Smoke-Free Living
There’s no shortage of information on the negative health effects of smoking, and it’s now commonly known just how much damage smoking can do to your body. Luckily, quitting smoking early can reduce and even reverse some of the damage done by long-term smoking. Below we’ll discuss the six best tips to quit smoking that are guaranteed to help.
Why is it Often So Hard to Quit?
The problem is smoking is an addiction, and simply telling somebody (or yourself) that this tobacco craving is damaging their body isn’t enough to stop it. And focusing so much on motivation often misses the thing that helps you create healthy habits — consistency. People who cannot give up smoking don’t lack motivation, the problem is a lack of access to resources and a struggle to maintain consistency.
6 Practical Tips to Help You Quit Smoking
If you’re serious about making healthy lifestyle changes by forming healthier habits and reducing your need to smoke, try the following six tips to quit smoking:
1. Transition to Vaping
Vaping is not an ideal long-term habit to develop, but it’s considerably less harmful than smoking. By vaping, you can meet your nicotine craving without breathing in many harmful chemicals in cigarettes.
Be careful not to think of vaping as a silver bullet, though. Vaping in and of itself is also addictive, and by simply swapping out cigarettes for a vape, you could still be damaging your health long-term. Instead, use vaping to manage your nicotine cravings and withdrawal symptoms while you undergo the smoking cessation process.
2. Use Nicotine Aids
The most addictive substance found in cigarettes is nicotine, and this is one of the chemicals your body craves when you quit smoking. To ease your body through the process and reduce withdrawal symptoms, use nicotine aids, which introduce nicotine into your body without any other harmful side effects of smoking a cigarette.
Nicotine aids come in the form of patches that you stick on your arm and a lozenge that you suck on to quell cravings.
3. Join the American Lung Association’s Freedom From Smoking Program
Being part of a structured program is a great way to keep yourself accountable and enjoy external support from an organization with expertise in smoking cessation.
The American Lung Association has helped hundreds of thousands of Americans quit smoking since it introduced its Freedom From Smoking program over 40 years ago. With this helpful program, you’ll get a personalized quit plan that you can access from your phone, tablet or desktop and support from the wider community.
You can attend group programs where you can meet like-minded individuals who are also going through the quitting smoking process. Having others to hold you accountable can be an excellent way to speed up your progress while also finding a community with whom you can share your feelings about the process.
4. Find Another Way to Approach Smoking Triggers
Many people find that they’re more likely to smoke in certain situations, such as times of stress, anger and upset and social situations or after a few alcoholic drinks. Smoking to deal with stress isn’t an effective long-term solution to poor mental health. Instead, you should focus on building healthy habits that allow you to manage that stress in a way that doesn’t damage your mental or physical health.
Next time you crave a cigarette to reduce feelings of stress or anxiety, participate in a healthier activity such as calling a friend to talk about it or writing about it in your journal. If smoking is your default response in difficult times, it will make it even harder to quit. With this in mind, finding alternative ways to manage stress is necessary.
5. Delay Urges
When you crave a cigarette, don’t give in to the feeling immediately. Instead, say you’ll wait ten minutes. In that ten minutes of waiting, do something to distract yourself or move into a space that makes it less convenient to smoke, such as a public non-smoking zone.
Hopefully, the craving passes once you’ve gotten into a position where it’s less convenient to smoke. Cravings will occur, it’s how you deal with them that can set you up for success.
6. Remember Your Why
When strong cravings hit, it can be tricky to remember exactly why you decided to give up smoking in the first place. Write down your reasons for quitting in the notes on your phone, and use the list every time you feel the urge to smoke.
Remembering your long-term goals can help to stave off bad short-term decisions. In short, removing yourself from situations in which you’re likely to smoke, finding a support network and using nicotine aids can all make it easier for you to quit smoking without relapsing.