Stop Smoking

We all know the many health related issues with smoking cigarettes. Lung Cancer, COPD, Emphysema, just to name a few. This hub is not about that. It's about how to end your enslavement to the cigarette.

We all also know how much richer we are (or would be) when we quit smoking cigarettes. 1 pack per day X 365 days in a year can easily add up to nearly $2000.00. Most probably smoke more than 1 pack per day in all honesty. This hub is not about that either...

This hub IS about how to quit smoking forever. If this interests you, keep reading.

Before you begin, this will not work unless YOU are the one that wants YOU to quit smoking. If you are thinking about doing this for your family, friends, significant others, that is all well and good, but YOU must want to quit first and foremost in order to be successful..

Get out your calendar. Pick a date at least 2 weeks in advance. Circle it. This will be your "Quit Date".

Spend your time up until that date readying your self for it. Psych yourself up, so to speak.

Tell yourself how much better your clothes will smell. Tell yourself how much more keen your own senses of taste and smell will be. Go ahead and tell yourself how much more money you will have! Whatever works.

Every day, look at the date on your calendar and say "That day will be the first day of my smoke free life".

Keep smoking as usual until that date. Notice the taste, the smell, the burn in your throat.

On the day before, buy your last pack of cigarettes. Get on the Internet and look up all of the ingredients in cigarettes. Did you realize that the glue they use to hold them together is the same as CARPET GLUE? Didn't know you had been smoking glue all these years, did you? Keep looking. Read, Read, Read. Smoke a cigarette. Read some more. Read everything you can find about how they are made, and what goes into them. Smoke all of your cigarettes today, even if you don't want to. (If perhaps you REALLY don't want to, flush them down the toilet right before bed.)

Quitting day. I should have said this at the beginning, but make sure this is not a day that you have absolutely nothing to do. As a matter of fact, the next 7 days need to be full of some sort of activity to keep you busy and your mind off of smoking.

Do not buy cigarettes today. Keep in mind that each craving will last approximately 5 minutes, and then will be gone until the next one. Over the next 7 days, your cravings will be strong, the strongest being on the 5th day. After day 7, they will get easier and easier. You will dream about smoking and love these dreams. Eventually you will dream about smoking and feel disappointment for smoking again, to awake and be so glad it was a dream.

Keep telling yourself, "when I get through this 7 days, I will have it made!"

For each day that you are smoke free, put $5 worth of change into a jar. You would have spent this on cigarettes anyway. Watch how quickly the jar fills! At the end of the week, you will have $35.00 to treat yourself with. Keep doing this, or save even longer for a larger treat.

Keep yourself busy during these 7 days. If you feel compelled to replace cigarettes with food, choose fruit, air-popped corn, or something low calorie and light. Rich foods make your cravings stronger. Sugar free hard candies are also a good choice. They give the senses something to do.

If you chose to use Chantix to help you quit, start taking it one week before your circled date, or discuss this with your medical professional. Other aides are out there as well, nicotine gum and patches. Wellbutrin has been known to help as well.

Okay, go get your calendar and start getting psyched up for your new, improved, smoke-free life!!! Best of luck to you!!

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