Review the Personal Health Effects of Smoking and Common Reasons for Quitting to come up with your own list of reasons to quit. Personally meaningful reasons will help get you through the challenges of your quit attempt.
During the first few days of quitting, some people experience:
These problems are normal as your body frees itself of nicotine and other toxins. They’ll disappear within a few days. Just think: the health benefits are worth it!
Stop Spending on Cigarettes: if you smoke a pack a day, it could cost over $1,000 per year.
Save on Medical Expenses due to smoking.
Save on Health and Auto Insurance. Avoid starting fires.
Take Care of my Loved Ones: Provide a better example to others. Improve relations with loved ones and live many years to appreciate them.
Improve my Physical Appearance: Eliminate bad breath; Have a nicer taste in my mouth; Have fewer wrinkles on my face; Get rid of yellow stains on my teeth and fingers; Avoid burn holes on my clothes.
Improve My Health Immediately
Your bronchial tubes and lungs will clean themselves making breathing easier.
Breathe better: have less nasal congestion and fewer colds.
Cough less
Avoid the Personal Health Effects of Smoking.
Review the Timeline of Health Benefits after Quitting.
Your smoking threatens the health and well-being of people around you, even if they don’t smoke.
The Unborn Child: Pregnant women who smoke (or are exposed to cigarette smoke) are at a higher risk of having babies with physical defects and problems with speech and intellectual development. They can also have babies with low birth weight, who tend to become ill more frequently.
Children: Children who breathe cigarette smoke from adults who smoke get more pneumonia, colds, ear infections and respiratory diseases. Children of smokers learn to smoke by watching adults and many become smokers themselves when they grow up. If you die young, you will leave your children and grandchildren without your moral and economic support.
Other Persons: People who live or work with a smoker have increased risk of lung cancer, heart attacks and other diseases.
Smoking can lead to many family arguments because of problems with smoke and health concerns for all. Illness due to cigarettes keeps smokers from fulfilling family obligations.
Cigarette smoke contains more than
chemicals, many of them toxic, such as carbon monoxide, cyanide, formaldehyde, nicotine and lead. The poisons in cigarettes can produce:
Smoking cigarettes is the main cause of lung cancer. It also causes cancers of the mouth, esophagus, throat, stomach, pancreas, bladder and cervix.
Nicotine in cigarettes makes the heart work faster and causes problems in its functioning. Cigarettes can also produce heart attacks by obstructing arteries in the heart.
Cigarette toxins produce strokes by obstructing arteries in the brain.
Smoking causes lung diseases such as chronic bronchitis and emphysema, which make breathing more difficult and deprive the body of oxygen.
Cigarettes lower fertility and sexual drive in both men and women.
Nicotine makes digestion difficult causing stomach ulcers, and excessive acidity after eating.
Cigarettes impair the body’s ability to use calcium correctly, increasing the risk of osteoporosis or weakness of the bones, which results in fractures in older people.
Cigarettes can cause spontaneous abortion in pregnant women.
Cigarettes contain nicotine, which is as addictive as heroin or cocaine.
The tar in cigarettes stains teeth, promotes cavities, and produces problems with gums that can cause teeth to fall out.
Carbon monoxide from cigarettes results in tiredness and headaches by lowering the amount of oxygen reaching the brain.
Pick your Quit Date: Give yourself at least a week, but no more than 30 days. We recommend between 1-2 weeks from now. Having a set date increases your chances of actively quitting.
Pick a Meaningful Day: Pick a day that’s meaningful to you. The beginning or end of the week; a holiday; your birthday or the birthday of a loved one.
Don’t Wait for a Perfect Time
Reduce Your Consumption: Throw away your cigarettes and don’t buy more. If you smoke 20 or more cigarettes a day, or are highly addicted, try getting down to 10 cigarettes a day or less before quitting completely.
Smoke 2 or 3 Fewer Cigarettes than the Day Before: Use the Cigarette Tracker every time you smoke. If you forget to record some cigarettes, update your cigarette count at the end of the day. You can even update your count for the previous day. It’s important to be aware of your smoking behaviors if you want to change them, so keep as accurate a count as possible.
