hello all. so I am a heavy smoker...have been for 1/2 my life and have tried many times to quit with no success. I am wondering if there are any other rawfoodists in the same boat, or who perhaps quit while adjusting to the raw diet and might have some tips.

the smoking is really taking its toll on me.

thanks for any advice/info you might have. I have tried hypnotism, accupuncture, patch, gum, and prescription drugs!

d

try craniosacral therapy to get to the root of it


sorry you're saddled with that addiction, that must be very tough

Even though I am not posting questions....Try reading "The Easy Way to Quit Smoking." I has worked for millions and many friends of mine. I am reading it now. Apparently you smoke your way through it and quit easily and readily by the end....

I quit smoking about the same time as going raw. Many years ago. Technically (as Wayne Dyer likes to say) NOT smoking is easy.....buying cigarettes....puffing away....and dealing with the health problems.....now THAT'S hard! LOL.

-Still: If you regard smoking as being absolutely incompatible with your life goals......and you value yourself....you'll find the tools to stop. Get out of the environments that supported your smoking....and start seeing yourself as a non-smoker. Find more positive habits to engage in. It is the larger issue of not pursuing ones goals....and being fulfilled with that......that give rise to trying to fill that hole....with stimulants that can never fully do the job.

-You'll NEVER get enough of what you DON'T want. Heh..heh....

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

there came a point with me when i WANTED to be healthy more than i wanted to smoke. and after being raw for awhile, smokes were starting to make me feel sick.

i went cold turkey....after ten years of pack/day.


AND i started exercising which made me feel even healthier! after a few weeks of jogging everyday, i didn't want to mess up my progress with a bloody smoke!


much love,
*m*

I read recently that even nematodes get addicted to nicotine and suffer withdrawal symptoms. They share the same relevant metabolic pathways with us.

So don't feel guilty. Just keep trying.

refs:
Feng Z, Li W, Ward A, Piggott BJ, Larkspur ER, Sternberg PW, Xu XZ.
A C. elegans model of nicotine-dependent behavior: regulation by TRP-family channels.
Cell. 2006 Nov 3;127(3):621-33.
PMID: 17081982 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Kelley AE.
Worms clear the smoke surrounding nicotine addiction.
Cell. 2006 Nov 3;127(3):460-2.
PMID: 17081968

A couple of things I can remember about the time I finally managed to quit smoking permanently (after 17 years as a heavy smoker.)

Firstly, I "tried" to quit many times before I finally succeeded. I really think the phrase "trying to quit" is a smoker's code phrase that secretly means "I don't want to quit, but if I say I am trying I won't have to feel bad when I fail". One of the keys for me in finally succeeding was to really look hard at those cigarettes and realize that every single time I put one of those things in my mouth it was a choice, and I had power over that choice. And I had to eliminate the word "trying" from my vocabulary and start "doing"! (I quit cold turkey, which I also believe will be the most effective method)

Secondly, I had to adjust my attitude totally. Quitting smoking is not a deprivation, and you must really persuade yourself of that. TRULY! It is a gift to yourself, a greater gift than you can even begin to imagine right now, it won't become clear to you until much later - believe me on this, it is the absolute truth. Those cravings are a small price to pay for such a wonderful gift.

Here's a letter I sent to my sisters a while ago - hope the message can be of some help to you:



I found out something very interesting the other day. The first person I have ever heard in my entire life who told the whole truth about how the smoking addiction works, it's funny, to have never thought of things a certain way, and yet to know that you knew this all along, just never put it into words. The man who figured this all out became very wealthy from the knowledge. (He was a very, very heavily addicted smoker for over 50 years, but quit immediately upon realizing this information) Interesting....

He points out that the state of being addicted to smoking is a state of constant stress and anxiety. Every time a smoker has to spend some time not having a cigarette, the stress and anxiety begin to build up. This builds up and builds up until finally, they have the opportunity to actually smoke a cigarette. As soon as the cigarette hits their system, the stress and anxiety are greatly dimished, and the person returns to a more relaxed state, a state of "NORMAL".

