Ex-Smokers, in what ways did you benefit from quitting smoking cigarettes?

I quit many many times before I finally actually quit.

Benefits, hmmmm. Food tastes better. I don’t smell like an ash tray (clothes, house, furniture, carpets, drapes and the car) and when I kiss a girl she doesn’t taste ash tray.

And I’ve reduced the chance of burning myself alive in a fire.

I am saving like $7 a pack to $10 a pack which is a savings of approx $70 a week… $280 a month…$3360 a year.

Unfortunately when I quit I substituted sugar (cake, milk, ice cream, candies, pasties, donuts) and thus gained a hundred or more pounds plus several inches around my waist.

Luckily I got the high blood sugar which nearly killed me and so forced me to become healthy.

I remember reading somewhere that your body (lungs, heart, brain) begin(s) to repair itself from the damage cigarette smoking causes every time you quit. So the longer you quit, the better chance you have of surviving the damage you have been inflicting upon yourself.

Good luck on quitting. If you can just keep from putting a cig in your mouth for about three weeks you have a chance to quit for good.

££££££££££££££££££££...oh & ££££££££££££££

Ditto $$$$. I’ve saved a fortune.

Not sure I feel any better and it’s been a long time, but I’m sure I am healthier for not smoking and I don’t have to leave restaurants, shops etc. because I need to feed my habit.

I breathe much better, my health is great and I don’t stink.

I quit when my mom developed bladder cancer and had to have her bladder removed. The doctor said it most likely was caused from her smoking.
I breathe easier.
I’ve saved money.
I gained 20 pounds, but after 6 months of watching myself gain weight, I decided to get out and get exercise and lose the weight. I didn’t have the money for a gym membership, so I just walked everyday.
This was 26 years ago. I quit cold turkey and never looked back.

It’s been 40 years since I quit cold turkey and I’m still thankful that I stopped smelling like stale tobacco.

I could breathe.

I was out riding my bicycle one day, trying to get up a hill, and wanted to retch from my lungs. And at the end of my bike ride, I put my bike on the car and as I drove away, I lit a cigarette. I finished that pack by the next morning and haven’t smoked since. WIthin three weeks I was riding my bike long distances and going up a lot of hills.

And my blood pressure was better than average within a month.

Firstly, you should really start calling yourself a non-smoker right now. You quit smoking when you had the last one.

Secondly, my big advice is to learn what you hate about smoking just as much as what you love about not smoking (which will unfold over time, but some are immediately apparently.) Breaking the mental addiction is more difficult than breaking the physical addiction, but it is an important part of quitting, so you’re asking a good question.

I wrote a list when I quit, of things that I hate about smoking. I don’t look at it anymore, because I never miss smoking, but I thought about it a lot while I was quitting. I smell better, I can’t believe I ever smelled that bad! Wow, it’s shocking to me, still. The money saved is enormous, that freed up a chunk of financial stress, and I can breathe so much better. I don’t cough at night anymore. I’m not inconveniencing myself or non-smokers in my life by having to stop regularly to go out for smoke breaks, or worse, the anxiety of having to wait a long time for a smoke break. I don’t deal with that anymore. I feel sad when I see smokers in that situation because I remember what it’s like.

I only gained about 8lbs when I quit, but I used gum and toothpicks to distract myself rather than food. Deliberately, because the weight gain was a concern to me. I have since lost that weight, so that was just a drop in the bucket. I do recommend those “tools” if you struggle with the oral fixation aspect. I used cinnamon toothpicks and gum, and so I began to crave “cinnamon,” which was not an intentional effect, but it worked. Somehow I managed not to develop a lingering cinnamon habit.

I used a CBT technique to quit. I lost weight in the process.

When I first heard the term “smoker face”, and instantly knew what it meant, I knew I had to quit.

I haven’t had a cigarette for 4 months and six days now, and I feel unbelievably better physically. I had started to develop a pretty bad cough, constantly, and it was completely gone by the second month. I don’t get breathless as easily and my entire chest feels better in general – there’s no tightness or heaviness like there used to be. It’s also great because I used to get extremely irritable if I had to wait a long amount of time to smoke a cigarette. It’s nice to not have to think about smoking all the time anymore.

I quit cold turkey and I honestly felt insane, or like I was addicted to heroine or something. I got anxious, emotional enough to cry about idiotic things, pissed off, etc. The negative little voices were constantly reminding me that I’d feel better if I just smoked a cigarette, but the physical benefits of quitting were so immediately obvious and good for me that I absolutely refused to give in. Plus, after my initial insanity passed, I felt stupid and ashamed that cigarettes had the ability to control my mind and emotions to that degree… it creeped me out so thoroughly that that alone is enough to keep me away from them for good.

At times, especially when I’m really stressed, the negative, nagging voices are always there and frankly, it sucks. I can’t wait for the day that part of my brain just shuts up and deals with the fact that I don’t smoke anymore. Now, I feel like it’s a competition within myself – I have to prove that I have self-control and that the side I truly want to win, will win. Haha!

I wish you the best of luck, and you absolutely can do this if you continue to want to. :)

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