If you are like many, you want to quit smoking, but you question whether it will be overly difficult or if you even have the strength to succeed. Your first steps to success can be made a little easier by reading and using the advice and tips you will find in this article.
Treat smoking cessation like kicking any other addiction: as a series of days of sobriety. Quitting isn’t a binary thing; it evolves over a long period of time. You can’t worry about the future. Take each day as it comes and concentrate on not smoking that day, which will help establish a habit that will help you over the long term.
Create a list of the reasons why you’re quitting. By writing these things down, you begin to control the direction of your outlook on quitting. This can help you stay motivated, and may make quitting easier.
When you decide to quit smoking, tell your family and friends. Sharing your plans with those around you may mean that you can depend on them to boost your motivation or distract you when cravings strike. Their support will be a big boost in helping you on the road to stopping smoking once and for all.
When quitting smoking, take each day as it comes. Don’t think about quitting forever; instead focus on today. You will often find it easier from a psychological standpoint to accomplish things on a shorter timeline. Once you feel more comfortable, you can start thinking about long term goals.
If you are overwhelmed by the urge to smoke try using the delay tactic. Tell yourself how you’ll feel in about 10 minutes and distract yourself. You should see the craving pass within the 10 minutes. If it doesn’t work the first time, repeat this step until it does.
You can join a gym or begin a regular exercise routine, to keep yourself busy. This will occupy the time you would have spent smoking. Exercise is a proven stress-reliever, and people who are quitting smoking will need stress relievers! You can ease into a healthier lifestyle by starting to take a daily walk and working your way up to strenuous activity. Speak to a physician before you start any kind of exercise regimen.
Nicotine replacement products are a great tool for quitting smoking. When you are suffering from nicotine withdrawal, you may become annoyed, irritable, and even depressed. Cravings can sometimes seem overwhelming. These overwhelming feelings may be eased with nicotine-replacement therapy. Studies show that nicotine gum, lozenges or patches can increase people’s success when quitting. Take care to avoid using these products will you are still smoking.
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If you reach a milestone while quitting, congratulate or reward yourself for your accomplishments. You can go to a movie or buy something that you wanted, after not smoking for a period of time. Once a months has past, go out for a special meal. This will help to increase motivation for your reward in an effort to eliminate smoking from your thoughts.
When the urge to smoke becomes overwhelming, try using a delay tactic. By telling yourself that you’ll see how you feel in 10 minutes, and then distracting your mind and body during that time, you will normally find that 10 minutes later, the craving will have passed. If it doesn’t, keep trying this method.
Another motive for quitting is that it will benefit your family, as well as yourself. Secondhand smoke is dangerous, and a known cause of many types of cancer, and other serious health conditions. This will be devastating over the course of time, as you can expose toxic chemicals through secondhand smoke. Quitting smoking now will make you and everyone around you healthier.
Prior to starting to quit smoking, be able to stay committed to quitting for good. Many people often fail at quitting because they did not have the right mindset or they gave up too easily. Remember why you want to quit, and remind yourself often.
Tell everyone you know the great news – you’re quitting! They will be able to help you stay on track. If you surround yourself with a strong support system, it will be a big help in your battle to quit. This will increase your chances of success significantly, and get you to where you want.
If your home smells of smoke, thoroughly clean it. Have your carpets and furniture cleaned, scrub your walls and wash any fabric window treatments you may have. This will make it so you aren’t reminded of smoking each time you come into your home, because it will have a clean, fresh smell.
Stay as optimistic as possible when developing a regimen to quit smoking. Make the effort to imagine all the ways that your life can be better after you’ve quit smoking. Think about how much better you and your home will smell once you’ve made the change to stopping smoking. Thinking about negative things can help you quit smoking, but also try to think of positive aspects.
Make a plan on how to deal with stressful moments. Your smoking life was filled with reacting to stress by lighting a cigarette. When you have a concrete plan, it is much easier to avoid smoking. Come up with several alternatives for stress relief so that you can try different things if the first thing on your list doesn’t eliminate the desire to smoke.
Look at stopping as a finite choice. Stopping is the only way to start the quitting process. Just stop and do not start doing it again. This method can seem tough. It has been proven to be effective, as time goes by.
Thinking about the impacts that smoking has on your family can serve as a serious motivator to stop smoking. Studies have shown one in five people that die in the U.S. have to do with smoking. You do not want to be a statistic.
Make a vow to never take another puff again. Though you may be tempted to smoke during times of stress, do not allow those urges to undo your hard work. Put the danger of smoking a single cigarette into perspective before you actually have to deal with that situation.
Remember, when you want to stop smoking, that first week will most likely be the hardest. During the first 48 hours, your body will be eliminating its buildup of nicotine. The cravings you experience after that will be predominantly psychological. Although still difficult to endure, psychological cravings are much less traumatic, when compared to physical cravings.
Don’t think of quitting as a sacrifice; think of it as doing yourself a favor. This will help you to gain motivation and increase perseverance towards your goals. Put the value of quitting in your sights and imagine your life without smoking constantly. This keeps you on track and makes quitting seem immediately important.
The best way to stop smoking is to quit today. Just quit right now. Don’t schedule a day to quit further down the line. If you commit to kicking your habit, as soon as possible, you can potentially extend your life by many years. This also alleviates the risks of secondhand smoke, to your family and their health. This is major reason to quit, as well.
There are also medications and treatments that you can do in order to help you quit smoking, so you may want to speak with your doctor about what your options are. There are many smoking cessation options. There are nicotine patches and medications that can help you quit. Your doctor’s recommendations will be a huge help!
Eliminating any reminders of your life as a smoker can help you to quit. Throw out or give away all your lighters and ashtrays. Clean your home from top to bottom and launder all your clothing to eliminate the odor of smoke. Doing this will prevent items that remind you of smoking from triggering your craving for a cigarette.
Consume a lot of produce, as well as seeds and nuts, during the quitting phase. Natural, healthy foods will be helpful during your quit for more than one reason. To begin with, it gives you a way of occupying your mouth and hands so you do not miss the motions involved in smoking so much. Eating these foods on a regular basis can help reduce any weight gain. Additionally, during withdrawal, you will feel better and more alert.
Eat healthy foods such as fruits and vegetables to help you stop smoking. There are various reasons why eating these healthy, low-calorie foods help you while you are trying to quit. Having a replacement to make up for smoking can help, especially if you keep your mouth and hands busy. Eating these foods on a regular basis can help reduce any weight gain. They’ll also boost your mood and help to rejuvenate your body.
Call someone for help and support when your willpower weakens and you are close to having a cigarette. Whether it may be a family member or a friend, open up and share what you feel regarding the temptation you are experiencing. Not only does the act of talking on the phone distract you from your craving, you’ll also receive valuable social support that will last much longer than the phone call.
You will probably find that the decision to quit smoking is one of the toughest decisions you’ll ever make. But, don’t let that stop you from trying. There are many aspects involved when stopping smoking, including time and patience. It is a great help to have information and some ideas to assist you. If you put what you’ve learned here into practice, you’ll be done with cigarettes for life!
Create a mantra centered around your most important reasons for wanting to quit. Repeat them to yourself, whenever you feel the urge to smoke. This can help you focus on your motivation to quit when cravings are strong.