You know, "NORMAL", the feeling of being relaxed and calm, THE WAY ALL NON-SMOKERS FEEL ALL THE TIME.

That's why the addiction is such a paradox. Anyone could feel this way all of the time if they just released the addiction, because it is such a crazy circle - anxiety to normal to anxiety to normal..........no wonder so many smokers mistakenly believe that smoking relieves their stress, they forget that smoking is the cause in the first place! Each cigarette is about the stress - even if you smoke before you get anxious, you are simply staying ahead of the anxiousness. If you waited long enough, you would feel it.

Some smokers lie to themselves and really believe that they enjoy smoking, but the truth is, that the thing they enjoy so very much is that first return to "NORMAL", that rush of relaxation that makes the anxiety go away. Anyone who truly enjoys that feeling would be wise to quit smoking immediately, so they can begin experiencing that wonderful feeling all the time.

There is no denying that when a person first quits smoking, there is a period of time when that person will experience a deep longing to continue smoking, but it is very important for that person to realize that this is only temporary, and in the long run, each of us is worth it. Every one of us needs to have enough self-worth to know that a little discomfort for the benefit of our own life is a small price to pay, and that WE ARE WORTH IT! Also, any time another cigarette is smoked, it takes you back to the beginning of that crazy cycle. It makes exactly as much sense as banging your head against a wall repeatedly.

Society likes to point fingers at smokers, because smoking is very inconvenient to those that don't partake. However, this should not be the reason for a person to quit. A person should make their decisions according to what is best for them as an individual. To love themselves, to respect themselves enough to realize the importance of taking the very best care of themselves. This might sound selfish, but it is not at all, in fact, it is the greatest gift a person can give to those who love them. So, while your respect for the comfort of others may not be a big enough reason in itself, there's nothing wrong with considering it.

I am sending this to the people I love who still smoke. I will not send anything else. I only ask that you think about this and be truly honest with yourself when considering these thoughts. REALLY HONEST! If you still don't see any point in it, I will respect that, but it would mean a lot to me if you would just think about it. I pray that you will love yourself enough to see that you ARE worth the trouble, in fact you are worth much more than that.

Thank you for reading this,

S

PS: Age is no excuse not to quit. No matter how old you are, or what shape your health is, or how long you have smoked, you CAN make changes, and find improvements. Somewhere, someone older than you, who smoked longer than you already has.

Sapphire

BTW - The author of that book is Carr. Also, as I have experienced, I believe that addiction receives more energy and gets worse the more we judge it and try to get rid of it. I find that becoming more aware of what I am doing, really watching it, and not making it so bad tends to ease the stress I feel and give me more space to succeed.

I found that yoga helped me quit smoking. The asanas and breathing exercises were great stress relievers. The more I got into yoga, the more I didn't want to smoke, as I knew it would affect my practice.

Tea tree oil toothpicks also helped when I felt like I needed to light up. I would sometimes chew on two at a time.

thanks everyone for your responses and support! Sapphire..what a great letter. I hope it helped the people you sent it to in the past..it has helped me right now. thank you!

I am going to be a non-smoker soon enough. I feel it in my heart of hearts. I wont let those little bastards control me any longer!!!

I wouldn't say I was ever a "smoker" - I'd smoke when I went out drinking, but never during the day or when I wasn't drinking, so I guess I was never addicted... but surprisingly, on raw, I couldn't do it anymore. The idea of smoke in my lungs skeeved me out in a way it never had before. I still think it would be fun to smoke while drinking, but if I'm physically repulsed by it, then I'll just pass. Btw there's that commercial about how you're a smoker even if you just smoke while out having drinks - that is such crap. I would have no problem calling myself a smoker, but it just wouldn't be honest - to say on here that I was a smoker and that raw cured me of it - I think that would be disrespectful of people with actual nicotine addiction, which I feel that I can't speak for. But anyway that was my experience with raw & smoking.

