I'm training for a mararthon but still smoking

Hilly wrote (see)

I can understand how difficult it must be for you as I remember 13 years ago the same feeling of trying to give up and always never quite doing it.  Then one day my lung collapsed and I've not touched one since.  For a year I had lung problems with a further collapse and at times thought I'd permanently damaged my lungs as there was talk of having to have a major op at one point!  

You might think you can run and smoke and I'm sure you can, but there will still be damage going on inside.  It's kind of counter productive really isn't it to smoke and run.

on a personal note, I had a collapsed lung when young and didnt stop the ciggies. I carried on for a further 28 years and now have mild/moderate COPD. During this time I had the "willpower" to train through winters but not manage to "give up" for more than 3 months. Truth is that it is an addiction and though it affects your health badly and will defo affect your running (I find it much harder as a smoker), it has little to do with how much willpower one has(many in the know , know this for  a fact) .

As Hilly says you wil;l keep damaging yourself whilst smoking. Running wont stop the damage nor lead to some mysterious force called "willpower". We all have will and power to use it (it is not a value judgement). You could argue it took willpower for me to smoke after being diagnosed with COPD.

I am a couple of months of them following a long journey of discovery about what my smoking really is and what methods work and what are useful for selling "products" and ideas eg patches  and  " willpower" - if patches dont work , blame is placed on you for having "no willpower" rather than the effectiveness of patrches-clever eh?

I would always say stop the damn things in whatever way but dont tie it in with other activities in a conditional way.

but i actually enjoy smoking, i don't do often, its a stress release for me and a companion to my drink!

i know it's bad that is why i have cut down, from 20 a day to 5 a day sometimes only 3 a day. i have given up a lot of free time with training so i don't want to give this up

Worth pointing out that the only thing in fags that won't kill us is the nicotine. It's the Carbon Monoxide, cyanide. etc that's harmful. So if quitting is something you want to do the patch's or gum are a lot safer even if you never wean yourself off them.

God I want a smoke now. Barlist throw us a fag?

true Cake BUT the only reason we smoke is Nicotine. Tea leaves are a lot cheaper-see how long you last on them. Nicotine itself can leave your body in 3/4 days. If in wrong frame of mind, though, you can crave it months after it leaves. Patches et al cant deal with the "mental" stuff. Mind if I had to be addicted , I would prefer the patch over ciggies anytime. Tried it once or twice but ciggies always ended up my main means of dispensing nicotine in myself.

Withdrawal symptoms from nicotine are mild -what makes one pull their hair owt is still mentally wanting one and feeling deprived. Patches or not, if you aint ready mentally, you will suffer when you stop.

Best of luck on your quit also btw

Smoking is disgusting.  It stinks, you probably stink after a cig.

If you really wanted to give up, you would and could.  But you don't really want to, so you won't.

To all the non smokers who say stop, it ain't that simple mate.

Smoking can be very enjoyable, but ultimately it will probably kill you. Like a lot of other drugs.

To all the smokers who still do, find something you want to do more, like get your race times down.  It's a great motivator.

I started running 20-odd years ago with the express purpose of getting the motivation to give up smoking.  The problem was that it had the opposite effect - running made me fitter and so in my mind "justified" my continued smoking  - and I carried on smoking for the next 12 years!

I finally gave up in 2002 and have never looked back.  I now feel healthier, better about myself and my running has improved beyond measure.  I met my (vehemently anti-smoking) wife in 2003 and doubt she would ever have given me a 2nd thought if I'd been a smoker.

All the old adages are true - if you really WANT to give up you will.  It aint easy but it really is in the mind.  The thing is you have to want to and, as I experienced, running can make you complacent about the damage that the cigarettes are doing.  As for me, I regret every one that ever passed my lips - I suspect you will too when you succeed in giving up. 

I smoked for 25 years before finally stopping, around 14 years ago. It was hard to do, and not really anything to do with willpower, funnily enough.

I read the book HG mentions -- Allan Carr's "Easy Way to Stop Smoking". It worked for me,and has done for many millions. He wouldn't approve of patches.He doesn't even approve of sucking mints when 'trying to stop'. He wouldn't approve of language like "trying to stop". This is defeatist language.

His method is different from anything else I'd tried. He sets out to make you see how ludicrous and paradoxical smoking is. We convince ourselves that smoking gives us something, hence us talking about "giving up" smoking. We think we are sacrificing something. No, we are not. We are gaining something massive. We are liberating ourselves.

I read the book out of interest, without really intending to stop. Halfway through I finally "got it". I stopped smoking there and then, and that was it.

For anyone struggling to stop, you have my sympathy. It's a potent drug. But it is very possible to stop. Many millions of us have done it. It was probably the single best thing I've ever done in my life. Do pick up the Allen Carr book. You have nothing to lose, and an extraordinary prize to gain.

wot RC says

and here is free ebook of the book

http://www.pdf-search-engine.com/the-easy-way-to-quit-smoking-allen-carr-pdf.html

I'll throw something into the mix, started smoking again about 9 mths ago just on a night out, bit pissed blah blah and I am quicker now per mile and overall than i was before I started!!  Howeevr, don't think this has anything to do with the smoking but I had my last one last saturday, woke up full of regret (and a mahoosive hangover) and decided enough is enough, i don't crave them when i'm sober, its just drunken saturday night weakness, so no more for me!! (I hope).  Got Edinburgh in 17 weeks so need to sort it OUT!

Have tried Allan Carr, many yrs ago when i smoked "full time" didn't do it for me but I can see why it works and know a lot of people who it has worked for, I think i think about it too much - too much of a cynic perhaps. Good luck to all who are giving up though.

edited to say *Oh and I train 6 days a week come rain wind snow and sleet morning, noon and night if i have to - I have willpower and dedication - just not in all areas of my life

Hi folks

as one who has now stopped, a realisation has really deeply got into me, that never occurred as a smoker for many years.  It is this feeling we call "withdrawal". To me it was an edgy feeling that built up and badgered me until I had a fag, then it went away(almost!) for a bit. Then inevitably, I get it again, smoke , get it again.

In my mind smoking got rid of withdrawal. I have, rather oddly thought of the question "does a none smoker get withdrawal by not smoking? -if not why?" Isnt it because smoking actually causes withdrawal?  So in effect, I am trying to relieve withdrawal by doing the same thing that caused it That is f*cking crackers!

So it also makes sense that when I had a fag, it somehow started a process of a slight edgy feeling that built up over time. That can explain how fags cause the withdrawal. If I had another later during the "build up" and it started the same feeling at a lower level, I can be conned sub-consciously into thinking the cig relieved the feeling rather than caused it.

JW -thinking can help but I guess it deopends on what you think. The rubbish i believed as a smoker seems so silly now . Like smoking relieved withdrawal rather than caused it.

thought I would share this so peops can start to see through it all and struggle less when stopping.

Dustboy wrote (see)

To all the non smokers who say stop, it ain't that simple mate.

Smoking can be very enjoyable, but ultimately it will probably kill you. Like a lot of other drugs.

To all the smokers who still do, find something you want to do more, like get your race times down.  It's a great motivator.