Two Tips to Help You Quit Smoking for Good

It's a new year, and if you smoke, the best and most important resolution you can make this year for your own health and the health of your family is to QUIT.

Of course this can be easier said than done, which is why so many people still smoke, despite all of the evidence that it harms you! Taking the steps to decide that you want to quit smoking is a huge commitment.  The dedication that is needed is absolutely essential to your success and can often be the one factor that will determine how successful you are.  If you find that you are struggling to quit smoking you are certainly not alone, and seeking out appropriate help is key to finding success in your quest to quit smoking.

Looking at all of the excuses, reasons, purposes and methods that pertain to quitting smoking, there are generally two main factors that will determine your overall success.  Without these two factors you will almost always fail, but with them you will typically walk away a successful non-smoker.

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1. Your first critical success factor will be being determined to quit for your own reasons.  This means you need to decide for yourself that you want to quit.  Having the idea to quit smoking forced upon you will generally not work.  You have to decide all on your own that you are ready to quit smoking - period. This dedication to stop smoking will often be a huge driving force in your battle against cigarettes and you will need to make a firm decision in order to stay strong.  Additionally, as everyone around you is asking why you want to quit, having a good answer that you believe in will help you to resolve your determination each time you answer.

This might sound too simplistic, but actually deciding for yourself that you want to quit is a huge boost to your state of mind.  If you approach quitting smoking with the idea that someone else is forcing you, then often you will make small mistakes that can sabotage your efforts.  You may not recognize these errors, but they are typically there.  Approaching the task of quitting smoking on your own will ensure that you are setting out to be successful and quit for good.  Those who quit for the reasons of someone else typically quit for only a short period of time.  Those who quit for themselves are the people who quit for good.

2. Your second critical success factor will be the approach you take.  If you approach the task of quitting smoking with the confidence that you will succeed no matter what, you will find that your determination is much stronger.  This increased determination can be very helpful as you are trying to fight off those late night cravings, or even the times when the urge to smoke appears and nobody is around to help you through it.  As a smoker, there are plenty of times when you will need your own self-control to really pull you through.  This comes from having the confidence to know that you can succeed.

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If you merely approach quitting smoking with an attitude that you think you might be able to quit, you will be sending yourself mixed signals.  These can create huge problems for yourself as you are struggling to maintain the self-control that is necessary to quit successfully. Without the determination that you can in fact do this, you will fall to the temptation to smoke again much more easily.  It is not a simple task to quit smoking, and many people struggle for years to quit fully. 

Believing that you can quit smoking - even at some point is what will be a driving factor in your success.  The longer it takes to quit smoking the more likely you are to actually lose your determination.  This can spell disaster.  Keeping your determination strong starts from within, and you need to be able to justify to yourself, your harshest critic, exactly why you want to quit smoking.  The people in your family who are there for support are just for backup support.  You are your own best cheerleader and celebrating the small victories that you accomplish is very important to your success.  If you take the time to really examine these two factors and put them into place, you will be in a great position to quit for good.

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9 Healthy Tips to Help You Quit Smoking

Are you planning to quit smoking as your New Year's resolution?  Get a head start with today's article. Quitting smoking can be a complicated and often frustrating endeavor, but with some good advice and helpful tips it can be made much easier. Remember that when you become aware of and in touch with your body, it will be much easier to drop unhealthy habits - your body will really start telling you when you're doing something that is bad for it. Here are some tips on how to stop smoking naturally - without resorting to drugs which may have all kinds of unwanted side effects, and even introduce extra toxins into your body.

Image via Wikipedia1. Know why you want to quit. It's very important to identify what you want to accomplish with quitting - is it because someone else thinks you should? Is it for financial reasons? Maybe you are concerned for your physical health or the health of your family. Whatever your reason is, identify it and own it. Remembering why you are quitting can help you when you come to difficult points in the process.

2. Go cold-turkey. Nicotine clears from your system within a couple of days, so if you continue smoking off and on, you are still keeping your body from cleaning all the gunk and toxins out, and you are sustaining the addiction. If you absolutely can't see going totally without right away, see the next tip.

3. If you must, use nicotine substitutes like patches or gum. (Don't use these at the same time as smoking, however.) Some people find the gum especially helpful as it gives their mouths something to do, also helping with the psychological aspect of the habit, and is particularly helpful after meals.

4. Consider electronic cigarettes as part of your quitting regimen. Many people find these provide the oral satisfaction of smoking and the visual effect of the smoke itself. But it's harmless water vapor that is produced.

5. Get support from family and friends. There is nothing quite like a friend or family member "cheerleading" you on and helping you over the humps. Make sure you have at least one person who will hold you accountable - someone you can call when you have a craving who will come over and take you for a walk, for example.

6. Get support from your doctor, too. Let them know you are quitting, and he or she can encourage your efforts with regular check-ups that will show improved lung and heart function, providing ongoing motivation.

7. Exercise to ward off cravings. Remember the friend or family member who is going to take you for a walk when you get a craving? This is a good idea. Get a bike, join a gym, learn a martial art, get a treadmill - whatever it takes so that when you have a craving you can jump into the exercise. This will also help offset any weight gain you think you might experience as you try to quit.

Image by Jimmy Jack Kane via Flickr8. Avoid environments where there are other smokers, and where you used to smoke. If you used to hang out and smoke at your neighborhood bar, don't go there anymore. This doesn't mean you can't go out - just find a new place that your brain does not associate with smoking.

9. Eat lots of fruits and vegetables. This is not only good for you, but it is said that the fruits and veggies will actually make the cigarettes taste worse. They will also help your body flush out the toxins from smoking.

10. BONUS TIP: Get a good quit-smoking book or program with a proven track record. Often these can help you learn to deal with the psychological cravings, and handle the other effects you may experience when quitting. A couple of excellent resources are Alan Carr's "The Easy Way to Stop Smoking" (this book gets great reviews and has an excellent success rate - I personally know of several people who have quit using this book), and "The Secret to Stop Smoking," by Dr. Scott Rosiere.