If you’ve been a smoker for a long time and you want to quit your bad habit now, you should consider tips on how to stop smoking forever. For many reasons, it is important that you stop your habit now and stay away from it as long as you live. First, smoking is bad for your health – it kills. There have been many thousands of studies that prove the effects of smoking to your health. When you suffer bad health your appearance will start to deteriorate at a faster rate than by normal aging. You will see these effects on your skin, nails, eyes, teeth and gums, and even hair.
Smoking doesn’t have any benefits, so what’s stopping you from quitting? The important step to stop smoking forever is determination. If you’re determined to stop smoking, then you have already won half the battle.
Here are the basic tips you need to be armed with to stop smoking forever:
- Have a plan. It is easy to say that you will stop smoking but it is difficult to do it if you do not have a definite plan. You should set a goal for yourself. It can be a short-term one to start or a long-term one if you already have the confidence to quit.
- Write a list of reasons why you want to quit smoking. Write another list of reasons you don’t want to quit smoking. You’ll quickly see there’s only one decision to make.
- If you smoke at least 10 cigarettes a day, consider decreasing by just one cigarette a day. By the second week, you should have stopped smoking altogether. Detailed planning makes it more real and you are more motivated to stick to your main goal which is to stop smoking forever.
- Always keep in mind the effects of smoking on your health and appearance. Post a picture which depicts the negative effects of smoking in a very graphic and realistic way on your bedroom walls to discourage you from lighting a cigarette. If you’re continually faced with these images of how your lungs, teeth, gums, skin, and other parts of your body will appear if you don’t quit, you will fell much less-tempted to smoke.
- Use stop-smoking aids, especially if you have been smoking for many years. Some of these stop your cigarette cravings immediately, i.e. nicotine pills, gums, patches, ‘fake’ or smokeless cigarettes. Some even help you with the withdrawal symptoms. These are important especially if smoking is a major part of your life, but if you have only been smoking for a short time, then you should be able to stop ‘cold turkey’, without the help of aids. They’re not cheap, but they are effective.
- Find a buddy or a friend who is also willing to stop smoking forever and who’s doing the same thing, or join a group with the same objective. Office colleagues, collectively giving up (particularly in the New Year), are great for supporting each other through withdrawals – you’re together most of the day for understanding and you can’t avoid each other – no sneaking away to light up! Having somebody who can fully understand what you’re going through is a big emotional help. Nothing will make you feel more encouraged and motivated to quit smoking than to talk when you’re feeling tempted to smoke. It’s important not to feel alone when you are undergoing this process.
- Consider alternative activities – start a new hobby or sport that will require physical activity such as going to the gym, swimming, bicycle riding and other everyday-type activities that you can establish as a routine. This way, your mind will be focused on beneficial things like becoming healthy again and cigarettes will soon be the last thing on your mind.
- Keep a calendar and tick off each day that passes without smoking – you’ll be proud of your progress
