Article about quitting smoking

I just read an article at WeightWatchers.com (http://www.weightwatchers.com/util/art/index_art.aspx?tabnum=1&art_id=48191&sc=3053) that I found interesting, and can relate to quite a bit. Just want to share my personal thoughts on the article, and my own experience with quitting.

I smoked for close to 25 years, from my teen years until I was 39. There were many times I tried to quit, but never quite could. If I was smart, I should have quit while I was in boot camp for the Navy, but at that time, I had no desire to. As they say, though, hindsight is 20/20.

One day, I got a letter from the Nicotine Dependence Center at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN (http://mayoresearch.mayo.edu/mayo/research/nicotine_research_center/) about a new trial that was starting up, and if I was interested in joining as a test subject. I thought it over, and decided to give it a shot. I called to sign up, but they were full. However, a couple months later, I got another letter on a new study, and I was able to get into that on. This one was testing a new drug by Pfizer called varenicline (later sold under the brand name "Chantix"). It was testing the success rate compared to bupropion (aka Zyban) and a placebo.

It was a 1 year study, and for the first 12 weeks, we had to go visit the clinic for testing (blood work, vitals, EKG, etc.), answer some questions on how we felt and experiences during the week, and receive some counseling (they told us when we started that even the placebo group will have a higher success rate that people that try to quit on their own with no aids just because of the counseling). At the end of the visit, we received two cards with a week's worth of medication: either you got a card with varenicline and the other with a placebo, a card of bupropion and the other a placebo, or both cards a placebo. And you got the same each week - they didn't change it up on you (although I did get a call once that they had given me the wrong cards, so they made a trip up to replace them for me).

At the end of the 12 weeks, we no longer had any of the medication/placebo cards issued, and the visits changed to monthly instead of weekly. But it alternated from one month go into the clinic for testing, answering question, and counseling, to the next month just calling in and answering questions and receiving counseling. And it went back and forth until the year was up, and the my participation in the study was over (also received a check for $575 for participating - something I didn't know about when I signed up).

What was I taking fort he study? It's 8-1/2 years later, and I still don't know. And probably never will. I will say this, however: I very highly doubt it was a placebo. After about 3 or 4 weeks into taking the meds, for some reason I had to have a cigarette just to see what it would do to me. If you have ever smoked, you know that you get a good buzz off one if you have gone a while without. I felt absolutely nothing from it. But to be completely honest, I really don't care what I had. Whatever it was, it did the job, and I successfully quit and have been smoke free fro 8-1/2 years now! I do still get an occasional craving, but now that I smell what smokers smell like, I can easily suppress the cravings, and they just go away after a short time.

So that's my background related to the article. And yes, I did add on some pounds. In fact, it may be the reason I'm where I am now: After I quit smoking, my appetite improved, and I didn't know how to control it properly. That's what I'm doing now, and it's been very successful so far (5 weeks into the program, and I'm down 20 pounds so far!). But, as part of the counseling I received, this was one of the things they covered: you are very likely to gain weight, but don't worry about right now. Just concentrate on quitting smoking first. The article doesn't talk about it, but what they told us (at least told me) during the study was that if you take on too many things at once, it increases your chances of failing at all of them. If you try to quit smoking and lose weight at the same time, and you end up gaining weight, you have a much higher chance of giving up quitting (smoking) because you look at the entire thing as a failure instead of just that one part. So instead, concentrate on quitting smoking first. Let the pounds come as they may (doesn't give you a license to start binging, though). And if you can, maybe even try substituting healthy snacks for unhealthy ones. Eating a carrot stick or celery stalk can go a long way in helping with your craving of having cigarette in your moth (which is half of the addiction).