I would recommend the Alan Carr book and the 4hr seminar.i smoked for 40 years and thought I never had the will power to stop.I left the seminar 2yrs ago and  never had another cig since.The Alan Carr method changes your "perception"
about smoking.Will power is not required,and nicotine addiction is the easy part,your over it in 2/3 days,it's the mental addiction you have to deal with,people who stop by using will power still crave because they still have the suppressed desire,and still believe it's way of relaxing and it helps deal with stress.The truth is they do the opposite,it's a great feeling being free from the constant need to smoke 15/20 times a day.Dont leave it till you have to stop,I've seen a family member die from emphysema,it's a terrible way to go.

i went to an alan carr clinic.

after the 2 or 3 hours it lasted i walked out thinking that it was a waste of £220 (at the time)

However i didnt have a smoke for over 2 years.

Unfortunately i started again

Maleuk... If you are about I would like to know how you felt for the first three days.  You said it felt like a waste of money at first, does that mean you still wanted a smoke when you left?

Cheers kenbo.  I dont know how long it takes for the lack of smoking to effect your lung performance but I went to the gym today after 24 hours smoke free (many years since I did that long) and had the treadmill up to 5:30 min/mile pace and though I didnt last long it kind of felt good, felt like I could have run for ages and at a good speed. 

Have to confess it is getting better, the craving hasnt totally gone but i am getting used to it.  Yesterday afternoon I was just thinking I had wasted my money, feel a bit better tonight.

Rob, You hate smoking. You want to improve your athletic ability. It's clear to me that you are almost there and you will succeed. let there be no doubt in your mind.

Good luck Rob.

I know how much you want to stop smoking. I wish you every success.

Double Down and take a course of Champix to lessen the cravings. 40 year plus smoker that took this course

about 6 months ago and not had a smoke since the first tablet. Still get occasional mild cravings that

disappears within minutes. Stuff all side effects for me. 3 month course of tabs although i had stopped so

early that i kept the final month tablets unopened in case of a set back further down the track i still have 1

month of tabs to counter any set back.

Good luck.

GL rob

Cheers Capt F.  AFL... I imagine champex means doctors appointments and subscriptions and time off work.  Would take weeks or months?  Maybe if this method doesnt work I will look into it cheers.

I wont hear a thing against smokers.. they are the most unselfish people in the world...they pay for the NHS even though they know they'll never get to use it.

If you read the book it's how you interpret the cravings. If you think I want a cigarette you haven't taken his words into your mind. You should be thinking along the lines of killing the little nicotine monster, revelling in it's death throes and that thank god you don't smoke and keep it alive. Each cig merely creates the desire for the next one, this will soon pass.

agree with big issue to a degree.

that doesn't mean you wont get it, but think about why it is you want a cigarette: it's because you want to feel like you don't want a cigarette anymore. that's the main reason we all smoke - to relieve nicotine withdrawal. we smoke so we can feel that we no longer crave a cigarette. in the grand spectrum of drugs available, nicotine is by far and away one of the shittest.

I remember Carr saying that he could understand smack addicts, smack is very pleasurable in its own right as well as being addictive. Nicotine is crap: high dependency, very limited pleasant effects. Every positive effect you think it provides is an illusion you've created in your own mind. It doesn't relieve stress; you're under stress because you crave nicotine. It doesn't help you concentrate; you can't concentrate because you crave nicotine.

in choosing to stop, you're going to soon be in a permanent state of no longer craving nicotine without needing the habit. that's how you need to be thinking.

if you have the short book it's worth reading (again). it does take different people a different amount of time for the penny to drop (it took me about 7 months, i was big book only though) but i think you'll know when it does.

good luck

WD Rob and GL.

I don't smoke but I read the Alan Carr book, out of interest, many years ago.

Iirc, it said that it's not day 1 or day 2 that's difficult but day 1,000 or 2,000. I can't recall the reasoning behind this statement but I assume it meant that once you're past the addiction, it's easy to let your guard down and think, "I'll just have one".

Was a tough one tonight.  Did about six hours in my local because it is closing down tonight.  Was the first time I had been in a pub since I did the course.  I was not immediately worried because i do not smoke much less at home than I do in the pub.  And I had the cheeky smoke at home nailed.  Well My mind was fked as soon as I got in the pub.  Everything and everyone I looked at triggered thoughts of "let's go out for a quick drag". This was pretty much incessant for the first half hour, a real shock to the system,  just did not know what to do with my hands and that.  Got playing darts and that helped.  Matey is bang on the vapes.  He has a pipe thingy, i mean looks like a pipe.  I used his pipe and it is electronic and is full of all sorts of stuff but not nicotine.  So I was sucking it back big time and it was a nice diversion.  I got really into it.  Seemed to me it proved a point..... Just need the diversion not the nicotine.

End result is...  56 hours and no smokes.  And that is the main thing.

I've just been outside for a smoke. Won't smoke inside, gets on the cat's chests.

how you getting on rob?

well done.

If you can do one day, you can do forever, it's only a series of single days anyway. You need to get the mindset of enjoying not smoking and NOT yearning to have a cigarette or you are defeating the object of the exercise. I've been switched to vaping just over 6 weeks btw after 30+ years and was up to 40+ a day when I switched.

just think that oxygen is heaven on earth ,take a deep breath enjoy the intoxicant of pure oxygen .