Smoking - do you, and if so, why?

[Earlybird]

I have just finished reading an article that states the number of French women who smoke is increasing. Most say they fear weight gain if they stopped, so plan to continue with the habit in spite of the health risks.

Tell us why you smoke, and how you feel about the habit.

I smoke occasionally - I've stopped and started for all my adult life. Now it's at the "couple in the back garden in the evenings when the house is quiet" stage.

How I feel about the habit - I bloody hate it. It's disgusting, it makes me smell, it's bad for me, it's a piss-poor example to set, it's crap in every conceiveable way.

And why? Because it's incredibly addictive. It's apparently up there with heroin in the additiveness stakes (am completely unable to quote the source for that - I read it somewhere once so it must be true). It's the crutch that got me through some bloody tough years, and the crutch I still fall back on when things are stressful. And it's horribly enjoyable.

And starting in the first place is my number one regret in life. I don't think I'd change anything apart from that. It's disgusting.

i quit last year and haven't half piled on the pounds!

My mum quit smoking and started a healthy eating plan on the same day.

Shes still not smoking and lost 2 stone!

I am the dreaded social smoker. I don't smoke on an average day, a ten box could last me weeks or months depending on how often I go out and have a drink with friends who smoke and suddenly fancy a 'cheeky one'.

I wish I didn't feel that way.

I read Allen Carr years ago and kicked a 20-a-day habit, but I cannot shake the association between going to the pub with friends and having a ciggie. Luckily, having young children means the pub visits are few and far between.

Echo everything Hassled says, too

I smoked for 23/24 years.

The first time I had a serious effort at giving up (lasted 12 months) I gained about a stone in weight.

The next two times I gave up (about 18 months each time) were because I was pregnant.

After having the two dc I ended up a stone heavier than the stone heavier I was after first serious attempt at giving up smoking.

I gave up again nearly two years ago and have gained about another 10-12lb.

So I am 23 years older and 3 stone(ish) heavier than I was when I first took up smoking.

So the French women do have a point, actually .

i used to be a smoker many years ago and stopped because i smelled and so so you if you smoke .Sorry, and dont get me started on pregnant woman standing puffing away it just looks awful

I used to be a heavy smoker (20/day) and stopped last year when TTC DS.

God - I miss it sometimes.

As Hassled has said it is in credibly addictive but it is also just so wickedly, deliciously, disgustingly enjoyable. I still sometimes wish that I could be 'one of those people' that manage to have one after dineer every evening but I know that I'll go right back to smoking full time again if I do so I just don't.

I'm an occasional smoker now, I fancy a cigarette when I'm out with friends etc, which doesn't happen every day.

I used to smoke more when younger, because my social life was different then

I smoke because I really enjoy the odd cigarette, while I'm chatting to friends.

I saw a lad of about 14, tops - may well have been younger - today, smoking with his mother. I wanted to punch her and yell "You stupid, stupid, cow!". Just knowing the extent to which they will both regret it was more than I could bear.

I used to smoke about 15 a day until my 'accident' after having ds2.
I gave up in my 2nd and 3rd pregnancies.

I could never go back to smoking all the time due to the fact that I felt so let down by my body and I have worked so hard to get it back to full strength.

I cannot however have a drink without smoking. Luckily I drink rarely, maybe once a month and always have a few when doing that.

I've put on weight in the last 10 yrs because I've been eating more since having had the children. Simple as that. I'm still quite slim, but I put weigh 6 kilos more than when I got married.

From the article:

''n 1950, 66 percent of all French men smoked. Today, that has fallen to 33 percent. Meanwhile, the percentage of fumeuses has risen from 20 percent to 26.5 percent, and some experts fear that the rate of women smokers will (with some fluctuations, especially when cigarette taxes spike) merge with the male level......Generally speaking, medical experts here (France) believe that the average smoker tends to gain between about 4.5 and 9 pounds within the year they stop, although they might lose some or all of that weight later on.''

The article is titled'?plutôt mourir qu'être grosse? which translates to 'Better Dead Than Fat' .

Yes I do - because I do

I echo Bibbity -I smoked from the age of 15 to 40 with about a year off when pregnant. Since I have given up (2+ years) I have gone up two dress sizes.
Despite this, I wouldnt go back.

(I would like to be a size 10again though)

that's possibly the best reason I have right now actually to quit........to put on some weight

nah, I'm not ready to quit yet, and thankfully the weight loss seems to have stopped and I'm staying steady now

Allen Carr, Allen Carr, Allen Carr

AnnaBafana if you've read it and still smoke, read it again and really concentrate, try to interpret it in a different way, there's something that hasn't connected to your subconscious.

Hassled you sound like me before I gave up, give it a go it's just reading a book what's the worst that can happen?

It is the only thing that works properly, it's completely different to everything else, and is so so so so so so so EASY!!

Allen Carr's Easyway works.

(No I'm not selling them)

allen carr never worked for me. i used inhalators and patches, worked brilliantly, though i still think all the stars must have been aligned right the morning i decided to quit. i didn't plan in advance just did it on a whim

Am I really that evil that I don't really want to quit my occasional smoking?

wow sea well done for giving up!

I just did it on a whim too SEA.

Of course I wanted to give up, but I'd wanted to give up for years and years (and certainly for the 4 years since starting again after having ds). One morning I just decided that day was the day (20/09/08). Cold turkey. It wasn't that difficult (for all you scaredy cats out there ).

me too, I like it, no greater pleasure than a double expresso macchiato and a marlboro light

and I am going to die anyway, right?

I'm wiht porca. Sitting sans kids with DH outside a cafe with coffee and a fag, one of life's small but wonderful pleasures.

I've just made another quit attempt, have smoked for years and tried to give up several times, sometimes going months without. I started this attempt as I was spending more that I earned and my 10 a day habit was creeping up to £3 a day which was my overspend.

I've read all the facts about quitting, Alan Carr, Freedom site, every theory going. I started this quit nearly 4 weeks ago and have found that I can quite easily wean myself off it. Going through the 3 day withdrawal isn't nice but manageable and feel fine without smoking until I go out and have a drink and I've been bumming a cig and even bought some this weekend. I then go straight back on the wagon.

There are many cigs that I used to smoke that I can now live without but some, the ones sat in a pub garden with a drink I cannot live without and don't want to give up. I love the ritual of lighting up, drawing in and relaxing. It's the dopamine effect on the brain that gives the pleasure. I am hoping it's true that smokers are not necessarily hopeless addicts and I can become a social smoker, if not then I will have to give up my beloved cigs for ever.

I also don't think they are as harmful as made out to be when smoking in moderation and having a healthy balance of diet, exercise and being careful with the booze.