Wait five minutes.
Wait as long as you can before smoking when you feel the urge, but aim for 5 minutes.
Try not to “compensate” by inhaling longer or more deeply if eventually do smoke.
Make your home, your clothes, your car, and other spaces you spend time in those of a non-smoker.
All the people, places, and situations that make it easy for you to smoke will still be present.
People, places, and situations that your mind associates with smoking might trigger you to smoke. How will you respond to each?
People you smoke with or who might allow you to slip.
Make lists of places where you usually smoke.
Will you avoid them or prepare for them? Prepare to turn down smoking. Have responses ready like:
Avoid building new routines. Don’t smoke in the same place for more than 4 or 5 days.
If you feel an urge at home, go outside to smoke. Put ashtrays outside or store them.
Bars, parties, dance clubs.
Smoking is physically addictive, because of the nicotine, but also because of all the little habits that go with it.
Try forming new habits with:
Toothpicks, breath mints, or carrots for your mouth
Pencil, a coin, or a game on your device for your hands.
Try one of these:
Distraction works!
Learn about the connection between smoking and Rewards in Your Brain.
If something rewards our brains, we’re more likely to do it again.
Smoking is addictive because it sends nicotine to your brain, which rewards it by producing pleasurable sensations and reducing unpleasant sensations from cravings or withdrawal. The unhealthy rewards of smoking are artificial. They don’t last long and increase cravings.
like drinking coffee or having unproductive arguments, which can increase the chances of smoking or worsen your mood.
Smoking is addictive because it sends nicotine to your brain, which rewards it by producing pleasurable sensations and reducing unpleasant sensations from cravings or withdrawal. The unhealthy rewards of smoking are artificial. They don’t last long and increase cravings.
Create a personal list of healthy, rewarding activities. Include:
Brief Activities that are easy to do throughout the day, like puffs from cigarettes are.
Varied Activities: Don’t let yourself get bored. Many people slip when they feel bored or depressed. Do fun, interesting things to help you forget cigarettes. Get others to do these activities with you.
Change the activity if you feel the urge to smoke.
Pleasant activities improve your mood, which reduces the chances of smoking. Learn more about the connection between Mood and Smoking.
Dance; go for a walk; do some gardening; play with the children; go to the beach
Watch a movie
Meditate; pray
Read magazines or books; take photos
Give someone a gift
Listen to music; take a long bath
Do an activity of your choice.
While quitting, craving cigarettes can put people in a bad mood. Remember, this is temporary and isn’t worth the effort you’ve already put into quitting.
Be more aware of your Mood and Smoking. Ask:
Encourage them read the section Help Someone Quit. If they smoke, ask them not to smoke around you or offer you cigarettes, even if you ask. Otherwise, try to spend less time with them for the next month as you try to quit.
Sometimes people gain weight when they quit because their appetite increases and food tastes better. You can control your weight if you:
Encourage them read the section Help Someone Quit. If they smoke, ask them not to smoke around you or offer you cigarettes, even if you ask. Otherwise, try to spend less time with them for the next month as you try to quit.
Sometimes people gain weight when they quit because their appetite increases and food tastes better. You can control your weight if you:
Your survival pack should include:
Try these motivational reminders:
Your survival pack should include:
Try these motivational reminders:
What happened and where were you when you first smoked again? Should you avoid this situation or prepare for it next time?
Many people slip before they quit for good. Remember, many difficult things take several tries. Think about difficult things you’ve gotten through in the past.
Read this guide again. Try some suggestions you didn’t before. The more techniques you try, the easier it will be to quit.
They can get in the way or help you quit. Complaining probably won’t help. Don’t focus only on how hard it is to quit. Try thinking: “It’s difficult, but not impossible.” “I’m capable of quitting!” If you start thinking you’re going to die anyway, think: “Probably not today and without cigarettes, I can live the years that I’m given happy and full of health.”
Quitting a few days is still a success! While you might have many other problems now, there will never be a perfect time to quit.