One of the biggest hurdles any smoker faces when quitting is not having that cigarette every time you have a craving and the only way this can be done is by having strong will power. One of the best ways to approach this, especially in the first few days to a week is to practice “out of sight is out of mind”. That being said rid your living environment of all cigarette lighters, ashtrays and of course cigarettes. In fact throw them out as you won’t need them anymore and let in some fresh air.

Its always good to plan a day when you are going to quit and stick to it. Prepare yourself mentally for this day. Keep telling yourself the dangers of smoking and remind yourself how disgusting it is. Every time you have a cigarette prior to the day learn to see it for what it is. Watch the cigarette burn down as you inhale and imagine the toxins and pollutants that are entering your body, feel the smoke building up your chest and watch it leave your body.

When you are having a craving remind yourself that its not your body wanting a cigarette but its your body rejecting the nicotine you have put into it. Over the years of your body releasing the toxins from cigarettes you have trained yourself to see this as a craving. It is not, it is your body trying to heal itself.

After 48 hours all the nicotine has left your body but you will carry on craving cigarettes. A part of your brain basically becomes like a big baby that still wants what it was used to getting. Learn to separate the two then you can learn to control your cravings.

In the first week its a good idea to break your routine. The first week is by far the toughest and to make life easier for you, you should break up your usual routine. If you ever wanted to catch up on some much needed sleep, this would be the time to do it. Have an early night and a healthy start to the day – exercise and a good breakfast! Break up your travel pattern too. Shop in another shop. All these places trigger your brain to wanting a cigarette or purchasing a cigarettes at certain times. The more obstacles you throw in your way the better the better it will be for you in the long run.

If you get to the point where you really feel you need a cigarette then take a shower or a bath. Try to avoid things that will agitate you or challenge you. Take it easy in the first week and try to remain calm. The best way to get over any need to smoke is by being prepared for whats to come and dealing with it in the best way. If you are agitated, moody or aggressive you will quickly forget that you trying to quit and will soon find yourself puffing away. There is a part of your brain that will do anything to have a cigarette and agitating or making you moody is just another trick you will play on yourself to get that cigarette.

Often we translate nicotine cravings as a need for a cigarette but in reality it is our body getting rid of the toxins that has been put in. By having another cigarette you are putting in more toxins and will have to wait around 20 minutes before your body starts to reject the nicotine again. So as a smoker every time you believe you need a cigarette and light up it was your body trying to release the toxins. Right from when we first started smoking we teach ourselves that the body rejecting the nicotine is a craving when in actual fact it is the other way round! This is what makes quitting difficult as the more our bodies reject in the first few days we believe it is a craving.

Over the first few weeks and months of quitting your body will continue to repair itself. Between 2 to 12 weeks your body circulation will improve. Your senses will be more sharp and you will now notice what other smokers smell like. If you ever had a secret cigarette and lied about it you will now realize that that smoke wasn’t so secret!

If you quit smoking before the age of 30 your body will repair itself to the point of someone who has not smoked.

BREAK YOUR ROUTINE

An important thing to do is to break your normal routine. Your whole day is full of events that will trigger the brain into thinking about that cigarette.

Try avoid cigarettes as much as possible. Bars, Clubs and Corner Shops. Avoid them for the first week or so into quitting. Take an alternitive way home if you go past a shop. Dont go out for that smoke break.

A test to show you how much one drag can do to your body

(PLEASE WAIT FOR VIDEO TO LOAD)

To take your quitting seriously there are a few things that you can do to make your life a little easier. One of the most important points is “Out of sight out of mind”. Get rid of everything that will remind you of smoking. This includes all ashtrays, lighters and matches. Don’t even make excuses to keep matches get rid of everything. Throw out all cigarette ends into the bin. You don’t want anything to trigger a response to smoke.

The second point to ‘Out of sight out of mind’ is avoid people and places where you know smokers are going to be. If you see someone smoking in public avoid them, if you are walking behind them walk on the other side of the road. It might seem extreme but you got to remember this is your health and its your life. Nobody else is answerable to it. Even tell yourself that you never smoked before, and that you don’t understand why people smoke.

