I quit in July of 2004. Best thing I ever did. I feel so much better, smell better, even look better (smokers get so wrinkled around the mouth).
Good Luck FinnAgain. You are probably over the worst of it. So keep up the good work. Cigarettes are evil.
My skin has gotten better since I quit. I never had bad skin, but I swear I look younger now that I am a couple years away from smoking.
You can do it! I quit cold turkey, too. And you passed the drinking test! Good on ya!
Eight years, one week, three days, 14 hours, 9 minutes and 10 seconds. 73314 cigarettes not smoked, saving $14,662.95. Life saved: 36 weeks, 2 days, 13 hours, 30 minutes.
I plugged in $4 a pack, because 8 years ago when I quit they were only about $2.50, and now they are $7.00!!!
it costs £6 a pack here - approx $9 - will be putting £5 a day in a bank towards a reward for me 
Yeah… I’m trying to make it a package deal. Dropped about 20 pounds the last two months and I’ve taken up walking home from work.
Thanks, and yeah, the cravings aren’t as often or as fierce.
Thanks. I’m still amazed that people can quit any way other than cold turkey, they’re made of stronger stuff than I am. And yeah… the drinking test was the real test. I’m lucky that I have my inherent Smugness Quotient to fall back on in tough times. 
this is weird, but i can’t exactly recall when i quit. i took a smoking cessation class at a previous job sometime either in 2003 or 2004. i think. that’s all i can remember.
i know i was still smoking when i started seeing the divemaster, so that was august of 2002. a life-long non-smoker, he convinced me to try quitting again. i think i’d quit three or four times before that. when an op came up to do the class, i signed up. it did the trick. i haven’t had a cigarette since.
if i sorta split the difference (provided i have the year anywhere close to right!) it comes out to…
i stopped smoking on tue, 16 sep 2003.
it has been 415 weeks, 1 days, 14 hours, 7 minutes and 55 seconds since i quit.
i have saved $ 12,353 by choosing not to smoke 55,225 cigarettes.
more importantly, i saved 60 weeks, 1 day, 20 hours and 37 minutes of my life!
I’ll join y’all in November. As my birthday’s on Thanksgiving this year <as it was the year I was born> I’ll of course be going cold turkey. 
Well…sort of. I only smoke cloves, have only ever smoked cloves, and it’s definitely more a mental habit than a physical one. So I’ll most likely be checking out those Volcano electronic cigarettes mentioned in that awesome thread…over there somewhere <I’ll find it as we get closer> to allow me my ‘me time’ outside, alone, when I want it. (Yes, I know I can go stand out there sucking a lollipop instead, but we’ll see)
I loved smoking. But the reasons to smoke were so minuscule and largely mythological, really. I’m over 50 days smoke-free, and hope I never have to quit again. I am just so proud of myself.
Now. To ramp up the exercise and diet… I am not happy with the extra weight.
I’ve never actively quit smoking…didn’t even start until my mid-30’s…but I have gone 6 months-a year at a time without smoking, many times. (Usually due to dating someone who doesn’t smoke, or living with non-smoking roommates or being unemployed).
The last time this occurred, we’d just got a WiFit, so every time I stood up from the computer and wanted to pace around, I’d just go do that. Just five or 10 minutes at a time, unless it was the bowling game instead or one of the other ones that has you moving around. It was great! Instead of going out for a quick smoke, I’d bowl a quick game or do 100 jumping jacks; multiply that by the dozen times a day I’d otherwise be smoking and I actually lost weight even though I rarely left the house. It’s a good substitute; I intend to get a treadmill soon, so that should help.
Damn… at about a month now. Physical cravings are pretty much 100% gone, but the psychological factor is still a mega-bitch. For some reason watching any movie, pretty much any movie at all, where people are smoking? Holy shit it makes me want a cigarette.
One month, and counting.
One month! WOOHOO!!
Sometimes I have little flashes of wanting to smoke. But even more often I find myself doing stuff like noticing how not-like-smoke my house smells, or how I don’t need to clean out the computers as much (the fans get caked with smoke) or how I’m not sitting in a haze of smoke and a pile of ash every weekend when I laze around watching TV.
I never thought there’d be anything more enjoyable than smoking, but little stuff like that is a lot more enjoyable than I thought!
