium you can’t smoke in any seat.
To have a cigarette I had to leave my seat, walk down out of the stands, walk to the end of the stand and hang around on a square of cement with no view of the field. The second time I did this I was standing smoking, looked to my right and saw Doug Walters at the door of the commentary tower, having a cigarette.
“Oh, God Doug say it isn’t so - not you too!” I said.
Doug laughed and shrugged.
That did it for me. A guy so famous as a player that one of the stands in that very stadium is named in his honour reduced to smoking where he couldn’t see the game he graced. If it’s come to this, and outdoors too, well bugger it I thought who knows what’s next.
Later in the day Steve Waugh got 103 and strangely misjudged one and kicked it into his stumps.
Details. C’mon pour your heart out. Did you suddenly while buying a packet think “Hell these are expensive” or did you sit down and add up the thousands it was costing you? Your agony may help someone else.
I could feel my lungs straining whenever I inhaled. I could never get rid of the niggling cough. I always had a sniffle. I hated the fact that I was an addict. I heard the sound of my husband’s lungs as he wheezed in his sleep, and was scared… but how could I expect him to quit, if I was still a smoker ? Why was sucking some dirty air into my lungs more important than living as long and healthy a life as possible, with my partner? It wasn’t.
So, the sound of his lungs and the feel of mine made me quit. He quit a year later (with no nagging from me, just support).
Well, I can’t really participate in the discussion, having never really started smoking, but a rather good friend of mine decided she didn’t want to smoke any more for reasons of lollipops. She took her last cigarette, smushed it into an envelope, and posted it to the people who make Chupa Chups. They sent her one of those massive tins of lollipops to suck on while she was quitting. It worked.
That sounds like fun! Now all I need is a couple of grand for airfare, and tell the wife: “hey honey, I’m going to Australia to have a beer or three, see you when I get back…”
I was a 20 a day man (more if drinking was involved on a given day). As I got older (smoked from ages 19 - 25) I needed to find room in the old budget for mortgage & pension etc. Smoking was the most convenient fiduciary drain to eliminate.
So i stopped. I had had unsuccessful attempts in the past as regards locking yourself away from the world to avoid temptation, as soon as I went out again I would succumb. This time on the very night I stopped I was down the boozer among smokers. It was hard for a week or two but I got over it. The thing you really have to watch for is when your lungs decide the onslaught is finally over and go into self cleaning mode. I nver had a smokers cough until a month or so until after I had stopped.
Even though I hadn’t really noticed any degradation of lung function whilst I was smoking, I did notice the massive improvement that occurred after I stopped. I’d recommend it to anybody. Death to the Evil Weed!!
That’s interesting. How long did that last? I never had smoker’s cough until I gave up and now that I think about it I still have a brief cough most mornings 3 years later.
3 months or so at most. Don’t cough any now and it’s just over 2 years. Interesting side note - i once heard it was worse to stop smoking for a couple of months and then start again than it was to continue smoking, the reason being that the layer of gunk in your lungs actually offered some measure of protection from additional crud. once you cough up the protection the lungs are almost ‘virgin territory’ again as it were. Anyone know if there is any truth in that?
He lives in an apartment whose walls are yellowed. I thought they were beige but last time I was there I looked more closely, and there’s colour variation at the corners and on the edges of the ceiling. I think much of the colour is smoke stain.
He and I did a budget for his upcoming move* to a retiree-friendly little town up north. Smokes? $250/month, or a carton a week. This sum is the difference between going up there and scrimping and getting the rest of us to help out, and going there with ease and having a little extra money.
When I come home from there, I reek, and I throw my clothes into the washing machine, and myself into the shower.
My dad is 76. Is it possible for him to quit, or even halve the amount he smokes, at his age?
[sub]*In spite of budget skimpiness though, Dad’s still moving. He was trapped on the eighth floor during the last blackout, and I think that was the straw that got him out of his rut to make the change.[/sub]
Sunspace (Hi sweetie, Happy New Year!) – if he wants to quit or cut back, he can, if he doesn’t, there’s nothing to be done.
I quit in March of 1999 when the price went up again, to $2.50 a pack. (I gather they’re somewhat higher now?) Since I’d been smoking two packs a day for damn close to 20 years, this was not a whimsical decision, but it was one time my frugal nature did me a huge favor. $5 a day is damn close to $2,000 a year, which for me is a fairly substantial chunk of change.
I planned to do the gum, but got a darned unpleasant stomach flu a few days after I start, and wasn’t putting anything in my mouth other than water for a couple of days, so saw no reason to start doing nicotine again after that.
The benefits – when I was smoking, any time I’d laugh too hard, I’d end up coughing – now I can laugh my fool head off and not end up sounding like Camille in act three.
Anyone who’s quitting: Good luck! It’s definitely an accomplishment that you can feel GREAT about!
I have tried the patches, the inhalers, chewing gum and that stupid pill. The patches caused me to have horrific nightmares. I am going to try again, I have an autistic son who has no one but me.
My boyfriend (who is 21, smoked since he was 14-15) finally quit smoking a couple of months ago. He quit for me. He had wanted to for awhile but never really had the motivation until we got together. I suppose that’s as good a reason as any.
Hi twickster! Happy new year! Yes, it’s Dad’s decision to keep smoking… we had all pretty much decided that he’d never change, and didn’t bug him about it.
We thought he’d never decide to move either, but then he surprised us. I have an odd feeling that after the move, when he sees the new place, he may revisit his smoking decision.
I had my first cigarette when I was 13 and was up to a pack a day 11 years later.
I was set up on a blind date for a Christmas party. A few minutes after I met my date (very cute!), I started looking around for the smokers. I saw some people going out a back door and asked my date if they were going out there to smoke. He said, with the most shocked expression, “You smoke!?” I said no and never smoked another cigarette. (We’re married now…almost 5 years!)
Cold turkey was the way to go for me. I think it’s easier to never buy cigarettes again than it would be to have them in the house and try to limit myself.
When I was pregnant (7 years after I quit), I did have a huge craving for a cigarette and the smell of cigarette smoke. When you know the horrible things cigarettes can do to a fetus, it’s easy to resist. I still often think about smoking, but I’d be too embarassed to buy them or ask someone for one.
