Hi all, I've been lurking on this site for a fair old time now, and thought I'd best poke my head above the parapet and say hello.

I'm Chris, 38, from Bedfordshire, in sunny old England. Not even sure how I found the site now, but was almost certainly searching for something on Google and perhaps a page popped up relevant to the search, looked around the site and liked what I saw.

I've been a very much on-off workout person for years. I've done Kung Fu and Judo in the past, lifted a lot of weights, but never had a huge amount of cardio fitness-as much due to a smoking habit I guess- I stopped for seven and a half years once, and foolishly started again. Not the only time I've stopped and started again, I admit - having recently stopped again, this time for good, I figured it would be as good a time as any to introduce myself.

I currently workout mainly with Kettlebells, but have also been doing some cardio work on my exercise bike and recently have unearthed my old rowing machine. I'm even considering taking up running - only short runs, I hasten to add - not something I've done much of in the past. As a teenager I was a self conscious beanpole and hated being skinny - years of weights have added a good bit of meat onto me (and perhaps there's a touch too much meat around my middle these days!), and now I'd like to add a little size, and definition onto me (not to mention build a functional frame!), and work on my general health and fitness. Myself and a few friends have also been trying to resurrect the old local Tug of war team, with mixed results- things happen slowly out here in the sticks.

That's me,

Chris.

Howdy Chris,

Ken here, 32 from Texas, US originally but moved up to Washington a couple years ago. I can appreciate your pun about comming from the Sunny England as I have been there and it reminds me of where I am at now... Sunny Seattle!

I definitely know what you mean about the on and off again routine as I have yo-yoed 50 lbs. about 3 times in my life, although I was never the bean pole... more on the other side of the spectrum. I kicked the habit when I met my girlfriend, who taught me the real meaning of routine! Now I can say I like working out and am pretty consistant at it. If there is anything I can do to help you in your journey towards health just let me know!

Ken

P.S. I love Kettle bells and it's never to late to get into cardio! Nice handle by the way!

Hi Chris, thanks for introducing yourself! I've seen your name on the site before and I'm happy to finally see an introduction!

I'm curious what your method is for quitting smoking? Cold turkey? Nicotine gum? My mom has smoked almost all of her life and I hope one day she can quit.

What are Kettlebells??? I've never heard of those before!

Hi again guys,

My method for quitting smoking is pure cold turkey. I find that when I'm at a point where I want to give up, I can simply decide 'tomorrow I'm quitting'. And I do. The starting again has happened in little moments of madness - the 'just one won't hurt' syndrome - it DOES however, and the occasional one becomes a regular one when out with friends, then two, and so on, until I end up becoming a full-time smoker again, though thankfully the lapses have been relatively short the last few times. I do truly believe that smoking is less an addiction and more a habit - it may be a fine line, but it's a line nonetheless- and that everyone can give up, providing they want to with a lot less hassle than they think.

As much as I applaud various Governments' drives to get people to quit, I often think they make it sound like it's a lot more difficult than it is in reality, and so people are expecting it to be hard, and as a result - it is. That sentence may be worded a little unclearly, but I hope you get my point. The only reason I've have lapsed a couple of times is purely my own stupidity - the seven and a half year smoke free then start again is pure evidence of that. My last lapse was during a trip to India, and I've half-heartedly quit a couple of times since then, but I hadn't convinced myself it was time. This time I have, and have found it no problem at all.

Patches can help for some people, though I'm not entirely convinced they are anything but a 'security blanket' for people. My older brother quit in early 2006, aged 39. He went on patches for about five days, then had an allergic reaction to the latex in the patches, so quit them too - he managed just fine without them, but perhaps they got him through those first few days. He's been smoke-free ever since. He also started exercising for the first time in his life, and still does, though his circumstances at the moment means he has a lot less time to do it then he used to.