Ddreams76 - I can't say enough about what it will mean to you when make the decision to really get serious and do this. So here's something, bear with me, this could be very relevant:

A few years ago, I was diagnosed with cancer and had to have some terrible treatments, including 6 months of chemotherapy. The experience of chemotherapy is so horrible, I hope you never in your life have to find out. The poisons they were putting in me were so toxic that the doctor advised me to let them put something called a PICC line into my arm so they could inject the drugs into me and bypass the veins in my arms so they wouldn't be damaged. I had three chemo drugs, but there was one that really scared me. It was so dangerous that the chemo nurse had to wear protective gear because if she would have accidentally spilled any on her skin it would have caused chemical burns. But when she injected it into the PICC tube, it flowed directly into my heart. It was so deadly that she had to inject it simultaneously with huge amounts of saline solution to dilute it enough for my body to handle it, and there were two huge vials I had to get each time. The tears would run down my face the whole time, it took nearly an hour to get it all into me. (and that doesn't even begin to tell you what it did to me after they got finished)

Imagine for a moment if this was happening to someone in your family who you love a lot - a sister, daughter, your mom - anyone. Imagine how it would make you feel. Really - think hard about this, it's important.

Now, think about this - cigarettes aren't a whole lot different than that chemotherapy drug. They seriously poison your body. If you drop one on you, it will burn your skin. They contain such poison that if you got enough of it at once, you die (ever heard of kids eating cigarette butts and what happens?)

How would you feel about someone you love going through chemotherapy, that's how people who love you hurt when you smoke. BUT, smoking is even worse! It's not even necessary!

Being addicted to smoking is like being possessed by a devil. Nobody but a true devil could mess up your mind enough to make you think this is something desirable.

Just something for you to meditate on next time you get a craving - sorry if it's a little mean, but it might be good for you right now to be a little hard on yourself (I say that in the nicest and most supportive way)

Good luck, and please keep us posted on how you do. I will be cheering you on in cyberspace!

Sapphire

Great thread! Sapphire - you rock! I quit smoking and went raw at the same time. It was crazy!!

I urge you to do what you're doing. Enlist all the help that you can get. I used daily reflection books, went to a smoking cessation class, used the patch, made appologies to all my friends in advance for the day that I might tell them all to go s___ in their hats!!!! (didn't happen), got a "quit buddy" to call when I needed to tell someone how crazy I was feeling, carried around a list of all the reasons why I wanted to quit (there were times when just reading the list didn't cut it - and then I needed to call someone and verbally state why I wanted to quit. Sapphire was absolutely right - cigarettes (withdrawal) actually create the stress and anxiety that you THINK they relieve!!!

One more thing - if you can keep thinking of yourself as a clean, healthy, happy, loving, "in tune with your higher self" kind of person and keep remembering that that's who you are, move toward that, YOU CAN DO IT! Yes it's hard - but you can do hard! OK - one more thing. Ask God, or the Universe, or Mother Nature or whatever resonates with you for help! Surely if there's a creative force out there, it would want to help you to do what's best for you.


Good Luck! I'll be thinking of you and praying for you.


Life Is Good!
alive!

I used to smoke, and quit in December 2006. But I quit because of three main reasons. The biggest one is because of my son, he kept saying "You're gonna die if you keep smoking, you'll suffer a long time if you keep smoking" My son has been taught in school not to smoke and the reasons why and he kept throwing it in my face. And I do want to live a long time to see my son get married and have children, I've seen too many friends and family die between the ages 50 and 60 of lung cancer, that's too young for me!!

Second reason is because I kept waking up feeling like crap and my lungs felt heavy. I was lazy and tired a lot and I knew it had to do a lot with smoking plus that smokers cough was annoying enough. Hearing the smokers cough from other people and then I had it was a terrible realization.

Third and final, I was getting angry and impatient! I noticed that I was dying for a cigerette. Couldn't wait to have time to light up. I hated being in traffic without one. Forgot my pack when I went out and couldn't stand it that I had to go all the way back home to get it. Waiting on line, I wished I had a cigarette, so I'd get angry if the line was taking too long! I wanted to rush in everything I was doing to just have to smoke one.

