GIVING UP SMOKING » Quit Smoking Advice

What If I Fail or Failed Giving Up Smoking?

StopSmokingCoach — Wed, 11 May 2011 04:35:50 +0000

Some of you might have tried giving up smoking before and failed. Then there are some of you who are hesitant to try because you are afraid to fail to give up smoking. Here’s what you don’t know though and is the fact that most people fail on their first try. From my knowledge there has never been a statistical study on the percentage of people who had success on their first try to quit smoking, but I have quit smoking myself and I have dealt with dozens of former smokers over the years and I only remember a couple of individuals who were able to quit on their first attempt.

I, like many others before was not able to quit cigarettes on my first try. In fact, it took me many attempts before I was finally able to quit for good. I haven’t smoked a single cigarette for over 3 years now. I can tell you from firsthand experience that just the attempt to quit really helps you give up smoking in the long run. There is a big difference between knowing what to expect and not knowing at all what you the challenges will be. For me, the failures served me well in the end and on my last try I was very relaxed about the whole process of quitting smoking.

The first time you stop smoking, the urge to smoke catches you by surprise, because it is much stronger than you ever expected it to be. I remember on the first day of my first attempt to stop smoking, I was so nervous about not being able to smoke that I could not relax not even for a minute. Needless to say, I failed miserably on my first attempt and I believe I lasted about 5 hours without a smoke. I tried again after couple of months, but I found it very surprising that I wasn’t as nervous as the first time. I thought I’d be even more stressed, but knowing what to expect really kept me composed and relaxed. I had failed again on my second try, but I lasted a little over 24 hours without a single cigarette.

I found myself more and more used to the idea of giving up smoking and at every attempt I lasted a little more than the previous without having to smoke. I can’t even remember after how many attempts, but at some point I just because extremely confident about my ability to go without smokes. I told myself that if I could go without smoking for 3 days, then I probably would have gone past the most difficult part of the whole quitting process. I was right. I was able to last for 36 hours without a cigarette and by then the urge to smoke was not as intense as the first and the second day. I knew I had succeeded to give up smoking and it had happened after multiple tries.

Do not concern yourself over having failed to quit smoking or to fail to quit smoking on your first try. Every attempt you make, you are one step closer to kicking the habit for good and it is not a failure by any measure. So go on and give your second and third try, you will quit smoking in time but you have to continue trying. If you feel that you need some additional help to quit smoking successfully, then click here to quit once and for all.

Giving Up Smoking One Step At A Time

StopSmokingCoach — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 18:24:02 +0000

Why is it so hard to stop smoking?

Smoking brings about changes both in your mind and in your body. The physical changes are brought upon by the nicotine addiction. The changes in your mind are brought upon the act of smoking over a long period of time. Combine these two and you have a smoking habit.

Smokers enjoy accompanying cigarettes with numerous other activities. Generally, smokers like to enjoy a cup of coffee with cigarette, as well as alcoholic beverages, and phone calls seem to go hand-in-hand with cigarette smoking as well. Other activities that may not be as enjoyable, but often done with a lit cigarette are; driving, when bored, when stressed, when scared, when concerned, and while socializing with other smokers.

Why you should stop smoking right now

Stinky breath – your breath smells worse than poop.

Stained teeth – brushing and whitening can only help so much.

Cough – quite simply it hurts.

Increased blood pressure – check your family history.

Second and third hand smoking – it sounds terrible, but you are slowly killing the people around.

Cost of smoking – cigarettes tax will continually increase with time.

Decreased lung capacity – you will make a habit of catching breath.

Toxic chemicals in cigarette smoke – just to name one, rat poison.

Cancer – many cancers are associated with the smoking of cigarettes.

Advanced aging – seriously, this is not a myth, smoking cigarettes increases wrinkles.

Heart disease – you do not want to know the waiting list for a heart transplant patients.

Children – you don’t have to smoke in front of them to bring about harm to them due to your smoking habit.

Preparing to give up smoking

First, you have to get ready. Speak your family and friends about your undertaking. Learn as much as you can about how to cope with the stress that comes from the urge to smoke. Stop smoking aids such as nicotine gums and nicotine patch are optional. Relapse can occur and in fact, most suffer from it at least once. Doesn’t matter that you fail, the key is to keep trying until you are successful.

Additional steps giving up smoking

Although you should try to quit smoking as soon as you can, it is better to prepare your mind for the tough road ahead and give yourself a few weeks of time before giving up smoking. Keep a quit smoking diary if you can, there you can write about your motivation for quitting smoking, write down when you smoke the most, and write down the time of the day when you feel the biggest urge. Continue to make note in the diary and use it as a motivational tool.

