Your Stop Smoking Blog

Are you currently an expecting mother that is still smoking cigarettes? Do you want to stop smoking while pregnant? How exciting, you are going to do the best thing you can to defend the health of your baby. Make no mistake; smoking can be devastating to your baby both when you are pregnant and after the delivery. But you are ready to quit smoking during pregnancy, so     good for you!

First of all, please, don’t beat yourself up about smoking when pregnant. You are not an awful person; you just have a bad habit. And simply because you are reading this article shows that you want to do what’s right for your child. So we have to see what we are able to do to put an end to your cigarette smoking habit for good and help you quit smoking during pregnancy.

Pregnant women who choose to quit smoking are presented with a myriad of stopping smoking options. But being an expecting mom you need to select a quitting smoking technique which satisfies your requirements. What are your requirements? Well, you have to make sure your baby is kept safe so you want to be certain that you decide on a method to quit smoking that is:

All natural: You need to be sure you are avoiding chemicals or substances that will damage your child.
Extremely effective: You don’t have the time to try numerous attempts at quitting smoking.
Succeeds quickly: Time is off the essence; the faster you give up smoking in pregnancy the less risk you put on your baby.

So is there a method to give up smoking that satisfies every one of these requirements? Yes there is but let’s take a look at a couple of other ways to quit smoking cigarettes which you, as a pregnant woman, definitely need to avoid like the plague.

First of all do not even try to quit smoking “cold turkey”. Attempting to quit without any help will give you a very lower potential for being successful. Next, exclude stopping smoking medicines as these are just not safe when pregnant. Lastly, forget nicotine replacement therapies like the patch. They function by feeding nicotine into your system and you need to stay clear of nicotine while pregnant. So stay clear of these ways to stop smoking while pregnant.

Seeing that we have ruled out the risky approaches to quit smoking what exactly is left? It appears as though we now have taken everything off the plate. But we have not at all there exists one smoking cessation technique that we have remaining and it fulfills all the criteria we have in the above list. What is it?

Hypnotherapy, in particular NLP based hypnotherapy. NLP stands for Neuro Linguistic Programming. And it is the easiest way for expecting mothers to end the smoking habit. It meets all the required criteria: as a kind of hypnotherapy it is all natural; it is very effective and has a high success rate, also it works quickly. What’s more, it has the extra benefit of being really simple to use; you don’t have to see an expert to stop smoking while pregnant with NLP. With NLP all you have to do is listen to a specially programmed audio recording to stop smoking cigarettes. NLP is the best way to stop smoking while pregnant so consider NLP as your stopping smoking technique in pregnancy.

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Have you heard a dozen times of people asking you to quit smoking now? In your mind, you probably have asked the same question in response – why should you quit smoking at all? Read on as I disclose 4 compelling reasons to snuff that butt now.

Here are the top 4 reasons to quit smoking now, in my search for answers from the smoking community.

1. Health

I guess you should have heard that many times. We all know that smoking harms our bodies. Smoker’s cough, lung cancer, emphysema and other smoking related diseases can be avoided if we quit smoking now.

If you may be a chain smoker or have been smoking for decades now, when you quit smoking now, it does necessarily mean that you would not develop these health problems. But by quitting, it dramatically reduces the chance of suffering from these illnesses. Those who have quitted can testify that they feel healthier each day.

2. Beauty

Smoking destroys your skin. Did you know that skin research shows that smoking causes wrinkles to appear on your skin prematurely? Even if you are a beautiful lady in your 20s, the smoking can easily add another 10 years to your age and make you look older and more haggard. Men are not spared and in the same way, the handsome face of yours may suffer as well. Dry skin is also a common trait observed in smokers.

Not only so, discoloration of your fingers, finger nails and teeth would take place also. These are harmful effects of smoking that would make you look uglier than the real you.

For your own beauty, shouldn’t you consider to quit smoking now? This is so important especially if you are still single and looking for a partner.

