Hi there,

As a person who has recently gained 50 pounds, and who weighs 100 pounds more than She did in high school 15 years ago...I CAN RELATE. LOLOL

I wish I could remember where I read this, but I found some research on sites that says that yes people tend to gain 5-10 punds right after quitting, but in the longer scheme of things they actually *lose* weight as thier body normalizes from all the toxicity of smoking.

Often our bodies pack on fat to distribute the mount of toxins to a safe ratio. More fat = less concentrated toxins.

As I stated in previous posts, I quit smoking 2 months ago. I gained 9 pounds the first month but this month I am losing weight, and I changed virtually nothing.

Here's someething you may want to check out. Smoking goies to a certain part of the brain - the pleasure center - same as heroin and sugar. Do you like sugar/breads/pastas? Same part of the brain. You are probably deficient in beta-endorphin which many smokers/sugar eaters are.

I found this eating plan (not a diet - I actually eat more ths way) that helps deal with cravings/beta endorphin production. It really levels out the body chemistry for all of this. It has helped me immensely and I am still only on step one.

You may want to check it out at http://www.radiantrecovery.com.

Best of luck!

Alison

I hear you. I lost a ton of weight too when I did The Master Cleanse for 30 days. I was still smoking, though. Tomorrow will be 5 weeks for me since I quit smoking. I'm also overhauling my entire lifestyle. I've been introducing changes into my life for the last 3 months. It's a gradual process. I'm working out, although not as regularly as I'd like. I start to beat myself up for not doing more or doing it faster or whatever which makes me crave a cigarette or sugar. A lot of this is just reconizing the mental patterns that literally make us spin out of control with fear which is what keeps us locked into our same self-destructive patterns. Take it easy on yourself. We all want it right now, but it will come a lot faster if you slow down. Sometimes our mental patterns get us so wound up, it could take three months just to slow those down. It's better to slow down as soon as possible and take steps like you're walking through mud. I know how it feels too, the need to hurry up and be the person you want to attract the things you want. For me it feels more like a fear that if I don't strengthen myself in this way quickly enough, I might not be able to ward of these negative things, like bad relationships, that take years to get rid of. Slowing down, though, will automatically keep you on your toes. Keep yourself as comfortable and safe as possible while you're transitioning, such as spending time with healthy supportive people. Prioritize what changes you can make right away and what area of your life you'd like to focus on first. Eating healthy is one way. Let's say your in your career area, you could learn how to ask for what you want or learn how to sell yourself better. You can eat healthy and advocate for yourself with your career at the same time. What's so ironic about our racing thoughts and anxiety is that on one hand we want to hurry up and make these changes and then when we make concrete commitments, our fears and thoughts keep racing like crazy. In my humble opinion and experience, the fight or flight response to change is an addiction and a form of avoidance. Instead of following through with the changes we need to make we shift our focus to anxiety and panic, which of course we've been doing for years so it's automatic. Since it's become automatic, we feel like we can't control it. The trick is, is that the way we control it is to make the changes we need to make no matter how we feel. We let the panic and anxiety have it's own life while we focus on our true task at hand. We're reteaching ourselves to automatically take calm, deliberate, appropriate action or have appropriate responses to anything. Even if it's so bad that it's to the point that you start doing something and your anxiety causes you to pass out. When you come to, you pick up where you left off. You start wherever you have to.

As though I wasn't long winded enough... Developing good habits into automatic responses is the same thing as being able to trust yourself. If you need to develop good eating habits and work out for a while before you quit smoking, do it. When you have established through consistency that you can be there for yourself, then move on to quitting smoking, because you'll know that you know how to support yourself through difficult times. Be kind to yourself. Stay focused, but be patient. I rely on these forums, my friends, my counsellor, myself, my cat, exercise, etc., for support and I'm working on relying on my husband... Good luck.

Om namah sivajah