New Years Resolutions: Tips to Quit Smoking
What’s your New Year’s resolution? Do you want to lose a few pounds? Maybe spend more time with your family? Or how about quitting smoking?
Every year most of us get gung ho and start setting goals or making resolutions for the New Year. That’s great; but the problem is we have a hard time sticking with our resolutions and usually find ourselves falling off the bandwagon around mid January.
The trick to keeping your new years resolution and sticking to your goals is to have a well laid out plan. Let’s take smoking as an example. I made a resolution in December of 2006 to quit smoking. I had tried to quit smoking several times before but I wasn’t 100 percent successful. Well last year I took a different approach and I’m proud to say that I’ve been smoke free for a full year!!
Here’s what I did. I sat down and wrote out my smoking routine. Below is the actual routine that I was addicted to.
I smoked a cigarette in the morning when I woke up. I smoked one in the car on my way to work. I smoked two on my morning break, a couple at lunch, two more on my afternoon break, another one on the car ride home, and then between three and five before I turned in for the night.
When you do the math I was smoking a little more than a half a pack a day.
Now some people try to quit cold turkey. I’d tried that before but it didn’t work out for me. Gradually working towards not smoking was the solution that worked for me.
Once I had made a list of my smoking routine I consciously thought about whether I really wanted to smoke or if it was just “time” for me to smoke. By consciously thinking about my habits I was able to first decrease the amount of cigarette that I smoked and then eliminate smoking all together.
After I made my list I evaluated it and decided to cut out smoking on my drive to and from work. Now don’t get me wrong I had the urge to light up and smoke but I didn’t because I knew that I need to break my habit on cigarette at a time. It took about a month before I lost the urge to smoke on my commutes, but taking that small step and succeeding at it gave me a boost of confidence to continue with my goal.
Then I rewrote my list, adjusting it to my new smoking routine and eliminated yet another smoking session. I only had one cigarette during my morning and afternoon breaks instead of two. Do you see the rhythm of my plan? Take small steps and over time you will reach your goals.
Here is another tactic that I used to help decrease the amount of cigarettes that I smoked.
I didn’t carry cigarettes and nicotine shots around with me everywhere I went. I started leaving them at the house more and more. That way even if I had the urge to smoke then I didn’t have the cigarettes to smoke; I didn’t make them readily available to myself. With this, I was able to contain myself. I realized that the presence of cigarettes is a big factor why people are easily tempted. Hence, if you really want to quit, make sure to leave cigarettes and don’t make it accessible for you
Once I was finally at the point when I was ready to let the cigarettes go for good then I got some help. I started using a nicotine patch but that didn’t work out too well for me. The patches irritated my skin and I think they may have been the cause of the horrific dreams that I started having. Needless to say that solution was short lived.
I went online and did a little research to find another route to stopping my nicotine cravings. I came across a dietary supplement that claimed to relieve nicotine cravings. It also had a 90 day money back guarantee, so I gave it a shot. Surprisingly enough the product worked for me. I also got a pretty good deal. I ordered a four month supply and got two bottles free. I don’t know about you but I love free stuff.
How does that saying go? Different strokes for different folks? Well, this is the stroke that worked for me folks and it might just work for you too. You can learn more about the product that I used by visiting their website. There is a ton of useful information that might help you. Good luck on your endeavor and Happy New Year!!