3. Money

A pack of cigarettes can easily cost more than $5. Say you are a light smoker and smoke a pack per day. In one month, you would have choked up at least $150 or even more. And that works out to be $1800 a year. Can you do something with that $1800 extra if you quit smoking now? I am sure you can reward yourself, buy yourself a new TV, computer or even pamper yourself with a nice Coach or Prada handbag if you are a lady.

4. Family’s Health

Second hand smoke can be detrimental to your family members’ health especially for the kids at home. It can affect children greatly if they suffer from asthma. Studies have shown that children in families with at least 1 smoking parent often suffer more asthmatic attacks and each attack is more serious and harmful.

Other health problems have been related to second hand smoke such as sinusitis, cystic fibrosis, rhinitis, lung failure, bronchitis, pneumonia, common colds, sore throats and so on.

For the sake of the kids and your loved ones at home, snuff that cigarette butt and quit smoking now. Find out how you can stop smoking now with an east to quit smoking system at my blog.

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I would have killed for a cigarette! My nerves were shot and my future brother-in-law was congratulating me for having the physical and emotional strength to quit smoking. He said all this while he lighted another one. I had to keep smiling and pretend the smoke rising from the cigarette didn’t bother me at all! As far as my fiance knew, I had given up smoking months before. She didn’t know that this was really my first week without nicotine.

I loved to smoke cigarettes! As the old southern comedian Brother Dave Gardner once said, “I love to smoke! I’d smoke chains if I could light them!” That used to my sentiments exactly! I smoked at least two packs of cigarettes every day for over twenty-five years. Except for the headaches, congestion and constant cough, I enjoyed every minute of my decades of smoking.

The secret to quitting is to find someone who is more important to you than the pack of smokes in your pocket; tell them you’ve quit smoking just for them. If you’ve really given up smoking, then you’re not lying. If you’re as weak as I was though, you’ll soon succumb to the urge of just one drag off a cigarette. One puff, or course, leads to another and pretty soon you’re sneaking around, gargling mouth wash, changing clothes repeatedly and washing your hair even when it’s not dirty, to remove the smell of smoke.

A man would understand that quitting smoking is an ordeal not always successful the first time. My experience with women told me that they would analyze the situation and deduce that the failed smoker must think more of his awful, filthy habit than her. That wouldn’t necessarily be true, but try to convince her of that. I figured it would be smarter to lie!

Shortly after I met my wife, I told her that she was such an inspiration to me that I was quitting smoking. That’s how much appreciated her. I meant every word, especially when she said she was proud of me. Then I fell off the wagon and began smoking again.

I didn’t smoke when I was near her and even condemned those I saw puffing on a cigarette. Was I self righteous or what? I hid it well and as far as I knew, I had convinced her that I’d quit smoking; then came the day of reckoning. She announced that we were going to Florida to meet her mother and would be gone a week.

No Problem! I was tough; I knew I could hold myself together until I could slip away and grab a cigarette. Was I wrong! We were driving with her sister who had just quit smoking herself! All the way to south Florida she complained about not having a cigarette. I was handling the situation very stoically, never mentioning that I was dying for one myself. I had no opportunity to steal even a small puff!

When we finally arrived, her other sister and brother were out on the lanai smoking to their heart’s content. My soon to be wife promptly announced that I had quit smoking just for her. Fat chance I had of sneaking a smoke now.

I was living in cigarette hell. Her brother and I would go fishing, with him contentedly puffing away, on smoke after another. The sister that was quitting gave in and joined the smoking crowd on the lanai. I couldn’t admit that I’d been lying about not smoking, so I had to endure 6 days with only second hand smoke. I sucked up as much of that as I could!

Not once that week did I complain of not having a cigarette because to do so would be admitting that I was still addicted. Going cold turkey without complaining was a nightmare, but when we finally got back home, I found that I was patting myself on the back for having quit such a nasty habit. Do I still have a desire for a cigarette? Absolutely! But after nearly ten years without one, I’ll never light up again.

Did my wife ever find out that I hadn’t quit smoking when she thought I did? Probably; but she’s never said anything to me about the subject. I never take a trip to Florida though, without thinking of the first non-smoking trip I took with my wife.