Well I just stopped cold turkey because I just had it up to here!! It was the hardest thing to stop. I thought I'd go bonkers! I was really sick for 3 months and told everyone that I don't recommend anyone to quit smoking. I had a terrible cough everyday, a stuffed nose that wouldn't quit and phlegm that could fill a bucket every night! It was just awful.

But when I finally got over it I felt great, new and wonderful! I thought that everything would be fine, until I went raw in June, I became sick again, for 2 months, the same way as when I quit smoking.

Now 4 months later, I'm not sick and I actually believe this is it, I won't get as sick as that again, I feel great and fresh.

If I could do it, you can to. Start now, the sooner the better.

Someone saying go cold turkey on vegan website wow lol lol!! Here is what I did I started puffing the cig. without taking it into my lungs. Then take it down to just after meals then go to 2 a day then go to one in the evening. When you get to that one in the evening you will see how gross it is after not smoking all day you will be like now I know why I need to stop then you will. You will see its not worth it!! Blessing and complete concious energy on choosing life rather then death. Alot of rawfoodist think all I have to do it eat raw and not change bad habbits and raw will heal me. Not true you need clean oxygen absorbing lungs to keeep a happy and life sustaing system. Peace and Bless to you all my lovely Brothers and Sisters!!

Amen Sapphire! Two thumbs up to your responses. Wonderfully inspiring...

Thanks so much for sharing,

David

I was trying to think of a few small strategies that helped me in the moment whenever a craving hit:

1. Oranges and cigarettes don't go good together - so keep lots of oranges on hand and eat them freely. It can diffuse a craving at least for a short time, hopefully till you get past the worst of it. Besides, you need the extra Vitamin C.

2. Every time you go to the bathroom, pause in front of the mirror for just a moment and look yourself right in the eyes and say to yourself "I AM A NON-SMOKER." Say this with pride, as many times a day as you need to.

3. I read once that the desire to suck on a cigarette comes from the same place that a baby gets their desire to suck on their soother - it comforts and calms them. I can't help but look at every smoker I see now as very infantile.

4. When you have a craving, grab a bottle of water and go outside if you can. If not, just do this inside. Take a moment to inhale a deep breath into your lungs. Hold it there for a second and release it. Remind yourself what a gift this is to your lungs, to be given this wonderful clean air, and to be able to utilize it. Drink your water, it flushes the poisons out.

5. Stay away from triggers. If you love your cigarette with a cup of coffee, then skip the coffee for a while. If you like one after a meal, make sure to jump up and go for a walk or something before the craving gets you. (Or eat an orange for dessert!)

6. Look at your fingers, your teeth, your skin. Think how much better it will all be when you aren't assaulting them with nicotine. Think how much better you smell.

7. Mentally prepare yourself for the fact that the cravings can come back for months afterwards - be ready for it. It really made me angry when that would happen to me. I mean, I could understand missing alcohol or drugs if that was my addiction, at least they have a payoff (you get high or drunk), but what the heck do cigarettes do for you that entitles them to be such so powerful?

8. Set aside the money you save and treat yourself to something special.

9. Alive has some great ideas Focus on how clean your body will be and how much better it will function. Imagine the freedom of never getting short of breath, of going out and not panicking, thinking about when you will get the chance to have another smoke.

10. Forgive yourself if you get a little cranky. And remind yourself that they are NOT your friend. I know, my smokes felt like my best friend. They AREN'T. Don't be fooled!

Sapphire

WOW SAPHIRE! thank you so much for sharing all that you have. it really means a lot and I have taken everything to heart. in fact, I am going to print out your postings and hang them in my home where i can re-read them often when i begin the journey as a non-smoker. soon. Im mentally preparing myself.

its funny you mention not to let ciggs trick you into thinking they are your friend. One of my dearest friends keeps asking me what are the main reasons Im afraid to quit..and one of my answers is..."Im afraid to lose my best friend."