Be sure to throw out all your cigarettes, ashtrays, lighters, matches. It would be wise of you to get rid of anything that reminds you of smoking a cigarette.

How to deal with the urge to smoke

You can no longer smoke when you are stressed. However, there are other means to deal with the stress that comes with quitting smoking. Exercise helps a lot, so go for a brisk walk or a light jog when the urge is unbearable. Drink a lot of water, it is important to keep yourself well hydrated during this stressful time. Hot bath is also proven to help curb the urge to smoke.

Final advice

It is very stressful to think that you’ll no longer be able to smoke another cigarette, but giving up smoking is not about losing control and it is the complete opposite. Until now, your life revolved around cigarettes. Your girlfriend/boyfriend, wife/husband, family and friends, they all complained about how much you stunk up their nose. Work hours seem to go on forever until you could have that one puff of smoke. You always felt uneasy when you were down to the last few cigarettes. You were enslaved to your smoking habit and it controlled your life.

Giving up smoking is much more than just breaking an addiction to improve your healthy. The whole world changes once you give up smoking and that should be enough to motivate you to at least try. Don’t be afraid to fail, because half the battle is won just by you trying. Even if you fail once, or even twice, you will eventually succeed.

Create Your Own Personal Stop Smoking Plan

Derek Kim — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 00:10:29 +0000

What I’m about to share with you can be helpful for anyone who’s trying to quit cigarettes, but if you are reading this, then chances are you have already tried quitting smoking and you have failed. Smokers will usually take the plunge without any preparation on their first try and when they fail, which they usually do on their first try, they will try to be more methodical about the whole quitting process on their next try.

One of the most important aspects of quitting smoking is the fact that everyone does it a little differently. To give you an example, two people can quit smoking using the cold turkey method, but the two can go about it drastically different. Smoker number one will set a quit date and buy himself enough packs of cigarettes to last him until his set date. Smoker number two will smoke his cigarettes as usual and he will quit on the day, hour, and the minute on which he feels the most confident to quit. Both have quit cold turkey, but the way they approached it is very different.

That’s where you come in to the picture. You have to understand that no matter how other former smokers have quit cigarettes and regardless of what the authority in quitting smoking informs you of (CDC for example), in the end, you have to experiment on what’s right for you. Over 90 percent of smokers who try to quit fail on their first try and the statistic for the second time quitter are not that great either. But the ones that are persistent, the ones that continue to try quit smoking and to try to experiment with how they should go about it are eventually successful.

To give up smoking successfully, you have to create your own personal stop smoking plan. You cannot depend only on what others have done to quit smoking, because you are a unique individual under unique circumstances that requires a stop smoking plan that works best for you. The best person to come up with this plan is you and you can do this by experimenting with the process of quitting smoking. If you speak to hundreds of former smokers like I have, you learn that the little difference, the little details can become crucial in quitting successfully.

Some former smokers will swear by their experience that it is easier to quit smoking the first thing in the morning (start the day smoke free), but I have also seen plenty people who say they needed that last drag during the day before they kissed goodbye their addiction for good. Here are some more examples. Some former smokers say they couldn’t stop smoking successfully until they changed their cigarette from regular flavor to light flavor. Some also claimed that it was helpful to smoke more than usual on the day they decided to quit. Reasons varied from “I was pretty sick of smoking”, to “I needed one last big shot of nicotine before I quit”.

No matter how unscientific, the fact remains that these little quirks can mean the difference between successfully giving up smoking, and failing miserably time after time. So don’t worry about the past failures and do your best to try to learn from them. Try to remember what helped you the most with the craving, the time of the day the craving was the worse, and all other details that might help you on your next try. You can also try going smoke free on different hours of the day and for different length of time. This will give you a pretty good idea of what to expect the next time you quit smoking and it could be important because lots of smokers go into a mini panic attacks on their first day of quitting smoking.

Don’t just depend on the generic guides that are written by medical professionals and other qualified sources. Meet your personal need with your knowledge and create your own personal stop smoking plan and you will give yourself the best chance to successfully quit smoking for good.

Two Things You Should Avoid if You Want to Successfully Quit Smoking

StopSmokingCoach — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 16:01:40 +0000

Unless you are one of those rare people that claim they can quit cigarettes whenever they want, you have to understand that you need many things to go right if you want to quit smoking successfully. There are couple things that you’ll need to avoid in order to achieve success and it’s crucial you get these things settled before you attempt to quit.

Your first priority is to either stay away or to make understand the people around you that try to pressure you into quitting, that you need them to stop pressuring you because you are readying yourself to quit smoking for good. A smoker can never quit smoking due to outside pressure. No matter how much a parent, spouse, or a partner might push a smoker to quit, it will never happen until the smoker himself or herself develops the will to quit.

Let your family and friends know that you are getting yourself ready to quit smoking and that during this time you do not need additional pressure from anyone. Although they may be well meant, getting nagged on to quit smoking while that’s exactly what you are trying to achieve can become a big source of stress for any smoker trying to quit. Make them understand that nicotine addiction can be as serious as cocaine addiction for many smokers and that your will alone may not be enough to help you quit smoking successfully. Having the mental state that will give you the best shot to quit smoking is of utmost importance and you’ll need the support of those around you to make that happen.

The second thing you must do is to stay away from the people that are of the complete opposite of the example above. These are the people that constantly remind you that you will never be able to quit smoking. They can also be your friends or family members who also happen to smoke that always discourage you from quitting. Misery loves company and believe me smokers hate it when someone else has the will to kick the nasty habit they themselves can’t seem to get rid of. Stay away from these people that want you to fail. Some of these people you might care a whole lot for, but you need to stay away from them during the first month of quitting session.

Some of these negative minded people who also happen to be smokers might be able to picture themselves as non-smokers thanks to you. If you successfully quit smoking, you might be able to inspire those smokers around you to quit as well. I’ve seen many times how one smoker quitting led to bunch of other friends to quit smoking as well. You quitting cigarettes can actually have a much bigger impact than you think and you could be changing lives while you improve your own.

Make sure you follow the two tips above and you will give yourself a much better chance at quitting smoking successfully. Good luck and go nicotine free today.

Quit Smoking for Free – Follow These Simple Steps

StopSmokingCoach — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 22:59:33 +0000

You will save hundreds to thousands of dollars a year if you quit smoking, but being a former smoker myself, I know you do not want to spend a dime in quitting it. This of course does not make any sense at all, but it’s just the way smokers tend to think. Although nicotine replacement therapies and many other quit smoking aids can dramatically increase your chance of quitting, one can quit without them if done properly. Let me explain how it can be done.

This may sound rather obvious and maybe even dumb to some, but you need to have a clear reason as to why you must quit smoking. Quitting smoking isn’t easy and in fact, it’s terribly difficult. It will be both a mental and a physical challenge that you’ll have to endure for 2 to 4 weeks after quitting and more for some people. It really helps to remind yourself of the reasons that gave you the courage to quit smoking every time you feel like giving up.

There’s also the actual quitting part and I can tell you from my experience the first 24 hours are gruesome. But at the end of the day, it’s only 24 hours. You have to ask yourself, do you really want to live the rest of your life controlled by a substance may as well kill you off in a slow and painful death eventually? If you can stay cigarette free for 24 hours, then the next 24 hours are so much more bearable than the first 24 hours. As the hours and days go by, it will be increasingly easy to spend a day without smoking.

Pick a day to quit and don’t be afraid to fail. What’s important is that you are trying and that your desire to quit smoking is strong. You can even experiment with a short-term quitting, basically try not smoking for few hours and see how long you can go without a smoke. I’ve heard of stories of people quitting smoking on their very first try, but I just know those people are rare. I don’t mean to discourage you, but it is more than likely that you will fail your first attempt to quit smoking. It actually helps to experience the initial stage of a nicotine withdrawal symptom before your first attempt. The first time you get a real strong nicotine withdrawal symptom it can hit you real hard and throw you into a panic. Just remember that the first 24 hours are the most difficult to bear and try to stay strong to ride it out to the best that you can.

During the first 24 hours you want to stay well hydrated and get plenty of sleep. So drink lots of water and go to bed early. Drink coffee during the day and don’t drink it for at least few hours prior to sleeping. Trust me when I say this, you do not want to wake up in the middle of the night to urinate. When all is quiet and everyone is asleep, the craving for a cigarette will drive you insane. For most smokers drinking goes hand in hand with smoking, so it will be only wise to stay away from alcoholic beverages for at least couple of weeks to preferably a month.

Keep yourself busy and keep your mouth busy by chewing on healthy snacks. Carrots and cucumber have become my favorite snacks because I depended on them so much during the quitting. Carrot sticks will allow you to chew for a long time and cucumber will help you to stay well hydrated as well as keep your mouth busy. Be sure to stay active as well, regular exercise will help tremendously in negating the nicotine withdrawal symptom. If you are not much of an exercise person, just try to keep yourself busy with your favorite hobbies. Last but not least, do not hang out with friends who smoke at least for a month, but if you do, ask them to smoke where you can’t see them.

