I did that myself, on 28 June 2003. This makes it about two years ago.

• Some research on the Net. My site was this one: http://www.givingupsmoking.co.uk – especially liked the “Body on the Mend” diagram.
• I smoked the last cigarette lately in the night, then brushed my teeth and went to bed. That helped to survive the most intense craving that would happen during first hours during the daytime. OVERNIGHT is the word.
• I washed my hands twice to get totally rid of residual cigarette smell; brushing teeth helped this as well—the smell you’ve been living with had to go totally to prevent “smoking nostalgia”.
• A week beforehand or so, when I still had 8 packs (and, being a greedy bastard, I knew I couldn’t just bin them, no, I had to smoke because every bloody pack was £4.20 or so…) - I started developing the disgust and hatred to cigarettes. Coughing? say thank you to fags. Smelly? them as well. Yellow middle & index fingers? once again the fags… Yuck! Yuck! and Yuck! And it became almost masochistic - yes, you realise now what the hell is that smoking, but you WILL smoke for these eight days more and then let’s see what you’ll say…
• Never treated myself as quitter – who should be afraid of cigarettes because he can relapse. Never made a tragic deal if I would. Was more curious than steely determined - and that probably helped the matter - it was not an attempt to defeat the body, it was rather like a challenge!
• Left an empty pack full of cigarette butts in the conservatory. Opened the “stinker box” each time I would be smoking and forced myself to sniff it - “smell this, you bastard, cuz this is what you’d be doing now if you smoked”. Left in effect for about 3 months. Then finally disposed of - wasn’t important anymore.
• Created a savings pot account with Barclays and named it Smoking savings. Set a weekly Standing Order of about £30 (according to a price of cigarettes I would have smoked during a week) from my Current account to this new Smoking Savings one. Watched it increasing. Stopped the Standing Order after a year. The account had £1600+ on it (that’s almost US $3K!) - these monies would buy me a new PDA Phone Edition for £400, other valuable computer stuff, - and some were left as well—for my future mortgage deposit. Worked very well for a greedy bastard which I am :))
• Left a Cuban cigar accidentally in my drawer. Damn, should’ve smoked it beforehand—but then, may be I wouldn’t have quit! :) So it lies there still, I smell it sometimes. An item in my Quitting museum.
• Patches and pills to “help” smoking are bullshit—I quit “cold turkey”.
• Had LOTS and I mean LOTS of my favourite chewing gum ready. You may not crave nicotine, but you will require something to fill your mouth in between meals, and it has to have some taste in it. Be sure you have something to chew, or you will end up lighting up…

This is how I did it. Funny enough, I’ve been smoking for almost 20 years then (19 something!) and didn’t even crave nicotine.

• You stop wheezing and coughing.
• Then in about a week, the mess that used to sit tightly inside your lungs, starts to go out. You cough it out,—yucky brown substance. You realise what the FUCK you have been inflicting onto yourself all these years… You don’t want to go back.
• You suddenly realise you can run without being short on breath—just like when you were in your teens!
• You realise that you feel much more energetic in the evening - previously you would just drop on your bed first thing once home, - well, not anymore.
• To add to that, you subscribe for a gym and feel even greater by adding yet another life pleasure of being fit.
• I added to this psychologically by watching the Body on the Mend Diagram from the website I referred to above.
• Not to mention the increasing balance of Smoking Savings account. ;) greedy bastard indeed I am. :)
• Then at last I realised that at the company where I work, only about 15% people still smoked. Others never did, or just decided they’ve got bloody enough of this shite. I met some great colleagues (including female ones!) in the gym rather than on smoking spot.
• I would stand sometimes with my still-smoking mates, and not be afraid of occasionally smelling the second-hand smoke or being round them. They had one choice in their life, I had another and there was no need to be afraid that I would lapse… I would also meet other compatriotes in our Special Pub and sit at the same table with five smoking counterparts; then just come home, and drop sweater into washing machine: I realised that it stinks :)

CAUTION: Your weight might increase significantly after you have quit. I believe that’s because your body takes nicotine out of your metabolism, and the energy that would be consumed by it previously, is now freed. Unless you increase your physical activity, the energy will be stored as fat. Exercise is absolutely necessary during the metamorphosis period.

More about this in my entry about “Lose weight” goal.

Well hope that helps. At least it did for me ;-)