Breaking the Habit of Smoking

Working to quit smoking is one of the hardest things that many people ever do in their life. The reasons that it is so difficult typically vary. The one reason that is most often cited is the habit of smoking itself is extremely hard to break. The task then becomes trying to break the habit, and instead give yourself a much healthier habit to hang onto. After all, it took you a while to get into the habit of smoking so reason stands that it will take a while to break the habit.

If you are determined to quit smoking, you have made an impressive start. However, if you have decided to quit on your own, you are doing even better. Sounds strange does it? You would be surprised at just how many people “decide” to quit smoking by being informed by their doctor, spouse, parent, sibling or friend that they will be quitting. In order to successfully quit smoking for good you need to decide for yourself to quit. If you have actually made this decision on your own, you are doing an amazing job. If you are letting someone push you into quitting you are just setting yourself up for headaches, hassles and complications that are easily avoided.

As a smoker, you have no doubt developed a pattern to your smoking. For example, if you are a typical one pack a day smoker one of your habits is to smoke a pack a day. You need to take small steps to break these habits. Perhaps you will find best luck in simply changing your habits slowly. For example, if you typically smoke a cigarette after each meal, you might find it helpful to brush your teeth. This can have the effect of providing a fresh mouth that you do not want to dirty with cigarette taste. You might find that after each meal you need to try chewing a piece of gum, sucking on hard candy or even attempting nicotine gum.

If there are any specific circumstances that always trigger a cigarette craving, you should work to avoid the situation. If it is something that you absolutely cannot avoid, such as dinner times, you need to create an alternative habit that you replace smoking with. For example, if you always smoke as soon as you get to your car after work, you might want to consider carpooling with someone who does not smoke, taking a different route home, stopping for groceries, jamming to some music or even taking a bus. Anything you can do to shake up your normal smoking routine is good.

There will of course be times that it is quite difficult to break the habits. If you find yourself in a position where you cannot avoid a typical smoking situation, you need to create a way to deal with it. Some people use nicotine gum whenever they are faced with a smoking situation. Others find that the stop smoking sticks are beneficial. These sticks can allow you to hold a pretend cigarette that just provides your hands with something to do. If you find these quite useful then you know that your problem is your hands are idle, finding something for your hands to do might help a lot.

Trying to quit is a very difficult process. Many people take weeks if not months to quit smoking completely. If you are struggling far too much with the idea of completely quitting at once you may find it is much better for your own situation to slowly cut back on your cigarette consumption. Regardless of the precise method that you choose, it can take a minimum of 2 weeks to start adapting new habits. This means that any new behavior you adopt in your quest to stop smoking must be repeated continuously for at least two weeks before you will start to see a real difference in your lifestyle. Giving yourself plenty of time to work on your new habits is essential and will set you on the road to success.

11:18 PM - By Unknown 0

10 Tips to Stop Smoking for Good

With so many tips and suggestions on how to stop smoking it is really easy to see why so many people really do not quit. The vast majority of people are completely confused by the entire process! The fact is that with so much information passed around that is confusing to people it is often much easier to just continue smoking and hoping for a simple solution. Actually taking the necessary steps to really quit smoking is not easy. It means coming to terms with the fact that stopping smoking really is best for you, as well as your health.

Tip #1 You need a good reason to quit. Simply deciding to quit because the sky is blue is not a sufficient reason. The need to quit smoking is obvious, but the desire to quit needs to come from inside in order for the process to be successful.

Tip #2 Look for small rewards that you can give yourself as you make progress. You are not likely to just quit cold turkey with no complications. Set up small rewards that will help you to want to make progress towards ultimately quitting. This can be a great motivation to keep you on target.

Tip #3 Plan out your quitting strategy. Decide how you want to try to quit and stick to it. Set a specific amount of time for your plan. If after a time, say six weeks you have not quit, work on a new plan. This will allow ample time to try each method, while still giving yourself flexibility to try something else.

Tip #4 Work to overcome your struggles. If you are smoking due to stressful things in your life, you need to deal with the stress before you can successfully quit. Regardless of the reason why you are smoking, it needs to be dealt with in able to quit for good.

Tip #5 Set up a punishment for yourself. For example, if you generally stop at Starbucks each day for a coffee you might consider skipping that on days when you have fallen short of your goals for smoking. Whatever punishment you select, make sure it is something that you care about.

Tip #6 Seek out help from your friends and family. You need support as you are trying to quit, and this will help you to ensure that you are not alone in the entire process.

