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Most people who smoke don’t actually want to smoke. There are a few people who still hang on to the belief that they need to smoke every day, and that smoking has some kind of beneficial impact on them, but most people who have the habit wish they could stop. Unfortunately for them, it isn’t that easy. If you’re a smoker, you’ll know that already. Smoking is highly addictive, and once you’ve started the habit, it’s exceptionally difficult to say goodbye to it.
Just because something is difficult doesn’t mean that it can’t be done, and you have an excellent incentive for doing so. Smoking damages the body in dozens of different ways, and the longer you smoke for, the more damage you’ll be doing. It’s true that there are some effects of smoking that can’t be undone once they’ve occurred, but there are other effects that start to dissipate within just a few days of stubbing out your last cigarette. It’s a long road, and it won’t be easy, but giving up smoking is a road back to the healthy lifestyle you desire.
You might think that there’s no point in quitting now if you’ve been smoking for many years. That’s not true. None of us know which cigarette is the one that’s going to do the lasting damage. Think of smoking in the same way that you’d think about playing games at an online slots website. When you put money into an online slots game such as Fishin Frenzy slot, you have no idea at what point you might win any money back out of it. It might come on your fifth spin, or it might come on your fifty-fifth spin. That’s all part of the excitement of online slots. Failure comes when you’ve run out of money, and you can no longer spin the reels. With smoking, failure comes when you’ve had that one cigarette too many, and you’ve damaged your body beyond repair. It’s an online slots game that nobody would want to win, and so we need to make sure that you don’t.
If you’ve tried and failed to give up smoking in the past, don’t be disheartened. Here are some methods you may not have considered – and any one of them might be the right one for you!
Change Your Diet
We’ll start with a tip that very few people are aware of. There are types of food that make cigarettes taste awful. Granted, cigarettes don’t taste great at the best of times, but some food groups make them taste even worse to the point where you won’t want that taste in your mouth. If you don’t believe us, try smoking a cigarette after eating cheese or a fresh piece of fruit. It will taste repulsive! Most smokers go for a cigarette after a meal, but you won’t want to do that if you know it’s going to taste disgusting. You can train yourself out of the desire to go for a cigarette simply by changing the things you put into your mouth before you have that cigarette. That will cut out your post-meal cigarettes, which is a step closer to cutting out smoking entirely.
Work Out A Five Minute Distraction
Smoking cravings aren’t easy to ignore. When they come they’re intense, and it’s so easy to surrender to them and have a cigarette to make them go away. Most smokers know the feeling of fighting against a craving, and also know the disappointment of giving in to it when they’re trying to quit. Sadly, most of them aren’t aware of how close they are to getting past it before they light up. It might not feel like it, but intense smoking cravings only last five minutes. That means you need a five-minute distraction every time it happens. Start a conversation with someone. Go for a quick walk. Do a crossword. Play a game on your phone. Do whatever it is you need to do to get past that five minute period, and we promise the feeling will go away.
Work Out Your Reason For Quitting
You can’t quit smoking because someone else wants you to. It won’t work. You have to quit for yourself, and that means you need to come up with a strong reason for quitting. Thinking “I don’t want to get sick” isn’t enough, because it’s too vague. What would motivate you? Is it something you could buy with the money you’ll save by not smoking? Is it the idea of becoming physically fitter? Pick something visual, and then carry a picture that illustrates that choice with you everywhere you go. Whenever you get the urge to smoke, take the picture out, and look at it. It should be enough to convince you to carry on abstaining.
Avoid Alcohol For A While
Alcohol reduces our inhibitions and affects our judgment. That’s bad news for anybody who’s trying to give up smoking. You might believe that you’re mentally strong enough to give up smoking through the ‘cold turkey’ method, and you might be correct about that when you’re sober, but when you’ve had a few drinks, everything changes. As a smoker, you probably know one or two non-smoking friends who used to smoke, and still occasionally have a cigarette when they’re drinking. That’s how powerful the addiction is, and how easily it can come back. If you smoke more when you’re drinking, and you know you’ll be more likely to smoke when you drink, it’s best to step away from alcohol until you know you’ve kicked the smoking urge.
Use Nicotine Replacement Therapy
Let’s get this straight. You’re not really addicted to smoking. You’re addicted to nicotine, which is the product you ingest by smoking cigarettes. Unfortunately, when you smoke, you also inhale a number of other chemicals and damage your lungs in the process. There are cleaner ways of getting a nicotine hit than dragging it through a cigarette, and that’s what nicotine replacement therapy is all about. Whether it’s gum or patches, nicotine replacement therapy can give you the nicotine your body craves while you unlearn the habit of pulling a cigarette from a packet. Once you’ve broken that connection, you can slowly wean yourself off the nicotine replacement products.
Millions of people smoke, but millions of people also successfully give up smoking every year. There’s no reason why you can’t be one of them. Start quitting today, and look forward to a healthier tomorrow!
