QUIT TIPS AND STRATEGIES:
Here are some basic tips and tricks to help you succeed in your attempt to break free from your cigarette addiction. If you have any to add, please feel free to send them in so they can be included on this list.
Set Your Quit Date...And Stick To It
Choosing a date to stop smoking is important. It defines your goal and gives you time to prepare yourself and your environment for your new lifestyle as a non-smoker. But, once you choose the date, it is imperative that you stick to it. If you waiver from your original plan, it will be easy for you to do it again and again, and you will find yourself never finding that "perfect time to quit". Remember, stress and challenges that tempt you to re-set your quit date are always going to arise, and there will never be a better time than your original quit date. So be bold and just do it!
Remove All Temptations To Smoke
When your quit date arrives, get rid of EVERYTHING that is smoking related, including ashtrays, lighters, cigarette making supplies (for those who make their own), and anything else that makes you think about smoking. If you have a "smoking room" inside your house, find something else to use this room for. Clean it, paint it, and re-decorate it so that it doesn't remind you of you smoking past. Do the same thing for your porch area or wherever you did your smoking. Get your car detailed and hang air freshener in it to remove the lingering smell of cigarette smoke.
Take It One Crave At A Time
If you have never tried to quit before, that first crave is going to come at you like an angry bear in the springtime. Be prepared for this to happen and don't let it scare you out of continuing your effort to quit. IT WILL PASS...as wiil every other crave that comes after that. The good news is that eventually it will get better and the craves will get easier to deal with. But at first, you aren't going to feel like you're going to make it. You must be strong and willing to suffer in the beginning to make it. Be comforted in knowing that it is very much worth the punishment you are feeling in both your body and your mind. Just take it one crave at a time and you'll be fine.
Not everyone feels the same, and not everyone suffers equally. For some it is a mild experience and the discomfort only lasts for a few days. For others it can be an anguishing, traumatic ordeal that lasts for weeks or even months. A lot depends on your attitude and willingness to take a trip through hell in order to reach heaven. It is normal to feel angry, edgy, lightheaded, nauseated, restless, sleepy, hungry, thirsty, and a whole host of other feeings and emotions during the first few weeks of your quit. If you find yourself unable to cope with the withdrawls, please seek medical assistance. Your doctor may be able to prescribe something to help you get through.
Use Breathing & Cool Water Therapy
These are two very important coping tools, and they are both free! Keep some cool drinking water handy at all times and sip it frequently. It will help flush the toxins from your body and help you through the harsh period of your quit.
Breathing exercises are easy to perform and work wonders in helping a quitter survive even the most intense craves. Simply close your eyes, slowly draw in your deepest possible breath, hold it for just a few seconds, and exhale it very slowly, holding your chin down with your lips puckered until it is all exhaled. While you are exhaling, think pleasant, positive thoughts, and try to feel your body healing itself with each smoke-free breath you are taking. Take a sip of cool water, and repeat the breathing procedure. Do this three or four times every time the urge to smoke pops up, and before you know it, the crave will be gone!
Reward Yourself For Your Victories
Nobody likes doing anything difficult without having something to show for it. Quitting smoking shouldn't be any different. Every time you survive a crave, you have won a battle in your war against smoking, and you deserve some self-recognition for it. There are severaal ways in which you can do this. You can reward yourself at the end of each day with something special such as a favorite dessert, a relaxing bubble bath, quiet time with a good book, a trip to the gym, or anything else you might really enjoy. You can even get your family involved in offering you rewards for your daily successes such as cooking you a special meal, taking you to a movie, playing a favorite game, etc.
Another way to reward yourself is to use the sticky gold stars that are used to track good behaviors and chores with children. Make yourself a chart, and every time you survive a crave, give yourself a star on your chart. When you reach a certain level of stars, treat yourself to something special with the money you have saved by not smoking. By rewarding yourself, you are giving yourself motivation to continue as well as something to show for the effort.
Set Realistic Goals
Quitting smoking is a journey, and like any other venture, your quit journey is much easier when there are waypoints to be reached along the way. Set realistic goals for yourself and keep your focus on them. When you begin your expedition, you will most likely set your first goal to be 24 smoke-free hours. It doesn't sound like a long-term goal and it isn't, but those first 24 hours can seem like forever. As you watch the hours tick by, you will feel a great sense of accomplishment when that first full day of not smoking has passed.
After you reach that initial goal of 24 hours, you will want to have your next goal set and ready to work toward reaching it. It can be for three days, or a full week of not smoking...you decide. After that goal is reached, you might strive to reach a two-week quit, or even a month. And then perhaps three months. Then 100 days. Then six months, a year, etc. Just keep your goals reachable and keep on setting them, no matter how long you remain quit.
Celebrate Your Milestones
Your milestones are identified by specific points you reach on your quit path, and each one deserves a special celebration all their own. Some people use them as goals while others treat them as signposts and distance markers along the way. They include 1 day, 1 week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks, 1 month, 50 days, 2 months, 75 days, 3 months, 100 days, 6 months, 1 year, 500 days, 2 years, 1000 days, 3 years, 5 years, 10 years, and beyond. As each one approaches, recognize it and make special plans for yourself to celebrate it.
