Are you fit?

[xxx 2]

What effects are they O11? I've never been a smoker, so I don't know about these things.

[Ocean11 0]

Shortness of breath and a plentiful supply of phlegm. I can do normal exercise, but I start huffing and puffing early on.

 

I think it's a real mistake that anti-smoking campaigns go on about cancer and heart disease - things that the majority of smokers actually don't get. They should focus on the low-level but nasty things like the extra colds and weakened health most smokers experience to some extent.

[damian 0]

Ocean –

 

Thanks for that . It is encouraging to be reminded that stopping smoking can simply be a yes or no decision. I am now one step closer to going through the ropes yet again. Good on you for staying away from them.

 

I have stopped three times in the past and each time I used an approach like yours... brute mental control over my actions, cold turkey. It worked and I felt pretty happy about it. However I always ended up smoking again after sufficient time had passed to forget the effort required to give up. About six months down the track I found myself drinking more to give me an excuse to have one.

 

Now I think about it, giving up was never as easy as that:

 

I have found that when I give up I need to replace it with something really extreme, but beneficial. This way I focus the anger of withdrawal into something useful. Usually I run and exercise. Every time I felt like a cigarette I would do sit ups or push ups until I almost collapsed. This is kind of hard in the office. Other things I would do included restarting my weights program. I would make the muscle that I was working on the source of my desire to have another cigarette. This would make me ‘hate the muscle’, and thus work it even harder (you can always get 2 more reps when you literally despise the muscle and want to cause it pain. The rush after the pain has faded feels great too).

 

That all seems a tad extreme, I think I would benefit from some balanced composure

 

My biggest hassle with smoking is it gets me out of my seat at work. I can’t sit still for longer than 60 minutes and maintain focus, particularly if it is a boring day. So giving up deprives me of a convenient work distraction. I am also a moody bastard with a low frustration tolerance. Giving up and still dealing with my Japanese colleagues in the first week of withdrawal will be interesting.

[frizzled 0]

Not really, but I should really do something about it.

[Ocean11 0]

db, offices are a repressive environment. When I worked at Epson, they played annoying rajio taiso music twice a day, at 10 and 3. All the old farts got up and did it. What I really wanted to be able to do was 50 sit ups and 50 push ups every hour to get the blood moving and feel less like a bag of fat slumped in a chair. As I was already considered eccentric enough, I didn't do it. Instead I made the large 'disabled toilet' my second office.

 

As tobacco goes, cigarettes are pretty disgusting. Try smoking cigars instead, in moderation.

[zwelgen 0]

Yo db you dont need to smoke to get up from your desk. I keep a 1L bottle of water on my desk and usually drink 1 in the morning and 1 in the afternoon. The result is that I have to go to the toilet lots so Im getting up from my desk and go and talk to people on the way.

 

I have heard that drinking lots of water when you get smoking urges is good, but never having smoked I wouldnt have a clue.

[nzlegend 1]

 Quote:

Originally posted by db:
. So giving up deprives me of a convenient work distraction.

Are you kidding????? Isnt this forum enough of a distraction??? between having a fag and posting here I doubt you do any work

[akibun 0]

I put on about 2kg over the winter, and so since Monday I try to jogging a few times a week. Already I am boring.