Cigarettes: How I Quit

Cigarettes: How I Quit

In this article I will tell you of my experience quitting smoking. I hope it will help you do the same. It had been 6 years since I picked up smoking when I quit. I had in that time smoked as much as 2 packs a day. I had also tried to quit once before.

The first time I made a real attempt at quitting smoking was in 2008. I was prescribed Bupropion, a generic Wellbutrin. At that time I was a pretty serious cyclist. To keep my mind off of cigarettes I rode  my bike constantly. In fact, in the time from when I quit to when I started back up (one month) I was able to do my first 100 mile bike ride.

Although the medication curbed my cravings, the desire to smoke hardly ever went away. In a fairly short time I had my moment of weakness. I tried to hide the fact that I had started smoking again for a few weeks. I thought I would quit again before anyone found out. In this time I also smoked cigars instead of cigarettes; thinking it would be easier to quit cigars. Nevertheless, this was a failed attempt at quitting.

The next time I tried to quit smoking I did it cold turkey. Not actually by my choice. My insurance would not cover Nicotrol unless I was involved in a smoking cessation class. I believe that this worked in my favor. Unlike my first attempt to quit with medication, in quitting cold turkey the cravings were stronger. The first two days were especially tough; I spent a lot of time in bed in that time. However, without the medication I feel that the desire to smoke went away pretty quickly. An added incentive that helped me through those first 2 days was that I made a couple of bets with people that I could quit. Similar to the first time I quit, I exercised a lot to keep my mind off of cigarettes. I worked out about 2 hours a day for 9 to 10 day stretches. The days in which I didn't workout were very tough. This lasted for about a month and a half. Now I workout about 3 to 5 days a week and have no problem with not being able to smoke cigarettes.