fiftyish and smoking cyclists.

[poppy]

Hi, I am Poppy and I´d like to share experiences with members of this sad lot. Desperate people fighting against all odds a losing battle in the cycling area unless one ikcks the habit. Of smoking, that is.
Come on, nothing can be that shameful that can´t be told.
Regards.

 

[stokepa31_mk2]

Hi, I am Poppy and I´d like to share experiences with members of this sad lot. Desperate people fighting against all odds a losing battle in the cycling area unless one ikcks the habit. Of smoking, that is.
Come on, nothing can be that shameful that can´t be told.
Regards.

I quit in early April this year. I gave up when my daughter was born 2 and a half years ago but started again. The right time seems to make itself known as I found it very easy this time round and did not require any patches or other props. Spending £2800 on two agattus certainly helped concentrate the mind in terms of the savings needed from quiting to fund the bikes. I calculate about 75 days at £5 a day = £375 already saved

I have never smoked whilst riding my bike

 

[flecc]

I smoked from the age of 11 to the age of 50, the latter 30 years at 60 or more a day and tried to give up several times without success.

Then I just stopped one day without trying, on January 2nd, 1986, and I've never smoked since.

The secret? I haven't a clue, perhaps I'd just got sick of it.
.

 

[poppy]

Well, I never even tried to quit. Just the thought gives me a terrible anxiety. Being retired doesn´t help. No restrictions at work. And unfortunately my hobbies are compatible with smoking and my wife is very tolerant. Cycling prevents me from smoking while I am at it, but i don´t cycle more than 2 h. a day and i don´t end up so exhausted that I can´t smoke ja ja.
In the same way that I struggling with your language you are wellcome to practise your Spanish!
I really enjoy this forum. Early retired in a summer resort tends to be a little lonely and this e-bike thing doesn´t have followers here. Actually my bike was and is the first one in Ferrol, pop.over 75 thousand.
See you.

 

[BLADERUNNER]

Hi all,
being Fathers day today this thread really caught my eye.
My own Dad died about a year ago aged 64 from lung cancer.He was a heavy smoker all his life, but he never thought it would happen to him!

How wrong he was!

Anyway, i am not about to start preaching, i guess it is everyone to their own.

In his younger years my Dad was a keen cyclist,riding many miles at a time with his brother.Regular trips from Manchester to Chester, and sometimes as far afield as Rhyl in north Wales! My Grandad would follow along in his van with their camping equipment.From his stories it sounded like really good fun.

I often wonder what he would have thought of my electric bike ? I have no doubt he would have loved it.

Cheers
Russell

 

[Jeremy]

I smoked from the age of about 14/15 for until my early thirties. As an aviator, I have to have regular medicals; one of these about 23 odd years ago showed that I had high blood pressure. It truly frightened the life out of me, there I was in my early thirties with an "old man's disease", destined to take pills for life.

I promptly quit smoking on the spot, although I have to say it was probably one of the hardest things I've done. Curiously, I still feel the occasional urge for a cigarette even now, so I suspect that the addiction is still there, under the surface.

Jeremy

 

[frank9755]

I was a late developer - didn't start smoking until I was about 22. I decided several years ahead that I would give up on my 30th birthday, and did. I kept off totally for 2-3 years but now do have the occasional one, or several, on nights out, but only a handful of times a year, with no cravings inbetween.

 

[Jeff Mowatt]

Stopped a year ago

Age 57 and cycling but became aware of my lack of fitness when moving to a much more hilly area. That and general concern for health persuaded me.

 

[oldosc]

Even after my Father's first heart attack in '64 the doc advised smoking as a way to avoid stress, then when he died at 59 (1966) it was put down as a somewhat eventful life (Australia, fighting against Franco in Spain Stint in Guards armoured in '44 ), Family, (no smazlen ever made 60)
When I had a bit of a heart Attack in 92 Doc said bluntly keep smoking , youv'e left it too late to leave a good looking corpse, but at least you won't be around long enough and cost us a lot of money...(and that was a Lady ! Doc)
That was my last cigarette...now at 70 just done first 300 miles on my new Agattu.(havn't given up the drink though)
On a sad note, giving up does wonders for the Arteries, damage can reverse to an extent....but the damage to the Bronchial Passage is irreversable, causing increased susceptibality to small infections. some mucosal retention, alowing bacterial habitats....not fatal.( this year spent three days in an Indian Hospital intensive care hospital after an infection flying from Cairo to Mumbai..magical medical traatment...but kill yer own mosquetos...buy yer own food...don't look at the walls..(no insurance over 70)
" oh did'ne ramble
till the butcher cut im down .

