Evening all! Thank you all for your wonderful words of encouragement...I've spent so long beating myself up for regaining weight that it's been hard to think of the positives. I'm always so humbled by the support everybody's so willing to give on this site...thank you all!
First of all congratulations for stopping smoking!
I think everyone puts on weight when they first quit,I know I did and it took probably about a year or more to sort myself out.
It is hard trying to find something to substitute the cigs, even now five years later i sometimes still feel i 'need' something after a meal (it's not a bad craving now so i can ignore it).
I found eating citrus fruit really helped with the cravings and gave me a 'hit' of something sweet. I know how hard it is but if you leave the cravings for a few minutes they WILL go away.
Good luck and don't be too hard on yourself x
Thanks you for the support, and also the advise about the citrus fruit. I shall definitely try upping my intake to see whether that makes a difference
xx
Hi Sian !!!! I could never forget you chica !!!!
My only suggestion for what it is worth is to buy yourself some low calorie cereal bars, you can now get fudge, chocolate etc. That craving for something sweet needs to be fulfilled but you can do it sensible.
Are you back on SW ?? If you are syn some of the weight watchers desert products. You know I am great advocate of Options drinks for a chocolate craving. I mix it into natural yogurt, leave it in the fridge for a couple of hours, an oh yummy, it makes a jolly good job of replacing chocolate mousse.
I too have slipped and after getting to target have put the lot back on and need to get to grips with my eating. I don't even have the excuse you have......................
lots of love and hugs xxxxxxxxxx
Hiya Sue! Thank you for the support hun
I am indeed back on SW...in fact I never really left. I guess I just haven't had my mind properly on following the plan. We've done it before though Sue, so we can both do it again...I'm up for the challenge if you are!
xx
I could have written this post almost to the last pound lol. I lost 5 stone last year then quit smoking!! Came back to dieting three stone heavier
I'm 11 months smoke free too lol. Ive just had to accept that I'm starting again. I think SW is almost perfect for us ex smokers because even if you run out of syns and hex's you can still snack on SOMETHING if you need too!!!
My new fix is hard sweets. I still need two or three a day just to suck on if the cravings get me. I don't syn them as I buy very tiny ones like tictacs or some organic ones I found at 1/2 a syn a pop. I think if I syn them i'll just give myself a headache worrying about having them!!! Quitting smoking is really hard and a few tictacs a day won't hurt me but makes my life easier!!! So they are sort of a 'free' food in my head now.
I'd say approach the weightless like you did the quitting. Have a plan and a start date and go for it.
Thanks for the support hun
It's kind of scary how similar our two stories are, lol! I like the idea of the hard sweets - I'd forgotten about those! Have you tried the sugar free sweets from Aldi? They have butterscotch ones, fruit flavours, strawberries and cream and mint...I think I worked them out as 1 syn for 3. The butterscotch ones are yummy
xx
Hi Sian,
Sorry to hear you are a bit
and that your giving up smoking has caused you to gain weight.
I was actually reading your old thread about giving up smoking the other day as I bit the bullet and quit myself (today is day 10 so its still early days and willpower/morale is dead high!!)
Have you tried just going back to basics and re educating yourself on the plan? Sometimes we can spend soo long doing something that our brains assume we know it all and we get stuck in that rut of eating the same thing, getting bored and then reaching for the naughties!
As for sweet stuff - mikado at half a syn each are great. Also the new hi fi light rocky road bars - OMG devine! I love them and bought another 2 boxes last night. As mentioned by Legomum tic tacs are great - 6 for 1/2 syn! and I found some really nice flavours the other day, Strawberry dream(?) and watermelon, both really nice.
You might want to NOT have something that will cause a dent in the syns though and maybe just try doing something that takes your mind off the craving for something sweet. There are so many things that can be used as a distraction tactic!
Try and remember how positive you were when you gave up smoking (your post's were what helped me to finally say RIGHT! STOP!!) and use that sense of willpower and determination to get back to losing weight and quitting the 'new bad habits'! xxx
Hiya hun. Firstly, congratulations on giving up smoking! 10 days is fabulous - you're well on your way to half a month smoke-free!
The time will soon fly by! I think going back to basics is something I need to do. having been doing this plan now for over years I've become complacent about everything, and often find myself making a lot of tweaks (if you can call not synning a large piece of cake a tweak
). I think I also need to go back to weighting my Hexs...I've become very naughty about that. Failing all that, I think I'm going to have to adopt taping my mouth up as a distraction technique, lol!
xx
Welcome back first of all you've come back to the right place but u don't need me to tell u that
. Youve already been given some pretty damn good advice all I would add is maybe to go back and write down why it was u wanted to lose weight in the first place write down all of your motivations and weigh that up against why u don't want to/why it's so hard to. I find that helps me when I've gone off track. Maybe do that for giving up smoking too if u carry on feeling as u are about that too. Also remind yourself of how far you've come your still keeping off 3 stone aren't u of what you lost which is amazing and you know you can do it so don't be so hard on yourself
again I find the harder we are on ourselves and the more we tell Ourselves were useless the harder it becomes.
As for cravings I've recently discovered chocolate tea if your so inclined I find that helps take the edge of any cravings I have for sweet stuff x
Thank you for your support hun. Maybe writing down my motivations would be a good idea...it's not something I've ever done, but maybe it would help me to get back on track to see something written down in black and white
Thanks for the idea! xx
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I've never given up smoking so can't really advise, but I just wanted to wish you well and hope you get back on track soon. We started at about the same time and I remember your 'milestones' happened around the same time as mine! Try to remember how good they all made you feel and don't let the cravings win, remember you're still 3 stone down and how great that is. Good on you for wanting to deal with it now, we're here to help wherever possible. Lots of luck and positive vibes heading your way xx
Thank you for the luck and positive vibes hun...they're much appreciated!
xx
Sian, if you can kick the smoking habit, you can kick any bad habit. And that's all your current eating is - a bad habit.
Love from
An ex-smoker of 12 years now
Wooo, 12 years smoke-free...massive round of applause to the lady! That's fabulous!
Only another 11 years and I'll be at that point! Lol. I'd never really thought of my eating as a bad habit, but I guess it is. Hmmm...food for thought definitely!
xx
I wondered where you'd gone Sian. Nice to see you back!. It's fab that you have cracked the smoking thing so give yourself a bit of credit girl.
I found I ate more when I gave up smoking so I used to buy bags of carrot sticks. They are good for you, but also a bit sweet so they helped with the cravings.
Or, maybe Mikados? A box is less than 15 syns & they are chocolate & biscuit all in one
Hiya hun! Mmmm, mikados...I haven't had them for ages as i can't limit myself to one or two
I love them too much, lol! The carrot sticks is a great idea though...and they're something I could nibble on at school between lessons to keep me going (and they might help me to avoid the cake that always seems to be in the staff room!) xx