BOSTON -- The smoking rate is inching downward. Still, despite all we know about the dangers of cigarettes, one in every five Americans lights up regularly.

On the eve of the Great American Smoke Out, NewsCenter 5 joins ABC News in "Quit to Live," an effort to try to help people quit smoking in memory of our late colleague, Peter Jennings.

NewsCenter 5's Heather Unruh reported Wednesday that WCVB-TV met four smokers all using different methods to quit.

After 25 years of smoking, Tewksbury, Mass., resident Michele Berry has decided to quit cold turkey.

"I decided it was the way to do it. I didn't want to have any nicotine going into my body," she said.

Berry has dreams of starting a bike tour business, and says the unhealthy habit just doesn't fit in. She's using a Web site to give her ideas on how to quit. She's also joined a gym.

"I'm a little worried about gaining weight. And because the mental attitude, that goes with quitting smoking, you get a little tired, depressed. So I thought I'd try a gym," she said.

She has her work cut out for her -- just 10 percent of smokers are successful quitting cold turkey.

"I think how much better I'm going to be once I quit smoking. If I can do this now, I'm going to be able to do it until I'm 70 or 80," Berry said.

Instead of buying cigarettes, Dan Berlin, 28, of Arlington, Mass., is buying nicotine patches. He says it's time to quit as he's begun to feel the physical impact of smoking.

"I took a quick run up the stairs and I'd be winded. I'd have to go into an engineer's cube and catch my breath. That just wasn't cutting it anymore," Berlin said.

In addition to the patch, he's invested in some lollipops to keep his hands busy.

"Get off the patch, take it a week at a time, and also, get off the lollipops, cause I'm going to start getting cavities now," he said.

Juanita Upshaw wants to quit after watching a friend die of lung cancer.

"I sat there, watched her suffer through pain, and she kept telling me, 'You've got to stop smoking. You've got to stop smoking,'" Upshaw said.

After trying everything else, including hypnosis without success, she's joined a smoking cessation support group at Massachusetts General Hospital. It costs $70 for seven sessions. She'll learn how to mentally prepare to quit, gradually curbing her smoking and gear up for a targeted quit day of Nov. 21.

"It's a habit," she said. "Hopefully, with this class I'm taking now, I can quit for good."

Eric Iby is 36 and a father of two. Past attempts to quit have left him edgy and aggravated

"You get all worked up. You take it out on your family. You're doing it for your family. You shouldn't take it out on your family for trying to quit smoking," he said.

He's trying a new laser technique at the Anne Penman Center in Burlington, Mass. Three one-hour sessions will cost him $299. The laser will hit certain pressure points on his body. The technique is supposed to reduce the cravings he's had for 20 years. He's skeptical but says he's highly motivated to be healthy.

"To be there, to see my kids graduate, to see my kids get married," he said.