HOW TO QUIT SMOKING

 

   Not every addiction is a bad thing, but addiction to smoking cigarettes is a bad thing.

Below are tips to quit smoking or to cut down the smoking habit :

*Make up your mind to quit, it's only you that can easily make yourself quit cigarettes.

* Know how much you’re smoking – keep a written record. If you smoke automatically, without paying much attention to the habit, it’s easy to smoke more. 

Ask yourself before each cigarette: do I really need it? Can I postpone smoking it or even just leave it? Practise regaining psychological control. You can use various other ploys to make yourself more aware of each cigarette: smoke in a specific, unusual place (try facing into a corner, for example), or use your opposite hand to hold the cigarette.

* Analyse your other habits, e.g. eating, drinking alcohol, visiting the bunk (ghetto smoking chamber), spending time in smokey environments or with other smokers. Work on changing any behaviours that are conducive to smoking.

*Decide in advance how many cigarettes you'll smoke the following day, and remove the rest from the pack, as it would force to not to smoke more than you budgeted.

*Put off lighting your first cigarette of the day a little later each day, don't start your day with cigarettes.

*Don’t smoke cigarettes down to the butt. Smoke them only half or three-quarters.

*Change to a brand you don’t like. Or, try changing to a milder brand a few weeks before your quit date to help your body get accustomed to less nicotine - but make sure you don’t smoke more mild cigarettes, inhale them more, or cover the holes in the filters, so if you take the Marlboro brand change to Dorchester or any other brand you really don't like. 

*Don't empty your ashtrays: this reminds you of how many cigarettes you've smoked each day, and is aesthetically unappealing. Some people keep their cigarette butts in a glass jar as graphic evidence of their ‘dirty habit’.

*Put your cigarettes in places that are awkward to reach (like on a high shelf), or keep them in hard-to-open containers. This also helps to make you more conscious of each cigarette smoked. ( I once told my friend who is an Arsenal fan to keep his cigarettes in the Champions league Trophy. LoL. #JustKidding)

*Finish one pack before you buy another, and don’t buy cigarettes in bulk.

*Don’t carry cigarettes on you when you go out, so you won't take them when you go out.

*Don’t ask for or accept cigarettes from other smokers.

*Ask successful ex-smokers what methods they use to stay on the straight and narrow, and consider incorporating these into your own life.

*Start thinking about a quit date.

Stay healthy..