Giving up smoking

(Diane Woessner) #1

Hi to all my Keto pals!!! I want to give up smoking when I lose my last 3lbs for my first goal!!! I thought about Sugar free life savers?? I wanted to know if anyone has quit & what did you use to help you through??? I look forward to hearing from you!!!

(squirrel-kissing paper tamer) #2

Good for you Diane. I began keto last September and quit smoking in Feb this year with the help of vaping. I know it’s not for everyone but it has worked for me. Best wishes and again, congrats! I feel so much better and you will too!

(Diane Woessner) #3

Thanks for the encouragement

(Not a cow) #4

What saved my life was not a lifesaver but some good prescription drugs. Zyban to be exact and I took this during the most stressful work period of my year. Zyban is an antidepressant , prescribed for smoking cessation, so it also helps out with any anxiety you might have about “absolutely everything” ;).

I had tried to quit smoking, it seems like every day, from the time I was 40 till I finally used Zyban at age 51, and it was easy peasy. Unfortunately, my co-worker and some other people that I heard about were not able to handle this drug, but a lot of my friends who smoked used it successfully, including Moi.

I don’t know whether being on Keto would counter the effect of the drug, but you should let your Dr know about your diet if you ever considered using Zyban or a similar newer drugs like Chantrix.

(Katie) #5

This is how I quit smoking. Altogether it took a bit more than a year. I have recommended this method for friend, and they too have quit using this method,

Ok…first, you probably already cannot smoke at work…so, cut back on smoking breaks… maybe just one in the morning instead of two. When you are comfortable with that cut back to just one. Also…stop smoking in the car going to and from work. Just in the car. Smoke like crazy once you are out…but not in the car.
Over time you get comfortable with this and you actually stop craving a cig during those times because you have trained you mind to not expect a cig.

Then…stop smoking in the house, Go out side. Begin to cut back on doing that…maybe after 9pm don’t smoke till morning.

At each step along the way just tell yourself that you can smoke as much as you want just not right now.

Then eliminate the time you would smoke after dinner.

Over the course of a year you will whittle down the times you smoke

With me, there came a day that I got up in a hurry…rushed to get dressed and get a cup of coffee to get to work…didn’t smoke after parking the car, had to rush. Next thing I know it is noon and I have not yet smoked that day. I had a doctors appointment, so I just decided to just in the car and get there. After the doc appointment I went home and started dinner. I didn’t break to go outside to smoke and then it was after dinner. I decided then I wasn’t going to smoke till morning.

Next day I didnt smoke. Then the next. At no point in time did I say to myself I was quitting…just I wasn’t going to smoke just then.

I found that during that whole year I trained myself to resist urges…that the craving for a cig only lasted a short time…and getting shorter.

I didn’t actually plan to quit when I did. Just, after not smoking for a few days it really didn’t bother me as much as I thought it should. After dinner was the worst cravings…so…I could go sit in the car, and the craving would just go completely away. I think because I training myself to not expect a cig there. Know where else you will never crave a cig??? The shower. You never smoked in the shower, did you?

Anyway. I was a bit embarrassed to tell people about this experience because it was supposed to be so horrible and I was supposed to be a screaming, insufferable bitch…and it didn’t happen.

Take time, teach yourself to resist cravings…just a little at s time. Increasing it over time. One day you too will find that you just sort of quit.

(Diane Woessner) #6

Thanks

(Susan) #7

I have never been a smoker, but what about those patches or the gum? They might help =). I wish you all the best for quitting.

(Allie) #8

I just stopped and haven’t smoked since, that was Nov 5th 2000 and I had been smoking since 1988 when I was 12.

('Jackie P') #9

I would highly recommend Dr Alan Carr’s book The Easy Way to Stop Smoking. I gave up many years ago but like a fool, in an inebriated moment, started again. After a couple of failed attempts, during which I put on 8lbs each time, I finally did it a few months into keto. Amazingly I had no cravings for sweets, and it seemed surprisingly painless, no weight gain.
I know a lot of people who have had incredible success with Champix. I’m pretty sure they work by blocking the dopamine receptors so the cigarette does absolutely nothing for you.
Whatever you do, I promise that life as a non smoker is infinitely more enjoyable!
I wish you the best.