I've also noted a relationship between me smoking and exercising. If I'm smoking, the exercise drops off - if, when I'm off the cigs, I'm exercising regularly, then I'm a lot less likely to even consider smoking a cigarette (we tend to call them fags here, but I'm trying to avoid using the word due it's negative connotations in the US...). I guess this is down to not wanting to undo all my hard work. I also presume that a similar feeling was what helped my brother stay of the smokes, and would probably work for a lot of other people too. It's also a darn good motivator for me to keep on exercising!

Tammy - as for your Mum quitting, that's a tricky one. I'm sure you've probably tried to cajole her into it against her will, but until she decides she wants to do it, it will be hard. My Dad gave up smoking in his early- mid sixties, and has been smoke free ever since- he's 77 now. like my brother, once he decided he wanted to do it, it was a lot easier. Just try to let her know that it doesn't have to be so difficult as she thinks!

Cheers,

Chris.

Kettlebells:

I'm quite surprised you've not heard of them, as they seem to be pretty big in the US at the moment. In simple terms, they are a cannonball attached to a thick handle. They can be used pretty much like an ordinary dumbell, or they can be used in more ballistic drills that work both muscle and cardio at the same time- believe me, they give you one heck of a workout! I absolutely love mine, I must admit! As the centre of the weight is set away from the handle, it makes it that much more tricky to keep everything under control, and that's all part of the fun!

They start as small as about 4KG, and I've seen monsters of 50KG plus! Personally, I own 2x16KG, 2x24KG and 2x32KG.

Here's a vid (not me I hasten to add): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lwme8rkzetg&feature=related Not overly exiting, but if you have a nose around on YouTube, you'll see some more exercises. Personal favourites of mine are the two kettlebell clean and jerk, the one hand snatch, the windmill, and the two kettlebell front squat.

They're fun, though not for everyone I guess. Doing some supplementary cardio work will, I hope, help me build up to a little more long cycle work with the KB's to, further improving my cardio!

Hope that explains things!

Thanks for your information on how you quit smoking. Yeah, I know that ultimately my mom has to be the that wants to quit, not me. If she doesn't want to then she never will. She doesn't want to listen to me when I tell her how bad it is for her. My dad used to smoke for many years before I was born. And then after getting sick and not feeling like smoking one day, he just decided to quit for good. So he did it cold turkey too.

Wow, your dad quit in his 60's? My mom is in her upper 50's so I'm hoping that one day she will still decide to quit.

Oh, yeah, I know what Kettlebells are now.... I just never knew the name for them! I've seen them in the gym and other people using them, I've just never given them a try. I didn't know they came in such big sizes!

I've heard it takes a person on average about 7 attempts to totally quit smoking before completely successful and don't fall back into the trappings of the "occasional one", like you suggessted.

I believe it was mark twain who said:

"Giving up smoking is easy - I've done it hundreds of times".

Ha! I like that quote!

Still smoke free - almost a week now, and not even a hiccup!

I've also been back at work since Wednesday - I was made redundant back in May, and have struggled to find a job since. On Tuesday my old boss rang me up and said things were picking up a bit, did I want to come back on one month's contract? I said yes.

If work levels stay up, then I'll get another contract, and another, and eventually if they continue to be good, I'll get a permanent contract again. Of course, if they go downhill again, then I'll be back in the Dole queue, but I'll cross that bridge if I come to it... In the meantime of course, feeling useful is a lot better for my self-esteem than sitting on my backside all day doing nothing.

It's been odd, I've had to sort of re-learn my job. My subconscious seems to know what it's doing, as do my hands, but on a purely conscious level, I've found it quite tricky. In case you're wondering, I work in engineering, toolsetting and programming CNC milling machines (though the programming is something I'm still learning- I only changed career less than three years ago).

Congratulations of continuing to be smoke free! That's awesome!

Also congrats on getting a call to go back to work . I've been laid off from my old job for about 5 months now so I know what it is like to be jobless. Definitely have had my days of feeling useless! I worked in a financial company working on their websites, so as the economy has gone down hill, financial companies were one of the ones to get the first hit. I was at that job for about 3 and a half years.

I know that feeling all too well. Sometimes it works out for the best since you get out of the groove you're used to doing things in and take a bit to relearn a few things and combine certain small things into one more efficient thing.