Please stay in touch here. you have become a true inspiration!

thank you with all my heart...

d

When I stopped a 20-30 a day habit some 8 years ago, Mr. Spock from Star Trek was constantly in my head whenever I wanted a cigarette telling me, "That's not logical, Captain!" I had to tell myself over and over and over that reaching for a cigarette to stop the craving for cigarettes would NEVER work. I think what it takes is learning to just put up with the uncomfortable feeling. The thing you have to know is that it WILL pass. There WILL be a time in your life when it is no longer an issue. My husband still smokes, and I'm not at all tempted by it (now it annoys me, much to his chagrin). The other thing I did was consciously breathe out any time I walked past someone smoking on the street (I worked in downtown San Francisco at the time, so passed by smokers a lot).

I have heard people talk about Emotional Freedom Technique (you can google it). Not sure if anyone's mentioned that above, as I haven't read all the posts above, but you might check that out. It worked for me with my fear of public speaking, or seemed to anyway.

Best wishes. There is an end in sight, you just have to have faith in that for awhile.

Cooked foods were my friends too, but they didn't treat me well, just like your cigs.

[www.emofree.com] is a good EFT site and they have a free emanual and lots of good articles. You can go there and search for cigarettes and see what articles turn up.

Hey Ddreams76 - watch this: smoking video

I was diagnosed with my cancer in late August 2002. Just a few weeks later another lady named Barb Tarbox from Canada was diagnosed with lung cancer, from smoking. I never met her, but I remember reading about her, and she was a guest on the Montel show. Barb did not survive, and died at the age of 42 after having to say goodbye to her 9 year old daughter and husband of 20 years. The last part of the video, when she talks about her family is so sad.

Listen to everything on this video, and then go ahead and google her - you can read all about her journey. 41 is way too young to be told you will die. She didn't even get to see her daughter grow up.

Sapphire

hello SAPHIRE. wow. I just watched that video and it has touched me. scared me. and saddened me. thank you for sharing it. and again thank you for your stories. you are an inspiration and your battles have proved your strength. please keep in touch. please.

thank you

d

Do you have a buddy who might be in on the quitting?

That was huge for me - and my husband. We quit together and having the responsibility shared between the two of us to be honest and true worked.

It was still hard, it was the first time I saw my hubby get really really angry, first time he yelled, but that was only on day one, after that we just got better and better.

It was hard for me to deal with my hands so anything I had done while smoking I stayed away from, coffee, tv, beer. They all were associations for me, letting them go helped, as well.

Now that I am smoke free I notice how much it smells, anyone that smokes - it just lingers on them. I couldn't imaginge all of the time I spent with a lingering odor...

Good luck,

Chrissy

Congratulations ddreams for wanting to quit!

And congratulations to all the ex-smokers who have already quit (including me)!

I smoked for 11 years altogether, usually a pack a day. I totally agree with Saphire when she talks about how a smoker has to smoke a cigarette to feel normal, but nonsmokers feel normal all the time. I was so surprised to learn that after the initial withdrawal jitters, quitting smoking made me feel so calm!

Here are the 3 tricks that helped me most to quit:

Trick #1: I told my son - who was 6 at the time - that if he saw me light up a cigarette, he had my permission to throw a huge crazy tantrum and do everything bad that he could possibly think of, including throw dishes onto the floor, rip up stuff or whatever. The deal was that I couldn't yell at him or punish him in any way, but that as soon as I put out the cigarette, he had to stop and be good again.

That worked really well, because he was always with me when I wasn't at work, and I couldn't smoke at work. He took me up on it just one time, and it didn't take me long to put out the cigarette, I can tell you! I think it was really good for him too, because he felt so proud that he'd helped me quit, and he never took up the habit himself (he's 37 now).

Trick #2: I chewed on toothpicks, the old-fashioned unflavored ones, just kept them in my mouth and sucked and chewed on them until I didn't need them anymore.

Trick #3: Once you quit, DON'T EVER FORGET that if you smoke again just once, you'll be addicted all over again. And then you'll have to quit all over again. I finally figured this out after 5 years of "trying" to quit. When I finally did quit, I went smoke-free for 9 years. After that, I smoked one cigarette at a party just to act like a wise guy, I ended up smoking the rest of the night, I bought a pack the next morning, and was addicted again for a YEAR. Believe me, I learned that lesson!

