Smoke Break - Back in the Saddle

by Heather Long | More from this Blogger

11 Jan 2007 02:49 PM

Many of you were here a few weeks ago when I made an attempt to stop smoking. I lasted only a few weeks and then fell promptly off the wagon. I can attribute the cause to a number of things including my husband's hospitalization, but the truth is - I didn't make it. Well, don't let it be said that I'm giving up. In an effort to quit smoking again - I've gone back to the drawing board and I've started researching stop smoking methods, inspirations and more.

One of the first places I found with tons of information is the Stop Smoking Center. The site invites you to make your stop smoking pledge and offers you tons of information on your level of Nicotine dependence and more. It also offers some key advice to help you make quitting smoking easier and for some people, myself included there are a number of things you can do to make quitting easier.

My Dependency

According to their tools, my dependency rates about a 5 on a scale of 0 to 10. According to their scale, my dependence is high, but not impossible. The information can also help me to reduce smoking in a variety of areas to make the quit date more effective.

So what's the game plan? At this point, I'll be doing the following for the next two weeks in order to facilitate my quit date which I am setting for January 26, 2007. In order to make myself more successful, I will:

• Delay the first cigarette of the day by at least 30 minutes after I get up for the first week and 60 minutes for the second week
• I will no longer smoke in the car
• I already do not smoke in the house
• I will delay a cigarette following a meal by a minimum of 30 minutes

Smoking is habitual. By delaying the times when I would normally and habitually smoke, I am creating a different mindset for myself. It's important in any program to quit smoking that you begin thinking like a non-smoker. A non-smoker doesn't think about a cigarette after a meal and they don't think about it when they first get up in the morning. Not smoking first thing in the morning will be pretty easy, it's nearly 30 minutes after I get up before I have one anyway - so stepping that up to an hour should go quickly.

Not smoking in the car will be hard, it's boring to drive and smoking gives me something to do and yes, that's a terrifically weak excuse, but there it is. But hard or not, I am not going to smoke in the car. I, Heather Long, pledge my commitment to quit smoking. I have set 1/26/07 as my quit date.

When I quit smoking, I will experience the following benefits:

• 20 minutes after I quit, my blood pressure will drop to normal
• A day after I quit, my chance of a heart attack and stroke will decrease
• 2 days after I quit, the nicotine by-products will leave my body
• 2 weeks after I quit, my regular aerobic exercise will become even easier
• 1 month after I quit, my lung capacity will increase by 30%
• 1 year after I quit, my risk of coronary heart disease will reduce by 50%
• 3 years after I quit, my risk for stroke and heart attack will be as low as that of someone who has never smoked

Sounds Good, Eh?

I promised to be there for you if you wanted to quit smoking and I want to reaffirm that promise. Don't feel guilty about smoking. Feel guilty about not making every effort to quit. Don't feel like smoking is a bad influence on others. Know that it is a bad influence on yourself. Don't feel bad because you've failed to quit on previous attempts. Feel bad if you aren't willing to make that attempt again.

I'm here and I'm going to quit. Who's with me?

Related Articles:

Can You Really Help Someone Who Is Trying to Quit Smoking?

Top Ten Best Fitness Goals You Can Set for Yourself

Financial Reasons to Quit Smoking

Stop Smoking: Exercise Can Help

Learn more about Heather Long

Heather Long is 35 years old and currently lives in Wylie, Texas. She has been a freelance writer for six years. Her husband and she met while working together at America Online over ten years ago.

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