Quitting cigs

[thebadkitty]

You can do it! I enjoy smoking my pipes much more than I ever did a butt, and that helped a lot with changing the mindset. There is a lot of good advice in here, especially what Phil said, pleasure over addiction. You are in control of your habits, not the other way around.

Again, you can do it!

 

[treeder13]

Good luck! I wish I could help more but as I've never touched a cig idk how to help there but I've gotten about 6 out of my 50g tin so far and it's still half full and that was in pretty average size pipe

 

[matchstickman]

For what it's worth, I have never smoked cigs, and I dont intend to start any time soon. I have been an (almost) daily pipe smoker for the last year now, and I really enjoy it. The nicotine helps to calm me down and go to sleep, but there are some days that I just dont feel like smoking or I dont have time for it. On the days that I do smoke, one or two bowls is all that I can manage. So a 50 gram tin usually lasts me 2 weeks to a month depending on how many blends I decide to have open at one time and how many days I got without smoking.

 

[philip]

Now I need good reasons to psych myself.

If you would like to quit, but don't, you are willfully surrendering control of your own behavior to the cigarette companies.
That thought in itself would make me inclined to quit. Who's in control?
I wish you all success.

 

[barkar]

I don't know if you have kids or not but if you do, discuss it with them. When I quit cigs my son was still very young, after a small talk with him about what I was trying to do I learned that he had been having nightmares because he was convinced I was going to die. Now, health, money, appearance, etc, don't even come close to the impact of knowing I was terrifying my son.

 

[ohin3]

Kids have a way of firing those sobering bullets of truth right between your eyes eh? I remember shortly before I quit, the 3 year old son of my girlfriend at the time came out to the porch to see what I was doing. He observed me smoking a cigarette and asked "what are you doing Phil?" "I came outside to have a smoke Dax" I replied. "Why?" Dax asked. I froze and felt completely stupid and humbled by the honest questioning from a 3 year old. "I don't really know Dax" I replied and tossed it to the ground and took him inside to play. He then told me I stunk from smoke and asked me again why I smoke and told me he thought it was stupid. That was one of those motivators for me to quit and I did so days later.

 

[juni]

No, we don't have kids but my wife is very supportive of me quitting cigs and moving 100% to pipes. I was sort of going to ease out of cigs gradually but that never seems to work. Instead of going all John Wayne I was thinking that one of the best pieces of advice I've seen is to just... relax. It isn't the end of the world and I will still be able to smoke tobacco - just in the form I like and enjoy.
waznyf: Both my local B&Ms carry nasal snuff so I am lucky in that way (I have to ask the third one when I go there on saturday). Mr Snuff is a well recommended web store in the UK. I don't know stores in the US but there must be some. Snuffhouse has a good list of sites selling snuff.
The quality of the tobacco is a big incentive all on its own.

 

[barkar]

Good luck and happy puffing

 

[carlosviet]

Well, my 2 cents from my experience and studies:
One of the problems with cigarettes addiction is that it works differently to different people. There are 3 main addictions in cigarettes: Nicotine, Boost of endorphines, and social.

The endorphines boost is the effect of all the components of cigarettes that increase the good feeling of a good moment (such as a break from work, after a meal or after sex).

You, as an smoker should identify how much of each is in your addiction. For example, a mere nicotine addiction is easy to manage with gums, patches and similar in a couple of weeks. But the social or endorphine part is a lot more difficult. In those cases, your body is going to crave a lot a cigarette in certain moments. The best way in those cases is to change your routine and lifestyle for a couple of weeks. Avoid coffee or any drink you used to have with cigarette. Take very small meals that don't get you full. Drink loads of water, and walk or try to stay in places that you are used to not to smoke.
Smoking is not only an addiction, it is also a lifestyle habit and I found that it was a more manageable battle if instead of eliminating the habit, I just changed lifestyle.
As I say, those are my 2 cents from my experience...
Oh, and to contradict the statistics: That change of lifestyle made me also lose 22kg (48 pounds), as I started to join many sports to avoid being in situations where I would want to smoke. It was a win-win result.

 

[juni]

Wouldn't it be possible to substitute cigs with a pipe in those situations?

