I would like to stop smoking!

I started at 11 and smoked till 33. I tried several times to stop cold turkey, and tried low tar (I smoked more), and weaning (didn’t work). Tried thinking about my health, and the money I was spending (at the time $1.00 a pack out of a vending machine - don’t you wish). One day my 18 month old son picked up a pack and stuck the bottom end into his mouth, and like a bolt from the blue, I thought of how I would one day be telling him (and his soon-to-be-born sister) how bad it was to be smoking — while I was puffing away. THAT image and thought was what gave ME the determination. I kept bite-sized pieces of raw fruit and veggies packed in ice. And chewed on them. My wife (at the time) said I was a real grump for three days, and then I mellowed. For YEARS I had a desire to smoke especially at certain times, and I NEVER let myself think or say that I had quit. I was just QUITTING, and that it had been 4 years (or whatever) since my last cigarette. Sometime around year 8, I realized that it had been years since my last urge, and I have been urge free since.

So to summerize: You have to be motivated (other people wanting it wouldn’t have done it) You have to have a plan You have to think of it as an ongoing thing (that I borrowed from AA - one day at a time) And importantly, IF you stumble, just resume right away

Good Luck!!