The only thing that sucks about not smoking right now is when I go visit my dad and come home smelling like smoke. It makes me feel bad because I don’t want stuff smelling like smoke…it makes me feel bad for my mom who’s lived with that for 35 years.
Being around my dad smoking doesn’t make me want to smoke, btw. I can’t believe how “over it” I am. It’s so weird!
Anyway, go Finn!
That really is the worst part at this point. I can recommend Alan Ball’s book The Easy Way To Stop Smoking is you think you need help getting past that hurdle, but even if you don’t I recommend not shying away from things that might be minor triggers anymore. I know a whole lot of people who won’t go to bars or out to the movies because they just always had to avoid them and they are miserable as min smokers. It doesn’t have to be miserable. Just keep reminding yourself why you quit. You made it past the worst part, now don’t backslide and have to do it again.
Yeay Finn!
The worst of it is over. The cravings will fade over time. Two and a half years out the worst I get is a ‘gee, I could go a smoke right now’ feeling now and again.
I agree with ZipperJJ, the small things are the best. For me, it’s the lack of metallic backtaste in my mouth all the time. And not having to clean up ash and butts and ashtrays and hunt for a lighter all the time.
Hang in there!
Thanks folks
I quit on 6/10/11 as I may have mentioned earlier in the thread. I am also still struggling with the mental addiction aspect of smoking as well. The smug factor has definitely helped keep me from smoking, especially the longer I go without smoking. Stay strong. Lots of people have done it. If you give in now, I guess you are just not as stubborn as you thought you were and not as stubborn as every other person who has successfully quit. I’m rooting for both of us.
Nicotine is a weird, evil animal. Every time you ingest any nicotine, it gets its dirty little claws in you and a little deeper. Cutting back simply doesn’t work. If you have any nicotine in your system, your brain is only completely happy when it has a full dose all the time - which equates to about one cigarette every hour or two.
Shakester, what you’re doing has to be torture. Especially doing it for that long. If you had just quit cold turkey you’d be free and clear by now. But, by giving your brain little tastes of that nasty drug, you’re only dragging out the addiction without fully sating it. Congrats on your conviction, I’m impressed you lasted this long without smoking.
The best possible way to quit is to just stop smoking. Get the nicotine out of your system and keep it out. I tried every possible method from cutting back, to cold turkey, to nicotine replacement, and even Chantix and Zyban. The only thing that worked for me was a book.
The Easy Way to Stop Smoking.
I read the book. I threw away my remaining cigarettes and have been smoke free ever since.
I stopped smoking on Sat, 13 Oct 2007 15:01:00 GMT.
It has been 204 weeks, 4 days, 1 hours, 53 minutes and 44 seconds since I quit.
I have saved $ 10024.55 by choosing not to smoke 28641 cigarettes.
More importantly, I saved 31 weeks, 1 days 18 hours 57 minutes of my life!
Oh, and I meant to say:
Congrats FinnAgain! One month is awesome.
It really is the psychological addiction that is the hardest to overcome. The physical addiction is really only for the first three days, and anyone can suffer through three days of discomfort.
If you still find yourself struggling, read the book. All it does is prepares you mentally. It explains why you think you need to smoke and what your body is going through. Being mentally prepared when I quit made it easy. Heck, it was almost enjoyable.
Really, the bottom line is that no one likes to smoke. people smoke because they are addicted and their body is craving nicotine. When you smoke, you satiate that addiction - and you feel just like what every non smoker feels all the time. It’s kinda like wearing uncomfortable shoes all the time just so it feels good to take them off. Or, banging your head against the wall because it feels good to stop. You only think smoking makes you feel good - it doesn’t it just makes you feel normal.
Another thing I am still having problems with after 3 months of not smoking is irrational anger. I have more problems with road rage than I ever did while smoking. I am aware of it and have adopted more Defensive Driving behaviors to counteract the unwise urges prompted by my irrational anger, but I do notice that I am not as calm when driving as I was when I smoked.
I quit in January. Pack a day, cold turkey. Were there cravings? Of course. But I was reminded of what (talk show host) Craig Ferguson said about the subject:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgFtFU_VGVA
That video is hilarious!