As someone trying to quit...
First of all, that Chantix prescription costs as much as smoking ($150ish/month) but I still use it. It does help. (except the side effects)
I don't smoke much anymore unless I have a drink. Then, all bets are off.
I gained not less then 10% weight. I started at 165 and now weigh almost 185.
My dentist/periodontist may have a shit-fit when they see the teeth grinding I've been doing.
All that said... I'm quitting. Don't have a cut-off date yet but have gone from a pack a day to 1 smoke every day or 2 (unless I have a drink....).
Congratulations! As someone who never smoked, I obviously would not have any idea how difficult it is. All I know is that
almost everyone who proclaimed to me that they were quitting seemed to mean 'for the next hour or so'. I think I mentioned earlier, and am too lazy to look, but one of my top employees smoked for probably 30 years. One day she says she's decided that she wants to quit 'for me' (meaning herself).
I simply told her great and good luck; completely expecting her to still be smoking later that day. To my complete and total shock, it must be close to two years or more and she has still has not smoked. She used that prescription you mentioned but, other than that, just quit cold turkey for her own personal reasons. About a year later she told me that her two boys were quickly reaching their teen years and it struck her that they, statistically, would smoke because she does (her husband never did). She also noticed that she was getting more wrinkles, her voice was deeper than it was, and she was starting to pick up a cough.
Since she quit, I have to take her word on it when she tells me that she'd tried many times in the past and was never successful until she truly wanted to quit for herself. My step mother is one of the sweetest women I know, and I knew her about 15 years before she met and married my dad about 15 years ago, and she just can't seem to quit even though both her parents and two siblings of hers have died in their 50's from lung cancer. She's now in her mid 50's and is "still trying". It's driving my dad nuts because he knows, with her family history, it will likely kill her; and soon.
The lady I mentioned who works for me and quit tells me that my step mother will never quit until she really decides she wants to quit; no outside pressure would help. I can honestly say I really hope she does because I'd really hate to see her die so young, but I've never said anything to her. I'm still taking the advice that she needs to decide herself that she wants to quit, therefore, I've never spoken to her about quitting. Is that the right thing for me to do?
,try a modified e-cigarette(not the little pen style ones that look like a cigarette) i have been smoke free since 9/21/2011 when i tried them with my mother in law as she has dementia/Alzheimer's and had become a fire hazard
,i tried various types of e-cigarettes and found many of them to lack the nicotine hit and battery life that my addiction required.i finally purchased a prodigy V3 and i have not looked back 
and i am finally getting back in shape physically , i know it works as i am now running with out coughing and my stamina is getting better, i had tried to quit so many times that i had given up until a friend of mine said if you can't quit then just use the nicotine not the carcinogens and tar that comes with cigarettes.as for my mother inlaw... she forgot she was a smoker
