[version_five]

Start a regular exercise habit and don't worry about quitting until the exercise is well established.

I quit smoking, almost inadvertently this way. I started running not really planning to quit smoking and eventually the physical drain of smoking weighed on me enough that I decided to give it up. It was still horrible to quit but I had exercise to fall back on as a "healthy" habit that kept me distracted enough to deal with quitting. That plus a lot of walks whenever I had a craving.

Ymmv of course. Personally I think cold turkey is the only way once you decide, anything else is lying to yourself.

Expect it to take years to get over it, but it does get better.

[empleh]

Interesting. This is certainly a possibility, however I need to drive about 15 minutes to be somewhere that I feel comfortable waking. I could purchase a treadmill or exceeding bike.

When I stopped smoking cannabis in my early 20’s I would do push-ups every time I had a craving. So this is definitely feasible. Although I didn’t learn until later in that physical exercise will release THC built up in fat cells into the blood stream.

The last bit of your comment gives me hope and solace though, thank you for sharing.