It's been just over a year for me since I quit. This was after about 16 years of a pack-a-day smoking (sometimes more).
I had actually quit for about six weeks a year before, but it wasn't meant to be. Ever since, I had been wanting to quit again but it is so easy to find excuses not to quit than it is to get up the guts to actually do it.
It was May '09 and I knew I was close to quitting again. I was in Walgreens getting some stuff, and I noticed they had their Walgreens brand nicotine gum on sale half-off. I had used the gum the year before and it was actually quite effective so I figured.. what the heck.. I'll buy a box while it's on sale (it's like $25 instead of $50!), knowing I was going to give it a go soon.
Then, as I got in the car I got to thinking... WHAT AM I DOING!? I have the gum, why wait to quit??! Just do it! So I made myself a compromise, I'd quit as soon as my pack of smokes was empty. On the way home, I opened my pack and saw that I only had ONE SMOKE left! So I figured.. this will be my last one, and I sat in the driveway taking my time smoking it, enjoying it, and saying goodbye.
A few weeks later, my box of nicotine gum was empty, so I went to Walgreens to get some more, and low and behold it wasn't on sale anymore. I *ALMOST* shelled out the $50 for another box, but then my frugal voice said to me "What the HECK are you doing? You're just going to get addicted to the gum anyway! Buy a pack of trident.. it's a LOT cheaper!!!" So I did.. and I chewed sugar-free gum for about a week and by this time my jaw was killing me so I just quit chewing gum altogether (for the most part).
And here I am.. over a year later.. still smoke free. Yeah I've put on about 20 lbs since then but I'm working on getting that off now. Yeah I still have my cravings, and I even have dreams about once or twice a week that I'm smoking (which oddly enough helps with the cravings)... but it has become almost a non-issue. I don't even think about it hardly anymore, and the few times that I do it's a fleeting thought at most.
Whatever you do, DON'T GIVE IN! Just don't do it... it'll get easier, but it's definitely not a walk in the park either.