#10

I quit smoking on the 22nd of September 2014. I realized that not having cigarettes at home made me nervous, so I kept a pack of about 5 cigarettes on top of the fridge and I told myself “be strong, have some character and don’t light one.” After about a month, I gave the pack to my friend. :slight_smile:

I had a very slight abstinence crisis on the third day, flu-like symptoms - I took one xanax, one ibuprofin and went to sleep for the afternoon. I decided to get some Nicorette if the symptoms would continue, but I was back to normal the next day, phew. My friend had horrible symptoms, fever, diarrhea, chills, etc. Prepare yourself for that and how you solve it without reaching for the cigarette - my friend caved and she’s still smoking. :frowning:

Then you have a rollercoaster of emotions, where you realize that your entire day revolved around cigarettes: nervous, smoke, bored, smoke, happy, smoke, coffee, smoke, food, smoke, before bed time, smoke, do I have enough for tomorrow, smoke…

It took me about a year to feel comfortable in most situations. A lot has changed, though - I stopped drinking, I stopped going for coffees and prefer walks or other activities, I actually feel less nervous and anxious than before…

You’re embarking on a long journey, but you will come out the other end as a better version of you - much stronger, braver and more confident. Give yourself pep talks, be proud of yourself, you’re doing a good thing :slight_smile:

If you need any words of support, we are here for you! :slight_smile:

(Libby) #11

Quitnet.com is a great quitting-smoking forum.

I vape (near zero-nicotine) like a madwoman and now need to quit vaping but haven’t so far. Haven’t smoked a regular cigarette for years now. When I chose to start vaping I stopped going to quitnet because their view about vaping was kind of like how if someone here says they want to do keto while still eating a donut for breakfast every day. Somewhat disapproving.

My mother quit smoking in her 50’s by the strategic disassociation of smoking with other activities: first don’t smoke 15 minutes after waking, 15 minutes before sleeping. Then, don’t smoke on the phone, then in the car etc, until she could do regular daily things without associating them with a nicotine reward. Like @katiekate

My father gave up smoking when he died from lung cancer. Sigh.

Many many many people have successfully abandoned the smoking habit! Best wishes for you!

(Diane Woessner) #12

Thanks

(Diane Woessner) #13

Thanks so much !!’

#14

Diane,
Congratulations on your decision to quit. It sounds like you’re ready to give it up. That’s one of the most important determinants of success.

However you decide to go about it, I wish you the best of luck and determination. I quit 25 years ago through hypnosis. (Yes, weird, I know, but strangely it worked for me.) I would imagine your idea of SF lifesavers or gums would help.

Removal of normal triggers by changing your routine may be helpful. Examples: If you always smoke while drinking coffee, then start only having coffee at work at your desk. If you always smoke right after eating then perhaps start having a sugar free Keto popsicle immediately afterwards instead.

Best wishes! You won’t regret it!

(Mark Rhodes) #15

I quit coming home from Ketofest 2018 and have remained tobacco free for over a full year now. My trials and tribulations begin here, were I show how I gained 30 pounds only 8 of which was lean. Then more about how I dealt with it by adding Choline.

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Gary Taubes wrote a good deal about nicotine in Good Calories Bad Calories and I would recommend you read the whole book not just the section on nicotine.

( i have added this edit a day later including the text)