There are hundreds of other advices that I would give out to anyone who wishes to quit smoking, but what you see here are the ones that have helped me the most during the time I quit smoking. You can definitely quit smoking for free, just follow the tips above and give it a shot. Good luck and go cigarette free.

5 Effective Giving Up Smoking Tips

StopSmokingCoach — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 03:19:23 +0000

Giving up smoking will surely test you as an individual and it’s important that you don’t jump in unprepared. Knowing what to do and avoiding the pitfalls many cigarette quitting hopefuls fall in, can mean the difference between success and failure. Here are some helpful tips that could help you give up smoking for good this time.

1. Consider seeing a doctor – Your doctor can help you determine whether you’ll need prescription drug to help you cope with the withdrawal symptoms. It really depends on your smoking habit, but generally withdrawal symptoms are intense and the use of quit smoking product or prescription drug may give you the best chance to stop smoking for good.

2. Throw away all the cigarette related products – If you have a box of cigarette available for “just in case”, then trust me you are just setting yourself up to fail. Get rid of the ashtrays, lighters, matches, and anything else that may remind you of cigarettes. If you want to finish that last box that you have saved up, then just finish it and leave no cigarettes that you can fall back to.

3. Set a date to quit and stick to it – If you don’t set a quit day and push yourself to quit smoking, you will continually keep pushing it for the next day and the next week until you no longer even try. This is a fight between your will to stop smoking and your addiction pushing you to take another puff. Push yourself for that ultimate goal to give up smoking for good.

4. Announce it to the world – Tell all your friends and your family that you are quitting cigarettes. Make it difficult for you to fail by letting it be known to everyone you know that you will successfully quit. This will surely give you an extra incentive to kick the habit in one shot. Don’t become that guy that talks the talk, but never walks the walk.

5. Something to chew on – Keep your mouth busy with anything but cigarettes. You will get urges to smoke or to just stick something in your mouth, help relieve these urges by chewing on carrots, chewing gums, straws, or even toothpicks will do. Avoid chewing anything for an extended period of time though, it could cause gum disease or damage your teeth.

Follow the tips above to help you in giving up smoking and don’t give up even if you fail on your first try. What’s important is your willingness to quit and that will ultimately lead to a successful quit smoking experience.

Run To Help Quit Smoking

StopSmokingCoach — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 02:50:34 +0000

Ex-smokers are likely to smoke again if he or she does not learn to effectively manage stress. Another concern is that while some may successfully quit smoking cigarettes, they replace one addiction with another. These ex-smokers will substitute smoking with eating or drinking for example.

Unfortunately, if you have substituted smoking with binge drinking or eating, all your effort to quit smoking might have gone to waste. The good news is that running could help, running can help you prevent substituting one addiction with another and it can also help you rid of the already substituted addiction.

Benefits of Running include:

•An improved emotional state – A key to not only in giving up smoking but to stay cigarette-free.

•Potential weight loss – It’s normal to gain 5-10 pounds after giving up smoking, running will not only offset the weight gain, it will keep you fit.

•Increase bone density – Studies have shown that smokers in general have lower bone mineral density. You can run to repair the damages done by smoking.

•Improved cardiovascular health – Your heart took a quite a beating (no pun intended) all these years you abused it with smokes, it’s time you help it heal.

•Increased muscle mass – A new study has shown that smokers lose more muscle mass at old age than the non-smoking counterpart. This means you as a smoker are not likely to be independent at old age.

•These are just few of the benefits you can enjoy if you start running and the best part is that it’s free.

Running or exercises in general are quickly becoming a form of replacement addiction for drugs even more potent than nicotine. So before you try any quit smoking product or classes, I highly recommend you try running today. If you’ve already quit and you are having a hard time staying cigarette-free, give running a shot.

A Doctor’s Aggressive Stance Against Cigarettes

StopSmokingCoach — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 03:37:19 +0000

In Poland, about 8 million out of the 38 million populations are smokers. Smoking related disease claim over 60000 poles each year and recently a Polish cancer specialist proposed cigarette boxes adorn pictures of tumor. The doctor is hopeful that the pictures will deter people from smoking.

“A picture speaks a thousand words”, perhaps it has a chance of having success. If I were still a smoker, I don’t think I would be comfortable smoking out of a box showing tumors which can actually be developing in my body as I smoke the box away. Some things you just never get used to and people are easily troubled by graphic images. Visual cue tends to take priority in humans and the effect it has on us can be profound.

