http://www.sharewisdom.org/health-and-wellness/quit-smoking/ Quit Smoking wisdom, knowledge, advice, tips and information shared by others. Share your wisdom with others. en Mon, 02 Oct 2006 17:39:21 EDT http://www.sharewisdom.org/health-and-wellness/quit-smoking/50.html When you get an urge to smoke again, it is important not to entertain this thought and to eliminate it from your mind quickly. Urges don't last long but they become more painful the more mental attention they are given. Get the thought out of your mind as quickly as possible, don't dwell on any aspect of smoking or how good it would feel. There is no place for anything like: "maybe I can have just one", "maybe I can have a drag", "it would be nice with my coffee". Getting the urge out of your mind is the first step in getting the urge out of your system. Eliminate smoking thoughts quickly when they come into your head and soon, you won't have urges at all. http://www.sharewisdom.org/health-and-wellness/quit-smoking/50.html http://www.sharewisdom.org/health-and-wellness/quit-smoking/40.html In the first five days of quitting smoking, your body is going through a physical withdrawal from your addiction to nicotine. This is a painful period (that does not last beyond five days) in which you can succumb to the pain by smoking again. Here are some tips that will help you stay away from cigarettes during these five days. 1) Try to stay away from alcohol and coffee. If you drink these beverages, you likely associate smoking with them. 2) Drink lots of water or fruit juice to help clean your body. 3) Be good to yourself, go to bed early. If you are feeling tired, rest. 4) If you feel up to exercise, exercise. Sweating helps to eliminate nicotine and other toxins in your body. 5) Try to remove yourself from stressful situations if possible. You can deal with that stress after the five days has passed. 6) If you do use street drugs, try to stay away from that too. You want to be in control as much as possible. The first five days of quitting smoking are painful but you can get through it if you avoid additional unnecessary pressures on yourself. http://www.sharewisdom.org/health-and-wellness/quit-smoking/40.html http://www.sharewisdom.org/health-and-wellness/quit-smoking/31.html I gradually moved to lighter and lighter cigarettes before I finally quit smoking and this was a big part of the reason I was successful in quitting. Moving to lighter and lighter cigarettes meant lower levels of nicotine, tar and carbon monoxide. I went from smoking strong cigarettes, to regular, to light, to extra light and then to ultra lights. The lower levels of nicotine make quitting easier as your body is less dependent on the drug. Don't get comfortable in smoking ultra-lights thinking they are safe. They are not safe but these lower levels of nicotine and tar will make it easier for you to quit smoking. http://www.sharewisdom.org/health-and-wellness/quit-smoking/31.html http://www.sharewisdom.org/health-and-wellness/quit-smoking/19.html While some people have been able to quit smoking on their first attempt, this is very rare. The line, "And one day I just quit smoking." is either not telling the full story or it happens very rarely. I smoked for 12 years. It took me somewhere between 30 and 50 attempts to quit smoking. (You really loose count after that many times.) I consider those sincere attempts. Some lasted a few hours, other days, others weeks, some lasted months and I even quit smoking once for 1 year and 2 months before returning to smoking. I have quit smoking now and I am coming up on 9 years cigaratte free. Most of the people I have talked to that have quit have also taken many, many attempts to quit smoking. Don't think you are going to quit the first time. You may, and if you do, congratulations , but it is not the norm. Be patient with yourself. Quitting smoking is usually a process of many failed attempts where you learn a bit each time - hopefully that knowledge and failure will one day allow you to succeed in quitting smoking. http://www.sharewisdom.org/health-and-wellness/quit-smoking/19.html http://www.sharewisdom.org/health-and-wellness/quit-smoking/18.html To quit smoking it is important to understand how long nicotine stays in your body. When you stop smoking, nicotine will be gone from your body somewhere between 3 and 5 days. The 3 to 5 day period in which my body was ridding itself of nicotine was a tremendously difficult and painful period to go through. It is important to know that this feeling does not last forever. After 5 days, you will feel much, much better and the pain is gone. Breaking the physical addiction to nicotine is the first step to quit smoking and understanding that it only last three to five days is a very important. Once you are over the physical addiction, the more difficult battle of beating the psychological and behavioural addiction to smoking begins. http://www.sharewisdom.org/health-and-wellness/quit-smoking/18.html