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HypnosisDoc.com 2008 Video interview with Matt, who smoked for 15 years and stopped 7+ years ago with Laura Pagano, MA, PhD. NO WEIGHT GAIN, NO withdrawal, NO drugs. FAST, SAFE, EFFECTIVE. Hypnosis/Hypnotherapy- Roswell GA, Atlanta GA, Smyrna GA. Call 770.998-3881. Achievement Strategies, Inc. www.Hypnosisdoc.com YOU CAN stop smoking now, easily, with a skilled and caring professional!

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This is a video on the most effective…

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Trailer for Mutant Aliens by Bill Plympton. (mpilot)

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Current stop smoking quit rates range anywhere from 3% to the mid twenties. These are pitiful results because of the addictive nature of nicotine. Roughly 85% of all smokers are clinically addicted to nicotine. Since nicotine is just as addictive as cocaine, you can see why the success rate is so low, relatively speaking.

Many people wrongly feel that you can lay down an addictive habit as easily as you picked it up. This is grossly incorrect. Ask a recovering alcoholic how difficult it was to stop drinking. Then you’ll discover that for many of these smokers, it is simply no longer a choice to stop smoking. Oh sure, they may “try” to stop, but it is next to impossible for them to be successful without some overriding behavioral or medicinal assistance.

This has given rise to many experimental schemes all designed to assist the smoker in their efforts to become a former smoker. Many try giving a placebo method and label it as a new natural stop smoking aid or they’ll provide a medication as a shot and offer it in an off-label manner as the newest stop smoking shot. Others try to cajole smokers through whatever means, scientific or not, to get the desired affect – smoking cessation.

There are researchers currently looking at a nicotine vaccine which does show some promise, however, it is still in the clinical trials and may not be ready for some time. Well, enter in the field of study called, behavioral economics. This science looks at how emotions determine a person’s financial choices. In other words, does depression cause us to save money or spend it?

In Europe and the United States, behaviorists are examining how the influence of money affects a person’s ability to stop smoking. In essence, can a person be paid-off to stop smoking? We’re talking bribery here folks. How much money do I have to pay you, in order for you to stop smoking? Wow, that’s a great question isn’t it?

Managers will tell you how annual merit increases are not primary motivators for people to work hard at their jobs, but rather recognition and autonomy might be what pushes people’s buttons to perform at a top level. However, early research is showing how financial rewards might just be doing the trick as a motivator in smoking cessation clinics.

A recent article from Reuters discusses how this is impacting a community in Scotland. The concept points to a pay the smoker now to quit, and hope to save the enormous health cost liability later – when the ill-effects of smoking start showing up. These are the ones we’re all familiar with like COPD, lung cancer and cardiovascular disease. They are hoping to employ this cost avoidance strategy through what amounts to a bribe and it seems to be working.

Reuters reports in one region of Scotland where a approximately 200 women had stopped smoking as a result of the bribery scheme, compared to only 6 from the previous year and those 6 had lost contact with the smoking cessation resources for that region.

This can be compared to many US corporations who promise to pay more of the health insurance premiums if their employees take part in a wellness program that tracks individual progress to certain health goals. For instance, if you lose 20 pounds, you may have to pay $2 less per pay period for your health insurance premiums. Or if you stop smoking, you may receive a $10 a week discount on your insurance premiums per pay period.

Some researchers discount the “pay to get healthy” results because of a meta-analysis study that showed financial incentives did not work to help people stop smoking after 12 months. The thought is, once they get their financial reward, they’ll start smoking again. Others feel this just needs more time to work and study.

The concept is still relatively new, but matches a cultural mindset that says, “if you want change, then show me the money”. One of the directors of this program in Scotland stated the key as having to work with the smokers to come up with motivators that smokers really think about. For instance, many who smoke are poorly educated and in the lower income ranges. They think about money all the time. For them, smoking seems absolutely impossible to quit, so they resolve themselves to continue smoking, even though it costs money. Now say to them you’ll actually pay them to stop smoking. What is going through their minds now? They get a little stipend and no longer buy the cigarettes. That’s a double windfall, just in time for Christmas.