Smoking is undoubtedly a bad habit that is difficult to cut out of your life. It is an unhealthy habit that can not only affect your organs but it can also affect your reproductive system and cause infertility. If you want to quit smoking, you can’t just throw your cigarettes in the trash and hope for the best. You need a plan to be successful.
Here are a few tips on how to quit smoking:
● Find Your Reason.
To get motivated, you need a powerful, personal reason to quit. It may be to protect your family from secondhand smoke. Or lower your chance of getting lung cancer, heart disease, or other conditions. Or to look and feel younger. Choose a reason that is strong enough to outweigh the urge to light up.
● Set your date and time to stop and carry on smoking as usual right up to that time – don’t try to cut down beforehand, that just makes cigarettes seem more precious rather than less so.
● If you smoke 20 cigarettes a day, you reduce your smoking habit with one cigarette a day. On day 1 smoke 19 cigarettes, day 2 reduce it by 1 to 18 cigarettes and continue until you are down to 1 a day. When you get to 1 a day, continue for another week with only the 1 cigarette a day, thereafter skip a day until you completely forget or lose the interest to smoke anymore.
● Remember – you’re not giving up anything because cigarettes do absolutely nothing for you at all. They provide you with no genuine pleasure or crutch, they simply keep you addicted – a slave to nicotine. Get it clearly into your mind: you are losing nothing and you are making marvellous positive gains not only in health, energy and money but also in confidence, self-respect, freedom and, most important of all, in the length and quality of your future life. You’re going to enjoy being a non-smoker right from the moment you put out your last cigarette.
● Get support from a friend or your partner. It is essential that you have support when trying to quit smoking. You will need a cheer leader, per se, that can cheer you on the bad days and encourage you to quit while reminding you why you are doing it. You are quitting in order so that you can increase your fertility.
● Never be fooled into thinking you can have the odd cigarette just to be sociable or just to get over a difficult moment. If you do, you’ll find yourself back in the trap in no time at all. Never think in terms of one cigarette, always think of the whole filthy lifetime’s chain. Remember: there is no such thing as just one cigarette.
● Do not keep cigarettes on you or anywhere else in case of an emergency. If you do, it means you’re doubting your decision. Non-smokers do not need cigarettes. You are already a non-smoker the moment you put out your final cigarette. In fact one of the many joys of being free is not having to worry about having cigarettes and a light on you, of ending that slavery.
● Eat Fruits and Veggies
Don’t try to diet while you give up cigarettes. Too much deprivation can easily backfire. Instead, keep things simple and try to eat more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean protein. These are good for your whole body.
● Meditate.
Meditation might sound exotic, but it’s a fantastic way to handle some of the psychological aspects of nicotine withdrawal. Meditation is a form of deep breathing and relaxation.
● Choose Your Reward
In addition to all the health benefits, one of the perks of giving up cigarettes is all the money you will save. There are online calculators that figure out how much richer you will be. Reward yourself by spending part of it on something fun.