One Day At A Time ~ Quit For Today Only
When you wake up in the morning smoke-free, your objective is to make it through all of the day's drama, trauma, and BS without lighting up, and making it back to bed tonight still smoke-free. While everyone would love to claim ten years smoke-free, it can only be done one day at a time. Don't try looking farther down the road than you can see and you will have a much better chance of getting to where you want to be. Even the Bible tells us to live one day at a time and to let today's problems be sufficient for the day. Don't take on tomorrow's challenges until tomorrow arrives.
Change Your Routines
Cigarettes are often smoked ritualistically, meaning they are consumed more by habit and association than by dependency. You wake up and have a cigarette before you even get out of bed. Go to the restroom, grab a smoke. Get in the car, and light one up. Finish eating, enjoy an "after dinner smoke". Answer the phone, reach for the pack. While a lot of daily activities trigger automated smoking responses, they don't have to. You just need to develop a new way to react to these common events.
Quite often simply changing some of your routines will lessen or even eliminate your mind's instant reaction to include having a smoke. When you wake up, brush your teeth instead of smoking. pop a peppermint candy in your mouth when you get into the car. When the phone rings, grab a handful of sunflower seeds. Take a book or handheld game with you to occupy yourself in the restroom. Instead of smoking after dinner, clear the table and sweep the floor.
Avoid Boredom ~ Stay Busy, Busy, Busy!
Boredom is now your enemy because it can kill your quit quicker than just about anything. To avoid it, you must keep your hands and your mind occupied and have things to do to fill all the extra time that you suddenly have since you quit smoking. If you were a pack-a-day smoker, you spent approximately two hours of every day smoking, allowing for 6 minutes per cigarette. Chances are you would have to stop whatever it was you were doing to have that smoke. As a non-smoker, not only will you get things done faster, but you will also have all of that extra "smoking time" that needs to be replaced with activities. And you will also have more energy to burn as well.
If you have a hobby such as knitting, crocheting, painting, working jigsaw puzzles, reading, etc., you will have plenty of time now to devote to those. Many new quitters pull old unfiinished projects out of mothballs and work on them. Does the garage need cleaned? The attic? The basement? If you have nothing to do around the house or in your yard, consider doing volunteer work at a hospital, children's home, nursing home, or any other place that will let you stay busy and keep your mind off of smoking. Perhaps you can even find a part-time job and make some extra money!
Avoid Caffeine & Alcohol
A lot of people have problems dealing with quitting and drinking coffee or alcoholic beverages. If either of these are a trigger for you, it is recommended that they be avoided, at least until you are established in your quit to the point where you are certain that you can enjoy them without fear of relapse. But no matter how long you have been quit, you still need to be very careful when alcohol is involved. Many solid and long-term quits have been lost by folks who made the mistake of having a few drinks and letting their guard down and having "just one".
Get Involved With Support Groups
As tough as we like to think we are, even the biggest and baddest amongst us needs help with the hard things in life. And quitting smoking is the hardest thing by far that you will ever try to do. So don't even think about doing it alone. You will need the love and support of everyone you can think of, including total strangers. There are support groups and websites such as Nicotine Anonymous,
, TobaccoFree.org, WhyQuit.com, and others. Find a group that you feel comfortable with and stick close to it.
If possible, find someone in the "3D" world (your offline friends & family) that you can rely on for help if you need it. Unfortunately, most of the people in your real world will rally around you at first but soon lose interest in your quit. This is because there are basically three types of people in the 3D world:
~ Those Who Still Smoke - These people will act as though they are happy for you at first, but as you progress and continue to not smoke, they will actually resent you in the end. Why? Because you are becoming free from the addiction and doing what they want to do but don't have the strength to. You are also making them look bad, and nobody likes to be made to look bad. Unless they are close friends, don't expect much support or praise from them.
~ Those Who Have Quit Smoking - Ex-smokers can be supportive because they know what you are going through and understand what it's like. The problem with many successful quitters is that they think the way they did it is the best way for you. While it may be true, it often times isn't. Every quit is different, and your reformed friend might feel offended if you don't do it their way and may not want to help you if insist on trying something else.
~ Those Who Have Never Smoked - If you have never been addicted to cigarettes, you cannot possibly understand what kicking the habit is like. These are the folks who think that after a couple of weeks without a cigarette you should be "over it". Nothing could be further from the truth. Fact is, you are just getting into it, not over it. You will never get any proper sympathy or support from someone who has never been there or done that.
Avoid Your Smoking Friends - At Least For Now
While some of your smoking friends will most likely continue to be a part of your life, it might be best to avoid them at first to keep yourself out of temptation's way. Don't completely ignore them, but explain to them how difficult it is for you to keep yourself quit if you are exposed to seeing cigarettes and smelling the smoke. If they are true friends they will understand and will still be there for you when you are stable enough to handle being around them.
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