Tip #7 Look for someone to quit with you. If you are entirely on your own, you are going to be much more likely to slip back into smoking. If someone is working with you and holding you accountable, you are more likely to struggle to succeed. Working to quit smoking is not easy, but hard tasks are much easier to accomplish with a partner.

Tip #8 Ensure you are getting plenty of sleep. The job of quitting smoking is quite difficult. If you are not getting the rest you need, you are much more likely to be cranky, upset and angry with the world. This is very counterproductive to your goal of quitting smoking for good.

Tip #9 Aim to quit for good. This might seem a bit strange, but if you are just planning to quit for a weekend you are not going to put much effort into the process. If you are planning to quit for good, a lot more time and effort is going to go into the process as well as your plan to quit.

Tip #10 Look for ways to take your mind off cigarettes. If you are always thinking about cigarettes, you may find that you are much more tempted to smoke. Reading a book, exercising, talking on the phone, surfing the internet and even cooking are all great ways to occupy your mind and keep from thinking about when your last cigarette was.

11:14 PM - By Unknown 0

Stop Smoking Tips - InfoGraphic

Tips from other smokers who have successfully quit. Take action, write down your goals and pick a quit date.
Stop smoking tips by Nicorette UK

11:03 PM - By Unknown 0

Why You Need to Stop Smoking for Good

With all of the negative effects that smoking has, it is amazing to see just how many people still smoke. Aside from the physical effects, there are plenty of other reasons why smoking is not such a good idea, but it is very important to actually take advantage of these reasons when you are looking for reasons to quit smoking. Simply quitting on a whim might sound nice, but it will rarely be successful and often leaves you upset and saddened that you have not achieved the results that you really want.

 

Looking at your health there are some immediate reasons why smoking is bad. With the risk of lung cancer, heart problems, cancer of the larynx and even a severely increased risk of heart attack or stroke. Just listening to all of the potential health problems is enough to scare some people so badly that they never pick up another pack of cigarettes again. Those who still continue to smoke either feel that they cannot stop, or they are just unable to stop because they are so badly addicted to the idea of smoking.

Breaking free of cigarettes is never easy. Looking at yourself as a smoker, is this the type of image that you would like to pass onto your children? Most people who smoke admit that they would be incredibly upset or at the least disappointed if their children chose to smoke. If you are continuously smoking in front of them, what type of example are you really setting though? The sad reality is parents who smoke are much more likely to have children who smoke. It is essential that you work diligently to help your children avoid smoking by quitting yourself.

Many smokers find that they have a problem with their health that creates a serious need to quit smoking. It is often too late that they decide to quit. The damage has already been done to their health; the consequences are often giving up their life, rather than just a pack of cigarettes. Making this sacrifice is something that most people are honestly not willing to make, but it happens almost every day.

Deciding that you are ready to quit is a personal decision that has to come from your heart. You cannot allow someone else to force the decision to quit on you, but at the same time if you fail to listen to warnings from your doctors you are well aware that you are doing serious damage to your body. Failing to take these dangers into account can have a very devastating effect on your entire body, as well as your family. This can be quite heartbreaking to many families, which can make it extremely stressful for your family and yourself, in turn making it harder to quit.

If you are looking at your lifestyle and your family and trying to decide the one thing you could do to seriously improve your overall life the answer is simple. If you quit smoking for good you can make a huge improvement for your health, and you can also show your family that you deeply care about them all at the same time. Your family relies on you, for guidance, mental support and even for love. Taking the time to really decide why you want to quit for yourself is very important to the success.

11:03 PM - By Unknown 0

7 Tips to Controlling Your Urge to Smoke

Trying to quit smoking is a very lengthy process. This can take a very long period of time such as several years, or it could be something much shorter like only a few weeks or months. The exact time frame that it takes to quit can vary greatly but what is important is ensuring that you are coming up with a plan to combat your urges to smoke. At some point in your experience trying to quit you will encounter a situation where the urge to smoke is very strong. How you handle this situation will go a long way towards your ultimate success. Being prepared for the urge to smoke will ensure that you have a plan to keep your willpower strong and continue on your path to quit smoking successfully.

Tip 1. Take the time to decide exactly when you typically smoke. For example, after meals, after a jog around the block, or even after your shower each morning. Knowing when you typically smoke will put you in a good position to create a plan to combat the urge.

Tip 2. Create a plan of attack. This could be something as simple as a stress ball for your hands, or even just a piece of hard candy to keep your mouth busy. If you really enjoy the taste and feeling of a clean mouth you could try brushing your teeth each time you want to smoke, or suck on a mint flavored candy, which will freshen your breath.