 

[Footie]

I started smoking when I was about 13 (all my mates were 2 to 3 years older).
I would very likely have continued, but In July 2004 I was laid out on the floor totally helpless by a massive heart attack. Over the following 12 hours I had two more - everyone thought I was going to die - I was 40 years old
I had to have a stent put in one of the arteries feeding my heart, scariest thing I have ever been through.
It was a life changing event (physically and psychologically) and one that I'm still recovering from.
I was not over weight and was very active (walking, etc) - no preceding warnings.
However, it's since been discovered I have a genetic weakness making me prone to heart problems.
I was told if I wanted to live then I had to stop smoking.
I haven't touch cigarettes since the heart attack and I don't ever intend to
.

 

[poppy]

My first wife died of larynx cancer. Lasted 50 days once detected. My Dad died at 63 from the second heart attack. I feel like a sad case not quitting. Maybe it has to do with me not having active hobbies, being too contemplative and with a feeble will. Allen Carr said that some of us felt like we would lose a basic prop if we quitted.
I don´t know why I started this thread! All I am going to get back is a lot of encouraging messages to quit and I´be too pig-headed to pay attention to them.

 

[oldosc]

Hey poppy, dont do that.... thinking up reasons for not quitting, If you dont want to quit dont, your choise(funeral)
(I did a ten year stint in AA before I decided I liked getting stoned more than bein sober all the time.still here.
(although the warning signs for alcholol are more observal..fallin off bike, memory loss, garalousness ,pomposity..and above all judgementalism)

 

[john]

I have never smoked whilst riding my bike

Recently, I have seen someone smoking while riding their bike someone texting and someone talking on the phone

I guess it's just a matter of what is going to get them first

 

[Footie]

Poppy, don't give up giving-up.
Cigarettes are a legal drug and because they are a drug they are very hard to give up.
There's now a lot of help available for those who want to stop but find it hard to quit.
It may sound a little patronising but giving up has more to do with your state of mind than anything else.
I had a very good reason to stop.
But I had tried to give up many times before. I did succeed, at one point, for about 12 months when I was about twenty but started up again.
The secret is not to give up giving-up
There will come a time when everything will come together and you'll stop.
.

 

[poppy]

Thank you all for your advice. The only time I forget the cig is when I´m very concentrated and absorbed in something: movie, exciting passage of a novel.. Reading your mails almost does it, ja ja. One of you has it right: I think it´d the most powerful drug.

 

[Jeremy]

We all have a free choice - it's the single most important thing we have. We can choose to do pretty much what we like, within the law, but have to accept that with that free choice come some consequences.

As someone with a genetic predisposition to high blood pressure, for me to continue to smoke would have been akin to signing away ten or twenty years of my life. I guess I could have argued that a life without smoking would have been less exciting or fulfilling, so justifying to myself the inevitable loss of years, but I chose to try and live as long as I reasonably can.

Had I carried on smoking, then it's likely that I would face death in three or four years time, based on family history. With luck, I may be able to cheat the grim reaper for another twenty years or so.

Of course, some may think that my continuing to plague them with crazy ideas for an extra twenty years or so is a good enough reason for me to have carried on smoking!...............

Jeremy

 

[poppy]

We all have a free choice - it's the single most important thing we have. We can choose to do pretty much what we like, within the law, but have to accept that with that free choice come some consequences.

As someone with a genetic predisposition to high blood pressure, for me to continue to smoke would have been akin to signing away ten or twenty years of my life. I guess I could have argued that a life without smoking would have been less exciting or fulfilling, so justifying to myself the inevitable loss of years, but I chose to try and live as long as I reasonably can.

