KNOW YOUR ENEMY
Nicotine creates a biochemical reaction in your body that has an immediate effect on your mood, your ability to reason, and your metabolism. Even if you only smoke a few cigarettes a day, you do feel so bad when you try to quit? The more that you smoke, the higher level of chemical dependency will be reached. Light smokers can also become just as dependent on cigarettes because of nicotine’s psychological impact. In this way it can affect moods and feelings in certain situations.
It is only a matter of seconds after that first puff that nicotine starts to have an effect on your central nervous system, and the rest of your body. Certain areas of the brain, when stimulated by nicotine, help you think more clearly. Other areas of the brain lie in a pleasure center which when stimulated can make you feel more relaxed and less anxious.
Nicotine also affects the hormones produced by the body, which creates a chemical dependency to nicotine and the accompanying craving. Heavy smokers have become dependent on
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heightened levels of hormones, stimulated by nicotine, which can have an addictive quality. They need a cigarette at certain intervals of time. After the stimulation of the hormones starts to fall, they need another cigarette to bring them back into the comfort zone. If they do not get that cigarette, the craving begins.
 

HOW YOU CAN QUIT SMOKING
Quitting is hard. If you have tried to quit smoking, you know how hard it can be. It is hard because nicotine is a very addictive drug some times it can be as addictive as heroin or cocaine.
Many people have found that including physical activity in their program to quit smoking has added a tremendous benefit to assist in quitting. There are many reasons for this:
When people are more active, they gain confidence and like themselves more. They feel more energy, and are more capable of dealing with tension in their lives. With increased activity, the smell of tobacco actually becomes offensive. Whenever you feel the need to smoke after you have decided to quit, get up and move around instead. A brief physical activity can provide you with the lift that you may have received from nicotine.
 

QUIT SMOKING IN A WEEK
Look at the following Reasons for Quitting: -
• You will live longer and live better.
• Become a high-energy person without cigarettes.
• Quitting will lower your chance of having a heart attack
• Reduce the chance of Cancers of the lung, mouth and throat
• Relax and enjoy the pleasure of relaxation without cigarettes.
• Deal with your tensions without a cigarette.
• If you are pregnant women, this will improve chances of having a healthy baby.
• The people you live with, especially family members will be healthier.
• Save money.
Consider the following question: -
How and when do you want to quit smoking?
There are only two ways to effectively quit smoking, immediately (cold turkey), or gradually. When you quit gradually, you use various methods to taper off before you have that last cigarette. Neither way is better than the other for all people. Pick the one that you feel fits your temperament. Either way, a nicotine patch may prove to be a real benefit in giving up, especially if you are a heavy smoker.
Try this test to see which way is better for you.
 

CHOOSE THE RIGHT METHOD OF QUITING FOR YOU
Answer the questions by circling “yes”, “no”, or “not sure”.
1. Stopping smoking is one of the most important things in the world for me right now. Yes no not sure
2. I can handle a tough problem without a smoke.
Yes no not sure
3. I have to quit smoking and my reasons are good enough to do it now.
Yes no not sure
4. If I quit this minute, I know I can find a way to resist the craving to smoke, even if it is strong. Yes no not sure
If your answer to all of the above questions is ‘yes’, you may be a candidate to quit immediately. But before you do, read on to get the tools necessary to be successful. After reading the following, set a time to quit. If not right now, then tomorrow, but do it.
What about the doubts you may be feeling now?
Most smokers will get a sense of doubt when they read the questions above. You probably are not confident in your ability to follow through with resisting any future craving to smoke, or finding something to substitute for the feelings that smoking has given to you.
In order to have the confidence to quit, you :
(1) must find an alternative to handle the urge to smoke, when it hits, and
(2) create ways to deal with the reasons that you smoked in the first place.
Together we will accomplish both these tasks so that when the day comes that you had planned to quit, you will be confident to do it.
 

HOW TO HANDLE THE URGE
There are several weapons that you can use in your fight to quit.
EACH OF THESE WEAPONS WORK- THEY HAVE BEEN PROVEN
You may use one, all, or a combination of several to achieve your goal. The urge to smoke is immediate, and usually lasts for five minutes. If you can resist for that period of time, you reduce the urge.
1. Take a deep breath, hold it for a few seconds, and exhale as if you had just taken your first puff on a cigarette. Part of the feeling you get from smoking is a direct result of taking a deep breath. A deep breath allows you to take in a maximum amount of oxygen, and exhaling lets out large quantities of carbon dioxide. This results in a feeling of relaxation. Try it, you’ll see.
2. Take a sip of water several times during this five minute period. It can help to diminish the need to smoke, and gives you something to do with your hands. The extra water will also help to flush the nicotine out of your body.
3. Put something in your mouth that has no calories, such as a stirrer, toothpick, or another substitute for a cigarette.
4. Get busy with something, anything, to keep you busy for the next five minutes.
5. As long as it does not lead to a craving, chew a piece of gum or a piece of hard candy. Life Savers work well.
6. Get up and move around for five minutes. It will help the urge to smoke to pass.
7. Use a nicotine patch as replacement therapy.
 