Tip 3. Avoid the temptations that lurk. If you go out to eat, make sure you are sitting in the no smoking area. Avoid going into tobacco stores, and also try to limit the amount of time you are around other smokers. If you are continuously around cigarettes, it will be much harder to resist temptation.

Tip 4. Clean your house of all smoking instruments. This means all ashtrays, lighters, matches and get rid of the smell of cigarettes. Products like Febreeze are great for helping to get rid of cigarette smell, which can also trigger an urge to smoke.

Tip 5. If you have a place where you typically smoke when you are at home, think about rearranging the area. If you are able to break the routine of the situation, you will be able to resist temptation much better. This works best if you always are in the habit of smoking in the exact same place, such as a living room looking out a window. If you move the chair to a different area of the room, or refocus the center of the room then you can help to avoid the temptation to smoke whenever you are sitting in the chair looking out the window.

Tip 6. Write down your goal to quit smoking. This may seem like a minor detail but in reality, it can go a very long way towards ensuring that you keep your priority to quit smoking at the top of your agenda. If you just tell yourself that you want to quit smoking, you are more likely to cheat and ultimately give into the urge to light up again. If you have written your goal down, you are going to be more likely to actually follow it. This goes for quitting smoking, losing weight, changing your exercise routine or anything else. Written down goals can improve accountability significantly.

Tip 7. Do not discount yourself. If you are absolutely certain that you can succeed you will be much more capable of the success that you need. It is important to believe that you can succeed. This will help you to stay strong anytime a serious urge kicks in. If you decide to slip up consciously, you are going to find it is much harder to gain back any slack that you have cut for yourself. However, if you hold fast to your dedication to quit smoking you will find that each time you have an urge it is easier to handle.

10:50 PM - By Unknown 0

The 2 Most Successful Factors to Quit Smoking for Good

Taking the steps to decide that you want to quit smoking is a huge commitment. The dedication that is needed is absolutely essential to your success and can often be one of the only factors that will determine how successful you are. If you find that you are struggling to quit smoking you are certainly not alone, seeking out appropriate help is always key to finding success in your quest to quit smoking. Looking around at all of the excuses, reasons, purposes and methods that pertain to quitting smoking there are generally two very large factors that will determine your overall success. Without these two factors you will almost always fail, with them you will typically walk away a successful non-smoker.

Your first critical success factor will be being determined to quit for your own reasons. This means you need to decide for yourself that you want to quit. Having the idea to quit smoking forced upon you will generally not work out well for yourself. You have to decide all on your own that you are ready to quit smoking, this dedication to stop smoking will often be a huge driving force in your battle against cigarettes and you will probably need to pull strength from your decision. Additionally, as everyone around you is asking why you want to quit, a good answer that you believe in will help you to resolve your determination each time you answer.

This might sound like nothing more than an excuse, but actually deciding for yourself that you want to quit is a huge boost to your mental approach. If you approach quitting smoking with the idea that someone else is forcing you, then often you will make small mistakes that can sabotage your efforts. You may not recognize these errors, but they are typically there. Approaching the task of quitting smoking on your own will ensure that you are setting out to be successful and quit for good. Those who quit for the reasons of someone else typically quit for only a short period of time. Those who quit for themselves are the people who quit for good.

Your second critical success factor will be your actual approach. If you approach the task of quitting smoking with the confidence that you will succeed no matter what, you will find that your determination is much stronger. This increased determination can be very helpful as you are trying to fight off those late night cravings, or even the times when the urge to smoke appears and nobody is around to help you through it. As a smoker, there are plenty of times when you will need your own self-control to really pull you through. This comes from having the confidence to know that you can succeed.

If you merely approach quitting smoking with an attitude that you think you can quit, you will be sending yourself mixed signals. These can create huge problems for yourself as you are struggling to maintain the self-control that is necessary to quit successfully. Pulling your strength from yourself is very important. Without the determination that you can in fact do this, you will fall into the temptation to smoke again much easier. It is not a simple task to quit smoking, many people struggle for years to quit fully.

Believing that you can quit smoking at some point is what will be a driving factor in your success. The longer it takes to quit smoking the more likely you are to actually lose your determination. This can spell disaster very quickly. Keeping your determination strong starts from within, you need to be able to justify to yourself, your harshest critic exactly why you want to quit smoking. The people in your family who are there for support are just for backup support. You are your own best cheerleader and celebrating the small victories that you accomplish is very important to your success. If you take the time to really stretch your confidence you will be in a great position to quit for good.

12:44 PM - By Unknown 0