Consider nicotine, for instance, which may be the most successful weight-loss drug in history, despite its otherwise narcotic properties. Cigarette smokers will weigh, on average, six to ten pounds less than nonsmokers. When they quit, they will invariably gain that much, if not more; approximately one in ten gain over thirty pounds. There seems to be nothing smokers can do to avoid this weight gain. The common belief is that ex-smokers gain weight because they eat more once they quit. They will, but according to studies only in the first two or three weeks. After a month, former smokers will be eating no more than they would have been had they continued to smoke. The excess of calories consumed is not enough to explain the weight gain. Moreover, as Judith Rodin, now president of Rockefeller University, reported in 1987, smokers who quit and then gain weight apparently consume no more calories than those who quit and do not gain weight. (They do eat “significantly more carbohydrates,” however, Rodin reported, and particularly more sugar.) Smokers also tend to be less active and exercise less than nonsmokers, so differences in physical activity also fail to explain the weight gain associated with quitting. The evidence suggests that nicotine induces weight loss by working on fat cells to increase their insulin resistance, while also decreasing the lipoprotein-lipase activity on these cells, both of which serve to inhibit the accumulation of fat and promote its mobilization over storage, as we discussed earlier (see Chapter 22). Nicotine also seems to promote the mobilization of fatty acids directly by stimulating receptors on the membranes of the fat cells that are normally triggered by hormones such as adrenaline. The drug also increases lipoprotein-lipase activity on muscles, and this may explain the steep rise in metabolic rate that occurs immediately after smoking. All of this fits with the observations that smokers use fatty acids for a greater proportion of their daily fuel than nonsmokers, and heavy smokers burn more fatty acids than light smokers. In short, nicotine appears to induce weight loss and fat loss not by suppressing appetite but by freeing up fatty acids from the fat cells and then directing them to the muscle cells, where they’re taken up and oxidized, providing the body with some excess energy in the process. When smokers quit, they gain weight because their fat cells respond to the absence of nicotine by significantly increasing lipoprotein-lipase activity. (There’s also evidence that the weight-reduction drug fenfluramine—the “fen” half of the popular weight-loss drug phen/fen, which was banned by the FDA in 1997—works in a similar manner, by decreasing lipoprotein-lipase activity in the fat tissue.)

Taubes, Gary. Good Calories, Bad Calories . Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

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Finally, in January I was once again able to do extended fasts. The insulin resistance created by nicotine cessation made this difficult but it finally happened. Once this happened and I could fast again the weight came off pretty good. Since then I have helped coach a few people through this ugly horrendous time. But it is worth it.

In this last graph you can see exactly how according to multiple Dexascans I gained bodyfat. It was so difficult mentally going through adding fat but as I learned in the links I provided it is almost impossible to not gain weight. KCKO!!!

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The blue line clearly shows when I left Ketofest 2018 and when I hit my worst since coming in to Keto, by Body fat was again over 25%. I am happily back about 16% right now and really very solidly built for a 55 year old guy. Keep the faith, stay away from the cigarette one hour at a time. The cigarette WILL NEVER feel as good as not smoking feels. Good Luck.

(Diane Woessner) #16

Thanks

(Diane Woessner) #17

Thanks so much for the Encouragement!!! I will definitely have to change my ways!!

(Full Metal KETO AF) #18

Quitting smoking is so easy, I’ve done it 100 times! :joy::joy::grin::cowboy_hat_face:

But seriously I get over nicotine addiction very fast. Cold turkey is the only thing that ever worked for me. Cutting down slowly was never successful. I never chewed gum or used a patch. I gave it up for good about 8-9 years ago. I also smoked crappy marijuana whenever I got the urge to smoke a cigarette for about a week just to satisfy the physical habit of smoking. That got old pretty quick. I’m always okay without the nicotine in a few days. The best thing you can do is stay really busy and before you know it it’s over. It helps to remember that nicotine is poisoning your body too. For me carb withdrawal is worse. It was physical where nicotine felt mental. :skull_and_crossbones::skull_and_crossbones::skull_and_crossbones::skull_and_crossbones::cowboy_hat_face:

#19

:joy::joy:

@Diane_Woessner I quit smoking when my husband fell ill with myocarditis, it was wintertime, we were both at home for four months (I was studying, he was on sick-leave) and I morphed my cigarette addition into food addiction. :wink: My husband and I lived to eat and we cooked, and cooked, and cooked some more. I gained 15kg and only keto repaired all those years of punishment with SAD weigh loss, the vicious cycle. When I went keto, I had to battle those demons again, snacking was an issue for me and that bastard still sneaks up on me every once in a while…
Don’t be lazy, identify those problems and coping mechanisms early, so you don’t replace one addiction with the other.

I don’t remember what it felt like to be a smoker, but I have some fond memories, we had some good times. :wink: It’s like an ex relationship - you need time to grieve, time to get over it and then it doesn’t hurt anymore. :slight_smile:

(Dirty Lazy Keto'er, Sucralose freak ;)) #20

I’m going to start smoking when they cremate me :grinning: