Quit Smoking - pros and cons

Do you know that around 1000 Americans are dying everyday because of smoking?

Smoking causes one death in six in the USA making it one of the main causes of death. Oh, the coroner's report might say that you died of coronary heart disease, cancer, throat problems, or problems with the bladder, kidneys or pancreas, but the problems were caused by smoking. Gangrene is more likely to affect diabetics who smoke.

Now would be a good time for you to quit smoking. if you have the will power to do it cold turkey. However it is better to approach a healthier lifestyle systematically, so that you won't be one of these people who quits hundreds of times.

Preliminaries

Mark a date on the calendar about a month away when you will stop smoking completely. Now start on the preliminary preparations that will give you a better chance to succeed.

"Displacement Activity" is what psychologists call substitution of one action with another one. For instance a child might raise his hand to hit you and change the movement into scratching his head. You should use this technique.

Now draw up a table with two columns, for the pros and cons of quitting. You could even make the table very large and paste in pictures to illustrate the advantages.

Here are some advantages

More free time
More resistant to disease
More energetic (stop wheezing)
More popular with non-smokers when you stop stinking.
Save money

Disadvantages
Gain weight if you don't exercise and have a healthy diet with extra vitamin C.

Dramatize the advantages

Get two glass jars. Half-fill one with water and tip all your cigarette or cigar leftovers into the water. Into the other jar you will put money that you save by quitting.

How to break a habit

A habit is made up of many little habits. If someone can take a video of you that lasts long enough to cover several bouts of smoking you can analyze your habit accurately. However you don't need that luxury. Here is what you might be doing.

You reach to your breast pocket and take out the pack of cigarettes
You open the pack
You take out a cigarette
You pick up your lighter
You light the cigarette
You smoke it
You butt it out
Repeat the whole habit again

Because your habit is a chain of habits, you can break the chain at several points. Of course, you are intelligent enough to complete the habit another way, but that will bring your conscious mind into play, and the habit is at the sub-conscious level. For instance you could put your cigarette pack in a locked cupboard. Put a bag of coins into your pocket instead of the pack. Run your lighter dry Start a new habit where you butt out immediately you light the cigarette.
Here is where displacement activity comes into play. When you reach for the pack and it isn't there, substitute an activity that you choose. Your activity will be to take enough coins out of the bag to pay for one cigarette, and add the money to the glass jar with your savings.

The more often you use this displacement activity, the more difficult it will become to change the activity. As the day gets nearer when you will stop smoking completely, keep comparing the vile mess in one glass jar with the money in the other one, and keep reviewing the table of advantages of quitting the nicotine habit. As the time of quit is forthcoming, try to reduce the intake of cigarettes and the circumstances when you smoke. Take a glass jar, fill up with water and drop all the butts of cigarette into it. Tell your friends and colleagues the date when you will stop smoking and ask them to help you. If you don't ask for their help, they will think that it is funny to keep tempting you with cigarettes.

The Big Day

Your boss has agreed to help you and has your cigarettes locked up in his office, and is in a conference. You hardly ever smoke anyhow, and you don't often reach for a packet and transfer money to the jar instead. So the big day becomes a non-event. You are doing interesting work, and wouldn't really want to interrupt it to smoke. Have a glass of water with a straw in it.

The smoking habit is partially derived from the desire for breast feeding, and sucking water through a straw might help you. You are likely to feel nervous, so go for a walk and breathe deeply. I like to breathe in for four paces and out for four paces (a pace is one step with each foot). Don't drink tea or coffee because the caffeine will make you more nervous. If you visit a gym for a daily workout you can keep a chart of your performance. As days go by without smoking, the carbon monoxide in your blood will decrease, and the oxygen will increase. You'll be able to stay on the treadmill longer with your heartbeat staying lower.

Some drugs can replace the harmful nicotine. But,they should not be taken without the advice of your Doctor. For instance, Nicotine gum, Bupropion, Nicotine inhaler and Nicotine nasal spray. These drugs are often helpful in quiting smoking. After a time you will become a rabid anti-smoker, but before then you may succumb to temptation one day and have a cigarette. Don't worry. Just add the butt to the jar of filth and see what else you can do to smash the habit. It isn't a question of will-power. Habit will always beat will-power. What you are doing is creating new habits, that will lead to greater health, with more money in your pocket. If you are young enough to be courting, have you ever noticed someone of the opposite sex flinch when you come near because of your tobacco stink? Wouldn't a habit that got rid of the problem be a good idea?