Unless SanVito is already overweight, I wouldn’t worry about the calories in whatever is used to keep the mouth occupied. I read somewhere that the average gain for someone who quits smoking is 5lbs. Personally, I never met anyone who gained any serious weight. I think the most I ever saw anyone gain was about 15lbs., over the first year she quit, but then over the next year, she lost most of it again.
Being 5-15lbs. overweight can’t possibly be as bad for you as being a pack-a-day smoker.
I’d worry more about what sugar was doing to your teeth-- but smoking isn’t great for your teeth, either, and as long as the sweets are not a permanent solution, I just wouldn’t worry about them.
But then, it never hurts to try the sugar free, and see what your own reaction is. If you’ve been eating them so far with no problems, maybe you aren’t sensitive to them.
I guess this MIGHT work for some people, but definitely NOT an approach I would recommend. At least for someone who want to QUIT smoking as opposed to reducing the amount they smoke.
My advice is always the same. You will fall off the wagon now and then, you know you need to get back up again. But here is one thing you can stick to. Never buy another cigarette again. If you have to go out to the smoking area and beg them, it sort of slows you down.
My brain and I are not friends. If my brain tells me that I cannot have a cigarette then I will drive to the store if I have to and smoke one just to show my brain that it’s not the boss of me. So I told my brain that I did not quit but I just didn’t want one right now. I can have one anytime I want. I haven’t smoked a cigarette in a really long time. But I reserve the right to have one whenever I want.
I quit using the Allen Carr method as well. It’s pretty amazing. The “method” is so basic it’s almost juvenile. It’s mostly just realizing that tobacco is doing nothing positive for you* and you only keep doing it because every time you finish a cigarette you start to go into withdrawal and only another cigarette helps. Very basically, it’s just a vicious cycle that needs to be broken only once. [This is my description of the Carr method, not theirs or anyone else’s]
*We all know that cigs are doing negative things to you but smokers tend to believe that they also do positive things for you. But these things are positive only in the way that stopping banging your head against a wall is positive. When what you really need it to stop the head banging in the first place.
I don’t believe it takes a lifelong effort. The idea that it does keeps a lot of people from even trying to quit. I know that quitting is not tough at all, it is in fact very easy once you are looking at the issue from a certain perspective. When you realize that smoking is doing absolutely nothing for you and taking away so much you can’t wait to stop putting the disgusting things in your mouth.
I urge you to check out the Allen Carr information. (I didn’t link to his site because increasingly over the past decade or so they have been adding more and more money-making things. I don’t think they’re ripping anyone off, I just don’t like the relentless pursuit of profit everywhere.
Here’s a quote from the above link:
His second pivotal theory relating to this said that smokers only lit up to relieve the sense of anxiety or ennui created by their nicotine addiction. They were in effect paying with their money and their health to achieve the sense of satisfaction that non-smokers enjoyed all the time—for free
Hi! Been offline over the weekend. I’m now on Day 6, and whilst it hasn’t been easy, and there have been very many times when my body/brain is telling me to have a cigarette, I have stuck to my guns.
Pangs haven’t gone away, but they are lessening. Having some wine was fine, although I probably had a bit too much on Friday - taking a drink every time I wanted a cigarette.
Yeah - folk can be different, but that’s the way it is w/ me. Maybe I’m just bullheaded, but the difference between ZERO and “only one in the past week” is EVERYTHING. In my mind, it is the difference betw being a smoker and a nonsmoker.
It works in my favor, and it means enough to me to exert the self control to NOT stick a smoke in my mouth.
I’m that way w/ drinking. Sure, I know I could just have a couple of beers today. But if I do, I know it is just a matter of time before I start hitting the gin bottle HARD.
I am so happy you realize that!! My multiple prior failures (once after one year) were “just one” because: Kids stressed me out
Friends were smoking
Other lame brained reasons.
Do whatever it takes to not pick up that one…you have come so far and doing great. Deep breaths, deep breaths.
Me either~50 years. Crushed out my last one and quit cold turkey in college. I had a boyfriend that I liked kissing more than he liked kissing a smoker. Finished the carton and never bought another pack.
