quitting smoking & loosing weight (in theory)
 

ok, so i have made the decision to quit smoking... like 7 times in the last two months. each time included pulling through for a few days and then breaking down and buying a pack.

in the last several days, a time period that coincidentally corresponds to me finally quitting with another addiction (drunk texting my exwife), i have not only returned to smoking but all the way to chain smoking... between over-eating, obsessively caffeinating myself out of normal sleeping orders and drinking (yes i'm a mess).

but i also had an interesting talk with a computer technician who he and a few other guys he knows quit smoking... now his own story i can't recreate, and hope to never have to. it includes bypass heart surgery, at which point coughing now really hurts his chest (talk about biofeedback), and two weeks he had in the hospital without smoking while his loved ones where nice and supportive around him while nurses served him hand and foot. my loved ones.. well, are in another country and hate my guts, and i am very unlikely to get that sort of opportunity in the near future (and sort of don't want too).

but his buddy... walks it off. keeping your running shoes always, on, stays clothes around the house (the horror!), and every time he wants a smoke he goes out walking.. and now it has become his new addiction.

and i'm thinking... two birds in one stone?

edit: i just realized this should probably be moved to health...

The secret to quitting smoking is not putting a cigarette in your mouth and lighting it. If that becomes an impossible task then smoking is not the problem.

Does your friend have a finger missing from his hand?

I have heard many times that when someone drops one addiction, they are very likely to replace it with another one. So your friend replacing it with walking, that's a great way to do it.

Quitting Smoking and Losing Weight are mutually exclusive activities. Pick one to do first.

I suggest quitting smokiing, because then you'll have more weight to lose and you'll feel like you've accomplished something when you do.

They are not mutually exclusive. Not if you want them (both) badly enough.

I quit smoking after 34 years of 2-4 packs a day. I had delayed for such an inexcusably long time because I didn't want the weight gain that went with it. I tried only once, years before, and gained 40 pounds.

So this time, I decided I could and would do it. I set a quit date (05/22/09) and announced it to absolutely everyone. I took a couple days off work after that date and I set up some projects requiring heavy focus. I joined the YMCA and I joined My Fitness Pal to log my calories. My mind tried it's best to talk me out of not smoking..giving me loads of excuses and delaying tactics, but I refused to cave in. I told myself over and over that I COULD DO IT. I argued that I was stronger than some stupid weed in a piece of paper. The first three days were hell, after that there was only the occasional urge, easily overcome.

And I did it.

I also lost 15 pounds and 2 clothing sizes. In the next two years, I lost another 30 pounds and more clothing sizes (went from a 14 to a 4).

In addition, I am totally off the asthma meds and inhaler.

I am planning to run a Warrior Dash, a Zombie Run, and a 5k in the next year. I feel a thousand times better and I have a much better chance of seeing my daughter grow up.

So it is doable. Absolutely. But you have to want it more than you want that next smoke and that extra slice of pizza.


ETA: I have tons of hobbies and fitness pursuits. I avoid doing any single thing too much as I have an addictive personality and try to keep my life varied to stay out of the addiction rut.

I quit cold turkey after 26 years.

It wasn't as hard this time as it was before, mostly because I had an incentive.

My endo told me that I could be Pam or I could be a smoker, but not both. Both would kill me before I got there.

So, be Pam and be alive, or be a smoker and not be Pam....

no brainer for me. I quit that very day.