At work avoid those smoke breaks. Rather than taking it outside, stay inside. Drink some cold water and breathe in and out slowly and heavily. The breathing can also help the body, as its so used to dragging on cigarettes for years, that you can mimic the smoking ritual. Avoid drinking too. It does not matter if you can think before hand that you will be OK, once you’ve had that first beer you are well on your way to having that cigarette.

Another very important thing to remember is that you know when you are going to crave, so prepare yourself for it. If you look at any given day, you already know when you like to have your first cigarette and you know when you are going to have your last. Its the one’s you enjoy the most that are the hardest to pass up on.

After meals, with your morning coffee, the one when you get your first minute of peace for the evening. We all have our favourites, and that’s probably the reason why we smoke is because of those moments. All the other cigarettes are part of the addiction and are the one’s we don’t like. Unfortunately to quit you have to quit it all. There is unfortunately no chance of you controlling the cigarette.

The obvious thing you can do to avoid your favourite cigarettes is to do something else. Many people choose fitness, but your changes don’t even have to be that drastic. You could visit people who don’t smoke. Take to cleaning your house a little more, perhaps even the garden. Remember that by quitting its not that you have to be a cleaner or gardener for the rest of your life, try not to see it from a mundane point of view, its all for keeping yourself busy in the first month or so.

Also remember that if you make a mistake and find yourself lit up, its not the end. Start over again, and keep starting over again if you have to, until you fully manage to quit.

If you experience headaches from going cold turkey, do what you would normally do if you had a headache. There’s no reason to treat it any different. Drink lots of minerals.

Something to avoid as much as possible is quitting for four days then go back to smoking your regular amount. Quitting for another week then starting at your regular amount again. This will only damage your lungs more, and perhaps you could have irreversible damage. The reason being is that as soon as you stop your lungs start to heal themselves, so by smoking again you damage what has been healed. If you continue like this your lungs will give up trying to heal themselves.

Tobacco is the leading preventable cause of death in the world. It causes 1 in 10 deaths among adults worldwide. In 2005, tobacco caused 5.4 million deaths, or an average of one death every 6 seconds. The death toll is projected to reach 8.3 million by 2030 if current trends continue.

Fact 2

Tobacco kills half of its regular users. On average 29% of people around the world are smokers. Smoking is more common among men (47.5% of all men) than women (10.3%). Of the 1.3 billion smokers alive today, 650 million are likely to be killed by tobacco, half of them dying between the ages of 35 and 69.

Fact 3

More than one billion smokers, or 84% of all smokers, live in developing and transitional economy countries. By 2030, 70% of deaths attributable to tobacco will occur in the developing world.

Fact 4

Tobacco caused 100 million deaths in the 20th century. If current trends continue, there will be one billion deaths in the 21st century.

Fact 5

The smoke produced by burning tobacco products is known as second-hand tobacco smoke or environmental tobacco smoke. Tobacco smoke in enclosed spaces is breathed by everyone, exposing both smokers and non-smokers to its harmful effects. This is commonly referred to as involuntary smoking or passive smoking.

Fact 6

Second-hand tobacco smoke is dangerous to health. There are about 4000 known chemicals in tobacco smoke; more than 50 of them are known to cause cancer. Second-hand smoke also causes heart disease and many serious respiratory and cardiovascular diseases in adults which can lead to death.

Fact 7

An estimated 700 million children, or almost half of the world’s children, breathe air polluted by tobacco smoke, particularly at home. Second-hand smoke causes many serious diseases in children and worsens conditions such as asthma.

Fact 8

The International Labour Organization estimates that at least 200 000 workers die every year due to exposure to smoke at work. The United States Environmental Protection Agency estimates that second-hand smoke is responsible for about 3000 lung cancer deaths annually among non-smokers in the country.

Fact 9

Exposure to second-hand smoke also imposes economic costs on individuals, businesses and society as a whole, in the form of direct and indirect medical costs and productivity losses.

