Please allow me...

[Kate B]

A small opportunity to whine on the wine couch. I need encouragement!

 

I gave up smoking six months ago, and as a result have gone up two dress and bra sizes. I feel like an elephant, and no amount of exercise seems to shift it! When I haven't been able to make it to ballet class I've replaced it with a long swim - I usually do 70 lengths of a 25 metre pool 2 times a week anyway.

 

I have never been this size before (I smoked 20 a day for 8 years and could eat anything I liked - although I never really ate that much.) I don't eat more than usual. I guess my metabolism has just slowed down.

 

What it boils down to is I want to start my bad habit again! I don't feel like dancing when I feel this big and heavy. I know this is silly. But it's how I feel!

:(

[citibob]

Kate... no matter what our society says about body shape, your health outlook today is 100% better than it was 6 months ago. Do not go back.

 

Have you consulted a dietician on this issue?

[Guest grace]

"70 lengths" !!?!!

 

are you kidding?

 

whatever you do, please don't start smoking again. it's horrible. yuk!

 

i sympathise, as i cannot shift my own excess weight recently...what can i say...? just that smoking is NOT the answer...

 

is it possible that your weight gain may be caused by anything else?

[Kate B]

Thanks for your support! It's funny, I know it's a really good thing to stop smoking, and I do feel better for it (my skin looks nicer, I have more money...) but I think I just need to remember why I've stopped and why it's worth staying stopped, especially when it has changed me physically in ways I'm not so keen on.;)

 

I have been thinking about becoming healthier in other ways too, and I've been researching different healthy diets. A friend of mine has done very well on a food-combining plan. I am going to talk to a nutritionist this week as it could be that I am simply eating the wrong sorts of foods.

[Jaana Heino]

Kate, congratulations on being able to give up smoking. Not everyone can... That kind of determination must help you with dance, too.

[Estelle]

Kate, I'm not an adult ballet student, but: the same thing had happened to the mother of one of my best friends a few years ago, she had stopped smoking (actually she had had to stop for a while because of some surgery she had and thought that it was a good opportunity not to start smoking again) and had gained a lot of weight, her metabolism had changed quite a lot. But she saw a nutritionist who prescribed her a diet well-suited to her metabolism and her tastes and she lost all the extra weight in a few months. Good luck to you!

[Guest beckster]

makes space for kate on the whiner's couch

 

Well done Kate. I gave up recently too, and also gained a little weight. It might be an age thing too, but I suddenly found that I can't eat whatever I like any more. My main thing that helped has been measuring out the amount of pasta or rice that I put in the pan instead of just randomly throwing loads in, then eating the lot!

 

It's probably better to be a little over your ideal weight than to be on 20 a day. I know how you feel though - smoking is tempting, and it would be nice to be skinny again and not have to work so hard for it. I still lapse occasionally (its a beer thing, not a skinnyness thing) but I'm not A Smoker any more and that's the main thing.

[Mel Johnson]

A friend of mine gave up smoking some time ago, and I inquired after her:

 

Q: "Which did she get, fat or cranky?"

 

A: "Yes.";)

[Kate B]

Mel I'm not showing my boyfriend that joke! He wouldn't think it was funny!!!;) ;)

 

PS especially not the cranky part - he of course says there's nothing wrong with the way I look, which I find difficult to accept!

[Mel Johnson]

About a year after she quit, in the course of a normal annual physical, her family doctor found that she had a slight anxiety depression condition, and had had it for a some years. So, a little work with the doc, and a consult with a dietitian, and she was svelte and calm all over again. So, there was a case where there was a great deal to overcome and she did it very well.

[Kate B]

What it boils down to, is that biting people's heads off is fattening!;)

 

The best solution: more time on the wine couch and in ballet class! And I will talk to nutritionist.

 

Thanks all for your support. It is most appreciated.

[Rio]

You guys! Now you've scared me!

 

I've been building myself up to quitting and one of my huge worries is that I'll pick up weight! I'm cranky anyway, so that may just get worse!

 

Just be glad that you've managed to give up. How on earth did you do it?

 

Rio

[Kate B]

I did the nicotine replacement patches for two months, and then cold turkey, interspersed with the odd night where I lapsed.

 

I'm pretty determined to stay stopped though, I'm so happy I no longer have to have a cigarette before I can even think about preparing breakfast.:eek: It is good to be less of an addict (though I will always be a smoker on a break I think - I can't think what it's like to be a non-smoker.)

[Guest beckster]

I just stopped last year. It was quite horrible, because I was living with smokers and socialising with smokers and writing a PhD at the time. But I did it.

 

And then I started again, for two weeks while I finished writing up, then stopped when I moved house in late January. I think I will always secretly want a cigarette, but I don't need one, and most of the time I can say no.

[Kate B]

PS I'm probably not much crankier than I was before. The only times I really get grumpy is when my boyfriend, who has never smoked, goes all holier-than-thou on me and does not understand why quitting is a difficult thing to do!

 

Nicotine replacement is a good thing. It stopped me from crawling up the wall. Breaking the habit's the only hard thing about it. If you get that in your head, you're some of the way there. It's hard not to think about it as part of your personality when you've smoked for a long time though.

 

It is good to know quitters are not alone!