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.
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.