 

[carlosviet]

Wouldn't it be possible to substitute cigs with a pipe in those situations?

Some, yes. Some others, not. You smoked many cigs a day. You will smoke less bowls, for longer times. You will see when you walk that road, according to your personal circumstances. But in any case, what I advice is that if there is a situation that asks you for a cig, and a pipe is not viable, avoid that situation for a couple of weeks. Otherwise, you will smoke pipe AND cigs.

 

[juni]

I already do that, smoke pipes and cigs. :lol:
But I understand your point.

 

[busyhands94]

Here's a little trick I found to cut back on cigarettes. Get some American Spirit tobacco and roll your own, I do it when I can't have a pipe but want nicotine. Pre-made cigarettes aren't good tasting, they taste absolutely horrible to me. I don't miss Camels one bit. I'll only smoke hand rolled natural tobacco in natural flax papers with cotton filters.
The beauty of handrolling is it's going to be a lot harder than to just pull one out and spark up. It takes me a minute to prepare my smoke and I'm finding I'm smoking half of the amount I used to smoke when I was on Camel wides. They also don't have accelerants added to them so they'll burn for 10 minutes. To give you an idea I could suck down a Camel in two minutes or less. I'm also having less coughing fits even if I'm going unfiltered, that's unfiltered natural versus filtered chemicals.
And, when it comes time you feel ready to quit you won't be addicted to all these dreadful chemicals, just plain ol' nicotine. It only takes three days for the human body to rid itself of nicotine, so it will be significantly easier to quit than premade smokes.
Just putting that out there in hopes you or someone else finds it helpful. I'm smoking less by rolling my own.
P.S. American Spirit makes a perique blend, I highly recommend it.

 

[ejames]

I smoked 1 1/2 to 2 packs a day for 35 years before I switched over to the pipe completely. Started out smoking the pipe only after work,cigs at work. After a while the cigs really started to taste like crap. Kept that up for about 6 months and finally pitched the cigs and started smoking the pipe full time.Since going to the pipe full time I find my cravings are not as strong. I still smoke all day,12-15 bowls a day,but I can go 2-3 hours or longer and not have the strong cravings like I did with the cigarettes. I never found it to be a problem taking a quick smoke with a pipe. It doesn't take long to load and light one and it's not necessary to fill the bowl completely. With some tobaccos you can fill the bowl and if you don't smoke it all it will still taste fine a couple hours or so later. Another thing you can do is get a Falcon or Viking etc. and fill a couple of bowls before leaving for work. I know guys who do this when driving long distances also.

Even though I do smoke a lot I spend a lot less on tobacco than I did for cigarettes,pipes,well.....

 

[baronsamedi]

waznyf Chantix is similar to Zyban in the way it works. I'm not sure what the chemical similarities are between the two though. You may be able to get Zyban cheaper because it is actually the same medicine as the mild antidepressant Wellbutrin which is available as a generic. they both work in that they block the pleasure centers that respond to nicotine. If your experience is like mine, You will simply get bored of cigarettes while on the medication and quit. By the time you finish both rounds of the meds, your body will be clear of nicotine. I don't know how pipe smoking will work with this method, though, because I didn't take up pipe smoking until 10 or so years after I quit the cigs.

 

[pawpaw]

been off the nails for over a year now (3 packs a day) I did it with high nic blends, there are plenty, and the knowlage it aint a sin to inhale.

 

[sabertooth]

The three examples you mentioned are more than enough to push you away from cigs. A lot of people around you also won't find the smell distasteful like cigs & cigars. ( Ex. aromatics)
Not to mention how less you'll probably smoke per day with pipe.

 

[juni]

Doesn't it feel a little like someone ran into your house, took a poop in your living-room and quickly vanished when your thread gets spammed?

 

[grafikchaos]

That's taking a poop and setting it on fire even. Wow. I just came over to say that today, I'm not going to smoke a single cig, and I'm going to smoke only my pipes. I hope I can do it.

 

[motrix]

Good luck to you. It's a hard habit to kick but it can be done. For some people it is a lot easier than others. I found it fairly easy for me but I know a lot of my close friends had a heck of a hard time. It became much easier when some of my smoking partners quit too.