My friend's "trick": I have a very good friend who has finally quit smoking for about 3 weeks now. Her big motivation is that she'll be visiting some Tibetan monestaries near Tibet in December, and she wants to be clean when she goes there. Also, she believes in reincarnation and that we take our attachments with us into the next life. She doesn't want to take the cigarette attachment with her into her next life! So for her, the act of looking forward to a spiritual pilgrimage, and her basic spiritual beliefs have been very helpful.

Btw, I copied this entire thread to give to her.

We're all wishing you the best, ddreams76. If we can do it, so can you!

When I quit smoking, nothing worked for me other than accepting that I had done something incredibly foolish and that to undo it I was going to have to pay the consequences. Quit smoking aids are pretty dubious if you ask me. Your addiction is between you and the cigarettes, so the best way to quit is to keep it between you and the cigarettes. No conduits are necessary. The best quit smoking aid you have is your spirit and your desire to lead a happy, healthy life that's free of enslavement.

As they say, the first 3 days are a nightmare. Then, it starts getting better, slowly. At about 2 months you'll be doing a lot better, but you really need about a year of daily courage focused on that one thing. You have to be real tough to seriously quit smoking. But what you go through in quitting is nothing like what you'll go through if you don't. It's that simple. Just quit. As soon as you quit, your body starts healing and all the fears attached to smoking start to go away.

At a certain point, I really came to love my struggle against cigarettes. It's given me a lot of confidence and strength, especially when I take on something that's supposed to be difficult. It's as if it made every part of me significantly stronger, not just my body. That, more than anything, made it a successful struggle. Before you know it, it will all be over and you'll be feeling a million times better. You can do it.

Devric is exactly right about the quitting process. The first three days are the worst, and every day gets just a tiny bit better from that point on. But even so, it takes months and months before you really start to feel completely free of the addiction. For me, that was one thing that caused me to fail the first few times, I just got tired of the struggle. Finally, I realized that I was going to have to see it to the end, no matter how long it took, and I am so glad I did.

It's very hard to explain to someone who never smoked how it feels when you quit - I felt like a cigarette was implanted on the front of my brain, and I couldn't have one single thought that didn't have a cigarette super-imposed over it. (Like: "I think I (cigarette cigarette) have to run (cigarette cigarette) out to the (cigarette cigarette) store (cigarette) to pick up (cigarette cigarette) a few things (cigarette cigarette)." It's relentless at first, but believe me, it slowly loses it's hold on you, and after a while, you realize how hard you have worked, and you don't want to start over ever again! I remember finally one night sitting up in bed wanting to scream with joy because I had actually gone one entire day without thinking about cigarettes!

I read once that in Alcoholics Anonymous, they tell you to focus on "one day at a time" because no matter how addicted you are, it is an achievable goal. But for smokers, that's crazy, one whole day without a smoke is so scary. I thought, "those lucky alcoholics", haha, but then I realized I had to change that to one hour at a time, and it helped.

The great news it that when that wonderful magical day finally arrives, when you realize you aren't constantly thinking about smoking, the freedom is indescribable. You can be so very proud of yourself, you have done one of the most difficult things you will ever do, and if you can do that, you can do anything. Confidence doesn't even seem like a big enough word. It's like getting out of prison after being wrongfully accused for half your life, and finding out you are richer than Paris Hilton. You are on your way!

Sapphire

i smoked on and off for six years.
i went raw, and smoked even less, but didn't try to quit.

got pregnant and lost the taste.
never gone back.

but i found myself working my way there on raw.
drinking and smoking were quickly losing their appeal as i grew on raw.

i think there have been amazing posts here.

peace-

hey SAPHIRE...just thought i'd check in. today is my first attempt, this round, at becoming a non smoker. its scary to me.

ddreams76

I will be thinking of you today - good luck.

You can do this!

Sapphire

I just wanted to ask how's it going today, ddreams76 ? Are you still hanging in there? Let us know how you're doing. Thinking of you.

Life Is Good!

alive!