Have a chat with your friends and people you know and ask for their general opinions on smoking in general, and how they feel about you smoking. Have a look around you and take note of how smokers are recognized by those who don’t smoke. Check out the negative aspects of smoking and any effects it may have on people near you.
Ask some ex-smokers what methods they used, which they failed with as well as those that where successful, tell everyone you know about your plan to quit smoking; it’s likely that they can suggest some different things that you can do which will help avoid smoking. If you have a bad urge to smoke, do everything you can to put it off and delay lighting up, slow down your brains demands for nicotine, think about why it is that you want to smoke, also try and think about the way other people would react if you gave in a lit up. With practice and by using delaying tactics
You will educate yourself and find yourself becoming more attuned to your own patterns of smoking.
A lot of quitters have discovered that it is a great idea to keep some kind of record or journal (perhaps even an online blog from wordpress.org) as a way of keeping track of the patterns of their own smoking habit. Try and find out the times when you are more likely to light a cigarette, as well as the times when you hardly smoke at all. Browse the net for some stress reduction techniques. Consider starting a new hobby, activity or sport that would make it more difficult to smoke, i.e. it’s quite hard to smoke when skydiving!
Prior to any actual attempt to stop smoking get a notebook and attempt to compile a true account of the money you spend on smoking each day, a lot of people are pretty stunned when they add up a weekly total as they admit that they smoke less than 10 a day but the true figure is double!
Stop bulk buying cigarettes, buy single packs when you go out, not the bulk packs of 200 or 500.
Put together a bullet list of the reasons you want to quit smoking and tape it to your fridge. One method worth trying before you actually quit is to light up your first cigarette 10 minutes later every day, by the end of a week your first nicotine fix is already an hour later.
Ask everyone you know for their favourite quit smoking methods, there are of course loads of different ways that people use so never giver up on giving up!
As soon as you have decided on the date that you are going to stop smoking, let everybody know about it so that they are aware of what you are doing, avoid areas where people smoke and be ready for the times when your need to smoke is high, try to be ready for these moments with a contingency plan already in place to distract you, something as simple as spearmint gum or extra strong mints can be enough.
As you get nearer and nearer to the date you have set for quitting try and increase the gaps between lighting up, try and cut out every 2nd or 3rd cigarette completely, this will gradually reduce your nicotine intake and help make actually stopping less stressful (both for you and those around you!)
Approach your quitting date make the gaps between lighting your cigarettes longer and longer, if you can cut out ever other cigarette, as your nicotine levels are reduced you should find quitting easier. Try to stay away from drinking alcohol; alcohol will almost certainly lessen your willpower. Try and put away the money you spend usually on smoking – you will be surprised by how much it is and how fast it mounts up.
Try and reduce the remnants of your smoking habit in your surroundings, was your car inside and out, vacuum your house and have your clothes professionally cleaned, destroy all your ashtrays, discard your lighters and prepare yourself for your first 24 hours smoke free.
Jackie is the owner of
www.smokinghelper.com a website which aims to provide help, information,
tips and advice to people who are trying to stop smoking and beat
nicotine addiction.
Stop smoking today and change your life forever!
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