Fact 10

There is no safe level of exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke. Neither ventilation nor filtration, even in combination, can reduce the exposure indoors to levels that are considered acceptable. Only 100% smoke-free environments provide effective protection.

how long do smoking cravings take to go?

Without a doubt the first month can be quite unbearable, cravings happening quite regularly. You will probably have more than a few on any given day. My cravings didnt last for five minutes, a lot of them went on for well over an hour. All this depends on the person. (I smoked for over 10 years.)

The first three months were definately the hardest, but even though I still had cravings I found my will power was much stronger.

I have managed to stay quit for over a year and a half now, and still crave from time to time. The frequency is definately a lot less, and have only experienced this twice. Probably due to psychological triggers.

Just try what you can to keep your mind of the idea of smoking.

what to do when you crave a cigarette?

There is so many things you can do to stop the craving, and the first is not to beat yourself up trying to find something to do. Keep calm, don’t let the situation take control of you or else you will end up having that smoke.

For the first day or two try breathing. Breathe in and out, mimic how you would be having a cigarette. Even pretend you have the cigarette in your hand. Your body has been inhaling a lot of smoke over the years so it will have to adjust too. Give it some time.

Check the rest of the site for other idea’s. Hope you find the one’s best suited for you.

how long until nicotine leaves the body?

After 48 hours the nicotine has left your body and your ability to smell and taste is greatly improved.

what to do if you quit smoking then slip up and have one?

If you slip up, quit again. Don’t put it off for another two weeks or a week. Quit again straight away. If you slip up, destroy all your cigarettes throw out the matches you bought. Wet them all first, and just quit again. This can happen a few times, but follow the same procedure everytime. Destroy what you have bought, and quit again.

Im having trouble thinking clearly after quitting smoking.

Drink loads of fluids. Yes the first week or two can be quite difficult for most. My hardest was the second week. Dizzy spells, headaches, funny aches and extremely dry mouth. Keep yourself hydrated. Don’t just stick to water either, it becomes very boring for the tasebuds, and you can only drink so much. Try different flavours of juices etc. Stay away from the fizzy drinks.

how long will your body take to heal after you quit smoking?

Your body can take up to 15 years to fully recover from smoking. So best thing to do is make sure you quit or else you will keep prolonging that period

Your blood pressure and pulse rate return to normal

After 24 hours

Carbon Monoxide is eliminated from your body. Your lungs start to clearout mucus and other smoking debris.

After 48 hours

There’s no nicotinein your body and your ability to taste and smell is improved.

After 2-12 weeks

Your circulation improves. Plus, you will £117 in just four weeks.

After 3-9 months

Coughs, wheezing and breathing problems improve as lung function is increased by up to 10%. You will have saved £766.50 in six months

After 5 years

Your risk of heart attack falls to about half that of a smoker. You will have saved over £7.500.

After 10-15 years

Your risk of lung cancerfalls to half that of a smoker. Your risk of heart attack falls to the same as someone who has never smoked. Plus, you will have saved over £15,000!

Remember that if you quit before you are THIRTY you live almost as long as those who never smoked

These days cold turkey is an expression used when describing the actions of a person who gives up a habit or addiction all at once.
It literally means stopping the habit all at once rather than gradually easing the process through reduction or by using replacement medication.
It has been reported that the term cold turkey may originate from an earlier expression talk turkey which meant you said it how it was. When cold turkey was first introduced as an expression it was used strictly for abrupt withdrawal from drugs or alcohol. Shortly afterwards it was incorporated into quitting any addiction or habit.

One of the most popular and well known ways smokers chose to quit smoking is by going cold turkey. Most of them say it is better to do it this way rather than cutting down or using replacement medication. They set out with a single minded purpose to give up smoking. They may set a certain date like New Year’s Eve or the birth of a baby etc, to do it. Though this does not make it the most successful method for giving up smoking it is certainly the most challenging. This is because of the severe withdrawal symptoms they face. For most people they can’t do it alone but there are guidelines they can follow. But the good news is it can be done. It has been proven time and time again that it is possible to quit smoking.