Oh, didn't know you smoked cigarettes. So did I - 50 years, from age 5 to 55. (dad owned a grocery/meat store - and it was easy to 'purloin' from all the open packs laying around, and all the kids smoked). Smoked cig's and smoked meats growing up, then went on to meat cutting w/chain stores, then on the road as a supervisor, and so on; 2-3 packs a day. And I was an inveterate smoker, too - dedicated to it wholeheartedly. Quit? Naaaa....
But, by 55, I had an older customer come in when I was a store manager at RadioShack (long story, hurt my back, had to change jobs, etc.) who stated to me, "Oh, you smoke.... my wife smoked. Died from it. She wouldn't NOT smoke... I stopped smoking years ago, became a non-smoker..." He could smell it on me - my clothes.
I said, "You quit, she didn't..."
He stated, "I never said that. I became a non-smoker. There is a world of difference. You can't just 'quit' smoking. If you quit something, there is a void, a gap, a desire to fill that void. The most logical answer? Start smoking again. That is why most 'quit smoking' logistics fail and fail again and again. You have to 'ascend' to something higher, something greater. To become a NON-smoker.. That was my goal. In 3 days after stopping smoking, you lose the physical dependence on the drug. From there, it is an emotional dependence only. First, set a date you will stop smoking. Then smoke all you want up to that date. Change your brand to what you hate and smoke lots of them. Until you get sick of smoking them - you are breaking that strong bond. Announce to yourself the day you will stop smoking, 90 days away. (I picked Christmas Day). Set a financial goal; if you stop smoking you can afford this... Then, finally, indulge in something you really like... a candy, a sweet, something you can carry around where your cigarettes used to be. Try it. It works!" and he left the store with his purchases.
I tried it. I set a date of Christmas day. I changed brands. I was a Marlboro smoker. I changed to a lite. Then I changed to an ultra lite, then an ultra lite Virginia Slims Menthol. And I smoked them profusely, until I thought I was going to puke. It was like sucking on a straw.
I asked my family to give me bags of sugar-free candies for Christmas. And I bought my wife a GPS. At the time, it was expensive - $550 expensive, and put it on a RadioShack card I opened. It was $27 a month. My cigarettes were over $80 a month. I gave it to her on Christmas day, explaining that if I become a non-smoker we could afford it (money, as always, was exceptionally tight... like barely $5.00 a month without falling behind). So, I had a financial commitment, too. And, the timing was right, too. The week after Christmas was termed 'the thirteenth month' - we did as much business in that week as we would do in a normal month. So I didn't have time to smoke anyways!
I loaded up my pocket with candies and extra bags in my lunchbag and went off to work. Instead of the usual 3 cigarettes on the way to work, I had sugar-free candies. WOW! They tasted so much better than the dismal cigarettes I'd forced myself to smoke! And I didn't have to go outside in the freezing cold, either! But, I'd learned from previous candies not to digest more than 5 or 6 per day or they would give you a very bad digestive result, so it caused a craving to wait it out until I could have another one..... a craving like I did with cigarettes....and I stopped smoking. I'd become a NON-smoker! And have not had one single puff of one ingle cigarette since, 11 years ago! I was happy, my wife was happy, my kids were happy. Try it!