Had I carried on smoking, then it's likely that I would face death in three or four years time, based on family history. With luck, I may be able to cheat the grim reaper for another twenty years or so.

Of course, some may think that my continuing to plague them with crazy ideas for an extra twenty years or so is a good enough reason for me to have carried on smoking!...............

Jeremy

From the depth of our heart we smokers admire and envy those who have quit having smoked the same amount in time and cig.

 

[ElephantsGerald]

Wow! What a lot of ex-smoker there are in here!

I smoked from the age of 14 to the age of 37, finally quitting 4 years ago. I must have spent at least 15 of those years in a state of constantly trying to give up. I even stopped for 2.5 years when I was 30, but then my marriage collapsed and I started smoking again.

Eventually I found that smoking left me feeling completely awful all the time. Then we got a dog, who needed exercise, and I started running (trying to exercise the dog as much as possible in the shortest space of time - busy life you see!), which made me realise what a terrible state I was in physically.

Getting fit can really help you give up - I personally recommend swimming on the basis that you simply can't smoke when you're soaking wet .

The main thing however, was getting into the right frame of mind. You have to realise that you're allowed to smoke, no one is stopping you, except your choice not to smoke. You need to list all the reasons why you want to stop, re-visit theses reasons every time the urge to smoke comes on, and make the choice not to smoke, again and again. The moment you start thinking you're being denied something you want, or that you're not allowed to smoke, then you're in trouble; you're exercising free will each time you make a choice to smoke or not to smoke. If you get to to thinking that you can smoke, any time you like, but you choose not to, then giving up will become easier.

I had a very troubled friend who was a heroin addict, an alcoholic, and a smoker. He eventually committed suicide. He managed to quit the heroin, and managed to stop drinking periodically, but never managed to stop smoking. He said giving up heroin was much much easier than giving up cigarettes. Nicotine is extremely addictive, so its no surprise to find its a hard habit to kick.

One other thing you have to remember is that you can never be a non-smoker, you can only be an ex-smoker - when smoking has been a habitual part of your everyday actions for most of your life, the urge to start smoking will often come back, particularly when you're stressed or emotional (even years after you quit), so you have to be on your guard!

For myself, I'm so glad I've quit, and I'm really hoping never to start again.

Good luck to anyone trying to give at the moment.

Regards,

Elephants

 

[flecc]

Getting fit can really help you give up - I personally recommend swimming on the basis that you simply can't smoke when you're soaking wet .

Regards,

Elephants

Knowing the persistance of some smokers I visualise a tube from an Arabian Hookah mounted in a buoyancy ring.
.

 

[Mandy]

Hi all,
being Fathers day today this thread really caught my eye.
My own Dad died about a year ago aged 64 from lung cancer.He was a heavy smoker all his life, but he never thought it would happen to him!

How wrong he was!

Anyway, i am not about to start preaching, i guess it is everyone to their own.

In his younger years my Dad was a keen cyclist,riding many miles at a time with his brother.Regular trips from Manchester to Chester, and sometimes as far afield as Rhyl in north Wales! My Grandad would follow along in his van with their camping equipment.From his stories it sounded like really good fun.

I often wonder what he would have thought of my electric bike ? I have no doubt he would have loved it.

Cheers
Russell

I am sure he would Russell
My dad sadly died of lung cancer at the age of 80, just 1 month exactly after his 80th birthday of which we enjoyed a memorable and loved family meal.
He smoked Weights, untipped and guess he was a heavy smoker but gave up at 65 on the arrival of his first grandchild, My daughter.
I often wonder what would have happened if he hadn't quit then?

I am a smoker and have tried to quit several times over the years.
However, on a recent puff test at the hospital, it was done 3 times as my rate or whatever it was didn't register as a smoker?
I was still told to pack up the fags though even after the confusion, lol!!
It wasn't dodgy apparatus as had the same result some 10 years ago too at the docs too!

I want to pack it in and actually hate the smell of the smoke when I am not smoking, ie in the morning when someone else is. Too expensive too!
Regards
Mandy