Hang in there Pentax20. You've got past the fatal 3 months when we all start to weaken. You'll get there love, you'll get there
It isn't easy giving up. I smoked for 45 years and had tried to give up many, many times, even using hypnosis! Hubby and I joined the NHS help to quit program in 2005 and we managed to stop.
Last September we marked our 6th year as non smokers.

Someone on here, said they can smell a smoker if they passed one on the street. Me too now, and it makes me feel sick. When we gave up we had to have our carpets professionally steam cleaned and redecorate to get rid of the stink

Hey AM32

It good to hear the you got you head screwed on when it come to smoking!

I gave up on 31.01 this year and the smell of smokers in the Post Office queue is enough to keep me from going back. They sweat nicotine through their pores. I never smoked in the house but convinced myself because I smoked outside I didn't smell like a proper smoker.

Really missed a ciggie on holiday with a beer but the plus side is that hubby says it's lovely to snuggle up in bed and not smell the smoke in my hair so I get a lot more snuggles.

There's no hope for some people.

I don't smoke but I avoid people when they are smoking. They may smell of smoke but it doesn't change my opinion of them generally, as long as they don't blow the smoke into my face directly.

I thought Ola, James, Anton (and Erin?) smoke. There are many more who do even though they are pro dancers and one would think keeping fit is part of their job. But hey ho. Such is life.

Harry smokes (most working in the entertainment industry do, that's their lesser sin than, saying, smoking pot or other hard drugs), Chelsee, I read here, smokes too. I won't be surprised IF Artem, Robbie or Natalie smoke too.

Like I say, as long as I don't see them smoking while they are dancing, or blowing smoke into my face, I am fine with it.

If Ola smokes (does she ?) it would explain why she can stand James. But as well as causing lung cancer and heart disease, it has a detrimental effect on the skin, causing it to wrinkle prematurely. A lot of very beautiful women who became smokers and persisted in smoking were transformed into fag hags with leathery skin by middle age eg. Brigitte Bardot.

There has always been a high percentage of dancers who smoke. Dancers have to be very weight conscious in their profession (particularly the women, as their partners have to lift them) so they smoke to suppress their appetite for food.

In fact professional dancers seem to exist on a pretty meagre diet generally, which is amazing when you consider what huge amounts of energy they use in their dancing, often rehearsing 10 hours a day.

Just steering it away from the health/smell issues of smoking for a moment...I suppose if one or both partners in a couple are smoking they will be losing a good few minutes/hours of practice time with it each day, unless they forfeit food/drink/toilet breaks (although presume they do want to keep hydrated and glucose up, but perhaps don't need so many of the latter if they are sweating!). Thinking of some people in nearby workplaces who smoke some of them are often to be seen outside, some as much as 5-10 minutes every hour. Not that others don't down tools for other reasons but it's just another drain on your time, I would think.

Anton doesn't smoke (he would look very hypocritical if he did, considering how against it he was in a discussion on 'The Wright Stuff'), but I think Erin does socially.

[quote=Pentax20;53896153]I remember reading that some of the pros smoked to help keep slim - they smoked instead of snacking.

On the contrary, the pros eat loads, they need to to replace the calories they use up. Jimi Mistry posts piccys on twitter of the lunches he prepares for Flavia - its hilarious. Also, the SCD team post piccys of the Saturday afternoon food boxes for pros and celebs. Eating well is all part of the training. If you think of the weight many celebs lose and think of the pros doing it all the time - it aint rocket science.

I would think they smoke because they smoke - certainly not as a dietary aid!

Different strokes for different folks. Leading up to an important competition is generally time to starve yourself, just live off rice or something. On the day of the competition, a bowl of soup and a few cigarettes will do.

There's no way a good dancer ever starves themselves. I mean, you can't be a good dancer if you're weak. You only need to look at the physique of people like Flavia, Robin, Natalie, Artem... they're powerful athletes with a high percentage of muscle.

You don't keep that muscle by starving yourself. You need to feed it to maintain it. The kind of stamina and athleticism demanded by top dancers requires great strength, and there's no way you can be strong without the right type of fuel and plenty of it.

Okay. So nobody in the top six in the world ever starves themselves. They're just lying.

But why? To keep themselves slim?

Yeah, generally before any important competition the people I know eat as little as they can to try to get themselves as slim as possible - and then once the competition is over, it's fin ally time to eat again!

[quote=Marshy54;53924433]
Are Jimi and Flavia still together then? Haven't heard of them for ages.

Yes, they moved into a new house together a few weeks ago.

I would have thought before a big competition you would need all the energy you can get & I can't imagine it's very sensible to starve yourself. I know as others have said that it's very common for dancers to smoke but I still find it extremely surprising when their job requires them to be very physically fit.

tiger rose thats why i started the thread i know how fit they have to be and im surprised that some of them do smoke

Nothing to do with the smoking aspect of the thread but when Camilla Dallerup did IACGMOOH she said she was really struggling through lack of food because she eats thousands of calories a day when she's dancing so attempting to live off the meagre rations they had was hard work.

I know if I do a 10 mile run I burn off 900 calories and that's me exercising for around an hour and a half. If the dancers are on the go for 5-6 hours a day they must burn a heck of a lot of calories!

Slightly off-topic, but I went to see Swan Lake on Ice performed by the Russian Imperial Ice Stars group this year. There was a whole group of female skaters outside the stage door with ciggie in one hand and coffee in the other. The male skaters? They were walking down the street with their fags.

That show is constant movement compared to Strictly and they all seemed to smoke. Perhaps if you're fit enough to start with, smoking doesn't harm your fitness?

PS Also saw Brian Fortuna with a cigarette tucked behind his ear heading for the smoking area in a hotel last year. Perhaps he was looking after it for Vincent though?

Why can't someone be fit and smoke like?

Such nonsense talked on this thread

I was at the stage door after a Strictly tour last year and James spent 15 minutes with the fan's signing autographs and posing for photo's and in those 15 minutes he must have smoked atleast 4 cigarettes.

I was thinking about Camilla and her calorie intake this morning in relation to this thread. Also have you ever noticed from some of the behind the scenes footage the content of the meals they have the runners fetch for them on a Saturday.....talk about high calorie. Never seen anyone tucking into a salad.

Eating wise, I think it's slightly different for a show like this - nobody is gonna lose marks if they're wearing anything more than a size 8, but in the competitive world, your career would pretty much be completely over.