IRON ONLINE STOP SMOKING ARCHIVE

How I Quit Smoking

This is a great idea and since I missed this thread, I'll share my method in hopes it might help someone else.

I smoked for about 15 years and really wanted to quit most of the last 5, if not more. I smoked a lot, too... 3 packs a day was nothing for me. I was always quitting, or about to try again. I have very strong will, so I would quit cold turkey. Usually along with eating and drinking beer at the same time. My logic was that if I was going to be miserable, I might as well be completely miserable. Little did I know that logic was setting me up for failure. You see, the human brain is wired to subconsciously guide you toward your goals... You know, what you REALLY want.

So I would do fine for a month, or 2, or 3, but all I had to do was be with a bunch of other smokers (especially with a beer buzz on) and if I bummed one, I was right back on them again! This cycle happened dozens of times. I've never had anything control me like that. It's unbelievable how addictive smoking is. I started to realize that my attitude might be the problem. This feeling that quitting was a sacrifice, like being punished, might be counterproductive. I think the same thing is true of dieting. You have to mentally frame the behavior you want to change, so the subconscious mind helps, rather than resists.

Anyway, I decided that if I was going to be a smoker that I would no longer smoke mindlessly... No more pausing at work to decide what to do next and automatically grabbing a smoke. I decided that whenever I smoked, it would be a conscious decision and I would have to stop whatever I was already doing. In other words... If I were working in the shop I would have to go outside and sit down and just focus on smoking. If I was driving, I had to pull over, get out and just smoke... watching TV... go outside, or in the basement... whatever.

The point is that I had to STOP what I was currently doing, go somewhere else and just smoke and THINK about smoking. If I forgot and lit one up, as soon as I realized what I was doing, I had to put it out and go somewhere else to smoke. Not sit there and beat myself up about how stupid this was, or how unhealthy... Just "BE" with the cigarette. I know that sounds silly... Maybe even metaphysical... "Be with the cigarette." But it worked!

My body decided it didn't want to do this. I started putting them out sooner and sooner. I was hoping I would want to quit at the end that year, but I put no deadlines on myself and just let nature take its course. I ended up quitting two months before then. I carried them around for a few weeks after I no longer even wanted one, just in case I got the urge. But, letting the body and subconscious mind participate in the decision is the key. You have to have their cooperation, or you can't win. Of course, other things were at work here too... Like breaking my pattern... and not making it a sacrifice, not instituting a deadline. The subconscious mind always rebels when you make change a confrontation.

That was about 15 years ago and I never looked back... NEVER had the urge to smoke again. If I knew how offensive smoke is to non-smokers, I would have quit long before I did. A guy walked into my outer office the other day, looking for directions, and when he noticed the no smoking sign he just stuck his cigarette behind his back (it had been down at his side). Like it was the sight of smoking that the sign was referring to! I took him outside right away, but I could still smell that cigarette for the rest of the day.

Smokers have no clue what it smells like to non-smokers... They have no sense of smell, or they would know that their breath, their clothes and their car and everything else they come in contact with, smells like an ashtray! It even took about 6 months for my taste buds to really work again, too. Now, an orange tastes like candy and I can't even eat canned soup because it's way too salty.

Take this for what it's worth... It worked for me (and a couple of dozen others who've tried it)... Just might help you too.

Mark Pittroff
Advanced Fitness, Inc

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