Just passed the 8 month point without having smoked tobacco even once. This will be my last update because THE BLOATING FINALLY WENT AWAY. I tried something I did not know about before and it did the trick along with all the other things, which I'll recap below. I started chewing Black Cumin Seeds, about 1/16 of a teaspoon, 8-10 times a day. Cumin does wonderful things for your body, one of which is reducing bloating and inflammation. Within 24 hours of starting the cumin, the bloating disappeared completely. I wish I had known about it 8 months ago.
So, the recipe that worked for me to recap is:
Black Cumin Seed: 1/16 teaspoon 8-10 times daily. Chew the seeds and swallow. NO store had this, but I found it on amazon.com.
Yogurt: (probiotics) eat 4 heaping teaspoons before or with every meal. Use no sugar, fat free yogurt.
Ginger: eat 1/8 teaspoon 3-6 times daily. Use either whole ginger chopped or use powdered ginger, which is available in just about any baking section of a grocery store.
Apple juice: drink 1/4 cup with every meal.
Lastly, just give it time. The horrible bloating will eventually go away once your body recovers from the shock of nicotine withdrawal. The longer you smoked, the long it takes. But YOU WILL RECOVER.
Just passed the 6 month point without having smoked tobacco even once. The bloating hangs on like a bad cold. It's severe one day, almost gone the next, and then back again. I'm continuing the yogurt/digestion enzymes/apple juice/ginger treatment PLUS daily abdominal exercises, but to no avail. I'm discouraged that the bloating is taking so long to go away. I feel like my body is ruined.
I also have the bloating as well as bad heartburn every once in awhile. Thing is I never had any of these problems when I smoked. I'm kind of relieve to read others experience this.
The two symptoms I got the worse were bloated, gas, irregular 'movements', hearburn, and acid reflux. The bloating is quite annoying as you feel your skin stretching over your stomach. Reminds me of pregnancy all 'those' years ago.