If our government was not responsible enough to ban such an addictive and lethal product (if you could call it that) in the first place, it may be time that we do something about it ourselves. If you are reading this article you most likely own a computer and you are just as likely to own a printer. Do a Google image search on tumor pictures, print one and slide it between the cigarette box and the plastic covering it. Make sure you always carry your cigarette box with the picture slid in it and use it as an additional motivational tool. As some pictures may be too graphic for some of our readers, unfortunately we cannot provide you with the pictures on this site. Please be aware that Google images will return many graphic images when you do any query including the word tumor.

Remember, most people fail many times over before they successfully give up smoking. You have to use every tool available at your disposal to aid you in quitting smoking. Generally people who have success giving up smoking tend to have a solid plan before they try quitting. Don’t give up just because you may have failed a few times, what matter is that you are still trying. Continue with “Third Hand Smoke”.

Get The Naysayers Out Of The Way

StopSmokingCoach — Sat, 30 May 2009 05:39:07 +0000

One of the most important things you have to do before quitting smoking is alienating the naysayers. Some people are just born with negative bones in their body and they never seem to have anything nice to say about anyone. But they are rare breeds and the ones that you really need to avoid are the pessimists in your life.

We all have that uncle who likes to poop on everyone’s party and that cousin who criticizes every one of your achievements. Unfortunately some of these people are very dear to us no matter how irritating they may be. Obviously you can’t alienate these people forever, but it’s important to keep them out of your life temporarily or at least don’t let them know that you are in the process of quitting smoking. You walk a very fine line when you first stop smoking. Little things will trigger relapse and there’s nothing worse than hearing discouraging words from people who should be cheering you on.

Ideally we would all love to have family members who can be around every time we need someone to talk to. But we know that’s not possible and we also know it’s not because our families don’t care. So we can’t control the sort of support we get from our family members, but we can control who we spend time with and where we spend time at.

Many things in our lives are out of the realms of our control. So the things that we can control to some degree, we have to make sure we manage them in ways that are beneficial to our lives. So how about skipping the next family barbeque? You can go back to the way things were as soon as you take control of your nicotine addiction. That’s really easier than you think as nicotine withdrawal symptoms generally last only up to two weeks. The rest is all mental and if you had the fortitude to stay cigarette free for two weeks, you have what it takes to stay free from it for life.

Positive reinforcement is the key and you can’t expect to quit smoking if you let the naysayers discourage you. As Robert Collier once said, “All power is from within and therefore under our control”. Take charge and stop smoking away your life. Continue with “50-50 Chance of Survival”.

How to Stay Thin After Quitting Cigarettes

Derek Kim — Sat, 30 May 2009 03:38:08 +0000

Thin has been in for a while now and most people who quit smoking worry about gaining weight. Unfortunately cigarette does help weight management to some degree and adding 5 to 10 pounds of weight is normal when you quit smoking. The good news is that there are ways to prevent the weight gain associated with smoking cessation. You can have the best of both worlds. Live a cigarette free healthy life.

Let’s look at the three major factors that contribute to weight gain as result of smoking cessation:

• Metabolism – Smoking causes increase in metabolism and it causes the body to burn calories at slightly accelerated rate. Generally we are talking about extra 100 to 200 calories burnt as a smoker and that much more to burn through if you’ve quit. You can easily burn 200 calories with 20 minute power walk or if you prefer to walk at a lighter pace you may walk 30 minutes instead. Walking will not only keep your weight in check but it will also keep you healthy.

• Appetite – You will have better appetite after you’ve quit smoking. This is because nicotine suppresse appetite. When you quit smoking, you are actually going back to your natural appetite level instead of the artificially suppressed appetite state that nicotine induces. In an age where we are surrounded by junk foods everywhere, self control has a lot more to do with weight management than a light increase in appetite. Personally I’ve met one too many people who blame quitting cigarette for weight gain instead of trying to eat healthier. Bottom line, you can eat more to satisfy your increased appetite. You just have to eat healthy and it’s as simple as that. Vegetable, fruit, low-fat chips, fat free snacks, and water just to name a few things you can satisfy your appetite with.

• Stress Eating – Many of us eat to release stress out of our system and food can also be emotionally comforting. Quitting smoking can be quite stressful for many and when you tie stress eating with it, substantial weight gain is possible. Even if stress involved is minimal, you’ll inevitably feel the void left by your smoking habit. You can minimize these effects by exercising. Exercise exerts its effects on the brain through several mechanisms, including mood enhancement, endorphin release, neurogenesis, and it’s even been touted from treat depression to improve memory. It may sound too good to be true, but you really can prevent or minimize the negative effects that come with quitting smoking by exercising.

Staying thin by continuing to smoke is not the answer. You can live a healthy life, cigarette free by improving self control and exercising 20 to 30 minutes a day, 4 to 6 days a week. Give yourself a chance at a better life, today.