Quiting Smoking and Weight Gain.

Congratulations on not smoking! That a huge success. I would suggest joining a gym. This is what helped me a lot with quiting smoking and controling my weight. Because I have a very addictive personality, I found myself becoming 'additcted' to going to the gym. It kep my mind off smoking and helped keep the weight down.

First of all Congratulations on quitting smoking!!!! Great job and to be more than a month in means you are in control. You should be very proud of yourself for accomplishing that! As for ideas on the weight here are a few. Try keeping healthy eating choices available for when you stress or need to have something. Don't allow those foods into the house that you will eat and then feel bad about later. Perhaps vegetables with dip, celery with peanut butter, rice cakes, fruit, a cup of ice, popcorn and there are a ton of the 100 calorie snacks. If you are feeling stress, try going for a walk, do dishes, run the vacuum, or exercise instead of having a snack. The other idea is to get some drinking straws or flavored tooth picks, to "chew" on. You will get through this and don't feel down over a few pounds, take on one challenge at a time. Conquer the smoking first, you can worry more about the weight once you have made it over the hump of quitting. Good Luck and Congratulations!

not only may you be eating a ittle more but your metabolism will slow for a bit due to the change. start doing yodga, or some form of exercise whenever you think about smoking. a friend of mine would do a set # of pushups or situps when she wanted to smoke

Updated

not only may you be eating a little more but your metabolism will slow for a bit due to the change. start doing yoga, or some form of exercise whenever you think about smoking. a friend of mine would do a set # of pushups or situps when she wanted to smoke

Great job on quitting smoking. If you can do that, you can lose weight too. It takes a lot of will power to quit smoking, especially if you always relied on it as a tool to relieve stress. So you've been eating more to relieve stress and obviously that's not making you feel better either. Since you posted this, you're clearly ready to make a change. So replace the unhealthy habits with a healthy stress reliever. You can't beat exercise for relieving stress, losing weight, improving your cardiovascular functioning, the appearance of your skin, every aspect of your life will improve. Psychologically you will feel better because you're doing something good for yourself. And when you start getting results by dropping pounds and losing inches, you'll feel even better.

I do think the weight watchers idea is good too, as someone suggested below - to help jump start things for you. If you don't have time to get to a gym, get one of Jillian Michaels workout dvds - they are awesome. I did her 30 day shred for 60 days after having my 2nd baby (well I waited about 6 months after having her and in the meantime gained more weight first oops) and ended up losing 10 pounds and several inches. Now I'm in my 6th week of the P90X home dvds and I'm wearing clothes I haven't worn since before my 1st baby when I was actually in shape. I have 9 weeks left in this program. You have to make it work! Of course you feel like you don't have time to work out, but make the time - it's SO worth it!

i quit smoking 2 and a half years ago, and i gained weight because i was pregnant, and breastfeeding but i suspect its also the fact that i no longer smoke that increases my weight as well.

Apparantly it decreases the metabolism by 15% on average.

I take comfort in the fact a little extra weight is a lot more attractive than wrinkles around the mouth, yellow/brown teeth, hacking, that ashtray smell, possible cancer, chemo, hole in my trachea....etc....

eventually your lung capacity will be able to keep up with your new exercise requirements, i almost cant tell i ever smoked, i still cant run, but i work out everyday without gasping for air.

hang in there!....and check out about.com,,, the smoking cessation forum is fantastic!

dum dums i tell ya, they take just as long to eat as a cig does to smoke, i am doing the same right now. I am on my second month, also i like to eat icees. make up in the blender, lemonad kool aid works really well.

dum dum suckers are awesome! instead of eating chips or something try sucking on a sucker or a hard candy for the time it would take you to smoke, or eat some grapes, raisins, nuts etc.

Join weight watchers- I know it sounds silly- but it will help change your food patterns and give you something positive to focus on..... I joined and lost 12lbs in the first few weeks, and my eating habits have changed a lot!

Good luck!