You don’t have to be a genius to see that smoking is not good for you. The adverse affects to your health have been proven over and over again. So what is it that you need in order to make it happen? This article has lots of ideas for you.
If you are looking for a chemical aid to quit smoking, then be very careful about this approach. Drugs such as Chantix have a relatively weak success rate and can have the potential to cause severe damage to your body. It works by altering your brain chemistry, and can lead to severe depression and suicidal tendencies.
Believe it or not, exercise can be the key you need to quitting smoking. Usually, many people smoke because they feel overwhelmed or stressed out. When they feel stressed, they turn to cigarettes for support. Cigarettes can be replaced by exercise. Also, exercise is good for a person’s overall health.
It is okay to use a nicotine replacement during the beginning stage of your smoking cessation program. Nicotine is highly addictive, and the withdrawal symptoms can be extremely unpleasant. Nicotine gum or lozenges can prevent you from feeling short-tempered, moody and irritable and can be the difference between success and failure.
Receiving support from friends and family members can go a long way in helping you to quit smoking. It’s especially important to remind them that getting over an addiction can cause mood swings and irritability. If people close to you are understanding of the situation, it will make relapsing that much easier to avoid.
Write down why you’re quitting ahead of time and keep that list handy. When that craving hits you, refer to your list for motivation. Understanding ahead of time why quitting is important to you will help to keep you focused in those moments of weakness, and it might even help to get you back on track if you should slip up.
Reduce the amount of cigarettes you have each day until you reach zero. Unless there is a health reason for you to stop smoking immediately, quitting tobacco is easier when you do it gradually. Cut back on cigarettes first and quitting will be less of a shock to your body.
To fully prepare yourself with the struggles of quitting, know exactly what to expect before you start. Know how soon you can expect symptoms of nicotine withdrawal to kick in, and know all of the possible symptoms you could experience. This will also help you to anticipate your strongest cravings and most likely pitfalls.
Write down a journal of every time you have a cigarette and what your reasons were for having one. This journal will help you to find out what your smoking triggers are. For some it may be the first morning cigarette, or the need to smoke after a meal. For others, it may be stress. Determining your triggers will help you to figure out a way to fight them.
If you are pregnant, or plan or becoming that way, then use this as a serious motivation to stop smoking. Statistics say that women who smoke while carrying a child, especially in the first trimester, will cause the infant to have a decreased body weight. This will in turn affect their health, potentially throughout childhood.
Check with your health department, local clinics, or doctor’s office for information about local support groups for those who want to quit smoking. Talking to others who are quitting can provide valuable coping tips, support, and motivation. This may prove especially helpful if your friends and family are not supportive of your desire to quit.
If an activity becomes difficult and makes you crave a cigarette, try to step away from it. There are some activities that might just naturally make you crave a cigarette. These might include drinking a cup of coffee or hanging out in a bar with friends. If you’re not strong enough to handles these activities without a cigarette, realize it and just walk away.
Keep a stopwatch handy when you quit. A craving might mentally feel like it lasts for hours, but in fact the physical feeling passes in less than three minutes. Keep a timer handy and set it for five minutes when you first feel the craving. Once these minutes pass, you know you’re in the clear.
Look online for a quit smoking calculator. These calculators are a great motivating tool in quitting. They can tell you just how long it has been since your last cigarette and exactly how many smokes you haven’t had since your quit date. You can also see how much money you have saved since your quit date.
As you can see, there is a ton of information here that could be that thing you’ve been looking for. That thing that will finally break the spell that cigarettes hold over you.
Good luck on your journey towards better health. Just use these tips to be free from the hold of tobacco.
How To Quit Smoking The Healthy Way was originally published on Spring