LET’S STOP RIGHT NOW!
The first thing to do is set a date when you are going to quit smoking. Let’s start one week from today. That will give you plenty of time to practice with the weapons in your arsenal. Eight days from today, it will be the beginning of the end of your smoking habit.
Days 1 and 2
Examine your smoking behavior for the first two days. Every time you light up, ask yourself:
1. Why am I smoking this cigarette?
2. Would this be an easy one or a difficult one to do without?
4. If I did not smoke this cigarette, what would I do instead?
Day 3
Let’s get out and test your weapons today.
At least once today, use your weapons to shoot down the urge to smoke.
During the five minutes that it will take for the urge to pass, try out some of your arsenal. Try one, or all, or find a combination that works for you.
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Day 4
Today is the big testing day. If you haven’t already tried it, skip those one or two cigarettes that you feel may be the toughest to give up in your daily routine. Pick the ones that you rated “difficult” during your monitoring period.
Remember, this is a practice period, and you must not get upset if you are unable to give up a difficult cigarette. You must practice and experiment with your different weapons to realize how you can be more effective.
If you found skipping that cigarette very difficult or even failed in the end, review any factor that got in the way of your success. The most common causes of difficulty or failure that a potential quitter faces are:
Chemical properties of addiction
When you do not have that cigarette, you feel lousy. If you are a heavy smoker, a nicotine patch may help to relieve your bad feelings.
Social pressures
You may find yourself in a situation (card game, party, coffee break) during which you would normally smoke. It may help to let others know of your desire to quit, and also your reasons for quitting. Enlisting the aid of a non smoker to confide in may also help. Make sure that he or she is aware of your goals so that they do not say or do anything to instill a negative impact on your desire to quit.
If you feel that you may not resist the social pressures of smoking, consider the option of giving up these social encounters for two or three weeks until the urge passes and you can be comfortable again.
Tension and negative emotion
A crisis occurs during your work or personal day, and one of the main reasons for you to smoke has been tension reduction. Try to deal with your negative emotions and use the tension reducing methods that we talked about earlier. Get away from the area that the tension is associated with. Take a walk, or go to another room. You may also find that nicotine gum will give you enough tension relief to get through.
Days 5, 6, and 7.
You are now heading down the home stretch. In the next three days, your goal is to come out of this week smoking half the cigarettes that you would normally smoke. If you started as a one pack a day smoker, cut back to ten cigarettes per day, or less. The fewer the better. During days 5 and 6, set your goals toward achieving positive results on day 7. Maintain your smoking record during these three days, and continue to decrease your dependency on nicotine.
What do you do if you still have doubts? This is probably due to your chemical dependency on nicotine. It is a highly powerful drug, and many factors have been working together to make you dependent. Discuss with your doctor about the feasibility of a patch or nicotine gum. Nicotine is the hook that has gotten you to smoke which carries the harmful effects to your body. With the help from the patch or the gum, you will have all he tools you need to successfully quit. The patch or gum will give you a steady influx of nicotine into your system, which will be reduced slowly over a period of several weeks. DO NOT SMOKE WHILE ON THE PATCH. You could experience a dangerous overdose of nicotine.
NOTE; Pregnant women should not use the gum or patch. Smokers with any form of heart disease should consult with a physician before using.
 

DEALING WITH THE SYMPTOMS OF WITHDRAWAL
Dizziness may occur during the first one or two days. Take a quick break, it will pass.
Headaches may appear at any time during the first weeks. Try to relax. Take any usual remedy for headache, a cold cloth on the back of your neck, or relieve the stress by taking a short walk.
Tiredness may occur during the first few weeks, but if you meditate or relax during the first few weeks, it will pass.
Coughing may actually increase during the first few days, simply because the residue from the smoke has not been flushed from your system.
Tightness in the chest may occur in the first few days. Rest and take deep breaths, it will go away.
Sleeping problems may occur in the first few days. Try to stay away from drinks that have a high caffeine content, try not to exercise too strenuously in the hours prior to bedtime. A hot bath prior to retiring at night may also be helpful.
Constipation may occur in the first month after you quit. If this occurs, eat foods with a high fiber content, drink plenty of fluids, and do some light exercise.
Concentration may tend to wander during the first few weeks. Be ready for this, take a break or do something physical for a short period of time.
The following pages will give you an example form to chart your progress as you begin to give up cigarettes. They are all self explanatory and should prove to be a tremendous asset in assisting you to give up your habit. On a daily basis, chart each cigarette that you smoke during the day.
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Enter the time, place, and with whom you smoked, the reason for smoking, whether it will be easy or difficult to give that one up, and the weapon that you will use to fight the urge to smoke that one.
 

CONCLUSION
If you are not completely confident that you can resist the urge to smoke after you have quit, it may be necessary to remove any visual reminders of smoking from your living and work areas. Throw away or give away those leftover cigarettes, get rid of lighters, ashtrays, matches, and anything else that could be associated with smoking. Why should you force yourself to resist the urge to smoke when it is far simpler to just remove the reminders. If you keep a pack of cigarettes in your home or office, there is a good chance that you may pick one up. Just this one may be the cigarette that hooks you again.