This page provides
you with some great tips for quitting smoking. Take a few minutes to learn some methods
that can save your life.
- Use Smoke Away.
- After reading this list, sit down and write
your own list, customized to your personality and way of doing things. Create you own plan
for quitting.
- Write down why you want to quit (the benefits
of quitting): live longer, feel better, for your family, save money, smell better, find a
mate more easily, etc. You know what's bad about smoking and you know what you'll
get by quitting. Put it on paper and read it daily.
- Ask your family and friends to support your
decision to quit. Ask them to be completely supportive and non-judgmental. Let them
know ahead of time that you will probably be irritable and even irrational while you
withdraw from your smoking habit.
- Set a quit date. Decide what day you will
extinguish your cigarettes forever. Write it down. Plan for it. Prepare your mind for the
"first day of the rest of your life". You might even hold a small ceremony when
you smoke you last cigarette, or on the morning of the quit date.
- Talk with your doctor about quitting. Support
and guidance from a physician is a proven way to better your chances to quit.
- Begin an exercise program. Exercise is
simply incompatible with smoking. Exercise relieves stress and helps your body recover
from years of damage from cigarettes. If necessary, start slow, with a short walk once or
twice per day. Build up to 30 to 40 minutes of rigorous activity, 3 or 4 times per week.
Consult your physician before beginning any exercise program.
- Do some deep breathing each day for 3 to 5
minutes. Breathe in through your nose very slowly, hold the breath for a few seconds, and
exhale very slowly through your mouth. Try doing your breathing with your eyes closed and
go to step 9.
- Visualize your way to becoming a non-smoker.
While doing your deep breathing in step 8, you can close your eyes and begin to imagine
yourself as a non-smoker. See yourself enjoying your exercise in step 7. See yourself
turning down a cigarette that someone offers you. See yourself throwing all your
cigarettes away, and winning a gold medal for doing so. Develop your own creative
visualizations. Visualization works.
- Cut back on cigarettes gradually (if you cut
back gradually, be sure to set a quit date on which you WILL quit). Ways to cut back
gradually include: plan how many cigarettes you will smoke each day until your quit date,
making the number you smoke smaller each day; buy only one pack at a time; change brands
so you don't enjoy smoking as much; give your cigarettes to someone else, so that you have
to ask for them each time you want to smoke.
- Find another smoker who is trying to quit,
and help each other with positive words and by lending an ear when quitting becomes
difficult. Visit this Bulletin Board and
this Chat Room to find a "quit
buddy."
- Have your teeth cleaned. Enjoy the way your
teeth look and feel and plan to keep them that way.
- After you quit, plan to celebrate the
milestones in your journey to becoming a non-smoker. After two weeks of being smoke-free,
see a movie. After a month, go to a fancy restaurant (be sure to sit in the non-smoking
section). After three months, go for a long weekend to a favorite get-away. After six
months, buy yourself something frivolous. After a year, have a party for yourself. Invite
your family and friends to your "birthday" party and celebrate your new chance
at a long, healthy life.
- Drink lots of water. Water is good for you
anyway, and most people don't get enough. It will help flush the nicotine and other
chemicals out of your body, plus it can help reduce cravings by fulfilling the "oral
desires" that you may have.
- Learn what triggers your desire for a
cigarette, such as stress, the end of a meal, arrival at work, entering a bar, etc. Avoid
these triggers or if that's impossible, plan alternative ways to deal with the triggers.
- Find something to hold in your hand and
mouth, to replace cigarettes. Consider drinking straws or you might try an artificial
cigarette called E-Z Quit
Artificial Cigarette .
- Write yourself an inspirational song or poem
about quitting, cigarettes, and what it means to you to quit. Read it daily.
- Keep a picture of your family or someone very
important to you with you at all times. On a piece of paper, write the words "I'm
quitting for myself and for you (or "them")". Tape your written message to
the picture. Whenever you have the urge to smoke, look at the picture and read the
message.
- Whenever you have a craving for a cigarette,
instead of lighting up, write down your feelings or whatever is on your mind. Keep this
"journal" with you at all times.
- Believe in yourself. Believe that you can
quit. Think about some of the most difficult things you have done in your life and realize
that you have the guts and determination to quit smoking. It's up to you.
Good luck in your efforts to
quit smoking. It's worth it!
This list of smoking
cessation tips is brought to you by and
Copyright © 1998 The Quit Smoking Company |
